Outline the process of urbanisation and describe its effects.

Outline the process of urbanisation and describe its effects.

Urbanisation is the growth in the proportion of a country’s population the lives in urban as opposed to rural areas. Urbanisation first occurred in MEDCs during the industrial revolution that took place in Europe and North America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since 1950, urbanisation has been rapidly occurring in LEDCs and nowadays, the rate of urbanisation in LEDCs, for example, in South America, Africa and Asia, is greater than in MEDCs. As LEDCs are developing more people are migrating to urban areas. In Bangalore, India, for example, 58% of migrants to the city have migrated from other urban areas. The process of urbanisation is caused by natural change, in-migration and also reclassification.

The positive economic effects of urbanisation include the industries and finance that bring a lot of income into the city and the emerge of the informal employment sector which provides a scope for local entrepreneurial talent and offers a remedy for unemployment problems that comes with urbanisation. Also, small businesses and family enterprises located amongst the houses in shanties allow close interaction of household and informal economies. Socially, urbanisation can be advantageous as provision of education and services and basic infrastructure is often better than in rural areas, usually there are also lower levels of infant mortality and higher levels of life expectancy, as in Brazil, for example, urban levels of infant mortality we 75.4/1000 whereas in rural areas this figure was 107.5/1000. Furthermore, auto construction and self-help housing offers a solution to housing shortages.

The main negative impact of urbanisation is unemployment. With massive migration from rural areas, jobs in the urban area may not be created fast enough to meet the needs. In Lagos, for example, the official unemployment rate in 2010 was 25%. An increasing proportion of people are underfed and unemployed which has led to political unrest. Furthermore, households spend two - fifths of their income on food and the informal sector of employment is growing in size. Negative environmental impacts include the rely on buses and taxis which contribute to road congestion and stationary slow moving traffic is a local source of air pollution. Furthermore, footpaths and roads act as open-air sewers. There are many negative social impacts of urbanisation which include the lack of housing, a particular problem in Lagos which needs 10000 new houses each year, and in the slums of Mushin, there are over 4 people per room, homes are under lit and badly ventilated, water is supplied by tanker and standpipe and electricity supplies are limited. Also, Lagos is notorious for high crime and drug use is very wide spread and as the demand for health care is growing fast, the government withdrew free hospital treatment in 2000 as it was too costly.

In conclusion, the process of urbanisation occurs mostly due to in-migration, which then has an effect of natural change and the natural increase then contributes further to the process and also reclassification. There are many positive and negative impacts of urbanisation but a lot of the time the negative impacts can outweigh the positives.