essay on urbanization and its impact on environment

Understanding the Ecological and Environmental Impacts of Urbanization

December 18, 2019

Dr. Yuyu Zhou is a physical geographer at Iowa State University. Here is what he shared with us about the research he presented last Tuesday at #AGU19: Monitoring annual dynamics of urban landscape and vegetation phenology in the conterminous United States using the full archive of Landsat images and Google Earth Engine Why is it important to monitor how urban environments are changing? Our changing urban environments have important implications in human activities such as emissions and energy consumption. Monitoring urban environment change at fine spatiotemporal resolutions can improve our understanding of the ecological and environmental impacts of urbanization. Although the percentage of urban land is lower than 1% of the total land area, more than 50% of the world’s population resides in urban areas. More people are migrating from rural to urban areas, resulting in significant changes of urban environments. How does the open NASA/USGS Landsat archive together with cloud processing capabilities (like Google Earth Engine used for this study) better enable the monitoring of urban landscape dynamics and vegetation phenology? Satellite observations with fine spatial and temporal resolutions are needed to capture the high heterogeneity and dynamics of urban landscapes. The open Landsat archive provides such data to monitor urban environment changes. However, there are challenges to process massive Landsat images at the regional and global scales regarding computational resources. The advent of the planetary-scale platform of Google Earth Engine provides opportunities to develop and implement algorithms for massive Landsat images at a large scale for monitoring of urban landscape dynamics and vegetation phenology. How would you describe what’s new about the urban extent and phenology indicator products you’ve developed? Our products of urban extent and phenology indicators provide new information about urban environments (compared to previous products) regarding their high spatial and temporal details. The information of annual urban dynamics (e.g., urbanized years and conversion sources) and vegetation phenology (e.g., start of season and end of season) at a 30-m resolution can be derived from our products. What potential uses are there for these products? Our products can be of great use for relevant urban studies, such as urban sprawl modeling and pollen-allergy research. The urban dynamics product provides one of the key pieces of information needed for developing urban growth models and evaluating the impact of urbanization on human activities. The phenology indicators product shows great potential in investigating human-environment interactions, such as the response of vegetation phenology to urban heat islands and the implications of phenology change for the duration and severity of pollen season.

Changes in urban environments and ecosystems

Co-authors: Xuecao Li Iowa State University Ghassem Asrar Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Zhengyuan Zhu Iowa State University Lin Meng Iowa State University This study was funded by the NASA ROSES INCA Program (NNH14ZDA001N-INCA) Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Further Reading: + As Cities Grow, So Does the Urban Growing Season + Landsat at the 2019 AGU Fall Meeting Anyone can freely download Landsat data from the USGS EarthExplorer or the LandsatLook Viewer.

Categories: Benefits to People , Ecosystems and Biodiversity , News , Q&A , Urban Growth

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Linking Urbanization and the Environment: Conceptual and Empirical Advances

Annual Review of Environment and Resources

Urbanization is one of the biggest social transformations of modern time, driving and driven by multiple social, economic, and environmental processes. The impacts of urbanization on the environment are profound, multifaceted and are manifested at the local, regional, and global scale. This article reviews recent advances in conceptual and empirical knowledge linking urbanization and the environment, focusing on six core aspects: air pollution, ecosystems, land use, biogeochemical cycles and water pollution, solid waste management, and the climate. We identify several emerging trends and remaining questions in urban environmental research, including (a) increasing evidence on the amplified or accelerated environmental impacts of urbanization; (b) varying distribution patterns of impacts along geographical and other socio-economic gradients; (c) shifting focus from understanding and quantifying the impacts of urbanization toward understanding the processes and underlying mechanisms; ...

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Urbanization and Its Impact on Environmental Sustainability: A Comprehensive Review

Article sidebar, main article content.

Purpose: This review aims to critically analyze and summarize the existing literature on urbanization's effects on environmental sustainability. It delves deep into the nexus between rapid urban growth and the subsequent ecological consequences, mapping out the intricacies of this relationship.

Theoretical Framework: Drawing upon urban ecology, sustainability science, and socio-ecological systems theories, the review provides a lens through which the multi-dimensional impacts of urban expansion on environmental equilibriums can be assessed.

Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was conducted, encompassing peer-reviewed articles, reports, and white papers from various academic databases. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established to ensure relevant and rigorous material selection. This methodology enabled the identification of both direct and indirect environmental consequences stemming from urbanization trends.

Findings: Urbanization, while integral to societal progression and economic development, has significantly affected environmental sustainability. Key findings include increased greenhouse gas emissions, urban heat island effect amplification, loss of green spaces, and disturbances in local biodiversity. However, it also elucidated the potential for urban areas to spearhead sustainability solutions, provided there is a marriage of policy, innovation, and community engagement.

Research, Practical & Social implications: This review underscores the urgency for policymakers and urban planners to infuse sustainability at the core of urban developmental strategies. The need for multifaceted approaches—combining technological innovation, community involvement, and policy reform—is evident. A sustainable urban future will not only ensure environmental health but will also act as a cornerstone for social equity and economic viability.

Originality/value: While various studies have touched upon facets of urbanization and environmental sustainability, this review offers a comprehensive, synthesized perspective. By integrating diverse strands of research, it provides a holistic understanding, thus filling an evident gap in the literature.

Article Details

Exploring recent trends in integrating urban planning and ecology

Published: 18 June 2023

Cite this article

Garima Toor ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0504-4614 1 ,
Neha Goyal Tater ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0486-057X 1 &
Tarush Chandra ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0729-8244 1

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3 Citations

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Urbanization has rapidly transformed the global landscape, and its impact on ecology and biodiversity has a critical concern for sustainable development. Integrating urban planning and ecology can help to address these impacts by promoting sustainable urban development and protecting the ecosystem. In this research, a systematic literature review is conducted to explore the integration of urban planning and ecology. The research identified key terms and their associated networks between ecosystems and urban growth. This paper aims to explore the connection between urbanization and ecology through a bibliometric and scientometric review of research trends. Bibliometric and scientometric analyses are conducted to identify the key research areas, influential keywords, and research trends. The results revealed that the research on urbanization and protected areas has increased exponentially since the 2000s, with a focus on identifying the impacts of urbanization on ecology. The paper highlighted the need for more research in developing countries to address the unique challenges of urbanization in and around protected areas. The research also identified the need for interdisciplinary research to develop sustainable urbanization strategies that account for ecological restoration and conservation. The findings of this research provide insights to policymakers and urban planners in growing cities to promote balanced economic development while protecting biodiversity.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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A cloak of smog gives Fresno, California, a hazy look. Smog, a hybrid of the words "smoke" and "fog," is caused when sunlight reacts with airborne pollution, including ash, dust, and ground-level ozone.

Urban Threats

Urbanization spurs a unique set of issues to both humans and animals.

The promise of jobs and prosperity, among other factors, pulls people to cities. Half of the global population already lives in cities, and by 2050 two-thirds of the world's people are expected to live in urban areas. But in cities two of the most pressing problems facing the world today also come together: poverty and environmental degradation.

Poor air and water quality, insufficient water availability, waste-disposal problems, and high energy consumption are exacerbated by the increasing population density and demands of urban environments. Strong city planning will be essential in managing these and other difficulties as the world's urban areas swell.

Intensive urban growth can lead to greater poverty, with local governments unable to provide services for all people.
Concentrated energy use leads to greater air pollution with significant impact on human health.
Automobile exhaust produces elevated lead levels in urban air.
Large volumes of uncollected waste create multiple health hazards.
Urban development can magnify the risk of environmental hazards such as flash flooding .
Pollution and physical barriers to root growth promote loss of urban tree cover.
Animal populations are inhibited by toxic substances, vehicles, and the loss of habitat and food sources.
Combat poverty by promoting economic development and job creation.
Involve local community in local government.
Reduce air pollution by upgrading energy use and alternative transport systems.
Create private-public partnerships to provide services such as waste disposal and housing.
Plant trees and incorporate the care of city green spaces as a key element in urban planning.

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Published: 02 January 2020

Urbanization: a problem for the rich and the poor?

Md Abdul Kuddus 1 , 2 , 4 ,
Elizabeth Tynan 3 &
Emma McBryde 1 , 2

Public Health Reviews volume 41 , Article number: 1 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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Urbanization has long been associated with human development and progress, but recent studies have shown that urban settings can also lead to significant inequalities and health problems. This paper is concerned with the adverse impact of urbanization on both developed and developing nations and both wealthy and poor populations within those nations, addressing issues associated with public health problems in urban areas. The discussion in this paper will be of interest to policy makers. The paper advocates policies that improve the socio-economic conditions of the urban poor and promote their better health. Further, this discussion encourages wealthy people and nations to become better informed about the challenges that may arise when urbanization occurs in their regions without the required social supports and infrastructure.

Urbanization refers to the mass movement of populations from rural to urban settings and the consequent physical changes to urban settings. In 2019, the United Nations estimated that more than half the world’s population (4.2 billion people) now live in urban area and by 2041, this figure will increase to 6 billion people [ 1 ].

Cities are known to play multifaceted functions in all societies. They are the heart of technological development and economic growth of many nations, while at the same time serving as a breeding ground for poverty, inequality, environmental hazards, and communicable diseases [ 2 ]. When large numbers of people congregate in cities, many problems result, particularly for the poor. For example, many rural migrants who settle in an urban slum area bring their families and their domesticated animals—both pets and livestock—with them. This influx of humans and animals leads to vulnerability of all migrants to circulating communicable diseases and the potential to establish an urban transmission cycle. Further, most urban poor live in slums that are unregulated, have congested conditions, are overcrowded, are positioned near open sewers, and restricted to geographically dangerous areas such as hillsides, riverbanks, and water basins subject to landslides, flooding, or industrial hazards. All of these factors lead to the spread of communicable and non-communicable diseases, pollution, poor nutrition, road traffic, and so on [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. The problems faced by the poor spill over to other city dwellers. As the trend to urbanization continues, this spillover effect increases and takes on a global dimension as more and more of the world’s populations are affected [ 3 ].

Some of the major health problems resulting from urbanization include poor nutrition, pollution-related health conditions and communicable diseases, poor sanitation and housing conditions, and related health conditions. These have direct impacts on individual quality of life, while straining public health systems and resources [ 6 ].

Urbanization has a major negative impact on the nutritional health of poor populations. Because they have limited financial resources and the cost of food is higher in cities, the urban poor lack nutritious diets and this leads to illness, which contributes to loss of appetite and poor absorption of nutrients among those affected. Furthermore, environmental contamination also contributes to undernutrition; street food is often prepared in unhygienic conditions, leading to outbreaks of food-borne illnesses (e.g., botulism, salmonellosis, and shigellosis) [ 6 ]. Urban dwellers also suffer from overnutrition and obesity, a growing global public health problem. Obesity and other lifestyle conditions contribute to chronic diseases (such as cancers, diabetes, and heart diseases). Although obesity is most common among the wealthy, international agencies have noted the emergence of increased weight among the middle class and poor in recent years [ 7 ].

Populations in poor nations that suffer from protein-energy malnutrition [ 8 ] have increased susceptibility to infection [ 9 ] through the impact of micronutrient deficiency on immune system development and function [ 10 ]. Around 168 million children under 5 are estimated to be malnourished and 76% of these children live in Asia [ 11 ]. At the same time, the World Health Organization is concerned that there is an emerging pandemic of obesity in poor countries that leads to non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension, and stroke [ 12 ].

Obesity is caused by increased caloric intake and decreased physical activity [ 13 ], something historically associated with wealth. However, people in urbanized areas of developing countries are also now vulnerable to obesity due to lack of physical space, continually sitting in workplaces, and excessive energy intake and low energy expenditure. In these areas, infrastructure is often lacking, including sufficient space for recreational activities. Further, in developing countries, as in developed countries, large employers frequently place head offices in urban capitals and work is increasingly sedentary in nature [ 14 ]. Another culprit associated with the risk of developing obesity is the change in food intake that has led to the so-called nutrition transition (increased the consumption of animal-source foods, sugar, fats and oils, refined grains, and processed foods) in urban areas. For instance, in China, dietary patterns have changed concomitantly with urbanization in the past 30 years, leading to increased obesity [ 15 ]. In 2003, the World Health Organization estimated that more than 300 million adults were affected, the majority in developed and highly urbanized countries [ 16 ]. Since then, the prevalence of obesity has increased. For example, in Australia, around 28% of adults were obese in 2014–2015 [ 17 ].

Pollution is another major contributor to poor health in urban environments. For instance, the World Health Organization estimated that 6.5 million people died (11.6% of all global deaths) as a consequence of indoor and outdoor air pollution and nearly 90% of air-pollution-related deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries [ 18 ]. Poor nutrition and pollution both contribute to a third major challenge for urban populations: communicable diseases. The poor live in congested conditions, near open sewers and stagnant water, and are therefore constantly exposed to unhealthy waste [ 6 ]. Inadequate sanitation can lead to the transmission of helminths and other intestinal parasites. Pollution (e.g., from CO 2 emission) from congested urban areas contributes to localized and global climate change and direct health problems, such as respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer for both the rich and the poor.

In addition to human-to-human transmission, animals and insects serve as efficient vectors for diseases within urban settings and do not discriminate between the rich and poor. The prevalence and impact of communicable diseases in urban settings, such as tuberculosis (TB), malaria, cholera, dengue, and others, is well established and of global concern.

National and international researchers and policy makers have explored various strategies to address such problems, yet the problems remain. For example, research on solutions for megacities has been ongoing since the early 1990s [ 19 , 20 ]. These studies have concluded that pollution, unreliable electricity, and non-functioning infrastructure are priority initiatives; nevertheless, air pollution, quality of water in cities, congestion, disaster management issues, and infrastructure are not being systematically addressed [ 19 , 20 ].

The impact of inner city transportation on health, such as road traffic, is emerging as a serious problem. Statistics show that a minimum of 10 people die every day on the railways in the city of Mumbai, India [ 21 ]. Vietnam is another example of a country that has seen a remarkable increase in road traffic accidents [ 22 ]. Improvements to the country’s infrastructure have not been able to meet the increasing growth of vehicular and human traffic on the street. Vietnam reportedly has a population of 95 million and more than 18 million motorbikes on its roads. A deliberate policy is needed to reduce accidents [ 21 ].

Although urbanization has become an irreversible phenomenon, some have argued that to resolve the problems of the city, we must tackle the root causes of the problem, such as improving the socio-economic situation of the urban poor.

Until the conditions in rural areas improve, populations will continue to migrate to urban settings. Given the challenges that rural development poses, the root causes are unlikely to be addressed in the near future. Therefore, governments and development agencies should concentrate on adapting to the challenges of urbanization, while seeking to reduce unplanned urbanization.

Some examples of policies and practices that should be considered include (i) policies that consider whole-of-life journeys, incorporating accessible employment, community participation, mobility/migration and social transition, to break generational poverty cycles; (ii) policies addressing urban environmental issues, such as planned urban space and taxes on the use of vehicles to reduce use or to encourage vehicles that use less fuel as well as encourage bicycle use, walking, and other forms of human transportation; (iii) greater cooperative planning between rural and urban regions to improve food security (e.g., subsidies for farmers providing locally produced, unprocessed and low cost food to urban centers); (iv) social protection and universal health coverage to reduce wealth disparity among urban dwellers; including introduction of programs and services for health, for example by establishing primary healthcare clinics accessible and affordable for all including those living in urban slums [ 23 ].

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable

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Harpham T, Stephens C. Urbanization and health in developing countries. World health statistics quarterly Rapport trimestriel de statistiques sanitaires mondiales. 1991;44(2):62-9.

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World Health Organization. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic: World Health Organization; 2000. Available from https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/42330 . Accessed 4 Aug 2019.

Nour NN. Obesity in resource-poor nations. Reviews in obstetrics and gynecology. 2010;3(4):180-4.

Tomkins A, Watson F. Malnutrition and infection: a review. United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination/Subcommittee on Nutrition. Nutrition Policy Discussion Paper. 1989(5): p. 1-107.

Schaible UE, Stefan H. Malnutrition and infection: complex mechanisms and global impacts. PLoS medicine. 2007;4(5):e115.

Ahmed F, Zareen M, Khan MR, Banu CP, Haq MN, Jackson AA. Dietary pattern, nutrient intake and growth of adolescent school girls in urban Bangladesh. Public health nutrition. 1998;1(2):83-92.

World Health Organization. Obesity and Overweight. World Health Organization, Geneva (Fact sheet no 311); 2006.

Bleich SN, Cutler D, Murray C, Adams A. Why is the developed world obese? Annual review of public health. 2008;29(1):273-95.

Arundell L, Sudholz B, Teychenne M, Salmon J, Hayward B, Healy G, et al. The impact of activity based working (ABW) on workplace activity, eating behaviours, productivity, and satisfaction. International journal of environmental research and public health. 2018;15(5):1005.

Zhang J, Wang D, Eldridge A, Huang F, Ouyang Y, Wang H, et al. Urban–rural disparities in energy intake and contribution of fat and animal source foods in Chinese children aged 4–17 years. Nutrients. 2017;9(5):526.

World Health Organization. Obesity and Overweight. Geveva: World Health Organization; 2003.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Risk factors to health. Australia: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW); 2017.

World Health Organization. World Health Organization releases country estimates on air pollution exposure and health impact. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2016.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor for his/her thoughtful comments and efforts towards improving the manuscript.

This work was conducted as a part of a PhD programme of the first authors and funded by the College of Medicine and Dentistry at the James Cook University, Australia (JCU-QLD-933347).

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Published: 17 February 2021

Urbanization and economic complexity

Riccardo Di Clemente ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8005-6351 1 , 2 ,
Emanuele Strano 3 &
Michael Batty 2

Scientific Reports volume 11 , Article number: 3952 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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Applied mathematics
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Urbanization plays a crucial role in the economic development of every country. The mutual relationship between the urbanization of any country and its economic productive structure is far from being understood. We analyzed the historical evolution of product exports for all countries using the World Trade Web with respect to patterns of urbanization from 1995 to 2010. Using the evolving framework of economic complexity, we reveal that a country’s economic development in terms of its production and export of goods, is interwoven with the urbanization process during the early stages of its economic development and growth. Meanwhile in urbanized countries, the reciprocal relation between economic growth and urbanization fades away with respect to its later stages, becoming negligible for countries highly dependent on the export of resources where urbanization is not linked to any structural economic transformation.

Complex economic activities concentrate in large cities

Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Cristian Jara-Figueroa, … César A. Hidalgo

Commuting network effect on urban wealth scaling

Luiz G. A. Alves, Diego Rybski & Haroldo V. Ribeiro

Projecting future populations of urban agglomerations around the world and through the 21st century

Masanobu Kii

Introduction

It is an established fact that urbanization in developed countries is accompanied by economic growth and industrialization which mutually self-reinforce one another 1 . This historic pattern generates an expectation of a virtuous circle between economic growth and urbanization regardless of local conditions 2 , 3 . From classic urban economic theories 4 , 5 to the more recent scaling approach to cities 6 , 7 , the growth of urban population has routinely been used as a proxy for economic growth. This pattern has also been observed in rapidly developing countries such as China and India but it cannot be considered a universal blueprint 8 for deviations from this norm have not yet been fully explained.

In fact, as pointed out in several studies 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , the increasing urbanization rate in persistently poor and non-industrialized countries poses an important dilemma for urban economic theory. Why, given the same rate of urbanization, does Asia contain a number of explosive economies while sub-Saharan Africa has seen very little growth? Moreover, in developed and advanced industrialized economies, is there appears to be a competitive advantage in continuing this urbanization process indefinitely?

There are several theories aimed at explaining urbanization processes. Some argue that rural poverty moves people to cities as was clearly the case in nineteenth century Europe and America 13 , driving the transformation from an agricultural to an industrial-service based economy 14 , 15 . Others argue that in the last decades there has been urban-biased public policy that has led to over-urbanization 12 .

The most intriguing approach however is rooted in the mutual indirect effects of the World Trade Web (WTW) on global urbanization 16 , 17 . The dominant idea is that in open economies, domestic communities (such as cities) can trade easily with other communities, boosting their exports in substituting industrialization for urbanization policy 18 . In simple terms, the commodities can flow more freely using urban agglomerates as nodes in the trading networks between countries, generating the ever present virtuous circle between economic growth and urbanization.

Starting from this theory, we analyze the WTW to explore the mutual relationship between the urbanization of the countries and their economic production structure using the Economic Complexity (EC) framework. Economic Complexity 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , is a new and expanding field in the economic analysis, which proposes “Fitness” and “Complexity” metrics to quantify the fitness or competitiveness of countries and the complexity of products from a country’s basket of exports. The main focus of EC is based on a bipartite representation of the World Trade Web where the nodes represent the set of world-countries and the set of exported products defined as different entities. Countries and products are connected to one another by imposing a threshold based on their Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) 28 which defines the criterion for the existence of relations.

The Fitness and Complexity algorithm is a kind of PageRank method applied to WTW, where Fitness \(F_c\) is the quantity for country c , and Complexity \(Q_p\) is the quantity for products p . The idea at the basis of the algorithm is that the countries with the highest fitness are those which are able to export the highest number of the most exclusive products i.e. those with the highest complexity. On the other hand this complexity is non linearly related to the fitness of its exporters so that products exported by low fitness countries have a low level of complexity and high complexity products are exported by high fitness countries only.

The Fitness metric is valuable in quantifying a country’s productive structure and structural transformations which enable one to predict its future economic growth 23 . It correlates with the extent of economic equality 29 and it has been used to analyze the country’s growth path to industrialization 30 .

In this work, we used a data driven approach borrowing tools recently introduce by statistical physics and network science to improve our understanding of the complex dynamics of human societies, with the aim of finding innovative insight 31 to link urbanization process with the evolution of the international trade.

We couple the WTW data with the urbanization level of more than 144 countries worldwide, and analyze this between 1995-2010 thus capturing the fingerprint of urbanization on countries’ productive systems through the lens of their exports. We notice that in rural economies, the increase in urban population fosters structural changes in industrial exports. It boosts the country’s diversification improving the country fitness, and allowing the export of more complex products. These economic transformations fade away in countries that already have a high level of urban population (more than \(60\%\) ) where there is no relation between the urbanization process and the country’s fitness.

Within the sub-Saharan countries, we capture those where the virtuous circle between economic growth and urbanization is fostering structural changes in those countries’ productive systems. On the other hand within countries with economies based on raw materials, we assess the implementation of policy leading to urbanization that does not support any structural transformations of their basket of exports.

Economic complexity and urbanization

We represent the WTW as a bipartite network, i.e. by considering the set of world-countries and the set of products as different entities and linking a given country to a given product if (and only if) the former exports to the latter above a certain threshold (the so-called Revealed Comparative Advantage—RCA) 28 . RCA is a general criterion adopted in order to understand whether a country can be considered, or not, a producer of a particular product. It quantifies how much the export of a given product p is relevant for the economy of a country c in relation to the global export of p for all countries (See “ Methods ” Section).

The country’s fitness and product’s complexity are the result of a non-linear iterative map applied to the WTW matrix M 19 , 20 , 32 (See “ Methods ”).

Through the algorithm’s iterations, products exported by low fitness countries have a low level of complexity while high complexity products are exported by high fitness countries only. The countries’ composition of their export basket depends on their fitness. Fitness and Complexity are thus non-monetary indicators of the economy’s development: the fitness represents a measure of tangible and intangible assets and capabilities, which drive the country’s development, such as political organization, its history, geography, technology, services, and infrastructures 21 . Meanwhile complexity measures the necessary capabilities which must be owned by a country in order that it can produce and then export the resulting product.

Within this framework, we include the dimension of a country’s degree of urbanization defined as the percentage of the total population living in urban areas. Our aim is to quantify the link between a country’s urbanization process and their exports as a proxy for their industrial economic system. To disentangle the relation between country productivity systems and their urbanization, we have divided the set of countries in terms of their degree of urbanization, defined by the Urban Range, which is expressed in four quantiles [ Q 1, Q 2, Q 3, Q 4] (see urban range division in Fig. 1 B top).

( A ) Distribution of exported products complexity by different urbanization levels through the 2000–2010. There is a shift of lower urbanized countries towards the export of more complex products ( B ) Distribution of the Urban Range (percentage of the total population living in urban areas) of the 144 countries analyzed. ( B ) Ranked country fitness versus products export diversification, the highly diversified countries are one’s with more fitness and high urbanization, meanwhile low urbanized country are in the center bottom of the scatter plot, with some exceptions such as those with links to the oil countries. ( C ) Matrix of the country exports in 2010, reordering the countries and products by fitness and complexity; the color dots represent an exported product under the RCA threshold Eq. ( 2 ), the color gradient follows the urban range definition.

More urbanized countries [Q3,Q4] in the early 2000s, export a wide range of complex products such as: textiles, heavy manufacturing industries, and IT while rural countries [Q1,Q2] export products that require a low level of sophistication such as raw materials and agricultural products (Fig. 1 A).

Highly urbanized countries maintain a similar distribution across the analysis years, with a long tail of low complexity products and a consistent increase in the number of high complexity products. On the other hand starting from 2005, we have noticed that rural countries change their export basket towards higher complexity products. This shift is shown by the cumulative distribution functions of the different Urban ranges that decrease their distance from one another over time (see Fig. 1 A inset) together with their median and peak distance.

We notice that countries within the higher quantile of the Urban Range, Fig. 1 B, are the ones with higher fitness and higher diversification, whilst low urbanized countries have a low diversification and fitness. Notable exceptions are countries with exports based on raw materials (i.e. Qatar, Kuwait, Gabon, Iraq, Libya). These countries reached higher levels of urbanization as result of policy decisions 33 meanwhile their exports are limited to a few products with low complexity.

The representation of the WTW in Fig. 1 C shows country exports in 2010 rearranged by ranked fitness and complexity. The country exports’ diversification is related to the urbanization level. Low urbanized countries are at the bottom of the matrix with low fitness and lower degree of diversification, whilst the urbanized countries, with the most advanced economies lie at the top, with a high degree of product diversification with different levels of complexity and high fitness.

Exports diversification and urbanization

It is known that low fitness countries have similar economies with low degrees of diversification and high similarity with respect to their export baskets 20 , 34 , 35 i. e. they produce and export few of the same low technology products. We captured a shift in the distribution of the exported products within the rural countries (Fig. 1 A). In particular, we noticed that rural countries start to produce and export more sophisticated products. This productive systems transformation in the EC literature is related to the development of new capabilities 22 , 36 , 37 .

Some questions from this analysis emerge: do the rural countries evolve their productive systems in the same way? and do they continue to produce and export the same products? Is the pattern of economic development entangled with urbanization in same fashion for each rural country?

We can measure indirectly the transformation of the productive systems by analyzing the evolution of WTW topology 38 . In particular we can assess the changes of countries’ similarities in their exports studying the abundance evolution of network motifs 39 . A network motif is a particular pattern of interconnections occurring between the nodes of the network (i.e. between the countries and their products). In our case we are interested in the abundance of the similarity motif \(\mu _{sim}\) in Fig. 2 B (motifs 6 40 , or X motif 35 ): it quantifies the co-occurrence of any two countries as producers of the same couple of products as Eq. ( 7 ) (and, viceversa, the co-occurrence of any two products in the basket of the same couple of countries). This represents the simplest motifs 40 that can quantify the similarities in the export countries’ diversification which maintains a pairwise correlation within the products exported. Two economies with a fixed number of products exported are diversifying if the values of \(\mu _{sim}\) is decreasing while their production similarity increases with high values of \(\mu _{sim}\) .

( A ) Z-score of the export similarity motif by country groups with different Urban Ranges and the Z-score of the whole WTW in black. ( B ) Similarity motif as the co-occurrence of any two countries as producers of the same couple of products 35 , 40 .

To provide a benchmark and asses the \(\mu _{sim}\) statistical significance of the WTW we use the Bipartite Configuration Model (BiCM) 34 as a null model. This framework is valuable in the analysis of the abundance of the bipartite motifs 40 , enabling us to detect financial crisis effects on a country’s export basket 35 as well as export similarities between countries with same level of economic development 41 .

We generated 1000 matrices using the BiCM 34 (see “ Methods ” Section) and we compare the observed abundances of the similarity motif (Eq. 7 ) in the real network with the corresponding expected values in the null ensemble using the Z-score.

The whole WTW manifests a progressive increase of the abundance of similarity motifs with respect to the null case 35 (Black line Fig. 2 A). Highly urbanized countries show a similar trend of increasing similarity in their products exports. This measure implies that rural economies are very similar with a higher abundance of the similarity motif with respect to the random case having a high value Z-score. Interestingly, low urban range countries diversifying between each other manifest an opposite trend. The exports diversification trends of the low urbanized countries coupled with the increasing complexity of the product exported imply a nontrivial connection between urbanization and production capabilities. This measure outlines how rural economies follow different development patterns based on their production systems. The urbanization phenomenon coupled with the capabilities already presented in the country enable the production of different sophisticated products depending on their environment.

Urbanization growth and country fitness

The economic transformation of a rural country has an impact on its overall fitness value, and the competitiveness of its productive system. In this respect, the urbanization process is key element in a country’s development and its economic growth 33 , 42 . To assess the relation between the country’s fitness and the urbanization process we analyzed the Urban Range growth rate in relation to the growth rate of country fitness ranking between 1995 and 2010, as we show in Fig. 3 . The country fitness ranking is the country’s ordered position with respect to the country’s fitness value in a given year. The growth rate of the country’s fitness ranking is an easily understood tool to compare the transformations of a country’s productive systems with respect to its competitors. It has been proven a reliable tool in quantifying the country’s relative degree of competitiveness across different years providing a more stable measurement than the raw fitness value 43 .

( A ) The Fitness Ranking Growth Rate versus Urbanization Growth Rate. The effect of urbanization growth on the transformation of the economic systems (or vice-versa) is more relevant in low urbanize countries. The dashed lines represent the 95% Confidence Interval (CI) of the linear regression. ( B ) Slope coefficient of a sliding window across \(25\%\) of the countries (corresponding to 36 countries) of its fitness ranking growth rate versus urban population growth rate. The error bar corresponds to the fit’s \(95\%\) confidence interval. The colors follow the Urban Range Scheme.

For each of the four Urban Range quantiles we find a linear relation between the urbanization rate and the Fitness ranking growth rate in Fig. 3 b. Increasing urbanization within lowly urbanized countries is interwoven with increasing Fitness. Meanwhile, the effects are minimal in highly urbanized countries (Urban Range Q3,Q4). We validate the urbanization/fitness relation analyzing a \(25\%\) quantile sliding window on the whole urbanization distribution, which we show in black in Fig. 3 B.

We notice that in many rural economies, the urbanization process affects or has been affected by structural changes in its economic production. (An example are countries such as Uganda, Nepal, Somalia.) On other hand, there are many countries (such as IvoryCoast, Paraguay, Chad) where the urbanization process does not provide improvement in the fitness ranking 44 .

The self-reinforced mechanism between urbanization and fitness reaches a plateau within the urbanized countries (Q3,Q4), where the urbanization does not affect or has not been affected by changes in fitness ranking. In this respect, the resource exports countries manifest a shift toward a negative relation between urbanization and fitness. In fact in countries that are heavily dependent on resource exports, urbanization appears to be concentrated in the cities where the economies consist primarily of non-tradeable services 45 . To support our result we provide the same analysis using instead of the Fitness Ranking metric, the Fitness, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and GDP Ranking respectively (see “ Methods ” section: Urban Range vs Fitness and GDP). We do not find any evidence of relation between the other three metrics and the urbanization rate.

Urban fitness trends

The process of urbanization is often entangled with a country’s industrialization 11 . As countries develop, people move out of rural areas and agricultural activities into urban centers, where they engage in manufacturing products 46 which are more sophisticated with higher complexity. This transformation is outlined by the increasing level of fitness of low urbanized countries that are involved in the urbanization process. To leverage this information and capture its trends, we define the country Urban Fitness \(F_{c}^{\text{ urb }}(t)=F_c(t)*U_c(t)\) ; this is the value of country fitness \(F_c\) weighted by the percentage of urban population \(U_c\) .

( A ) Clusters of normalized Urban Fitness Trends. ( B ) Correlation Matrix of the countries urban fitness trends clustered with the Louvain algorithm. ( C ) Geographical cluster distribution. The map in this figure was created using the software QGIS.

We cluster the countries Urban Fitness trends using the Louvain algorithm 47 which is based on their correlation matrix shown in Fig. 4 B. Three clusters emerge with high correlations disentangling the non-trivial geographical relations we show in Fig. 4 A–C.

In Fig. 4 A countries with a clear urbanization trend (in orange) are ones with a stable increase in fitness ranking. Meanwhile the blue cluster contains developed countries, where the urbanization does not provide any new input to the economic development and resource dependent countries, where the urbanization is not only lead by deep structural economic change. These results are in agreement with the Urban Range study in Fig. 3 that show a poor effect of the urbanization on the country fitness, implying that over a given value of urbanization, other factors have a more important role in economic development and growth. Finally, the third cluster (in red) are the countries without any clear trend and are thus uncategorized.

It is well-known that urbanization provides several advantages to the economics of scale and division of labour, boosting productivity and competition. It helps in accessing the labor force and inputting materials to the production process as well as decreasing the geographical distance between firms, reducing transaction costs, and fostering competition 48 . These urbanization advantages 49 together with the appropriate bureaucratic environment 33 , investment in infrastructures 50 and companies market structure 51 , are some of intangible attributes, the capabilities, that a country needs to drive economic growth and innovation 36 . We noticed that the country Fitness, the production and export of goods, is interwoven within the urbanization process during the early stages of country’s economic development and growth. We show that the information carried by WTW can provide a different perspective on analyzing the complex process of urbanization, enlightening the relation between a country’s exports, economic development and its urban growth.

World trade web

The dataset used in this work is the BACI (Base pour l’Analyse du Commerce International) World Trade Database (Gaulier, S. Baci: International trade database at the product-level http://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/fr/publications/wp/abstract.asp?NoDoc=2726 Date of access: 18/01/2021). The data contains information on the trade of 200 different countries for more than 5000 different products, categorized according to the 6-digit code of the Harmonised System 2007 ( http://www.wcoomd.org/ Date of access: 18/01/2021). The products’ sectors follows the UN categorization ( http://unstats.un.org/unsd/cr/registry/regcst.asp?Cl=8 Date of access: 18/01/2021). We create a map between the two systems converting the HS2007 in to the ISIC revision 2 code at 2-digit ( http://www.macalester.edu/research/economics/PAGE/HAVEMAN/Trade.Resources/TradeConcordances.html#FromISIC Date of access: 18/01/2021). We represent the trade relation between the 144 countries \(c\in [1,C]\) and the 1131 products \(p\in [1,P]\) between the years [1995, 2010] throught the bipartite matrix \({\tilde{M}}\) with dimension \((C\times P)\) where each entry \({\tilde{m}}_{c,p}\) measures the export in US dollars. The framework of the Economic-Complexity 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 based on the interaction between countries and products is expressed by the application of the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) 28 threshold over the entries \({\tilde{m}}_{c,p}\) :

Finally, we define the entries of the biadjacency matrix M of the undirected bipartite network analyzed in this work as:

This indicates that the connection (country-product link) is established if and only if the relative RCA is relevant (over the threshold), otherwise it can be ignored. Each row of M represents the export basket of a given country (or its diversification \(k_c\) ), while each column represents the subset of producers of a given product (or its ubiquity \(k_p\) ) 52 .

Urbanization

The data of the urban population from 1995 to 2010 are available at the World Bank database ( https://data.worldbank.org/ Date of access: 18/01/2021).

Fitness and complexity

Fitness and Complexity are a metric for countries and products applied to bipartite binary matrix M of the WTW 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 24 . The basic idea of EC is to define a non-linear map through an iterative process which couples the Fitness of countries to the Complexity of products. At every step of the iteration, the Fitness \(F_c\) of a given country c is proportional to the sum of the exported products, weighted by their complexity parameter \(Q_p\) . In particular, the Fitness \(F_c\) for the generic country c and Quality \(Q_p\) for the generic product p at the \(n-\) th step of iteration, are defined as:

where the symbols \(\langle \cdot \rangle\) indicate the average taken over the proper set. The initial condition are taken as \(F_c^0=Q_p^0=1\,\,\forall c\in N_c,\,\forall p\in N_p\) , where \(N_c\) and \(N_p\) are the number respectively of countries and products (the convergence of the algorithm described by Eq. ( 4 ) depends on the shape of the matrix M , as it has been discussed in 43 ).

Bipartite configuration model (BICM)

The Bipartite Configuration Model (BICM), as defined by 34 , 35 , is a null model of general applicability that is able to generate a grandcanonical ensemble of bipartite, undirected, binary networks in which the two layers Country and Products have respectively C and P nodes. The ensemble generate by the BICM constrained the number of connections for each node, on both layers (in our case \(d_c\) and \(u_p\) ) to match, on average, the observed one. Each network \({\mathbf {M}}\) in such ensemble is assigned a probability coefficient:

\(x_c\) and \(y_s\) are the Lagrange multipliers associated to the constrained degrees.

Constraining the ensemble average values of countries and products degree induces the probability that a link exists between country c and industry sector p independently of the other links:

The numerical values of the unknown parameters \({\mathbf {x}}\) and \({\mathbf {y}}\) have to be determined by solving the following system of \(C+P\) equations, which constrains the ensemble average values of countries diversification and products ubiquities to match the real values, \(\langle d_c\rangle =d_c^*,\,c=1\dots C\) and \(\langle u_p\rangle =u_p^*,\,p=1\dots P\) .

Where \(\{d_c^*\}_{c=1}^C\) and \(\{u_p^*\}_{p=1}^S\) are the real degree sequence of countries, and industry sectors respectively, and \(\langle \cdot \rangle\) represents the ensemble average of a given quantity, over the ensemble measure defined by Eq. ( 6 )—as \(\langle d_c\rangle =\sum _sp_{cp}\) and \(\langle u_s\rangle =\sum _cp_{cp}\) . Indicated with an asterisk, “ \(*\) ” are the parameters that satisfy the systems.

Similarity motifs

In the present work we have sampled the grand canonical ensemble of binary, undirected, bipartite networks induced by the BiCM, according to the probability coefficients \(P({\mathbf {M}}|{\mathbf {x}}^*, {\mathbf {y}}^*)\) and calculated the average and variance of the motif \(\mu _{\text{ sim }}\) , define as b-motif6 in 40 .

The Similarity Motif represents the symmetric and complete connections between two countries \(c,c'\) and two industry sectors \(p,p'\) . The number of similarity motifs is:

with \({\fancyscript {Z}}\) is the matrix of dimension ( C , C ), that represents the projection of M over the countries. Each entry \({\fancyscript {Z}}_{cc'}\) counts the number of industry sectors in common between the countries c and \(c'\) , it is defined as: \({\fancyscript {Z}}_{cc'}=\sum _{s=1}^S M_{cs}M_{c's}=MM^T\)

This motif represents the co-occurrence of two products in two countries’ export basket within the bipatite matrix of the country exports. The accuracy of the BiCM prediction in reproducing the value of quantity \(\mu _{sim}\) please follows 34 .

Slope coefficient of a sliding window across \(25\%\) of the countries (corresponding to 36 countries) of respectively its Fitness Growth Rate ( A )— GDP Growth Rate ( B )— GDP Ranking Growth Rate ( C ) versus Urban Population Growth Rate. The error bar corresponds to the fit’s \(95\%\) confidence interval. The colors follow the Urban Range scheme.

Urban range versus fitness and GDP

To validate our analysis of the relation between the country’s fitness and the urbanization process we analyzed the urbanization growth rate in relation to the growth rate of three different metrics: the country Fitness (Fig. 5 A), country GDP (Fig. 5 B), and country GDP ranking (Fig. 5 C) between 1995 and 2010.

We study the variation of the slope coefficient of a sliding window across \(25\%\) of the countries urban range and the three metrics above. Both the metrics extracted from the GDP do not have statistical significant results. Although the growth rate of fitness in relation with the urbanization growth rate manifests a linear relation (Fig. 5 A) with an \(R^2=0.53\) , as Fig. 3 B, we notice that the fitness ranking is a more reliable tool than the raw fitness value 43 . The fitness ranking provides a more stable metric across each sliding window.

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Acknowledgements

Riccardo Di Clemente as Newton International Fellow of the Royal Society acknowledges support from the Royal Society, the British Academy, and the Academy of Medical Sciences (Newton International Fellowship, NF170505). The authors would like to thank Fabio Saracco, Enrico Ubaldi, Bernardo Monechi, Andrea Zaccaria, Andrea Gabrielli, Luciano Pietronero and Marta C. González for the insightful discussions and comments.

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R.D.C. and E.S. designed the study and performed the research. R.D.C. analyzed the data and generated the plots, E.S. created the Map. R.D.C., E.S. and M.B. wrote the paper. All the authors gave the final approval for the publication.

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Di Clemente, R., Strano, E. & Batty, M. Urbanization and economic complexity. Sci Rep 11 , 3952 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83238-5

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83238-5

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Urbanization Merits and Challenges Essay

Introduction, benefits of urbanization, challenges facing urbanization, reference list.

Urbanization is in most cases associated with the human movement from the rural to the urban areas. This movement is usually motivated by lack of employment and scarce resources especially land. This results to the areas affected by the influx becoming densely populated and pushing the cost of living in those areas to higher level. The results of urbanization have a dual effect; while the urban centers receive great wealth of labor and specialized skills, the rural areas are deprived of labor resources. This creates an imbalance between the rural and urban areas. Urbanization is also caused by environmental factors. This occurs especially in region where environment does not favor agriculture and people have to seek employment in industrial areas.

Urbanization is profound mainly in the third world countries. This is as a result of increased population in the rural areas in relation to the lands and housing. Urbanization is beneficial to these countries. It has been noted that, in the future, more than 80 % of all economic developments in these countries will mainly be concentrated in the urban areas. Some of the benefits associated with the urbanization are:

Centralization of housing

Availability of apartments in urban areas that houses a great number of residents reduces the resources (land) required in catering for their accommodation. This is in contrary with rural areas where the houses are fragmented and accommodates only a small number of people; usually a family. The cultural diversity within the city centre also helps fight ethnicity as people living together learn to respect other culture (Berg and Hager, 2007, p.79).

Concentration of resources

The urgency to meet economic demand of the diverse urban dwellers contributes to availability of ranging products within the urban centers. Due to the influx of people with different opinions and ideas, people are able to come up with new ways of improving their lives. Demand to improve their livelihood coupled with technological advances results in a growth of a highly skilled labor.

Most of the industries are located within the city center. These industries obtain the raw materials from the rural areas and process them to finished goods. This requires labor force to ensure the production is sustained. This results in creation of jobs and an overall improvement in economy and an in crease in the GDP (Wagner, 2008, p. 59).

Improved transport and communication network

Due to mass production of finished products which requires transportation to the end users, there are better roads in the urban areas as compared to the rural areas. This is also instigated by the availability of administrative offices within the city centers that requires improved transport and communication facilities

Although urbanization is characterized with lots of advantages it has its shortcomings especially if it’s not properly managed. Some of the challenges that face the urbanization include:

Global warming

Though global warming is profound in the developed countries, third world countries also contribute to the depletion of the O-zone layer. According to research, 80% of carbon dioxide comes from urban centers through emission from industries and motor vehicles. This has a detrimental weather effect. It is raising concern that, if burning of carbon fossils continues in a direct proportion of deforestation, there might be a complete depletion of o-zone layer, thereby exposing human being to the poisonous ultra violet rays.

Another challenging posing on urbanization is increased crime (berg and Hager, 2007, p.46). Industrialization had seen sprouts of many industries offering jobs to the people and consequently reduced unemployment. However this was short lived because technological advances saw the introduction of machines in the industries. This meant downsizing the number of employees working within an industry. For instance a single robot could handle a job done by hundred men. This has led to unemployment. This has resulted in a number of youth resulting to crime to earn living.

Accelerated population growth

Population increase in the urban areas has been triggered by two reasons which are interlinked. The first one being lack of requisite education to secure places in the industrial areas. The second factor that has led to population growth is lack of education about family planning and lack of contraceptives. This is a challenge to the urbanization because the local government is not able to supply even the basic necessities like water and sanitation. Evidence shows that most of people in third world countries live in slums areas with no clean water and lack of latrines. This exposes them to communicable disease like Cholera

The UN has been at the centers for rewarding institutions that have been exceptional in addressing the plight of urban and rural poor. Some of the rewarded institutions include, SEWA India (A women’s self-help organization for poverty alleviation in India). This group has been uplifted the living standards of the self-employed women by forming a bank that extends loans to the members. The surplus deposits made by the members are used to provide essential commodities like water. A Cote D’ivoire institution on Institutionalizing Community-Based Development- the institution was rewarded for addressing issues affecting people. CDQ neighborhood committees were established by the committee with the mandate of engaging resources and energies from the society. These resources and energies were later to be channeled with an aim of improving the living standards of the communities. Another institution that was rewarded is The Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association. It revitalized 300 block section of the south Bronx. Other activities of the project were cultural issues, education, development human services as well as health, transportation and issues to do with housing. Project of lots and services for those people in the north zone who receive low incomes were also rewarded, as well as shelter renovations in morocco.

Urbanization can have devastating effects if measures to check its limits are not put in place. It can lead to social adversaries and degradation in environment an overall ecology. However, urbanization can help in ending ethnicity and uniting people. With urbanization there is also great exchange of ideas that can help in improving the standard of living.

Berg, L. R., & Hager, M. C. (2007). Visualizing environmental science. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Wagner, L.N. (2008). Urbanization: 21st century issues and challenges. Berlin: Nova Publishers.
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IvyPanda. (2022, May 16). Urbanization Merits and Challenges. https://ivypanda.com/essays/benefits-of-urbanization/

"Urbanization Merits and Challenges." IvyPanda , 16 May 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/benefits-of-urbanization/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Urbanization Merits and Challenges'. 16 May.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Urbanization Merits and Challenges." May 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/benefits-of-urbanization/.

1. IvyPanda . "Urbanization Merits and Challenges." May 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/benefits-of-urbanization/.

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IvyPanda . "Urbanization Merits and Challenges." May 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/benefits-of-urbanization/.

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Essay on Urbanization for Students and Children

500 words essay on urbanization.

Urbanization refers to the movement of the population from rural areas to urban areas. It is essentially the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas. Furthermore, urbanization is quite a popular trend in the contemporary world. Moreover, people mostly undertake urbanization due to more work opportunities and a better standard of living. According to the expert prediction, by 2050, 64% of the developing world and 86% of the developed world will be urbanized.

Causes of Urbanization

First of all, political causes play a big role in urbanization. Many people get forced to leave rural areas for urban areas due to political unrest. Therefore, many families go to urban areas in search of food, shelter, and employment .

Another important cause of urbanization is an economic cause. Furthermore, poverty is a widespread phenomenon in rural areas. Moreover, farmers are finding it very hard to earn enough money and make a living. Consequently, rural people move to urban areas in search of better job opportunities.

Education is a strong cause of urbanization. Urban areas offer opportunities for seeking high-quality education. Moreover, urbanization offers opportunities for studying at universities and technical colleges. Such handsome education opportunities attract many young people in rural areas to move to urban areas.

Environmental degradation also plays a part in contributing to urbanization. Deforestation destroys the natural habitat of many farming families. Furthermore, mining and industrial expansion also harm the natural habitat of farming families.

The social cause is another notable reason for urbanization. Many young rural people migrate to urban areas in order to seek a better lifestyle. Moreover, many young people want to escape the conservative culture of rural areas. Most noteworthy, urban areas offer a more easy-going liberal lifestyle. Furthermore, cities have clubs to attract youth.

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Benefits of Urbanization

First of all, urban areas are much more efficient in providing resources than rural areas. Important and basic amenities like housing, clean water, and electricity are easily available in urban areas.

People in urban areas find it quite easy to access to various important services. Most noteworthy, these services are high-quality education, expert health care, convenient transportation, entertainment, etc. Furthermore, some or all of the services are unavailable in rural areas.

Urban areas offer better employment opportunities. Furthermore, these employment opportunities are the result of industrialization and commercialization.

Urban areas play a critical role as creators and disseminators of knowledge. This is because of the highly connected urbanized world. Most noteworthy, the geographical proximity of people in urban areas helps in the propagation of ideas.

Urban areas enjoy the benefits of technological development. Furthermore, many types of technologies get implemented in urban areas. Moreover, urban people quickly get in touch with the latest technology. In contrast, many rural individuals remain ignorant of many types of technologies.

To sum it up, urbanization is a process which is on a continuous rise. Furthermore, urbanization ensures the transformation of rural culture into urban culture. Moreover, the government must be vigilant to the rapidly increasing urbanization. A fully urbanized world looks like the ultimate destiny of our world.

FAQs on Urbanization

Q1 State any two causes for urbanization?

A1 Any two causes for urbanization are high-quality education and good job opportunities in urban areas.

Q2 Why urban areas offer better employment opportunities?

A2 Urban areas offer better employment opportunities due to high industrialization and commercialization.

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Urban morphology modulates thunderstorm process and associatied cloud-to-ground lightning activity over Beijing metropolitan region

Abstract. The effect of urban barriers may have a significant impact on the patterns of thunderstorm processes and lightning activity, but there is still a lack of comprehensive mechanical explanations. The observational analysis carried out in this study found that cloud-to-ground (CG) lighting activity tends to cluster around the outer boundaries of the mega cities, while, on the opposite, CG gathers within the small-sized city. When a squall line originating from a type of mesoscale convective system (MCS) known as '0713' passed through the built-up area, the barrier effect of the rough underlying surface contributed to the separation of the cold pool. This led to weakening of vertical airflow and breaking of the convergence line, ultimately triggering the bifurcation of the thunderstorm. Simulation results complement these observations. When buildings outside the 5 Ring Road (RR) are replaced with bare soil, the separation of the cold pool is minimized. Furthermore, the density of the buildings also influenced the strength of the barrier effect. Therefore, the specific urban morphologies were identified as a critical factor in modulating cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning activity and the organization process of thunderstorms. This study offers a fundamental foundation and technical support for predicting and assessing urban cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning risks. It holds significant implications for understanding excess urban warming, its prediction and assessment, and the resulting thermal risk, influenced by factors such as ventilation, sea breezes, and the geophysical environment in coastal cities.

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For Virginia, Less-Mow April is better than No Mow May, Virginia Cooperative Extension recommends

Gardeners seeking to provide early spring forage for pollinators have popularized No Mow May, but in Virginia, April is a better month to avoid mowing.

Devon Johnson

15 Apr 2024

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View of grass from the ground level with small dandelions peeking from flattened weeds

Each May, millions of people preserve the blooming dandelions and clover in their lawns by leaving their lawn mowers idle — a practice called No Mow May.

“The idea is that you are leaving the early flowering dandelion and clover to provide some forage for the earliest pollinating insects,” said Mike Goatley , Extension turf specialist and associate professor of crop and soil environmental sciences in Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences .

“No Mow May has become widespread in the last few years, but May is really too late in Virginia. The clover and dandelion begin flowering in April, and that’s when you’re really getting the value in not mowing,” said Goatley.

It is not just “no-mow” that can help insects, said Shawn Askew , Extension specialist in turfgrass weed science and associate professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Mowing less frequently also helps ensure pollinators have a supply of clover and dandelion. Cutting back clover and dandelion plants may even encourage the plants to produce more blooms.

According to Askew, think of it as “less-mow” April. He recommends these practices:

Reduce mowing instead of not mowing.
Raise the mower height to increase bloom density.
Only mow part of the yard each time you mow so that food is always available somewhere on the property.

Are lawns really that important for pollinators?

According to Margaret Couvillon , assistant professor of entomology in Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences , laws are important for pollinators.

"Because those March and April flowering weeds — the dandelions and clover — are important early sources of food for flower-visiting insects, leaving them uncut in your yard will help feed hungry bees,” said Couvillon.

Recent studies on urban bees suggest that in addition to specialized pollinator gardens, yards with spontaneous lawn flowers also support bees and are important part of the urban pollinator ecosystem. For example, a 2014 study documented 25 pollinator species visiting white clover and 21 species visiting common dandelion.

Leaving grass long also provides necessary habitat for insects.

“The longer you can delay the mow, the better. We know from studies in Europe that delaying that first cut by eight weeks can significantly increase the diversity and abundance of insects in an area in subsequent years because early emerging insects can mate and lay eggs before their habitat is destroyed.”

Be careful when you mow long grass

According to Goatley, avoiding the lawnmower in spring when grass is just starting to grow might have benefits for your turf as well. Leaving the grass a little longer during this time can help the plant direct energy to establishing a strong root system.

When you’re ready to mow again, just be sure not to cut tall grass down to very short all in one mowing, a practice known as “scalping” your lawn. Removing more than one-third of the length of the grass in one mowing is very damaging to the plant.

“If you have let your grass get pretty long, you might be tempted to take it all the way down with your mower on the shortest setting, for example taking the grass from 6 inches down to 2 inches,” said Goatley. “This is exactly the opposite of what you want to do right before the heat of summer begins to stress your lawn.”

Instead, remove height gradually by setting your mower to consecutively lower settings over several days. Follow the rule of thirds: never remove more than one-third of the length at a time.

Goatley cautions Virginians with warm-season lawns — for example, bermudagrass or zoysiagrass — to be especially careful if participating in Less-Mow April.

“Warm season grass can really get away from you,” said Goatley. “If you let your warm season lawn get to 5 or 6 inches, it’s going to be hard to even get the mower through it when you’re ready to mow.”

In addition to avoiding the lawnmower in spring, gardeners can also help pollinators by choosing landscape plants with wildlife benefits. For more information on habitat gardening, check the Virginia Cooperative Extension publication “For the For the Birds, Butterflies, and Hummingbirds: Creating Inviting Habitats.”

“If you choose ornamental plants wisely, you'll be able to attract an abundant, diverse population of insect pollinators," said Couvillon.

For help with your lawn, contact your local Extension Master Gardeners. Extension Master Gardeners are trained volunteer educators who bring the resources of Virginia’s land-grant universities to the people of the commonwealth. Visit the Extension Master Gardener Program website for more information or to become an Extension Master Gardener.

Tom Soladay

540-232-2501

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Top News College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Virginia Cooperative Extension

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