People in Cities

Objectives You should understand current

distribution patterns of urbanisation You should understand the way in

which urbanisation is changing at present.

You should consider how rates of urbanisation have changed in the past

You should understand the reasons for global variations in rates of urbanisation

Plot the distribution of the World’s major cities for 1800, 1900 and 1950

Urbanisation Trends

1. Define the term Urbanisation 2. Look at figures 15.2 and 15.3 from

Waugh p418. What do these maps show about urbanisation?

3. Write a description of where the world’s major millionaire cities are and which countries are the most Urbanised.

4. Explain these major global trends in Urbanisation in 1990.

Urbanisation trends

1. Produce a line graph of the figures on the rural urban Inter relationships web page.

2. Read pages 418 to 419 of David Waugh.

3. Analyse the results of your graph.4. What are the implications of these

patterns for city planners world wide? How do these differ for different places?

Urbanisation trends

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1950 1970 1990 2020 (estimate)

Date

Per

cen

tag

e u

rban

ised

World

More Developed Regions

Less Developed Regions

Europe and CIS

North America

Oceania

Latin America

Asia (excluding CIS)

Africa

Geographic futuresKey questions to consider…

If these trends continue, what will happen in the short term (1-5years)?

If these trends continue, what will happen in the long term (10 years or more)?

How likely are these forecasts? Why might they be wrong?

What are the most likely consequences of these forecasts?

What alternatives are there for the future? What would be the best case scenario? What would be the worst future? Who wins and who loses in what is envisaged for the

future? What would you prefer?

Homework

January 2002 Explain why the rates of urban growth vary from

place to place. (20) June 2004 Explain why rates of urban growth vary from

place to place and from time to time. (20) June 2002 What is meant by the term urbanisation? (5) Explain the changing distribution of the world’s

largest cities in recent years. (20)