Urban issues and challenges flashcards

Urban issues and challenges explores how and why cities are growing, focusing on urbanisation, the growth of megacities, and the differences between urban change in higher income countries (HICs) and lower income countries (LICs) or newly emerging economies (NEEs). Students must understand the causes and effects of rapid urbanisation, including the development of squatter settlements, and how cities attempt to manage challenges such as poor housing, traffic congestion, pollution, and inequality. A named city in an LIC or NEE and a named city in the UK must be studied in detail, examining social, economic and environmental issues alongside urban regeneration and planning strategies. Students should also consider how cities can become more sustainable through improved transport, waste management and green spaces.

1. Card 1

   What is urbanisation?

   Urbanisation is the process by which an increasing proportion of a country's population comes to live in towns and cities.

2. Card 2

   What is a megacity?

   A megacity is a city with a population of over 10 million people. Examples include Mumbai, Lagos and Tokyo.

3. Card 3

   What are the two main causes of rapid urbanisation in LICs and NEEs?

   Rural-urban migration, where people move from the countryside seeking work, and natural increase, where birth rates exceed death rates within cities.

4. Card 4

   What is a squatter settlement and where do they form?

   A squatter settlement is an area of poor-quality, self-built housing with little or no access to services, forming on unused land on the edges or fringes of rapidly growing cities in LICs and NEEs.

5. Card 5

   What are push and pull factors in rural-urban migration?

   Push factors drive people away from rural areas (e.g. poverty, drought), while pull factors attract people to cities (e.g. jobs, better services).

6. Card 6

   What is urban sprawl?

   Urban sprawl is the unplanned outward growth of a city into surrounding rural land, often leading to loss of greenfield sites and increased car dependency.

7. Card 7

   What is the difference between a brownfield and a greenfield site?

   A brownfield site is previously developed land within a city, while a greenfield site is undeveloped land, often on the urban fringe or in the countryside.

8. Card 8

   What is urban regeneration?

   Urban regeneration is the process of improving run-down urban areas through investment in housing, infrastructure and services to attract people and businesses back.

9. Card 9

   What is a sustainable city?

   A sustainable city meets the needs of its current population without damaging the environment or reducing resources available to future generations.

10. Card 10

    What social challenges does rapid urbanisation cause in LIC cities?

    Rapid urbanisation leads to overcrowding, growth of squatter settlements, lack of clean water and sanitation, unemployment and poor access to healthcare and education.

11. Card 11

    What is counter-urbanisation?

    Counter-urbanisation is the movement of people away from large cities to smaller towns or rural areas, common in HICs as people seek a better quality of life.

12. Card 12

    Why do urban areas in HICs face issues of inequality?

    Uneven investment creates areas of deprivation alongside wealthy areas, leading to differences in housing quality, employment, health and education across the urban area.

• Many students confuse urbanisation with urban growth, but urbanisation refers specifically to the rising proportion of people living in cities, not simply the increase in a city's total population.
• Students often assume that squatter settlements are only found on the outskirts of cities, when in fact they can also develop on any unused or undesirable land within a city, such as steep hillsides or flood plains.
• A common exam error is to describe counter-urbanisation as people moving to the countryside for retirement only, when in reality it affects a wide range of people seeking lower costs, space and a better quality of life.

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