Question

Who changed from small,farming communities to overcrowded industrial centers plagued by the problem of urbanization?

Answer 1

The urbanization process is further divided into four phases as indicated in the picture above.

Phase 1- This is the initial stage which is an agricultural /primary production phasePhase 2- Acceleration stage or industrialisation phase. For instance, most third world countries including Nigeria are in this phase and they are characterised by exponential growth of their urban population s growth.Phase 3- The mature stage or post-industrial phase; in this stage, urbanization starts to flatten up and stabilises, however, most North Western European countries, USA, Canada are in this phase.Phase 4-  this is the final phase and it is uncertain what will happen in this phase, but two scenarios are likely to happen such as:-Urbanization will continue to increase until the country is 100% urbanised. Japan is one example of such urbanised countries.Large cities will lose their population and may witness decline in urbanization leading to counter-urbanization or deurbanization. Large Western cities like London, Paris and Amsterdam etc. are witnessing gross decline in their population.Factors that determine urban development

So many factors determine city growth; these factors may include migration, economic activity, modernised life style, political services among other factors. Many countries of the world have their different criteria for defining an urban city. The word urbanization could be defined based on city size and population size. For instance, in Nigeria, the minimum population for a settlement to qualify as ‘urban is 20,000 and above, hence some other countries could use a population size of 5,000 of people to define an area as urbanised. However, population size alone is not enough to describe an area as urban, but other criteria like-

Population density- density can be measured in different ways such as per square kilometre, per square hectare, number of bed spaces per hectare, number of dwelling units per hectare and so on. based on whatever method urbanization is measured; population density is much higher in the urban areas compared to the rural areas.Density of physical development- urban areas are characterised by compact and high density of physical development such as road, railways and airparts.Possession of formal plan- some people have to contrast urban and rural areas in terms of a formal physical plan. For Instance, the Jos-Bukuru Master plan of 1975 defines the way the town was to grow and developed over 25years period. Some rural areas also have formal physical plan and this is therefore not a good measure of urbanization, however, in some developed countries, all settlements irrespective of their sizes have land use plans.Proportion of the inhabitants engaging in non-agricultural occupation- it is argued that most inhabitants in urban areas are involved in secondary and tertiary activities unlike in the rural areas where most people are engaged in agriculture or other primary occupations. In addition, this may also be an important criterion as most inhabitants in places like south- west (in Nigeria) are engaged in farming. Similarly, a large proportion of people in many Chinese cities are also farmers.Functional characters- Urban areas are centres of trade, commerce, learning, tourism technology and manufacturing; it allows exchange of ideas and even distributions of natural resources.Number and range of services- it follows from above that urban areas offer a range of many and complex services when compared with rural areas. Different forms of urbanization can be classified depending on the style of architecture and planning methods as well as historic growth of areas.Administrative, legal or political criteria- All the states capitals and local government headquarters in Nigeria for instance are officially designed as urban areas irrespective of their physical and population sizes.Life style- urban lifestyle is obviously different from that of rural areas; this is commonly seen in their clothing pattern, type of food, socialization and on the general life style of the people.