The Human World

1
The Human World

• Revision Notes

2
The Human World

• This unit is all about the human population on
  our planet and the places in which we live.
• The major themes are Population change and
  structure, and settlement location and layout.

The World at night
3
Global Population Changes

• Global population has changed incredibly over the
  past 2000 years. Since the industrial revolution
  human numbers have literally exploded from only 1
  billion people in 1600 to over 6 billion now. In
  1999 D6B was official, the day of 6 billion
  people, and for the near future Global population
  shows no sign of slowing down.
• Most of the population growth is found in LEDCs
  (Less Economically Developed Countries) such as
  China and India.
• Africas population growth is large despite the
  Aids virus lowering life expectancy.
• Most rich countries have stable populations (e.g.
  France and the USA) while some others have
  declining populations (e.g. Russia).
• Population is not spread evenly over the globe,
  the map opposite shows the distribution of
  people. Most people live close to the coast and
  the most densely populated areas are found in SE
  Asia, Europe and parts of North America.

4
Birth and Death Rates, Natural Increase

• Birth Rate is the term used to define the number
  of babies born every year per 1000 people in a
  population.
• Death rate is the term used to define the number
  of deaths every year per 1000 people in a
  population.
• Natural increase in a population occurs where
  Birth rate is greater than death rate. That is,
  that there are more births than deaths in that
  population ion a year.
• Natural decrease occurs when death rate is
  greater than birth rate. This means that more
  deaths occur in a population than babies are born
  so population numbers decline.
• Of course, this balance is change by Migration.
  If people move into a country (Immigrants) the
  population will increase. If people leave a
  country (emigrate) the population could decrease.

5
The Demographic Transition Model

• This model shows the balance between birth and
  death rates and how this affects the population
  change. The model was based on how the UKs
  population has changed.

Stage 1 - High fluctuating Stage 2 population increase Stage 3 Population increase Stage 4 low fluctuating
UK in the past Pre 1780 1780 to 1880 1880 to 1940 Post 1940
Present examples Ethiopia Bolivia, India China Canada, USA
Birth rates High due to 1. Cultural or religious beliefs encouraging large families 2. Lack of contraception 3. Parents have lots of children to compensate for high Infant mortality 4. Children work on the land As stage 1 Start to decline due to a) Increased access to contraception b) Infant mortality falls so there is less need to have a large family c) Industrialisation and mechanisation means less workers are required. d) Wealth increase and people are more materialistic, so wan less children. Stay low because of reasons in stage 3.
Death rates High due to disease, Famine, poor diet and hygiene, little medical science. Start to decrease due to improvements in medical care, sanitation and water supply, supply and cleanliness of food. Continue to fall Stay low.
6
Population Structures and Population Pyramids

• A Population pyramid is a special graph that
  reveals the structure (how a population is made
  up) of a population. It divides a population into
  men and women, young, working population and
  retired.
• MEDCs have a space rocket shape, with old people
  living for a long time (high life expectancy),
  lots of workers and a reason able numbers of
  children. These populations are stable and not
  growing as the number of young is balanced with
  the number of people dieing.
• LEDCs have a triangular shaped pyramid. They have
  lots of children and people do not tend to live
  for a long time (low Life expectancy).

7
Dependency ratios
Pakistan

• This is mathematical formula used to calculate
  how many people work in comparison to how many
  people need looking after. The population that
  need looking after (the dependent population) are
  the old (65) and very young (0 14). The
  working population are known as the economically
  active.
• The formula is
• pop aged 0 to 14 population aged 65
• of people aged 15 to 65
• In MEDCs the ratio is normally between 50 and 75.
• In LEDCs it is higher, often over 100, because of
  the number of children in their population.

New Zealand
8
The Differences Between rural and Urban
Populations

• Rural areas are areas where the dominant economic
  activity is often farming and they are often
  located in the countryside.
• In LEDCs in the countryside there is likely to be
  a shortage of young males as these men have
  migrated too cities looking for work. They may
  return to their rural villages once thy have
  earned enough money. In contrast, urban area have
  population pyramids that have lots of young
  economically active males.

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The Differences Between rural and Urban
Populations

• In MEDCs there is also a movement of young
  working age from rural areas (e.g. Bedlington) to
  urban areas (e.g. Newcastle). There is also a
  movement of people from urban to rural areas
  where
• People retire to the countryside
• Couples move to the countryside in search of a
  better environment to raise their families.

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Impact of an ageing population

• MEDCs face increasing problems as populations
  become older and have less children.
• Birth rates are falling in these countries as
  families have less children and fertility rates
  fall.
• Life expectancy increases because of improved
  medical care and improved nutrition and food
  availability.
• This poses numerous problems such as
• There are less working age population to provide
  tax money for the services (medical care and
  social services such as meals on wheels etc) the
  elderly need.
• Strain is put on existing services such as the
  NHS (in winter a lot of hospital beds and
  doctors time are taken by the elderly.
• There are not enough facilities for the elderly
  e.g. care and residential homes
• The cost of providing for pensions increases,
  Britain at the moment is facing a pensions crisis.

More Developed regions population pyramid
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Solutions to an ageing population

• Convert old school buildings into residential
  homes.
• Raise taxes to provide the elderly with high
  quality services.
• Force people to save for a pension so that they
  are comfortable in old age.
• Offer tax breaks, free child care and cash to
  families to encourage them to have more children.
  This will eventually help as these children will
  become the workers who provide for the old.

12
Impact of a Youthful population

• A youthful population is one in which there are
  large numbers of children, the base of the
  population pyramid will be large. In some
  African countries such as Mali over 40 of the
  population is under the age of 15.
• This creates numerous problems for the country
  such as
• Economic problems, as the country tries to
  provide for the children with education, health
  care and food.
• Attendance at secondary schools in rural areas is
  low leaving lots of unqualified poorly educated
  workers.
• Disease rates amongst young children are high as
  the government cannot afford medicines for them,
  even for preventable diseases such as measles and
  diarrhoea. This means Infant mortality is high.
  There are also few doctors and hospitals in these
  countries.
• Because there are lots of children who have yet
  to have their own children in the future the
  situation can only grow worse.

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Solutions to the problems of a youthful population

• Family planning programmes could help LEDCs.
  China introduced a one child policy where couples
  were limited to one child per family. People
  have to apply for a license to have a child and
  are carefully monitored by the government. If
  families have more than one child they lose their
  benefits and have to pay back any benefits they
  received for their first child (e.g. child care
  benefits).
• This policy has its limits, children not having
  brothers and sisters, no Uncles or aunts etc. It
  is hoped that it will slow down and over time
  eventually reduce Chinas population (already
  over 1 billion people live in China!)
• What do you think about it?
• In Mauritius a family planning programme was also
  implemented. Mauritius is a small island that
  had a rapidly growing population. Here families
  were given classes in the advantages of smaller
  families and on birth control methods. In
  addition, the government introduced research and
  scientific industries to the island in order to
  provide more job opportunities for its people
  rather than just primary farming jobs.

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The Physical factors which affect the site of
settlements

• Physical factors that influence the location of a
  settlement include
• Water supply settlements need water, they often
  locate on wet point sites for this. Settlements
  built away from rivers and water supplies to
  avoid flooding are located at dry point sites.
• Defence building on high ground allowed people
  the chance to look out for enemies (e.g.
  Edinburgh castle) while surrounding a settlement
  with water also helped with deed defence e.g.
  Durham is built inside a meander.
• Aspect and shelter In the northern hemisphere
  south facing slopes receive more sunlight and are
  protected from cold Northerly winds. More
  settlements and agricultural land is therefore
  located on South facing slopes.

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Settlements key terms

• A settlement is a collection of buildings where
  people live. They vary in size from small
  hamlets to large cities.
• Site is the actual land that a settlement is
  built upon. The photo shows Warkworth, what
  advantages will this site bring to the
  settlement?
• Situation is the land and area that surround a
  settlement that make a site a good place to
  locate a settlement.

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The economic factors influencing the sites of
settlements

• Communications settlements often located next
  to rivers that could be easily crossed. These
  are called bridging points. Other favourable
  places included where at the junctions of valleys
  or in gaps through hills. These locations
  allowed maximum communication between different
  settlements and increased trade. E.g. Newcastle
  is built on the Tyne at a bridging point and
  could benefit with trade from the North and the
  South.
• Resources - Early settlers relied upon wood for
  fuel and building. A site close to woodland was
  there fore an advantage. Later, resources such
  as Iron ore, coal and bauxite encouraged the
  growth of settlements.

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Settlement shapes

• There are 3 different shapes of settlement
  according to the arrangement of buildings within
  them
• Linear settlements grow in a line, often along
  roads, river valleys or the coast.
• Nucleated settlements have buildings grouped
  close together and are found at cross roads or
  are used for defence purposes.
• Dispersed settlements have individual buildings
  spread out, and are often found in rural areas.

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Characteristics of an urban area in an MEDC

• There are 2 models that describe land use within
  cities in MEDCs.
• The Burgess model suggests that cities grow
  outwards in concentric rings (circles!)
• The Hoyt model suggests that cities grow in
  sectors or wedges along communication lines such
  as roads, rivers and rail.
• In zone 1 you find the original site of the
  settlement where the city originally started.
  Here there is a Central Business District
  containing services, education facilities and
  businesses.
• In zone 2 there is a mixture of old industrial
  housing, often terraces, and industry. These
  areas would have been constructed in the
  industrial revolution.
• Zone 3 is another area of low class residential
  housing.
• Zone 4 contains medium class residential housing
  tat was built between the 2 world wars. Often
  semi detached housing and council estates.
• Zone 5 is an expensive area of housing found at
  the edge of cities.

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Characteristics of an urban area in an LEDC

• There has been massive growth in urban areas in
  LEDCs.
• The land use model is different to those for
  MEDCs because
• There are slum or shanty town areas where there
  is no planning of the settlement and the people
  lie there illegally.
• The rich live close to the CBD, in MEDCs the
  richest people live on the outskirts of cities.

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Urban structure in Newcastle-upon-Tyne
How does this compare with the urban land use
models of Burgess and Hoyt?
21
Urban structure in Newcastle-upon-Tyne
What type of housing is this? How can you
tell? How much open space is there? What
facilities are there for the community? What
transport is there?
Can you identify the edge of the CBD?How can you
tell?
What type of housing is this? How can you
tell? How much open space is there? What
facilities are there for the community?
What is the land use of this area here?