Causes of Urban Growth

Urban global population will grow to 4.9 billion by 2030, while rural
population is expected to only increase by around 28 million.
Urban population of Africa and Asia expected to double from 2000 to
2030
1. Natural growth
More births than deaths
- Lower mortality, however this is dependent on the location, ex. Harlem
has lower mortality rates than Bangladesh on average
- Over the last 30 years, natural growth has seen to be responsible for 60%
of the urban growth
- Rural fertility leads to urban migration
2. Migration
Long term relocation of people to a location outside of the
community of origin. (International migration includes
labour, refugees and undocumented)
- May be confused by temporary migration
- How did it start? New job opporutnities motivated mass movements,
providing cheap labour for factories. Currently, due to globalisation,
circumstances are similar in developing countries
o Concentration of investment in city -> attracks migrants -> surplus
labour force -> low wages
o Urban poverty serves benefit of global capital
- Consider the push and pull factors living in rural areas, esp. on small
farm, it is difficult to improve standard of living beyond basic sustenance
as living id dependent on unpredictable environmental conditions;
whereas in cities, money and services are centralised so social mobility is
possible
- A pull factor is employment: people seek jobs, but often in the informal
sector
- A pull factor are the plethora of health services and amenities, like better
education: yet favelas/shanty towns/ barrios have situations
- A push factor is the industrialisation of the rural community
o Developing nations are industrialising right now, so growth rate of
urban population is very high
o In industrialised countries, 80% of population already live in
urban areas
o Unemployment/ lack of need for labour
- A push factor is political persecution
- More women tend to migrate often ending up with low skill domestic
work.
o In South East Asia and Latin America, women cite economic
opportunity as the main reason for migrating 68% in Bangkok,
70% in the Philippines, 56% in Malaysia and over 50% in Costa
Rica, Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti
o May be a survival method of large families to send daughters away
who will probably send money back home

o Also as girls education increases they have growing independence

Problems caused by urban growth
Uncontrolled urban growth resulting in sprawl environmental problem
o Increase traffic, saps resources and destroys urban space
o More fuel consumption as more travel from suburbia to central
city, traffic gridlock
o Electricity cost from extending and maintaining system further
from generator, more power lost in distribution
o Decreases forest area, farmland, woodland but also breaks up
what is left into chunks that disrupt ecosystems. Roads, power
lines and piplines cut through natural areas
o Loss of agricultural land means loss of fresh local food sources,
loss of habitat and species diversity
o Urban growth is set to consume 7 million acres of farmland, 7
million acres of environmentally sensitive land and 5 million acres
of other land during 2000 - 25
Difference between the way urbanisation occurs in developing and
developed countries.
o Megacities of developing worlds has huge urban sprawl, many live
in slums or in urban periphery in poverty and degraded
environments. These high density settlements are often highly
polluted lack of services (water, sewer, trash pickup, electricity
or paved roads). Cities STILL provide people with more
opportunities and access to resources to transform their situation
Strains capacity to provide key services energy, education, health care,
transportation, sanitation and physical security, as governments have less
revenue to spend on the basic upkeep of cities and provision of services
o Sprawl requires more infrastructure, as it takes more roads, pipes,
cables and wires to service low-density areas
o Waste, recyclables, mail and street cleaning are more costly
o Public transit is impractical because the density needed support it
is not there
Rapid development of housing and infrastructure means lack of time for
proper planning
Increase in temperature of the cities
o Urban heat islands, caused by dark surfaces on roadways and
rooftops, absorbing heat from sunlight and rereadiated as IR
radiation)
o Also caused by lack of vegetation that would provide shade and
cool the air through evapotranspiration
o Therefore, sprawl causes an expansion of the heat island effect in
geographical extent and intensity. Especially true if development
features lots of tree-cutting and road construction
o FURTHERMORE, sprawl involves a positive feedback loop to
aggravate the problem, as there is more automobile travel, leading
to more fuel combustion, more CO2, more climate change. Climate
change may intensify heat island effect
o Number of habitants proportional to effect

o Heat stroke, heat edema, heat tetany

Increase in air pollution due to cars (urban sprawl encourages this)
o Inhibit plant growth, create smog and acid rain, contribute to
global warming and cause health problems
o Seems low-density urban growth/sprawl contributes
o Increased temperature leads indirectly to more pollution, as
demand for fans , coolers, air conditioners rises so power plants
have to increase their output
o Breathing problems, skin diseases
Impact on water quality
o Rainwater and snowmelt cant soak into ground to replenish
groundwater aquifers
o Urban areas in flood-prone areas, have more run-off therehfore is
an increased flood hazard
o Extra water from run-off during heavy rain can damage vegetation
and habitats along riverbanks, or lead to an increase in water
pollution from runoff contaminated by gardem chemicals, motor
oil and road salts
o These pollutants can be absorbed by humans when we eat fish
affected by this or drinking from contaminated surface water
Effects on public and social health
o Loss of community
Exploitation of workers
o Prostitution
o Child labour
o Informal sector has little security

POSITIVES TO GROWTH
Economic production
Opportunities for underemployed and unemployed
Better lifestyles
Extend better basic services (trasnporation, sewer and water) and other
specialist services (health and education) when controlled
Solutions to issues caused by growth