A growing percentage of the world's population lives in urban areas
In this section you are required to study all the themes — there are no optional routes.
The global pattern of urban change. More than half the world's population now lives in urban areas, and the proportion is still rising. But the rate of change is very uneven, and that unevenness is what questions are usually about.
- Urbanisation
- An increase in the proportion of a country's population living in urban areas.
- Natural increase
- Birth rate minus death rate — population growth from births exceeding deaths.
- Megacity
- A city with a population of over 10 million people.
Factors affecting the rate of urbanisation. Two act together, and a full answer needs both.
Migration, explained by push–pull theory. Push factors drive people out of rural areas: poor harvests, few jobs, low wages, limited services such as schools and hospitals, natural disasters, and sometimes conflict. Pull factors draw them to cities: more and better-paid jobs, better schools and healthcare, a more reliable food and water supply, and the perception of a better standard of living.
Natural increase. Migrants are typically young adults of working age, so they have children in the city. Birth rates in cities are therefore high while death rates fall because healthcare is better — so the city grows from within as well as from arrivals.
The emergence of megacities. The number of megacities has grown rapidly, and most new ones are in LICs and NEEs rather than HICs — a direct consequence of where urbanisation is happening fastest.
Common mistake
Urbanisation is not the same as urban growth. Urbanisation is the rising proportion of people living in urban areas; a city can grow in population while the country's level of urbanisation stays flat. Read which one the question asks about.
Urban growth in an LIC or NEE
Urban growth creates opportunities and challenges for cities in LICs and NEEs.
You need a case study of a major city in an LIC or NEE. Use the city your school studied — what matters is that you can cover every element the specification lists, with real detail about that city. The checklist below is what your case study has to be able to answer.
Why growth outruns provision is the underlying explanation, and it applies whichever city you studied. People arrive faster than housing, water pipes, sewers, power lines, schools and clinics can be built. Those who cannot find or afford formal housing build their own on land they do not own, creating squatter settlements — often on the least desirable land, such as steep slopes or beside rivers, which is also the land most at risk from landslides and flooding.
Because the settlements are unplanned, services do not reach them: no piped water, no sewerage, no waste collection and no legal electricity supply. That is what links the challenges together — they are not separate problems but consequences of the same mismatch between the speed of growth and the speed of building.
You also need an example of how urban planning is improving the quality of life for the urban poor. Self-help schemes, site and service schemes and slum upgrading are the usual kinds; whichever your school studied, be able to say what was actually provided and how it changed daily life.
Worked example
Explain why squatter settlements often lack clean water and sanitation.
- Start from the rate of growth: people arrive faster than housing and services can be built.
- The settlements are built by residents themselves on land they do not own, without planning permission.
- Because they are unplanned and often not legally recognised, the city authorities may not extend piped water or sewerage to them.
- The land is frequently steep or marginal, which makes laying pipes difficult and expensive.
- Add the consequence, since these questions usually want it: untreated waste contaminates the water supply, so waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid spread.
Answer: The settlements grow faster than services can be provided, and because they are unplanned and often not legally recognised on difficult land, authorities do not extend water and sewerage to them — so waste contaminates water supplies and waterborne disease spreads.
The specification names the *type* of case study, never the place — your school chose which. The worked example below is one in common use; if your school taught a different one, use theirs and keep the same structure, because the structure is what the marks are for.
Urban change in the UK
Urban change in cities in the UK leads to a variety of social, economic and environmental opportunities and challenges.
Overview of the distribution of population and the major cities in the UK. The population is concentrated in the south east and in a belt of former industrial cities across the Midlands and the north — London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Bristol and Cardiff. Population density is lowest in upland areas such as the Scottish Highlands and mid-Wales, which links back to the relief in 3.1.3.1.
You need a case study of a major UK city. Again, use your school's city and check it against the specification's list:
You need an example of an urban regeneration project to show the reasons why the area needed regeneration and the main features of the project.
The reasons are usually some combination of industrial decline leaving derelict land and buildings, high unemployment after factories or docks closed, poor quality housing, and social problems following from those. The features are usually new housing, offices and retail, improved transport links, and open space or waterfront improvements. Use your school's project and give its actual features.
Urban sustainability requires management of resources and transport.
Features of sustainable urban living: • Water conservation — water meters, recycling grey water, collecting rainwater, and repairing leaking pipes. • Energy conservation — insulation, solar panels, efficient appliances, and designing buildings to need less heating. • Waste recycling — kerbside collection, more materials recycled, and less waste sent to landfill. • Creating green space — parks, green roofs and tree planting, which improve air quality, provide habitats, absorb rainwater and give people somewhere to exercise.
How urban transport strategies are used to reduce traffic congestion: investing in public transport such as trams, buses and light rail; park-and-ride schemes on the edge of the city; congestion charging; bus lanes and cycle lanes; encouraging car sharing; and improving the ring road so through-traffic avoids the centre.
Why congestion matters: it wastes time and fuel, raises costs for business, and worsens air pollution and the health problems that come with it.
Common mistake
Sustainable urban living is not only about the environment. It has to work socially and economically too — a scheme that cuts emissions but prices local people out of their homes is not sustainable, and saying so shows the understanding these questions reward.
Before you practise
- All themes in this section are compulsory — there are no optional routes.
- HICs urbanised early and slowly; LICs and NEEs are urbanising now and rapidly, and most new megacities are there.
- A megacity has over 10 million people.
- Urbanisation is driven by migration (push and pull factors) and by natural increase together.
- Urban growth in an LIC or NEE brings opportunities in services, resources and industry, and challenges in slums, water, sanitation, energy, unemployment, crime, waste, pollution and congestion.
- Squatter settlements lack services because growth outruns provision and the settlements are unplanned and often unrecognised.
- UK cities: know the location and importance, migration, opportunities, challenges and urban sprawl for your case study city.
- Brownfield reuses derelict land but costs more to prepare; greenfield is cheaper but destroys countryside.
- Sustainable urban living: water and energy conservation, waste recycling, and creating green space.
- Transport strategies reduce congestion through public transport, park-and-ride, congestion charging and cycle lanes.
- For both case studies, use your school's city and check you can cover every bullet the specification lists.