CBSE Class 8 Geography Chapter 4 Urbanisation
The term ‘urbanisation’ has been derived from the Latin word ‘urbs’, meaning ‘about a city or city life’.
- Thus, urbanisation refers to the formation of towns and cities and the gradual increase in the population of people living in these areas and how each society adapts to this change.
- The definition of urban areas, however, varies from one country to another. But some common components for the classification of urban areas include the size of population, occupational structure and administrative setup.
- Population size forms important criteria for defining urban areas.
- The lower limit of the population size for a settlement to be called an urban area is 20,000 in Nigeria, whereasit is 5000 in India, 2500 in the USA and 30,000 in Japan.
- In countries like Denmark, Sweden and Finland, all places with a population size of 250 persons are called urban.
- Besides, the size of population, density ofpopulation and share of non-agricultural workers are taken into consideration in countries like India and Italy.
In India, the density of population for an urban area should be at least 400 persons per sq. km. and 75 per cent of its population should be engaged in non-agricultural pursuits.
- Further, a settlement of any size is classified as urban in India ifit has a Municipality, Cantonment Board or Notified Area Council.
- The movement of people towards cities has accelerated in the past decades, particularly in the less-developed regions of the world.
- The world’s urban population is, in fact, growing by 60 million persons per year, about three times the increase in the rural population.
- According to a report by United Nations Population Fund, by 2030, it is expected that nearly 5 billion (61 per cent) of the world’s 8.1 billion people will be living in cities.
- The less-developed regions will have more than 57 per cent urban population.
Difference Between an Urban and A Rural Area:
All the above statistics, make it necessary to understand the causes that lead to the formation of cities and these are discussed below
CBSE Class 8 Geography Chapter 4 Origin Of Cities
Early men were food gatherers and hunters. While they gathered edible plants, fished and hunted, they could never find enough food in one place to sustain themselves for a long period.
- As a result, they had to move from one place to another.
- Gradually, they settled near a source of water, like a river, learnt to grow crops and built permanent human settlements.
- In the course of time, the development of simple tools and other innovations such as ploughs and improved means of irrigation allowed farmers to produce excess of crops beyond their immediate needs.
- This surplus food freed some people to pursue non-agricultural activities like pottery, weaving, sculpture, etc.
- Consequently, people moved out from farms and developed cities, which not only had dwelling houses but also workshops, public buildings, storehouses and markets. This marked the beginning of urbanisation or the rise of cities.
- But still most of the people lived in the villages. Some of the oldest cities in the world are in Asia, i.e., in Mesopotamia, India and China.
- With the establishment of empires, many new cities came up, many of which became centres of power.
Some of the oldest inhabited cities in the world include Varanasi in India, Damascus and Aleppo in Syria, Jericho in Palestine, Athens in Greece, Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Luoyang in China, Rome in Italy and Luxor in Egypt.
- Driven by the Industrial Revolution, between 1700 and 1900, increasing numbers of people moved into cities, resulting in an urban revolution. Industrialisation led to the mechanisation of agriculture.
- This reduced the amount of work on farms and forced many farm labourers to move to cities to find work.
- The migration of these farm labourers from rural to urban areas gave rise to the industrial city which was more densely populated and comprised people of varying backgrounds and skills who lived and worked together in a defined amount of space.
- Gradually, these industrial cities became commercial centres, supporting many businesses and factories. Since that time, urbanisation has been an ongoing process around the globe at a rapid rate.
- At present, as many as 50 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas.
Causes of Urbanisation
Urbanisation is driven by pull factors that attract people to cities and push factors that drive people away from rural areas.
The various factors that lead to the growth of urbanisation are the following:
1. Natural Increase in population:
Caused by an increase in birth rate, more than the death rate, is an important factor in increasing the urban population. In urban areas, deaths are less than births due to the availability of better medical facilities than in rural areas.
Besides, there is a large young, working population in urban areas capable of having children. This causesan increase in the birth rate more than the death rate and leads to an increase in urban population
2. Rural-Urban Migration
Rural-urban migration is one of the most important reasons for the growth of the urban population.
People migrate from the rural areas to the cities for the following reasons:
Employment opportunities:
In cities are one of the main pull factors that draw people from rural areas to seek better livelihood in cities.
- Many industries are located in cities, which offera number ofjobs, both skilled and unskilled.
- They also provide higher wages.
- Besides, there are many opportunities in the tertiary or the service sector, which provide a number of lucrative jobs.
Educational Institutes:
In cities that provide courses and training in a wide range of subjects and skills attract many rural people to migrate to the cities.
Here, they learn and train themselves to get a job in a city and thereby improve their standard of living.
Better amenities:
Better amenities like housing, power supply, availability of clean drinking water, sanitation, medical and transport facilities, healthcare, education, transportation, recreation, attract people to migrate to the cities in the hope of getting a better standard of living.
Development of the Internet and Communication techniques:
Has led to the reach of mobile phones, computers, laptops even to the villages. This has given people in rural areas access to happenings and events across the world.
It has made them aware of the latest developments and exposed them to the urban lifestyle. This exposure acts as a push factor that drives rural people to the cities.
3. Rural-Urban Transformation:
That is the growth and development of rural areas in the course of time into cities add to the process of urbanisation.
- This is usually seen in the areas where due to the availability of some resources industries come up and with it new economic activities.
- With the establishment of industries, housing facilities, power and water supply, connectivity through roads and railways, transportation and other facilities develop and gradually the rural area gets transformed into an urban centre.
For example:
The city of Jamshedpur developed when Tata Steel Plant was established there in 1907. Jamshedji Tata developed the area into a planned city. He wanted it to be far more than a mere row of workers’ hutments.
- He insisted upon building all the comforts and conveniences a city could provide. So the rural area of Sakchi was transformed into an urban area.
- Similarly, the city of Johannesburg in South Africa was developed at the site where gold was found in 1884.
- The discovery of gold rapidly attracted large number of people to the area and at present Johannesburg is the centre of largescale gold and diamond trade
CBSE Class 8 Geography Chapter 4 Impact Of Urbanisation
Urbanisation has both positive and negative impacts depending on the size of population, resources available and type of growth, whether planned or unplanned.
Positive Impact
- It promotes industrialisation, which in turn promotes other business such as retailers c growth and higher per capita income.
- It creates a variety of jobs and provides livelihood to so many people.
- It leads to the growth of housing sector and transportation.
- It leads to the improvement in healthcare, power supply, water, sanitation, educational facilities, communication systems and modes of recreation.
- Incities, people belonging to different regions having different religions, caste, languages, customs, live together.
- This intermixing of people from diverse backgrounds leads to a composite culture that promotes social harmony. It also causes demographic transformation.
Negative Impact
Rapid population and unplanned growth create an urban sprawl with negative economic, social and environmental consequences.
- An urban sprawl is characterised by excessive land consumption, lack of planned housing, fragmented open space, commercial buildings surrounded by areas of parking, lack of public space and lack of transportation facilities. increase
- The lure of city-life leads more and more people to migrate into urban areas. This causes overpopulation and puts pressure on the existing infrastructure and resources.
- Poor, unskilled people, who migrate to cities often do not find good jobs. They work as labourers, rickshaw pullers, vegetable and fruit hawkers, etc.
- Their income is not enough to afford proper houses. So they are forced to live in overcrowded, low-income colonies lacking in basic necessities like sanitation, clean drinking water, toilets, electricity supply and security.
- This results in the growth of slums.
- The rapid increase in population puts pressure on limited available resources. This increases the cost of goods and services, which in turn increases the cost of living.
- Most of the cities, especially in developing and underdeveloped countries are not equipped to handle large populations and their sanitation needs.
- Due to inadequate sewage facilities, poor sanitation, lack of clean drinking water, dumping of waste on streets, open spaces, wastelands, drains and rivers, contribute to the spread of diseases like asthma, dengue, malaria, food poisoning, diarrhoea and allergies.
- A large number of industries in cities emit large amounts of toxic fumes, solid and liquid waste, which pollute the air, soil and water, respectively.
- Huge number of vehicles like cars, buses, autorickshaw, vans, bikes, trucks, ply on the roads in cities. They not onlycause traffic jams but also cause air and noise pollution.
- In cities, due to tough competition in every field, people usually lead a stressful life, which at times take a toll of their health.
CBSE Class 8 Geography Chapter 4 Satellite Cities
A Satellite City is a smaller or medium-sized, planned city, located close to but outside the limits of a larger city.
- It is so-called because it is like a man-made satellite that orbits the earth but is not a part of the earth itself.
- It might have some influence of the larger city near it but is usually not a part of it. Even if it is a part of it, it has its own unique identity.
- Satellite cities are self-contained, independent cities, unlike a suburb or a subdivision.
For example:
Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad Faridabad near Delhi; Sanand, Gandhinagar near Ahmedabad; Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Thane, Bhivandi, Uran near Mumbai; Vikarabad, HITec City near Hyderabad; Yelanhaka, Surya Nagar, and Kengeri near Bengaluru; Panchkula, Mohali near Chandigarh are few of the many satellite cities in India.
Globally, in most of the countries, larger cities have satellite cities like Queensland, Ipswich near Brisbane (Australia), Ontario, Kitchener, Oshawa near Toronto (Canada), Brentwood, Crawley, Grays and Chelmsford near London (Great Britain); and Bridge Port, Allentown near New York City (the USA).
Characteristics of a Satellite City
A satellite city has the following characteristics:
- It is separated from its neighbouring larger city by a sizeable expanse of rural areas or a geographical barrier such as a river, a lake or a canal.
- It is well-planned and has residential buildings with all amenities, offices, banks, educational institutes, sports complexes, shops and shopping malls.
- Its growth took place before the larger city’s suburban expansion.
- It has its own municipal government to look after its civic amenities.
- It has its own power and water supply and waste management system.
- It is connected to the larger city with an efficient public transport system, like buses, metro rail and expressways.
- It is surrounded by a huge green belt.
- It has its own central business district and that makes it different from a suburb.
- It has its own district employment base.
- It has more cultural autonomy than the suburban areas.
- Thus, satellite cities maintain self-contained economies and services, while still being interconnected with larger cities nearby.
- With better urban planning, these cities can play an important role in reducing suburban sprawl and thereby, reducing pressure on the larger cities.
CBSE Class 8 Geography Chapter 4 Smart Cities
A Smart City is an urban area that uses information and communication technologies (ICT) and various electronic data collection servers to enhance the quality and performance of urban utility services such as power plants, water supply networks, waste management, schools, libraries, hospitals, information systems, transportation and law enforcement. The following are
The factors that enable a city to be designated as a smart city:
- It uses wide range of electronic and digital technologies to optimise the efficiency of
urban operations and services. - It shares information with the public and allows officials to interact directly with them. It makes use of different electronic sensors in all the government departments and programmes to conduct various schemes and policies and also to maintain transparency.
- It uses ICT to transform life and working environment.
- It uses practices to bring ICT and people together to enhance innovation and knowledge offered by them.
A smart city uses ICT for the following purposes:
- To promote quality, performance and interactivity of various urban services.
- To manage resources efficiently by reducing resource consumption and wastage and thereby, reduce costs.
- To improve contact between the people and the government.
- The characteristics of a smart city varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level ofdevelopment, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the residents ofthe city. A smart city has different characteristics in India than Europe or any other country.
Thus, researchers and developers have identified eight key aspects to define a Smart City, i.e., smart governance, smart energy, smart building, smart mobility, smart infrastructure, smart technology, smart healthcare and smart citizen.
Examples:
Smart City technologies and programs have been implemented in Singapore, Dubai, Barcelona, Milton Keynes, Southampton, Amsterdam, Madrid, Stockholm, China and New York.
Smart Cities Mission in India
The government of India launched ‘Smart Cities Mission’ in 2015 to promote cities that can provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens with a clean and sustainable environment. The purpose of this mission is to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology that leads to smart outcomes.
Some typical features of comprehensive development in Smart Cities include the following:
- Expanding housing opportunities for all. Reducing congestion, air pollution and resource depletion.
- Boosting the local economy and giving an identity to the city based on its main economic activity, such as local cuisine, health, education, arts and crafts, culture, sports goods, furniture, hosiery, textile, daily, etc.
- Preserving and developing open spaces like parks, playgrounds and recreational spaces in order to enhance the quality of life of its citizens.
- Promoting a variety of transport options and creating a road network not only for vehicles and public transport but also for pedestrians and cyclists.
- Applying smart solutions to infrastructure based on development. Example, making earthquake resistant buildings.
- Making governance citizen-friendly and cost effective. Enhancing the use of online services to bring about accountability and transparency using mobile phones to reduce cost of services.