conclusion of urban areas essay

Introductory essay

Written by the educators who created Ecofying Cities, a brief look at the key facts, tough questions and big ideas in their field. Begin this TED Study with a fascinating read that gives context and clarity to the material.

Right now, our economy operates as Paul Hawken said, "by stealing the future, selling it in the present and calling it GDP." And if we have another eight billion or seven billion people, living on a planet where their cities also steal the future, we're going to run out of future really fast. But if we think differently, I think that, in fact, we can have cities that are not only zero emissions, but have unlimited possibilities as well. Alex Steffen

The urgency of urban planning today

Within a few decades' time, we can expect the planet to become more crowded, resources more precious, and innovative urban planners increasingly important. By midcentury, the global population will likely top nine billion, and more than half will live in cities. What will these cities look like? Will we have the resources to power them and comfortably provide for their residents? Will global urbanization harmonize with efforts to curb climate change and secure a sustainable future, or are these forces hurtling towards a head-on collision?

The TED speakers featured in Ecofying Cities underscore the urgency, but also suggest that some optimism's in order as they outline the issues and offer imaginative solutions.

There's no single reason for or response to the complex environmental, economic and social challenges that are part of our future in cities. They call for multiple approaches, originating from different sources — individuals, communities, governments, businesses — and deployed at different levels — in the home, the neighborhood, the city, region, nation and across the globe — to respond to the challenges at hand. As Alex Steffen reminds the urban planners, architects, designers, elected leaders and others involved in the effort, "All those cities are opportunities."

Urbanism and the environment: A brief history

For centuries, successful city-building has required careful attention to the environmental consequences of urban development. Without this, as Jared Diamond demonstrated in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed , a city inevitably ended up fouling its nest, thus entering a spiral of epidemics, economic hardship, decline and, ultimately, oblivion. Civilizations evolved different ways of dealing with environmental considerations — some with more success than others. For example, thanks to elaborate aqueducts and sewer systems, the Romans were able to build and sustain for centuries large cities that featured a reliable public water supply and state-of-the-art public health conditions.

In other civilizations, however, residents simply abandoned cities when they could no longer rely on their environment to supply the resources they needed. Often this was a direct result of their own activities: for example, deforestation and the attendant erosion of fertile soil, epidemics due to contaminated water and, with the advent of coal-fired industrialization, air pollution.

Urban planning got its start as a profession largely dedicated to averting different types of crises arising from urban growth and providing conditions for public health. This was particularly true in the many 19th century European and North American cities transformed by industrialization and unprecedented rates of population growth. Rapidly deteriorating air and water quality made it necessary to introduce regulations to protect the health of the residents of these cities.

The planners' first-generation improvements included sewers, water treatment and distribution, and improved air quality through building codes and increased urban green space. It's especially remarkable today to think that these interventions were adopted in response to observable health consequences, but without knowledge of the contamination mechanisms at work: germ theory didn't arrive on the scene until Louis Pasteur published his work in the 1860s. From the late 19th century onward Pasteur's findings bolstered the case for even more urban sanitation improvements, particularly those designed to improve water quality.

Starting in the 1950s, however, planners no longer narrowly targeted immediate health effects on urban residents as their chief environmental concern. Their work also absorbed and reflected Western society's deeper understanding of, and respect for, natural processes and growing awareness of the long-term environmental impacts of cities from the local to the planetary scale.

Rachel Carson is often credited as the first to popularize environmentalism. Published in 1962, her landmark book Silent Spring sounded a warning call about how pesticides endanger birds and entire ecological systems. Soon after, air pollution became a rallying point for environmentalists, as did the loss of large tracks of rural and natural land to accelerated, sprawling development. Today, sustainable development and smart growth, which largely overlap and address multiple environmental considerations, enjoy wide currency; most urban planning is now based on these principles.

Today, as we reckon with population growth, advancing rates of urbanization, and widespread recognition of climate change, we know that the cities of the future share a common destiny. The choices we make about how we build, inhabit and maintain these cities will have global and long-term effects.

Sustainable development: Two schools of thought

In modern urban planning, there are two general categories of sustainable development. The first doesn't challenge the present dynamics of the city, allowing them to remain largely low-density and automobile-oriented, but still makes them the object of measures aimed to reduce their environmental load (for example, green construction practices). Ian McHarg spearheaded this approach as a way to develop urban areas in harmony with natural systems; the planning principles he formulated gave special care to the preservation of water and green space. His lasting influence is visible in many of the more enlightened suburban developments of recent decades which respect the integrity of natural systems. Today, the Landscape Urbanism movement promotes these same ideas.

A second school of urban development focuses on increasing urban density and reducing reliance on the automobile. This approach advocates transit-oriented and mixed-use development along pedestrian-friendly "complete streets." On a regional scale, it aims to reduce sprawl by creating a network of higher-density multifunctional centers interconnected by public transit. Today, it's common for plans with a metropolitan scope to follow this approach.

Studying the city: About these materials

Cities are arguably the most complex human creation (with the possible exception of language) so it's not surprising that we study them at multiple scales and from diverse perspectives. We can approach cities through a narrow focus on an individual building or a neighborhood, expand the investigation to consider a metropolitan region in its entirety, or study the global system of cities and its interconnections. What's more, we can think about cities as built environments, social networks, modified ecologies, economic systems and political entities. Aware of the multiple ways that we engage with cities, the Romans had two words to refer to them: urbs referred to the physical city with its wall and buildings, and civitas , the city as a collection of residents.

Ecofying Cities explores urban areas at different scales. In some cases, the TED speaker focuses on a neighborhood project, like The High Line in Manhattan; others describe city-wide transformation, as in Curitiba, Brazil, or a regional or national initiative like China's plan for a network of eco-cities to house its growing urban population. Likewise, the talks explore cities from different disciplinary perspectives including urban planning, urban design, transportation planning, architecture, community organization and environmental science. What unites them all? A commitment to sustainability and a belief that sustainability is more about creating positive effects rather than reducing negative impacts.

The message emanating from Ecofying Cities is one of complexity, optimism and uncertainty. We can't be sure that the changes these speakers suggest will be enough to help us balance supply and demand in the sustainability equation. But we can expect that their ideas and efforts will improve the built environment — as well as quality of life — in cities, thereby providing hopeful perspectives for a sustainable future.

Let´s begin with writer and futurist Alex Steffen´s TEDTalk "The Sharable Future of Cities" for a look at the interplay between increasing urban density and energy consumption.

Alex Steffen

The shareable future of cities, relevant talks.

Jaime Lerner

A song of the city.

Majora Carter

Greening the ghetto.

Robert Hammond

Building a park in the sky.

Michael Pawlyn

Using nature's genius in architecture.

William McDonough

Cradle to cradle design.

James Howard Kunstler

The ghastly tragedy of the suburbs.

Ellen Dunham-Jones

Retrofitting suburbia.

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.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

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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Theories and Models of Urbanization pp 303–330 Cite as

Conclusion: Perspectives on Urban Theories

• Denise Pumain 3 &
• Juste Raimbault 4 , 5  
• First Online: 03 January 2020

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis ((LECTMORPH))

In this concluding chapter, we propose two ways to synthesize the scientific contributions of this book. The first discusses several major principles that can be retained for constructing relevant theories within urban science in relation with the contents of the chapters of the book. The second part identifies communities of scientific discussion by analyzing a citation network capturing the scientific neighborhood of this book, constructed starting from the works quoted in the bibliographies of the chapters and enlarging to the papers citing them. This mining of digital bibliographical data confirms the wide inter-disciplinarity of urban questions justifying the plurality of urban theories and opening a variety of solutions for complementing them and coupling their generic models. We finally suggest directions for the construction of integrated theories, in particular through the coupling of simulation models corresponding to the different approaches to be bridged.

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Funded by ERC Advanced Grant 269826 (PI Denise Pumain).

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Code and results are on the open git repository of the project at https://github.com/JusteRaimbault/Perspectivism/tree/master/Models/QuantEpistemo . The raw dataset of the corpus is available on the dataverse at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QCSAKT .

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Pumain, D., Raimbault, J. (2020). Conclusion: Perspectives on Urban Theories. In: Pumain, D. (eds) Theories and Models of Urbanization. Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36656-8_16

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Managing Urban Spatial Growth

Chapter 5 | Conclusions and Recommendations

This chapter draws conclusions and provides recommendations about three areas where the World Bank can enhance its relevance and effectiveness when helping countries manage urban spatial growth. The conclusions summarize the key constraints identified in chapter 4, and the recommendations suggest ways the World Bank can overcome these constraints.

The World Bank’s support for urban spatial growth is not sufficient to prevent urban sprawl or slum formation. The World Bank global strategy and current framework on urban spatial growth do not fully reflect the commitments to SDGs 1 and 11, the New Urban Agenda , or advances in technology during the past decade. The World Bank country strategies that address urban development do not highlight the overarching issue of urban spatial growth, even though they have increasingly recognized the individual importance of land administration, land-use planning, and land development. Implementation of strategies to achieve effective outcomes poses a major challenge. Although World Bank technical assistance through Urbanization Reviews is improving the management of urban spatial growth, it appears much less often in the design of operations in the lending portfolio. A significant part of the lending portfolio is also in countries that do not experience uncontrolled slum formation and that have already made progress on land administration.

Recommendation 1. Adopt a framework that links the determinants of urban expansion to pathways for managing urban spatial growth and that contributes to the achievement of SDGs 1 and 11. The framework would provide a reference for the design and delivery of lending and analytical work on urban spatial growth. It could be centered on the determinants of urban spatial growth identified in this report—land administration, land-use planning, and land development through urban upgrading and urban transport. The Urban, Disaster Risk, Resilience, and Land Global Practice could be responsible for the development and implementation of the framework, in collaboration with the Transport Global Practice and other Global Practices involved in the financing of urban infrastructure. The framework could also reflect the approach outlined in the Planning, Connecting, and Financing Cities report (World Bank 2013b) and the housing framework (World Bank 2020d), both of which articulate a comprehensive and sequenced response to help city leaders make informed decisions for sustainable urban development.

The World Bank has underused three areas of support that are key to anticipating and helping manage urban spatial growth. First, in urban upgrading, the World Bank has principally focused on already built-up areas through curative approaches (93 percent of the portfolio) but has not focused sufficiently on anticipating growth, thus limiting its ability to preempt sprawl and slum creation. Second, TOD, a key instrument to manage urban spatial growth, is a small proportion of the urban transport portfolio. Finally, in land-use planning, land-based tools and scenario planning are important to help plan the type, intensity, location, and timing of new urban development, but their use remains limited.

Recommendation 2. Support World Bank clients with anticipating and preparing for urban spatial growth using preventive approaches, not just curative ones. In urban upgrading, the World Bank should go beyond support to the existing built urban environment (curative approaches) and address growth in the periphery (preventive approaches) according to country context. This could be done by securing rights of way and financing basic infrastructure in emerging neighborhoods in the periphery to accommodate an influx of urban dwellers. In urban transport, the World Bank should expand TOD through integrated land and transportation plans and through investments to create urban development that facilitates the use of public transit, walking, and cycling as primary modes of transportation. In land-use planning, the World Bank should expand the use of land-based tools to assemble land and provide services for urban expansion or redevelopment.

Key data to assess the impact of World Bank investments in land use and land markets are lacking. Two types of data are missing: exact project locations and land market data. First, the World Bank does not have an adequate protocol to identify and report precise project locations; none of the projects or subprojects in the urban portfolio recorded latitude and longitude in the PAD or Implementation Completion and Results Report. Second, the World Bank does not routinely consider property values in project design for urban upgrading and urban transport infrastructure investments.

Recommendation 3. Strengthen and ensure implementation of the World Bank’s protocol to identify and record precise project locations and collect land market data necessary to support clients with managing urban spatial growth. The World Bank should strengthen its data collection protocols and increase the use of technologies such as Geo-Enabling Initiative for Monitoring and Supervision and the Smart Supervision Application. It should also improve the collection of land market data, including mainstreaming land market assessments in World Bank investments in urban areas.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Urbanization Essay

Urbanization is here to stay. It might slow down but stopping it is not something that will come any sooner. Discover more in this this pros and cons of urbanization essay.

Introduction

Advantages of urbanization, disadvantages of urbanization, reference list.

Urbanization is a process where people move from rural areas to urban areas to seek higher standards of living. People living in rural areas are faced with unpredictable weather conditions which affect their livelihood; therefore, these people move to cities to seek a better life.

Contrary to rural areas, cities give these people opportunities to live a better life; there are industries, learning institutions, and social services which attract these people more (Andersen, 2002). As these people gain from these essential services, they also face problems caused by their increasing number; therefore, this paper will explore the advantages and disadvantages of urbanization.

The cities are known to be efficient in that less effort is required to supply basic amenities, for example, electricity and fresh water. People who migrate to the cities enjoy these amenities, which are difficult to access in rural areas. The cities also make considerable use of space; there are a lot of flats which accommodate a lot of people in a small land area. There are also recycling programs which make use of waste material such as tins and waste papers; this helps in cleaning the city and providing jobs to those coming from rural areas.

Cities have a lot of social facilities such as health facilities, education centers, social services, as well as cultural activities, these facilities are essential for the development and healthy being of a population (Tolley and Vinod, 2006).

People leave from rural areas to cities to have easy access to these facilities; with all the social facilities, education and cultural activities, people in cities live a sophisticated and comfortable life. Cities also have advanced transport and communication networks which make movement and communication much easier.

During the development of cities, people settled in areas which had well established natural resources; therefore, most cities have a lot of resources around and within (DeBlij et al., 2010). These resources are easily exploited because of the availability of facilities and labor in the cities, which leads to economic development and improvement of living standards of the city dwellers (Varthoulakis, 2008).

The availability of these resources and labor from the city leads to the development of manufacturing and service industries around the city, creating employment for the population from rural areas (Savage, 2005).

Cities have well-established universities, colleges, and schools; these make them the best place for developing human resources. There are varieties of courses from different fields and levels, and students who move to cities have a wide choice of careers to choose from; this means that most of them will pursue careers of their choice, making their levels of success high.

After completing college and university education, students have a lot of job opportunities, also, for those who want to create job opportunities they have better prospects of starting businesses or projects (Andersen, 2002). Also, there are varieties of financial institutions for people to deposit their savings and borrow money for investments. This creates a favorable environment for investment and development.

People move to urban areas from different regions, religions, and castes, and despite these differences, they live and work together. As they live together, they learn and understand each other, and this assist in getting rid of social and cultural barriers, which is always the center of conflicts; since many people live in cities, a country with many cities will have less conflict.

People living in rural areas also benefit from urbanization; most of these people are engaged in farming, and their farm produces need to market. They always appreciate the existence of cities because they consume their farm produce in exchange for money, and this helps them to improve economically (Potsiou, 2010).

Imagine a country where everyone lives in rural areas and has land. There would be a lot of wastage because everyone will have enough for himself or herself. Urbanization also helps to ease pressure on agricultural land; as people move to urban centers, they give more space for agriculture and, therefore, the agricultural industry is boosted (Potsiou, 2010). The country will produce more agricultural goods, and this will ensure food security.

As people continue to move to urban areas, pollution becomes a major issue in cities. Energy becomes inadequate, and some people resolve to illegal electricity connections and others address to the use of inefficient cooking fuels such as firewood and charcoal, which increases the number of carbon emissions (Marchand, 1998).

An example is Kozani in Greece, which is the most polluting city in Europe. The population of cars also increases as the number of people in cities increases, and this leads to the rise in the use of diesel and hence, the increase in carbon emissions

The population increase in cities brings about problems in transportation as well as traffic management. This is evident in cities such as Mumbai, which has close to 18 million citizens, with 55.5% of the population going on foot and 21.9% use train (Potsiou, 2010).

This city has few people with cars; however, over 20,000 have died because of the overcrowded train with a minimum of 10 people per day (Potsiou, 2010). Vietnam is another case, with over 18 million motorbikes and one million vehicles, and with narrow roads, the number of accidents associated with traffic has increased.

Urbanization leads to an increase in the number of people on limited land in cities; the rise in number exceeds the supply of water, which results in water shortages; hence, hygiene is compromised. Also, the population, after using water, it disposes of the wastewater on land which creates overburden disposal; this creates a less appealing sight, lousy odor emanating from the sewage and flies which are attracted by the dirty water (Arnaud et al., 2004).

As the population increases, fresh water in urbanized cities becomes expensive, and some of the people opt to take water from the nearby streams; this water is untreated and can cause diseases such as cholera.

Also, the water in these rivers are contaminated with untreated discharged in them, and these rivers drain their water into the sea where drinking water and water for irrigation is drawn; this can cause diseases for people using the sea water for drinking (Marchand, 1998). In New Delhi, sewerage was used for watering agricultural lands without care of the effects it can cause on human beings.

Cities with high populations face problems of garbage management. An example is the city of Athens, which has produced six thousand tons of garbage daily; the disposal of this garbage has become a problem for the city as the population continues to grow. Many countries have resolved to use landfills for disposal of waste, which is yet another way of contaminating the soil. Greece got into problems with the EU for operating 1,102 open landfills; however, they have reduced the number of operating landfills to 400 (Potsiou, 2010).

The increasing number of people in the cities has led to the need for building affordable houses; most cities with high population lack development policies and this has led to informal development (Arnaud et al., 2004).

The people cut down trees and built on land without any authorization from the landowners, and sometimes these people are evicted from the land and left to look for another place to settle. Slums have been built in urban areas, and they are characterized by poor sizing and quality construction, violation of land-use and no access to essential services. These are areas which crime develops because most of the people living in slums have insufficient job opportunities; they choose to engage in criminal activities for their survival.

Urbanization is here to stay, it might slow down but stopping it is not something that will come any sooner. Therefore, the primary way to minimize the problems caused by urbanization is to plan for all amenities and resources available for the comfort of the public without putting more pressure on society and the environment.

The cities should use the cardinal rule, where their growth is planned, rather than letting them grow on their own. As the local government plans for the city, it should make sure that there is adequate infrastructure to support the growing population and residential areas should be located near civic bodies to improve service provision.

To reduce rural-urban migration, job opportunities can be created in rural areas. This will reduce stress exerted on cities by the increasing number of people. Restricting people to move to cities cannot be used to solve problems associated with urbanization. This is because each citizen has a right to move and settle anywhere as long as he or she is not infringing on other people’s rights.

Andersen, L., 2002. Rural-urban migration in Bolivia: advantages and disadvantages . Web.

Arnaud, A. et al, 2004. Urbanization – impacts . Web.

DeBlij, H. et al., 2010. Global geography . New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Marchand, Y., 1998. The challenges of urbanization . Web.

Potsiou, C., 2010. Rapid urbanization and megacities: the need for spatial information management . Copenhagen: The International Federation of Surveyors.

Savage, M., 2005. Globalization and belonging . New York: SAGE.

Tolley, G. & Vinod, T., 2006. An overview of urban growth: problems, policies, and evaluation . Web.

Varthoulakis, V., 2008. Development of cities . New York: SAGE.

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Essay on Urban Life (1226 Words)

February 19, 2018 by Manasi Shewale 2 Comments

Table of Contents

How the cities came into existence?

“Full of opportunities” and “different possibilities” are phrases used to define the cities or the urban areas. The urban areas came into existence when the Industrial Revolution which occurred in the 18 th Century.

Till then most of the people relied on the agriculture and cattle breeding to earn their daily bread.

With the industrial revolution a lot of industries emerged, different inventions were made and the work which was earlier done by hands was now replaced by machines.

This gave rise to a lot of opportunities for employment which were quite different from the traditional jobs like pottery and agriculture.

The work now required physical as well as mental ability to complete the jobs. To use the newly invented machines and learn to depend on them for completing of the work was a major revolution in itself.

This also generated a sense of superiority about those who learnt to work with the machines and hence, attracted the villagers and mainly the youngsters to explore this new and somewhat adventurous work (as the labor work and working with the newly invented machines was very much new to the people at that time).

From that period till today’s date, the craze to explore the city life and live the rush is very much prevalent. Also, now there are new machines invented and this requires more of the mental work than the physical work.

The Urban Lifestyle

In urban areas or cities, there is no such like a calm and tension free life. All we see is people in a hurry to reach their offices and doing their work.  The working style in the cities is also very different.

People do not do any physical jobs, they work mostly on their personal computers and have different machines attached to these computers depending upon the field of work.

For example, for science and technology, all the analysis and calculation are done by different instruments. These instruments are attached to the computers which directly shows the result.

This result will be interpreted by the individual having that knowledge.

This type of work is not only seen in the field of science but also in regular day to day activities. For example, there is microwave oven to heat the food before a meal instead of manually heating it.

Then there is the invention of the car for the purpose of travelling. For this purpose, proper roads are built. Big buildings are constructed for the people to live instead of small houses as seen in the villages.

There are no play grounds or big trees seen in the city. All that we see, are big buildings, sky scrapers and concrete jungles.

High class or standard of living is observed where daily life chores are done by using machines.

Good quality transport system, residence, food and clothing is available which itself shows that city people are really living the life of their dreams.

This has also created a sense of isolation as the people are very busy in their jobs and do not get time for their family even if they are staying in the same house.

There is a lot of money earned by the city people, but they do not have time to spend it properly due to lack of personal life.

The other side of the City Life

Every thing or concept has its own advantages and disadvantages. The city has a lot of advantages of living a modern life, accepting the western culture, high standard of living and good quality jobs.

So, are there any disadvantages? As the facts say, yes, definitely there is quite an impressive set of disadvantages of the urban life.

First of all, disadvantages, can be said to be the lack of trees. There is so much increase in population that the trees are sacrificed to make place for the people to live.

The natural resources are now being used up to accommodate the increasing population. But this is more of a technological drawback than the urban drawback.

We say that city people live a modern or westernized life. It is true but it is also true that most of the city people have forgotten their own cultures and traditions and have adapted to the western culture.

This can be termed as a disadvantage as our culture and traditions is what makes us different and unique from the western people and therefore, it should not be forgotten.

Due to the increasing technology and the competition among the companies as well as the different countries there is a lot of burden over the small number of working class people.

We all know thousands of migrants come from rural areas to the cities in search of job opportunities.

This should mean that the burden which is put on the working class will be now divided among the new migrants by giving them the job. But it is not that simple in the city.

Everywhere we go, nowadays, the most important thing is your skill and knowledge regarding the job type. There are rules set up which require a graduation degree and the suitable experience to get a job which the migrant might not have.

Even if he has the graduation degree and proper knowledge, where is he going to get the experience from, when no one is ready to hire a fresh candidate. This is one disadvantage of the city life.

Even if the person is totally eligible, there is so much of competition due to the increasing population that most of the employment opportunities are all used up and there is not proper job left for the migrants.

This is where the decrease in the standard of living begins. In a city, we see big buildings made of glass and besides it, we also see slums made of cement and stones. This is the scenario in most of the urban areas of India.

For example, the major cities of India like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, etc. receive thousands of migrants from all parts of the country in search of job opportunities.

But so many job opportunities are not available here as all the available jobs are occupied and then the cities are also saturated with excess human population.

This is when the migrant population start living in slums and do physical labor in other people’s household to get a job.

Those people who don’t do this job then choose the last option of begging. This is the worst-case scenario of these highly developed cities of our country.

Whatever scenarios discussed above are the harsh reality of today’s urban life.

This is by no chance a good situation as it shows that the citizens are not aware of the requirements of these cities and the people are not knowledgeable enough to get the jobs that are available.

Hence, it can be said that today’s urban society has more disadvantages that the advantages.

It is not like there are no jobs available, there are good jobs available out there but the required skills are not there. With increasing competition and excess availability of the human resources the competition is increasing.

About Manasi Shewale

Manasi Shewale loves to read novels and review them inturn. She is an avid reader of various topics of scientific interest in Chemistry and Biology.

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February 20, 2018 at 2:14 pm

Very well written, beautifully conceived and executed.

February 20, 2018 at 2:23 pm

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Urbanisation Essay

500+ words urbanisation essay.

Urbanisation is an integral part of development. It is an index of transformation from traditional rural economies to modern industrial ones. The process of urbanisation started with the industrial revolution and resulted in economic development. Urban areas are an integral part of India’s development and growth. It accounts for two-thirds of India’s GDP. India’s urban population has increased rapidly over the past decade and this rapid urbanisation is set to continue in the future. This urbanisation essay discusses the opportunities that urban areas have and the major challenges faced by them. So, students must go through this essay to gather the information and then try to write the essay in their own words. They can also get the list of CBSE Essays on different topics to practise essays on various topics.

Meaning of Urbanisation

When people move from village or rural areas to towns/cities or urban areas for better job opportunities where they can get involved in non-agricultural occupations such as manufacturing industry, trade, management etc. is known as urbanisation. People mainly migrate to cities in search of jobs, new opportunities and to have a better lifestyle.

Urbanisation in India – History and Present Situation

Urbanisation in India is said to have begun somewhere around 600 B.C. culminating in the formation of early historical cities. During ancient and medieval periods of Indian history, the kings established various capital regions, which developed into towns. For example, Pataliputra (now Patna) and Vaishali developed as towns during the Magadh rule. Kanauj was the capital town of Harshavardhana in Uttar Pradesh. The establishment of the East India Company and the onset of British colonial control of India from the seventeenth century led to the growth of the urban centres of Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. These cities (except Delhi) developed along the seacoast in the respective regions where the British had established administrative systems in various provinces.

In the present scenario, the urban population is growing rapidly. Because of this, opportunities are also increasing. Urbanisation in India is mainly due to the expansion of cities and the migration of people. Investments are made in housing, urban transport, road network, water supply, smart cities, power-related infrastructure and other forms of urban management.

Consequences of Rapid Urbanisation

Rapid urbanisation often leads to both healthy and unhealthy consequences and aspects.

Positive Aspect of Urbanisation

Urbanisation resulted in the development and setting up of many industries in the cities. Manufacturing units and the service sector started to grow in the urban areas. This has created employment opportunities for the people. This has resulted in rural-urban migration and caused the “industrialisation urbanisation process” to set in. The growth of cities has given rise to external economies. Urbanisation results in changes in the attitudes and mindset of the urban people resulting in modernisation in behaviour. This indirectly helped the country to attain faster economic development.

Negative Aspect of Urbanisation

Growing urbanisation has increased the congestion in urban areas, which has resulted in problems like traffic jams and too much concentration of population. Too much population is another unhealthy aspect of urbanisation. It has created urban chaos related to housing, education, sanitation, pollution, medical facilities, growth of slums, unemployment, violence, inadequate water supply, overcrowding etc. All these resulted in deteriorating the quality of human life.

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Essay on Urban Development

Students are often asked to write an essay on Urban Development in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Urban Development

What is urban development.

Urban development is about making cities better places to live. It involves building homes, parks, and roads. People work together to make the city clean, safe, and fun. It’s like playing a big game of building blocks, but for real cities.

Why is it Important?

Cities are growing fast. More people mean we need more houses, schools, and hospitals. Urban development helps make sure there’s enough for everyone. It’s important because it makes life better in the city.

Problems in Urban Development

Sometimes, building new things can hurt nature or make traffic worse. It’s a challenge to build more without causing problems. People in urban development work hard to find smart ways to grow.

Urban development is about making cities great places to live and grow. It’s a big job that helps make sure everyone has what they need. It’s all about building a better future for cities.

250 Words Essay on Urban Development

Urban development is the process of improving cities so that they become better places for people to live and work. This includes building new homes, creating parks, and making sure there are enough schools and hospitals. It’s all about making the city a nice, safe, and fun place for everyone.

Why is Urban Development Important?

Cities are growing fast because more people are moving to them in search of jobs and a better life. This makes it very important to plan and build cities in a way that they can handle more people. Good urban development makes sure that everyone has a nice place to live, clean water to drink, and parks to play in. It also helps in keeping the air and water clean, which is good for our health.

Challenges in Urban Development

Making cities better is not easy. One big challenge is making sure there is enough space for everyone without harming nature. Another challenge is to make sure that all people, no matter how much money they have, can enjoy the city. This means making homes that are not too expensive and making sure that schools and hospitals are good for everyone.

In summary, urban development is about making cities better places to live. It involves a lot of planning and hard work to make sure cities are safe, fun, and healthy for everyone. Even though it’s tough, it’s very important for making sure that everyone can enjoy city life.

500 Words Essay on Urban Development

Urban development: bringing cities to life, understanding urban development.

Urban development refers to the process of improving and growing urban areas, including towns and cities. It involves various aspects that shape the physical, social, and economic structures of these inhabited spaces. Urban development aims to enhance the quality of life, create sustainable environments, and provide opportunities for a thriving community.

Urban development is essential for several reasons. As populations grow and concentrate in urban areas, it becomes necessary to manage the increasing demand for housing, transportation, and infrastructure. Urban development ensures that cities are well-equipped to accommodate these needs and provide a livable environment for its residents.

Key Aspects of Urban Development

Urban development encompasses a wide range of activities and considerations. Some key aspects include:

• Land Use Planning: This involves determining how land within the urban area should be utilized for different purposes, such as residential, commercial, industrial, and recreational.
• Infrastructure Development: This includes the construction and maintenance of essential services like roads, bridges, water supply, and sewage systems.
• Housing and Building: Urban development focuses on providing adequate and affordable housing options, as well as constructing non-residential buildings like schools, hospitals, and office spaces.
• Transportation and Mobility: It involves creating efficient transportation systems, including public transportation, roads, and bike lanes, to ensure easy movement of people and goods.
• Environmental Sustainability: Urban development aims to minimize negative impacts on the environment by implementing green initiatives, such as energy-efficient buildings, waste management systems, and promoting sustainable practices.

Urban development often faces numerous challenges, such as:

• Rapid Population Growth: Accommodating the increasing population in urban areas can strain resources and infrastructure.
• Inequality and Poverty: Urban areas often have high levels of inequality and poverty, requiring targeted efforts to address these issues.
• Environmental Concerns: Balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability can be difficult, especially in dense urban environments.
• Traffic Congestion: Managing traffic and reducing congestion is a major challenge in many urban areas.

Urban development is a complex and dynamic process that plays a crucial role in shaping our cities and communities. By addressing the challenges and implementing well-planned development strategies, we can create vibrant and sustainable urban environments that enhance the lives of their residents.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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Urban Versus Rural Areas: Compare and Contrast

Introduction, comparison of life in urban and rural areas, reference list.

There has been series of questions on the quality of having a superior or more favourable living condition or position between the rural and urban existence. However, High social status is the most important cardinal concern in the relation based on similarities and differences between rural versus urban course of human events and activities.

Despite the statement of facts and reasons used to support whichever locality as conducive and a better place to reside. Although, having qualities or abilities that merit recognition in some way there is comparison between the similarity and difference of both the urban and rural existence, and of great significance or value are the aspects of choosing or selecting the most suitable locality, noticeable heterogeneity, the state of being free of physical or psychological disease, illness, or malfunction, and the state of being employed or having a job manipulates both aspects of the comparison and even though, there is a mutual great advantages of living condition in both the rural and urban area, moreover, they both have an apparent same quantity, value, or measured amount of negative aspects.

In general, both the rural and urban areas are similar in status with respect to the relations between people or groups relations but hold opposing views in the issues of choice and multiplicity.

Consequently, the life in urban areas has quite a number of optimistic in addition to the pessimistic issues which provide a particular quality or character of the standard of living.

In spite of this, the life in the urban area creates avenue for diversity and choice compared to that of the rural area, for the fact that in the urban area there is wider choice variety on the standard of living and opportunities to explore from various options open to people.

For example, in the urban area, there is various choice of food which could show the way to general better health because of the assortment in diet.

In addition, the inhabitants of the urban areas benefit from the favourable possibility due to a combination of circumstances of accommodating various cultural or social events because of the diversity of choice compared to their rural counterparts. Consequently, they are more civilized and exposed to different culture and ethnicity within ethnic group.

In spite of this, there are various and wide choice of educational institutions, both in the private and public school district in the urban area compared to the rural area and this tend to or result in the possibility of an enhanced schooling.

Moreover, it is worthwhile noting that there is choice of employment alternative prospect due to the large number of businesses or establishments in the urban areas than the rural areas (Kottak, 2006, p.37). Besides this, the urban dwellers have more improved and equipped health care sectors and there is easy access to them compared to the rural dwellers.

Accordingly, human creativity Shine intensely in the urban areas more than the rural area (Hall, 1998, p.15). For a span of 1000 years, the urban areas have been the place where some particular activity is concentrated and the choice of business-related, technological progress, social relationships involving authority or power and ethnical life, thereby inducing into action by using its charm upon the whole country and areas.

The incontrovertible and advancement in severity characteristic to be considered of urban area compelling recognition by economic expert and historiographers contrast with the negative situation and the effect that it has on people and public health. Partly this evolves from a latent or potential state from the iconic point located with respect to surface features of the urban region on the ground that makes the urban area comprehensible by describing the relevant structure, operation or circumstances of poor health.

Research was conducted in Canada and showed that, “populations in the rural showed poorer health than the others in urban, both in general health gauges (i.e. infant mortality, standardized mortality, life expectancy at birth) and also in factors like motor vehicle accidents, being overweight not withstanding” (Mollenkopf, 2005, p.65). Less dependence on vehicles in urban areas may possibly be the consequence of as well as greater importance on walking. However, there are a several drawbacks to living in urban also.

Determining how urbanization affects poverty is essential and coloured by the reality that about one third of the people living in urban areas reside in slums (Sclar et al, 2005, p.901). These impoverished areas are typified by the poor physical and mental health conditions of their inhabitants and by inadequate services. Although some gains have been made on the public health front in urban areas, the benefits are clearly not universal, with urban slums matching some rural mortality and morbidity rates (Sclar et al, 2005, p.902).

However, as cities make good on their promise of better socioeconomic conditions, they can contribute to a downturn in the epidemic. Today, cities generally account for a much larger share of national economic production and have much greater potential than rural areas for reducing poverty and fulfilling aspirations (UNFPA, 2007)

In addition, the absence of daily stress experienced in cities from peripheral factors is a vital issue ((Mollenkopf, 2005, p.70). In as much as the rural area has minimal number of grocery stores and recreation centres, most people in the rural areas have vast lands which are of immense importance and usage. Urban areas theoretically offer more opportunities to deal with a changing population composition, but these would have to be materialized, in the practice, through better policies on a wide front.

Increases in the proportion of the rural population composed of older people have raised concerns about their wellbeing. On the one hand, rural dwellers in developing countries tend to be more vulnerable than the urban counterpart because of their higher incidence of poverty, greater transportation problems, and lack of access to social services and infrastructure (Montgomery, McGranahan, and Martine, 2008, p.262).

Living in rural areas however has its negative aspects too. Unlike urban areas, residents in the rural areas have no vast opportunities of choosing from different employment opportunities for they are not as many in the rural areas as they are in the urban setting. In other words, if there is any statement to be made, rural living has the best worth of life. There is a better ability of hooking up with people and the landscape. Although, the living standard of both the urban and rural area is comparable because they both entails an elevated level of adoption of the behaviour patterns of the surrounding culture. The inky difference is when it comes to the accessibility of choices and diversity, in particular when fundamental factors (healthcare, education, and employment options) are concerned.

Hall, P . (1998). Cities in Civilization – Culture, Innovation, and Urban Order. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson.

Kottak, C., P. (2006). Anthropology : the exploration of human diversity. Columbus, OH: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Mollenkopf, H. (2005). Enhancing mobility in later life. Amsterdam, The Netherland: IOS Press.

Montgomery, M., McGranahan, G., and Martine, G. (2008). The new global frontier: urbanization, poverty and environment in the 21st century. London: IIED.

Scalar, E. D., Garau, P. and Carolini, G. (2005). ‘The 21st century health challenge of slums and cities’ , The Lancet. 365, no 9462. 901-902.

UNFPA (2007). The State of the World’s Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth. New York, NY: UNFPA.

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