Urbanization

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Urbanization

• Key Issue 1 How have urban areas grown?

Sao Paulo, Brazil
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Urbanization

• Urbanization the process by which the
  population of cities grows
• 2 Dimensions
• Increase in the number of people living in cities
• Increase in the percentage of people living in
  cities

3
Increasing Percentage of People in Cities

• A measure of development
• In PEDs ¾ of people live in urban areas
• In PINGs 2/5 of people live in urban areas
• An exception Latin America
• Why do people move to the city?
• In PEDs the result of the Industrial Revolution
  and service jobs
• In PINGs search for jobs declining
  opportunities on the farm

4
Increasing Number of People in Cities

• PEDs have a higher percentage of people in
  cities, but PINGs have more of the large urban
  settlements
• Most of the top ten cities are currently in PINGs
• Top Ten cities ranking

Tokyo, Japan
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Rapid Growth in PINGs

• Growth of urban areas in PINGs is the reversal of
  Western Europeit is not a measure of development
• Where is the growth coming from?
• 50 is coming from the countryside
• 50 results from high natural increase rates

6
The Streets of Mumbai
7
Louis Wirth
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Large Size

• In rural areas you know the other inhabitants
• You might be related to them!
• In urban areas you only know a small percentage
  of the other inhabitants

9
High Density

• The only way for large numbers of people to
  survive in a small area is through specialization
• Each person in an urban area plays a special role
  to allow the system to function smoothly
• High density causes people to compete for
  survival in limited space

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Specialized Jobs
11
Social Heterogeneity

• The larger the settlement, the greater the
  variety of people
• Urban areas provide for more freedom to pursue an
  unusual profession, sexual orientation, or
  cultural interest
• Urban residents are more tolerant of diverse
  social behavior

12
Analysis of Wirths distinctions

• His distinctions between urban and rural
  settlements may still apply in PINGs, but in
  PEDs, distinctions have blurred
• Geographers look for physical definitions to
  distinguish between urban and rural

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Legal Definition of a City

• City an urban settlement that has been legally
  incorporated into an independent, self-governing
  unit
• Elects officials
• Can raise taxes
• Responsible for providing essential services
• Central city a city that is surrounded by
  suburbs

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Urbanized Area

• A central city plus and its contiguous built up
  suburbs where population density exceeds 1000
  people per square mile
• About 70 of the U.S. population live in urban
  areas, divided equally between the central city
  and surrounding areas

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Metropolitan Statistical Area

• An MSA includes the following
• A central city with a population of at least
  50,000
• The county within which the city is located
• Adjacent counties with a high population density
  and a large percentage of residents working in
  the central citys county

16
Metro Atlanta
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Overlapping Metropolitan Areas

• A county between two central cities may send
  commuters in either direction
• Megalopolis metropolitan areas that overlap
• Bosnywash the areas from D.C., to New York and
  Boston form a large complex of cities