Problems of Urbanisation

1. 3. Urbanisation in MEDCs
•Urbanisation means an increase in the proportion of people
living in urban areas compared to rural areas. An urban area
is a built-up area such as a town or city. A rural area is an area
of countryside.
•As a country industrialises, the number of people living in
urban areas tends to increase. The UK and many other MEDCs
urbanised during the 18th and 19th centuries. People
migrated from rural areas (due to the mechanisation in
farming) to urban areas where there was employment in the
new factories. The area of cities known as the inner city
developed during this time as rows of terraced housing were
built for workers.

2. 3.A Problems of Urbanisation
•Urbanisation can cause problems such as transport
congestion, lack of sufficient housing, over-rapid
growth and environmental degradation. Many cities
display particularly sharp inequalities in housing
provision, health and employment.
•Some people try to escape these problems by
moving away from the city - a process called
counter-urbanisation. Long term, however, the
solution must be to make cities more sustainable.

3. 3.B Problems in the CBD
•As more people move to the edge of towns
and cities, traffic congestion may get worse.
Many people will drive their cars into the city
centre to get to work.
•It is compounded by people being brought
into city on large roads or motorways. These
roads then link up with smaller, older,
narrower roads in the city centre. This causes
a bottleneck and congestion.

4. •Some cities have tried to manage this problem by
introducing traffic management schemes. These
schemes may include:
–Park and ride schemes.
–Cycle lanes.
–Congestion charging schemes, such as those in Durham
and London.
–Car-pooling, as used in the USA, to encourage people to
share cars.
–Low Emission Zones, as in London.
•Local councils have also tried to make the roads in
urban areas safer by introducing traffic calming,
pedestrian zones, vehicle-exclusion zones and
permit-only parking schemes.

5. Reducing congestions in cities:
•Park and ride scheme: People park in car parks on
the edge of a settlement and catch regular buses
into the centre.
•Pedestrian areas: Pedestrianised areas are
designated as pedestrian only zones.
•Permit holder parking: This means that people must
have a permit to park in that area. This reduces the
number of people driving in to towns and cities as
parking opportunities are restricted.

6. Reducing congestions in cities:
•Vehicle exclusion zones: certain types of vehicles are
excluded from certain parts of a city, eg large
vehicles may not be allowed to enter narrow roads
or residential areas.
•Car pooling: people are encouraged to share cars.
This has been used in a lot in the USA.
•Traffic calming: roads narrowing and speed bumps
make traffic move slower around narrower streets.
Narrow roads may restrict the type of vehicle that
can enter certain parts of the city.

7. More Problems in CBD
•Another recent problem that we find in the
CBD is the City Centre Retailing Decline: as
Out-of-town shopping centres have become
more common, shops in the CBD have had to
close down. This have left a “hollow” or empty
area called the “Doughnut effect” which
makes unemployment to rise and can lead to
neighbourhoods degradation.

8. 3.C Problems in the inner city
•Inequalities exist in all urban areas. Inequality
means extreme differences between poverty
and wealth, as well as in people's well-being
and access to things like jobs, housing, and
education. Inequalities may occur in:
–Housing provision
–Access to services
–Access to open land
–Safety and security

9. •Often people who live in inner-city areas
experience a poor quality of life. This is
because the inner-city is typically a zone with
older housing and declining industry. The
diagram below compares the quality of life for
someone living in an outer London borough
with that of someone who lives in an inner
London borough.

10. Graph showing quality of life in Inner
London
Graph showing quality of life in Outer
London

11. •Governments and planners often step in to
help redevelop run-down inner-city areas.
Inner-city redevelopments may improve the
physical environment of the area and improve
the quality of housing.
•However, it can also create even greater
inequalities because the local residents may
not be able to afford to live there anymore.
Often the old industrial jobs are replaced by
skilled jobs and new people move to the area.

12. 3.D Problems in the urban rural
fringe:
•Social and demographic changes are leading
to a greater demand for housing. People are
living longer, and choosing to marry later, and
in recent years there has been a rise in the
number of single-parent families. Added to
this, Europe is experiencing immigration from
other countries.
•The result is an ever-larger number of smaller
households, all requiring accommodation.

13. •Building new affordable homes in urban areas
is difficult. Land values are very high and land
is in short supply.
•To solve this problem:
•A. Some developers are building on sites that
have been built on before. These are called
brownfield sites (example: Inner City)
•B. Other developers are building homes on
the edge of the city on greenfield sites in the
urban rural fringe. Land here is cheaper but
greenfield development can cause conflict
with local people and create environmental
problems.

14. 3.E Sustainable Cities:
•Many people are working towards trying to
make cities more sustainable. A sustainable
city is that city which offers a good quality of
life to current residents but doesn’t reduce
the opportunities for future residents to
enjoy.
•A sustainable city will grow at a sustainable
rate and use resources in a sustainable way.

15. 3.E Key Features of a sustainable
city:
•Resources and services in the city are accessible to
all.
•Public transport is seen as a viable alternative to
cars.
•Public transport is safe and reliable.
•Walking and cycling is safe.
•Areas of open space are safe, accessible and
enjoyable.
•Wherever possible, renewable resources are used
instead of non-renewable resources.

16. 3.E Key Features of a sustainable
city:
•Waste is seen as a resource and is recycled wherever
possible.
•New homes are energy efficient.
•There is access to affordable housing.
•Community links are strong and communities work
together to deal with issues such as crime and
security.
•Cultural and social amenities are accessible to all.
•Inward investment is made to the CBD.