or shown another way …

URBANIZATION: the process of changing an area from rural (countryside) to urban (towns and cities)

Why did people leave the farm? (think in terms of push) What brings people to the city? (think in terms of pull)

Why there? … four key reasons that create urban areas Manufacturing … access to raw materials as well as the markets in which to buy/sell products Transportation … roads/railways allow for movement of goods and people in and out of the city … helps with growth of manufacturing Resource Use … discovery of a particular resource can lead to new development and manufacturing opportunities (e.g. Gold Rush) Service Centre … small towns offer fewer services than larger towns and cities … increase the population … and you increase the number and variety of services .

The multiplier effect … It’s like dropping a rock in water … A new large business or industry opens in a city … and needs employees It increases an urban area because the employees require more services (banks, stores, etc.) … who also need employees The greater variety of services attracts more people … SO … more ppl = more services which = more ppl … which = more Soon the city has multiplied and increased greatly in size The what … The how … wait for it all

Some local examples of this would be … The “more people = more services” leads us to three more terms … community distribution, service hierarchy and threshold population

Community Distribution … essentially a pyramid structure  Within most areas, you will usually find: several small communities (e.g. hamlets and villages), fewer towns, and even fewer cities . A … as you increase the size of the settlement’s population, you get fewer settlements B ... the more settlements there are, smaller the population you have

Service Hierarchy Essentially, the more specialized the product or service, the bigger the community it will need to be based in e.g. buying pop and chips can happen at any store in any community and even small communities have hair dressers … BUT To go to a major sporting event (which costs more and happens less frequently) will require a larger urban area This is connected to “order of goods” which we will get to later …

Threshold Population How many people are needed in an area for a store to be able to open up and be successful … based on the how expensive the good is and how often it needs to be purchased e.g. Starbucks will have a lower threshold population than The Keg This is also connected to “order of goods” which we will get to later …