What are the impacts of urbanization?

Geographers attempt to identify the spatial distribution of urbanisation taking place around the world. We often use maps to show the location of where urbanisation is taking place.

Question

How would you describe the arrangement of our large cities?

America
This is what the road looks like from Portland Airport, Oregon's largest city. Local authorities carefully made bike paths and now homeless people and drug addicts live on them in their trailers and cars. pic.twitter.com/kquEW7ZrsH

— Spriteer (@spriteer_774400) July 27, 2022

Source: Our World In Data

Source: Our World in Data

TASKS:

Refer to the chart above. Go full screen and hit the play button. How do Urban and Rural populations change over time? Use data in your response.
Predict the likely changes to urban and rural populations in the future base on past patterns.
Refer to the map above. Go full screen and hit the play button. Australia has been urbanised since 1960. Why might this be the case?
Which continent has had the least urbanisation in the world?

TASKS:

Watch the animation infographic below. While doing so, try not to watch the vehicles and activities taking place in the video. Instead, focus your attention on the billboards and information that pops up during the video.
Provide 4 pieces of evidence that support the argument that China's urbanisation is increasing at a rapid rate.
Through discussion and brainstorming, outline some of the challenges that the Chinese government May face with a rapid increase in Urban population.

Questions

Urbanisation encroaches on the natural environment as shown in the video to the right. Design a mind map on how urbanisation has a consequence for the environment.
Is it possible for cities to become too large? As a class, discuss what might be challenging about becoming too large?

Short Answer Question

Write a 4 paragraph response that answers the following question. 'How is China's population density similar and different to that of Australia's? 1 paragraph for an Introduction, 1 for similarities, 1 for differences and 1 for your conclusion. Use place names, direction and distance in your response

Read pages 179-181
Answer questions 1-4 in your exercise book

Population pyramids are used by demographers as a tool for understanding the make-up of a given population, whether a city, country, region, or the world. Learning about, using, and understanding these pyramids is an important part of Human Geography. So what is a Population Pyramid?

A Population Pyramid is a graph that shows the age-sex distribution of a given population. It a graphic profile of the population’s residents. Gender is shown on the left/right sides, age on the y-axis, and the percentage of population on the x-axis. Each grouping (ex: males aged 0-4) is called a cohort. A population pyramid does not tell us the actual population in numbers. Rather, it displays percentages and shows what proportion of people fall into each cohort. Demographers use population pyramids to see population trends in the past, examine the current resident profile, and also to project how the population will increase/decrease in the future.

ANIMATION - POPULATION PYRAMID

Questions

Describe what is meant by Rapid, Slow and Negative growth in your books.
Sketch what these Pyramids typically look like.
Research Australia's current Population Pyramid - which category do we fit into?

Watch the following Clip. Take notes on when there are significant changes to population.

Downtown Los Angeles as viewed from Griffith Park, which is home to a various animals including deer, skunks, coyotes, and a mountain lion. Source: Flickr

Urbanization can impact the Earth system in a variety of ways, including:

Causing habitat loss and deforestation, which can decrease species populations, ranges, biodiversity, and alter interactions among organisms.
The evolution of life cycles and traits that help species survive and reproduce in distrubed or altered ecosystems. For example, some bird populations living in urban environments have altered their beak shape to be able to more effectively eat the seeds in human-made bird feeders.
The transmission of diseases. Humans living in densely populated areas can rapidly spread diseases within and, with the ease and volume of transportation, among populations.
Increasing the transport of invasive species, either intentionally or by accident, as people travel and import and export supplies in and out of cities. Urbanization also creates disturbed environments where invasive species often thrive and outcompete native species. For example, many invasive plant species thrive along strips of land next to roads and highways.
Increasing regional temperatures. The use asphalt and other dark colored materials in urban areas increases the amount of sunlight absorbed. This creates urban heat islands, whereby cities experience higher temperatures than surrounding areas.
Paving land with concrete can increase water runoff, increasing erosion and decreasing soil quality. This can also decrease water quality by increasing sediment and pollutants in rivers and streams.
Changing how much and how fast water cycles through the biosphere and atmosphere. Trees and other plants return a significant proportion of precipitation to the atmosphere via a process called transpiration. Thus, the loss of plant productivity and biomass decreases the amount of water cycling through the biosphere and atmosphere, while increasing plant productivity and biomass increase the amount of water cycling.

Can you think of additional cause and effect relationships between urbanization and other parts of the Earth system?

Visit the agricultural activities, deforestation and reforestation, and habitat loss and restoration pages to learn more about how processes and phenomena related to land use affect global climate and ecosystems.