1. WORLD CITY PATTERNS AND TRENDS
Cameron Dunn, Chief Examiner

2. Objectives/ Tasks
Define world city, million city and megacity and put in your glossary.
Describe the causes (push and pull) of rural urban migration.
Describe and explain the pattern global pattern of megacities, including regional variations in growth rates.

3. Types of city
Urban areas with a population of over 10 million people are termed ‘megacities’.
There were around 20 of these in 2007; 75% are in the developing world and most continue to grow rapidly.
Strictly speaking, London is not a megacity, but if the population of the wider metropolitan area is taken into account, it comes very close to being one.
There are around 200 ‘million cities’ with populations of over 1 million.
‘World cities’ are those cities that wield huge economic and political power, such as New York, Tokyo (also megacities) and London.

4. What is Urbanisation?
Urbanisation is the increase of the percentage of a population living in urban areas
In the MEDW urbanisation occurred following and during the industrial revolution
In the LEDW urbanisation has taken place since 1950
Around 50% of the world’s population lives in cities

5. What is urbanisation? STARTER

6. What is urbanisation? The world is becoming mostly urban. 30 53 17 45%
1950
1990
2001
2025
World
MEDC
LEDC 30 53 17 45 74 34 48 76 41 58 83 56
Study the table and copy the figures
Which parts of the world are experiencing the most rapid growth in their populations?

7. Urban growth
Towns and cities grow in a number of ways:
Rural–urban migration is a key process.
Rural–urban migrants tend to be young and have high fertility; this boosts rates of natural increase in cities.
Rural–urban migration in the developing world is currently responsible for much urban growth.
Natural increase, especially in the developing world.
In the developed world, counter-urbanisation tends to balance the influx of migrants to towns and natural increase is low due to low fertility rates.
The more developed the megacity, the slower the rate of growth.

8. Rural-urban migration
This is the movement of people from the countryside to the city.
It is influenced by PUSH and PULL factors.

9. Where urbanisation stands today
By 2030, the urban population will be 5 billion / 60% of global population.
50% of the urban population today is under 25.
By 2030, Asia’s urban population is set to rise from 1.4 billion now, to 2.6 billion (the population of the World in 1955).
Africa’s will rise from 300 million, to 750 million and Latin Am / Carib from 400 to 600 million.

10. Parasitic?
The article (left) from the independent in 2007 explores the view that it will be a ‘planet of slums’ and that these slums, in Asia and Africa especially, will produce an urban underclass ripe for extremism and a potential source of trouble.
Paradise?
Another view is that, with a little work, cities have the potential to raise people out of the poverty they experience in rural areas.

11. Megacities (1) Megacities are very diverse.
Some are at the early or immature stage in the cycle of urbanisation, whereas in others the rate of growth is slowing (consolidating).
Developed world megacities (mature) tend to have very slow growth rates and are dominated by suburban sprawl. They are increasingly feeling the effects of counter-urbanisation.

12. Megacity patterns

13. The map reveals some interesting patterns:

14. Lagos

15. Cairo

16. Sao Paulo

17. Los Angeles

18. Future patterns
We will, very soon, see significant shifts in the dominant megacities, with major cities in the poorer parts of Asia entering the top 10 list.
New cities will also gain megacity status. By 2020, or very soon after, there could be close to 30, including:
Istanbul
Guangzhou
Kinshasa
Lima
Tianjin
Lahore
Bogota
Other rapidly growing candidates likely to
exceed the 8 million mark by 2020 are:
Bangalore
Wuhan
Chennai (Madras)
Tehran
Riyadh
Hyderabad
Baghdad
Hong Kong

19. Top Slot?

20. Independent Research
maps and statistics on the world’s largest cities.
World Urbanisation Prospects 2005; data and trends.
use of the UN Habitat website for case study and sustainability research, as well as data on chosen city examples.
The BBC website is useful for images of cities e.g. Mumbai and its slums, including Dharavi.