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Urbanization is one of the most important global phenomena in the modern world. About what it means this term, and what level of urbanization of Foreign Europe is described in this article.
General information
Before talking about the urbanization of foreign Europe, it is necessary to understand what is meant by each of these two concepts. Urbanization refers to the increase in the number of cities. This process is accompanied by a high rate of urban population growth in the region, country, world, and, accordingly, the increasing importance of cities in economic, political and cultural terms. Foreign Europe includes 40 countries located in the European part of the vast continent - Eurasia.
Common features
In modern society, the process of urbanization has the following features:
- A significant increase in the number of urban residents;
- Increasing the number of urban dwellers in big cities;
- Expansion of the territory of large cities, their "spread".
Rice. 1. Large and small cities on the map of Europe
Urban population growth
Throughout history, cities have always played a leading role in the life of society and its development. However, since the 19th century, the number of urban residents has increased markedly. At the beginning of the last century, this trend intensified, and after the end of World War II, the era of a real “urban revolution” began. The number of inhabitants in cities is increasing not only due to the migration of the rural population, but also as a result of the administrative transformation of rural settlements into urban ones.
The urbanization of the countries of Foreign Europe is at one of the highest levels in the world. On average, about 75% of the European population are urban dwellers. The following table shows statistical data on the share of urban residents in the total population of each individual country of Foreign Europe.
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№ |
The country |
Capital |
Percentage of urbanization |
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Andorra la Vella |
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Brussels |
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Bulgaria |
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Bosnia and Herzegovina |
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Budapest |
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United Kingdom |
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Germany |
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Copenhagen |
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Ireland |
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Iceland |
Reykjavik |
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Liechtenstein |
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Luxembourg |
Luxembourg |
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Macedonia |
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Valletta |
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Netherlands |
Amsterdam |
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Norway |
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Portugal |
Lisbon |
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Bucharest |
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San Marino |
San Marino |
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Slovakia |
Bratislava |
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Slovenia |
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Finland |
Helsinki |
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Montenegro |
Podgorica |
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Croatia |
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Switzerland |
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Stockholm |
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AT Western Europe the highest rate of urbanization, while in Eastern Europe the picture is just the opposite: this level varies from 40% to 60%. This is due, first of all, to the socio-economic development of countries: Western European countries are developed, and Eastern European countries are countries with a low per capita income.
Rice. 2 Paris agglomeration on the map
Big cities and their "sprawl"
At the beginning of the 20th century there were not so many large cities in the world - only 360. But by the end their number increased markedly - 2500. Today this number is close to 4 thousand. It is worth noting that if earlier cities with more than 100 thousand inhabitants were classified as large, today research “revolves” mainly around million-plus cities with a population of more than one million. There are many such cities in Europe. Among them, it is worth noting London (over 8 million), Berlin (over 3 million), Madrid (over 3 million), Rome (over 2 million) and others.
This trend became possible due to the development of scientific and technological progress, the increasing role of science in the development of production, increasing general level education, development of the non-productive sphere.
A distinctive feature of the modern process of urbanization is the "spreading" of large cities - the growth of their already considerable territory. In other words, large industrial centers, port cities, capitals go beyond their borders, growing into something more - an urban agglomeration.
But this is not the limit: many agglomerations are united into megacities. In foreign Europe, the largest metropolitan agglomerations are Paris and London. In addition, there are such large industrial agglomerations as Gdansk-Gdynia (Poland), Rhine-Ruhr (France), South Yorkshire (England) and others.
European urbanization has its own distinctive features. Among them are suburbanization (settlement of urban residents in the suburbs), deurbanization (the outflow of urban residents to rural settlements) and ruralization (the spread of urban norms, lifestyles in countryside).
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Urbanization in Russia can be considered in the narrow sense of the word as the growth of cities and their population. In a broader sense, this process involves increasing the importance of the urban lifestyle in the development modern society.
Process features
A similar process is observed at different historical stages of formation human society, but only in the nineteenth century there is a significant accumulation of people in cities. In the 20th century, the urbanization of Russian cities intensified. The peak of this process falls on the post-war period.
Modern urbanization in Russia is a process of combining large cities into agglomerations.
The meaning of the process
In a meaningful sense, urbanization is holistic process meaning change social functions and cultural content of the urban population, needs, capital, production tools. The ecological approach to urbanization, which is the most developed in the country, involves the use of principles and methods for the development of territories, taking into account the specifics of the natural environment.
Urbanization in Russia has the following features:
- intensification, concentration, versatility of urban activities in agglomerations and cities;
- the urban way of life is spreading not only in large centers, but also beyond them;
- formation of large-scale urban agglomerations;
- gradual transition from single centers to strip, nodal, linear agglomerations;
- an increase in the radius of settlement outside urbanized areas that are associated with recreation areas, industrial areas.
The urbanization of the population of Russia leads to the inevitable deformation of the structure of suburban areas, the reduction of parameters Among characteristic features processes, we note suburbanization, which involves fast development areas near major cities. Also in our days there is rururbanization, which is associated with the introduction of the norms and conditions of urban life in the countryside.
The first stage of urbanization in our country
The level of urbanization in Russia has changed significantly since the beginning of the last century. In the 20-50s of the XX century, the country was an underdeveloped power. It was significantly inferior to European states in terms of urbanization.
At that time, the percentage of the urban population was only 15 percent. But even then St. Petersburg was singled out in Russia. Tula, Astrakhan, and Rostov-on-Don were also noted among the large settlements whose inhabitants led an urban lifestyle.
At that time, urbanization in Russia was poorly developed, small towns were only formally considered centers, in reality they practically lacked large-scale industry.
The growth in the proportion of city dwellers in the country was rather slow, and by 1914 the percentage of urbanization in Russia had reached no more than 17 percent.
In the following decades, the situation changed radically, as a result, the share of the urban population increased tenfold, the city dwellers began to make up more than half of the total population.
The process of urbanization in Russia proceeded at a particularly rapid pace in the thirties of the twentieth century. The annual growth of the urban population at that time was about ten percent. Industrialization was carried out at an accelerated pace in the country, which attracted the population to the cities. Due to forced collectivization, people were forced to leave their villages, villages, move to cities.
It was the rural people who acted as the main source of the increase in the numerical urban population. In the second half of the twentieth century, the annual increase in urban settlements amounted to a million people, which was a record figure for Russia.
Second phase
It fell on the second part of the last century. This time can be characterized by rapid industrial development in postwar period. In addition to the rapid increase in the number of urban residents, their way of life began to be broadcast and spread in rural areas. Features of urbanization in Russia at this time - an increase in the number of cities from 877 to 1037 pieces. In the USSR, by 1981, cities accounted for half of all Soviet settlements.
At this time, the importance of intensive urbanization factors is growing due to the internal differentiation of this process. If initially the sphere of urbanization was concentrated in individual cities, then the new level of urbanization in Russia led to its spread throughout the country. This process is the most important social and economic feature of the state, characterized by overcoming the differences between the countryside and the city.
Instead of compact cities, urbanized areas began to appear, in which industrial production and population, the distribution of inhabitants is carried out according to the principle from the center to the outskirts.
Third stage
How did urbanization proceed in Russia? The development of the process at this stage was characterized by a downward trend in the number of urban residents, it was called the "Russian cross". Unfortunately, the downward trend quantitative composition urban settlements are observed at the present time.
The reason for a significant decrease in the number and proportion of the urban population in the late nineties of the last century was the economic crisis. It was he who contributed to the natural decline of Russians. For several years, there has been a migration outflow of residents from cities to
A similar “crisis” decline in the number of citizens is currently observed in the north of the Russian Federation, people tend to move to the central regions of the country, or go to St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Moscow and Leningrad region are the most numerous Russian agglomerations. A low percentage of the urban population exists in the North Caucasian region. There are two significant explanations for this phenomenon. In this area there are favorable climatic and natural conditions for the existence Agriculture, so the region has high density village dwellers. Here are the national republics in which urbanization is not welcome.
Special Territories
Among the regions of the Russian Federation with the maximum concentration of citizens, the Murmansk region, as well as the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, are distinguished.
The urbanization of the Primorsky Territory of Russia is rather slow in comparison with the development of the central domestic regions. In addition, the proportion of rural residents is also low here, since there are no favorable conditions for the development of territories.
At the very end of the twentieth century, signs of suburbanization began to appear. The minimum concentration of urban residents (less than half) is typical for national autonomies, which always lag behind the processes of urbanization. In addition to most of the North Caucasian republics, these include Altai, Kalmykia, Koryak, Evenk, Buryat autonomous regions.
A small proportion of the urban population and in Krasnodar Territory, since there are ideal conditions for growing various crops.
Categories of city points
In Russia, cities and urban-type settlements are distinguished. They can be resort, country, workers, depending on the conditions of their creation. There are certain criteria according to which rural settlements different from urban areas.
During those administrative changes, which occurred in the nineties of the twentieth century, such a new entity as the Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug appeared in our country. It is interesting in that it does not have a single urban settlement.
Selection Criteria
The number of residents who are involved in agriculture is taken into account (the indicator should not exceed 15 percent of the total population). There are certain requirements for cities and the number of inhabitants. In order for a settlement to receive the status of a city, at least 12 thousand people must be registered in it.
Some of the cities in which the number of inhabitants has significantly decreased have retained their original status for a long time. Only at the beginning of the twenty-first century did the process of their transformation into or into rural settlements begin.
New trends
In the second half of the last century, urban settlements arose in the country in two cases:
- as a result of the development of new natural resources appeared Mirny, Nizhnevartovsk, Bratsk, Novy Urengoy;
- in the course of expansion and transformation of district centers and urban-type settlements.
The processes of urbanization moved both in depth and in breadth. This process was especially pronounced in the Rostov, Tyumen, Orenburg regions, Karelia, Altai Territory. Basically, similar processes were observed in national autonomies and agricultural southern regions.
Since these areas previously had a reduced share of the urban population, the increase in regional differentiation was reflected in the level of urbanization at the end of the 20th century. Among the reasons that caused significant changes in urbanization trends, we highlight:
- unjustified transfer of large agricultural settlements to urban settlements;
- artificial preservation in the status of "city" of those settlements in which the number of inhabitants has significantly decreased.
During the socio-economic crisis that our country faced, people were looking for any ways to survive. The villagers endured all the difficulties much easier, since they had the opportunity to run their own subsidiary plots.
Conclusion
In Russia, the process of urbanization has its own distinctive characteristics. Recently, a rather difficult economic situation has developed in the country, which has had a negative impact on this process. It turned out that it is much easier for rural residents to endure all the hardships and hardships associated with an increase in tariffs for electricity, water, and utilities than for city dwellers. That is why the population is gradually decreasing in small Russian cities, they turn into urban-type settlements.
Such phenomena are absolutely not typical for European settlements, so they can rightfully be considered the distinctive characteristics of our country.
Recently, there have been some positive developments associated with an increase in the birth rate in the country. This leads to some increase in the number of citizens even in those regions where there is a difficult economic situation.
Those measures of social support that are provided to young mothers stimulate their desire to have a second or third child. Of course, it is still impossible to say that urbanization is proceeding at a rapid pace, but characteristic of the end of the twentieth century, it has practically passed.
Recently, new cities have not appeared, while existing settlements are being consolidated.
And countries. Urbanization is the growth of cities, the rise specific gravity urban population in the country, region, world. Urbanization is accompanied by a concentration of socio-economic functions in cities, an increase in their role in the entire life of society, the spread of an urban lifestyle and the formation of networks and settlement systems.
Modern urbanization - as a global process - has three common features characteristic of most countries.
The first feature is the rapid growth of the urban population (Table 22).
Table 22
Dynamics urban population world in the XX - early XXI century.
From the table it follows that during the XX century. The number of city dwellers in the world has increased 13 times! Only in 1950-1970. it increased by more than 80%, and in 1970-1990. - almost 70%. Nowadays, the urban population is growing at about 3 times the rate of the rural population due to mass Migrations to cities and the administrative transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. This trend should continue into the first quarter of the 21st century. According to forecasts, in 2025 the number of urban residents will exceed 5 billion people, and their share in the world population will rise to 61%. This means that the load on the environment natural environment will increase even more.
The second feature is the continuing concentration of the urban population primarily in large cities. This is explained by the nature of production, the complication of its ties with science, education, and the development of the non-productive sphere. Big cities usually satisfy the spiritual needs of people more fully, better provide an abundance and variety of goods and services, access to information.
At the beginning of the XX century. in the world there were 360 large cities (with a population of over 100 thousand inhabitants), in which only 5% of the total urban population lived. In the late 1980s there are already 2.5 thousand such cities, and their share in the world population has exceeded U3; by the beginning of the XXI century. the number of large cities reached 4 thousand. Among large cities, it is customary to highlight the largest million-plus cities with a population of over 1 million inhabitants. At the beginning of the XX century. there were only 10 of them, in the early 1980s. - more than 200, and by the beginning of the XXI century. became about 400. In Russia in 2009, there were 11 million-plus cities.
The third feature is the "spread" of cities, the expansion of their territory. For modern stage Urbanization is especially characterized by the transition from a "point" city to urban agglomerations - compact spatial groupings of urban settlements, united by diverse and intensive production, labor and cultural ties. Capitals, large industrial, port, administrative and other centers usually become the cores of such agglomerations. Recently, to characterize the largest cities in the world, as a rule, data on the agglomerations formed by them are used, since such an approach is more correct (Table 23).
Many of these agglomerations have transformed into even larger formations - megalopolises (clusters of agglomerations), urbanized zones.
Levels and rates of urbanization. With the world average level of urbanization, which is now 50%, individual regions differ greatly in this indicator (Table 24).
The differences between individual countries are even greater.
Table 23
| Agglomeration | Million inhabitants | Agglomeration | Million inhabitants |
| 1. Tokyo | 33,8 | 11. Osaka | 16,7 |
| 2. Seoul | 23,9 | 12. Kol kata | 16,0 |
| 3. Mexico City | 22,9 | 13. Karachi | 15,7 |
| 4. Delhi | 22,4 | 14. Guangzhou | 15,3 |
| 5. Mumbai | 22,3 | 15. Jakarta | 15,1 |
| 6. New York | 21,9 | 16. Cairo | 14,8 |
| 7. Sao Paulo | 21,0 | 17. Buenos Aires | 13,8 |
| 8. Manila | 19,2 | 18. Moscow | 13,5 |
| 9. Los Angeles | 18,0 | 19. Beijing | 13,2 |
| 10. Shanghai | 17,9 | 20. Dhaka | 13,1 |
Table 24
Level of urbanization by region of the world in 2008
highly urbanized those countries where the proportion of the urban population exceeds 50% can be considered. This group includes virtually all economically developed countries, as well as many of the developing countries. Among them, the “champion” countries stand out, where the level of urbanization exceeds 80%, for example, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates.
Medium urbanized countries have a share of the urban population from 20 to 50%. This group includes most of the developing countries of Asia (China, India, Indonesia, etc.), Africa(Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, etc.) and some Latin American countries (Bolivia, Guatemala, etc.).
Weakly urbanized countries are countries where the proportion of the urban population is below 20%. It includes the most backward countries of the world, mainly in Africa. In some of them (Burundi), less than 10% of all residents live in cities.
Differences in the level of urbanization between developed and developing countries are very large: 75% and 42%, respectively. A completely different situation is emerging with the pace of urbanization. In economically developed countries around the world and in some developing countries in Latin America, where the level of urbanization is very high, the proportion of the urban population is either not growing at all or is growing slowly. In developing countries, by contrast, in recent decades there has been a real “urban explosion”: both the number of cities and their population are growing rapidly here. For example, in 1990 there were already 115 “millionaire” agglomerations in Asia, 40 in Latin America, and 24 in Africa. Table 23 also shows that developing countries have already taken the lead in terms of the number of super-large agglomerations. If in 1950 only 7 of the 20 largest agglomerations of the world were located in developing countries, then in 2005 there were already 15 (including 6 of them were in the top ten).
As a result, the total number of city dwellers in this group of countries has increased from 304 million people in 1950 to 1.9 billion people in 2005, or 6.7 times, and in 2010 will most likely exceed 2.5 billion people. Already in 1975, the number of city dwellers in developing countries exceeded them number in developed countries, and by 2005 this preponderance increased to 1 billion people.
At the same time, however, it must be taken into account that the growth in the proportion of the urban population in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America is far ahead of the real development of these countries. It occurs largely due to the constant “pushing” of the surplus rural population into cities, especially large ones, where such migrants join the ranks of disadvantaged people living in poverty. Therefore, this type of urbanization is sometimes referred to as "false urbanization".
Questions and tasks for preparing for the exam
1. Explain the concept of "population explosion". Where and why did it spread?
2. What is called the reproduction (natural movement) of the population? Describe the first and second types of population reproduction and the features of their distribution.
3. What is included in the concept of "quality of the population"?
4. Name the largest peoples in the world.
5. Give brief description world religions and name the number of their adherents.
6. Show on the map the most and least populated areas of the world and explain the reasons for their occurrence. Tell us about the contrasts in the population density indicator related to major regions and countries.
7. Describe the geography of modern international migrations of the population.
8. What are the forms of urban and rural settlement?
9. Give examples of highly, medium and slightly urbanized countries and explain the patterns of their placement.
10. Name the largest cities in the world.
Maksakovskiy V.P., Petrova N.N., Physical and economic geography of the world. - M.: Iris-press, 2010. - 368 pp.: ill.
Lesson content lesson summary support frame lesson presentation accelerative methods interactive technologies Practice tasks and exercises self-examination workshops, trainings, cases, quests homework discussion questions rhetorical questions from students Illustrations audio, video clips and multimedia photographs, pictures graphics, tables, schemes humor, anecdotes, jokes, comics parables, sayings, crossword puzzles, quotes Add-ons abstracts articles chips for inquisitive cheat sheets textbooks basic and additional glossary of terms other Improving textbooks and lessonscorrecting errors in the textbook updating a fragment in the textbook elements of innovation in the lesson replacing obsolete knowledge with new ones Only for teachers perfect lessons calendar plan for the year methodological recommendations of the discussion program Integrated LessonsSECTION 4. THE PRESENT STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN SETTLEMENT
20th century called the age of urbanization. Urban settlement during this period developed especially rapidly. Intensive processes of urbanization attracted increased attention of specialists from many branches of knowledge, as a result of which general patterns of development of urban settlement in different countries of the world were identified, theories of urbanization were created in various sciences - geography, economics, sociology, etc. The stage of accelerated development of urbanization processes took place in the 20th century . and our country. But before considering the global patterns of development of urbanization and their manifestation in Russia, let us dwell on big picture urban settlement of the modern world.
World processes of urbanization in the XX century.
As noted above, urbanization is the strengthening of the importance of urban settlements in various spheres of society. To one degree or another, urbanization processes turn out to cover almost all areas of the life of modern society. In the most generalized form, this is manifested in the formation and spread of the modern urban lifestyle, which in the future, apparently, will cover all of humanity. But a way of life is a qualitative characteristic that is difficult to formalize when comparing different territories, and strongly depends on many characteristics of the population and economy of specific societies (composition of the population, natural resource potential, etc.). Therefore, the development of urbanization processes is usually judged by several characteristics of the population, which narrow the meaning of this concept, but at the same time are relatively easily reflected in quantitative terms. statistics. The most widely used of these indicators are:
Number of urban settlements, including large and largest;
Urban population;
Proportion of the urban population, including the population living in large and major cities.
For the planet as a whole, the change in some of these indicators over the course of the 20th century. presented & tab. 4.1. It is clearly seen that during this century the number of city dwellers on Earth has grown more than 13 times, and their proportion has closely approached half of the inhabitants of the planet. At the same time, more and more large cities were formed. Including at present there are already more than 20 cities and urban agglomerations with a population of more than 10 million people. Whereas at the beginning of the century the largest cities were a few millionaires. It is in these largest urban settlements that a gradual concentration of urban residents occurs. And today every fifth person on Earth lives not just in a city, but in a very large urban settlement with a population of more than 1 million people. In the short term, no slowdown in the growth rates of urbanization is expected.
Table 4.1 Changes in the main indicators of urbanization in the 20th century
All the indicators listed in the table characterize the degree of urbanization of society, reflecting certain important processes of urbanization - the growth in the number of urban settlements, including large settlements, the concentration of the population in ever larger urban formations, the increase in the number and proportion of the urban population. The most generalized is the last indicator, which characterizes the urban population not only in itself, but also in comparison with the rural population, that is, it reflects the importance of urban settlements in the entire structure of the settlement of a particular territory. Therefore, the indicator of the share of the urban population is also called the indicator of the level of urbanization (urbanization), and it is by it that, first of all, they judge the development of urbanization processes in any particular territory or on the Earth as a whole.
There are several threshold values for the level of urbanization.
1. If it is less than 10%, then the territory is practically unurbanized. And in urban settlements, as a rule, the rural way of life prevails, i.e., the differences between rural and urban settlements are relatively small. All of them are predominantly rural in nature. The number and proportion of city dwellers are growing very slowly.
2. If the level of urbanization is less than 25%, then rural settlement still clearly predominates (i.e., the territory is poorly urbanized), but the urban lifestyle is already distinguished, which becomes attractive to a significant proportion of rural residents. Therefore, the urban population begins to grow rapidly, new urban settlements are massively formed, and the differences between them and rural settlements increase.
3. When the level of urbanization reaches 50%, then urban settlement begins to prevail over rural (medium urbanized territory). The growth rates of the number and proportion of the urban population during this period are the highest. Urban settlements differ sharply from rural settlements in most characteristics.
4. Upon reaching the level of urbanization of 75%, urban settlement clearly begins to predominate over rural (highly urbanized territory). The urban way of life is beginning to spread in the countryside as well, starting from the suburban areas of the largest cities, where new urban settlements are predominantly formed. At the same time, the rate of growth in the number and share of the urban population is sharply slowing down.
5. Upon reaching the level of urbanization III)%, the territory becomes almost completely urbanized. The urban way of life, as a rule, extends to the entire network of rural settlements, i.e., the differences between urban and rural settlements again practically disappear, since all settlements acquire an urban character. The number and proportion of city dwellers are growing very slowly, and in some cases even declining.
As socio-economic development progresses, individual states pass these threshold levels of urbanization, becoming more and more urbanized. But since at each specific point in time different territories differ significantly in the level of socio-economic development, there is a strong differentiation in the level and pace of urbanization. So, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium already at the beginning of the 20th century. were predominantly urbanized countries (more than 75% of the city dwellers), and the proportion of the urban population in them continued to grow. The share of city dwellers increased most rapidly in medium urbanized countries (USA, Germany, France - the share of city dwellers was about 50%). Whereas in most territories of the world at that time the urban population did not reach even 10%, and this proportion increased very slowly. The average level of urbanization on Earth was about 14%. And it could be noted that countries with a higher level of urbanization were also distinguished by faster growth rates of this level, i.e., differentiation increased.
At the beginning of the XXI century. differentiation in terms of the level and pace of urbanization is also great, but it has a different character. The most developed countries have 90% or more urban residents, and in them the level of urbanization is almost not growing or even declining. While most developing countries have from 10 to 75% of the city dwellers, and in them the level of urbanization is rapidly increasing. Therefore, it can be noted that in countries with a lower level of urbanization, it is growing faster than in countries with a high level. Finally, differentiation this indicator between individual states of the world is declining.
Nevertheless, even now, differences in the share of the urban population are clearly visible even at the level of regions of the world (Table 4.2). The indicators of the level of urbanization in North and Latin America, foreign Europe, Australia and Oceania have converged. Although at the beginning of the 20th century the differences in the indicator between these regions exceeded "3 times, and in the middle of the century - 1.5 times. Particularly noteworthy is the growth in the level of urbanization in Latin America, which at the beginning of the century was below the world average, and at the end of the century significantly exceeds the world average. Below the world level, the share the urban population is now only in Africa and Overseas Asia. But it is growing here at the fastest pace, and most of the states can already be considered moderately urbanized (the share of the urban population is about 50%). Although there are still a few practically unurbanized states, the largest in terms of population is Uganda.
The main differentiating influence on the level of urbanization is, of course, socio-economic factors. In general, we can say that the higher the level of socio-economic development of a particular territory (country), the higher the proportion of the urban population. But in some cases it is also important natural factors, namely not favorable natural conditions for agriculture and human life. If the socio-economic development of such territories did take place (due to the presence of minerals, advantageous geographical location, and for other reasons), then the population may be concentrated in urban settlements to a very high degree (over 90%), which does not reflect the real level of development. territory. So, in the desert, but with a developed oil production state of Kuwait, the share of the urban population exceeds 90%. And the most urbanized African state is Djibouti, where there is a relatively large port-capital. A similar situation has developed in some northern and eastern regions Russia (Murmansk, Magadan regions, etc.).
Table 4.2
The level of urbanization of the regions of the world
Throughout the 20th century the number of urban settlements has multiplied. The intensive process of the formation of new cities covered all regions of the world, except for foreign Europe (where the urban network had already been basically formed by the beginning of the 20th century). At the same time, urban settlements were massively formed in poorly urbanized areas - both by founding new cities "from scratch" and by transforming the largest rural settlements into cities, in which urban functions were developed, i.e., urbanization spread in breadth. But gradually, an increasingly significant proportion of urban settlements appeared in already highly urbanized territories, forming complex systems with existing cities. This form of settlement is called urban agglomerations.
The first urban agglomerations were formed in the second half of the 19th century. or around the largest cities (London, Paris, New York, etc.), or in areas close to the location of a large number of individual relatively small cities (the sea coast of the Netherlands, the Ruhr coal basin in Germany, etc.). Agglomerations of the first type are called monocentric (since they have one main center), and the second type - polycentric (they have several approximately equal centers). Monocentric agglomerations have become more widespread, although there are quite a lot of polycentric agglomerations in the modern world - mainly in mining areas with a basin type of occurrence.
By the end of the XX century. urban agglomerations have become the main form of settlement in the most urbanized regions of the world, almost completely replacing isolated cities (which have survived in relatively sparsely urbanized areas, but concentrate only a small proportion of the urban population). Urban agglomerations are rapidly developing in medium and even poorly urbanized countries, but they are not numerous in them. Very often this is just one agglomeration, which is formed around the largest city of the country (capital or economic capital).
Thus, urban agglomerations are interconnected groups of settlements, primarily urban ones, united by labor, cultural, recreational, infrastructural, industrial and other ties. The most important are labor ties, which, within the framework of the daily cycle, through pendulum migrations of residents, connect individual settlements into a single whole?. At the same time, such commuting migrants work or study mainly in the main city (core) of the agglomeration, and live in other settlements. Cultural and recreational ties between settlements are carried out mainly within the framework of a weekly cycle, although in terms of mass they can exceed daily work trips. Infrastructural links are manifested in the joint use by settlements of the agglomeration of large transport facilities (railways, airports, etc.), urban facilities (water intakes, treatment facilities). Industrial relations are carried out between enterprises within the framework of cooperation, when branches, suppliers of components, product warehouses, and experimental testing grounds of an enterprise from one city of the agglomeration (as a rule, its main center) are located in other settlements of the agglomeration.
Scientists from different countries have different approaches to defining the boundaries of urban agglomerations. In foreign Europe, the outer boundary of the agglomeration in many cases is determined at the end of continuous urban development. In this sense, the agglomeration coincides with the actual city and is often called conurbation. Thus, the population of the Moscow agglomeration (conurbation) is estimated by European scientists at 10-11 million people. Domestic studies within the framework of the agglomeration include all settlements, a significant proportion of the inhabitants of which are connected by work trips with the main city of the agglomeration. Typically, such points are located no further than a 1.5-hour trip from the core of the agglomeration. With this approach, the population of the Moscow agglomeration is estimated at 12.5-14 million people. In the United States, standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSA) are distinguished as agglomerations, which entirely include primary territorial units (counties) that meet certain criteria for connection with the main city, which must have at least 50 thousand inhabitants (continuity of development is also taken into account , and labor relations, and population density).
Ultimately, regardless of the methods of defining the boundaries of urban agglomerations, in developed countries population estimates are currently given specifically for agglomerations, and not for cities within their legal boundaries. The same applies to the largest cities in developing countries. Indeed, singling out separate settlements within an agglomeration “when viewed from the outside” (from outside the agglomeration) does not make sense, since it is a single socio-economic system artificially divided by historically established legal boundaries (borders of individual settlements). Thus, the population of Paris within the legal boundaries of the city is currently about 2 million people. But no one doubts that many formally independent settlements outside the city limits (for example, the district of La Defense skyscrapers) are also Paris. And the total population of the Paris agglomeration ("Greater Paris") is estimated at 11-12 million people. List of the largest urban agglomerations of the world as of the beginning of the XXI century. presented in table. 4.3.
It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the XX century. The largest agglomeration on Earth was London (numbering 4.5 million inhabitants), which today ranks 20th. Accordingly, over a hundred years, the population of London has grown by about 2.5 times. And the first agglomeration with a population of over 10 million people. in the 1940s became New York, which is currently in 7th place. For the 20th century The population of this city has grown by about 10 times. The population of today's leader Tokyo has grown by about 30 times in 100 years. But the population of most of today's largest urban agglomerations has grown 100 times or more over the past 100 years (Mexico City, Seoul, Sao Paulo, etc.). It is these ultra-high urban growth rates in large developing countries (about 5% of annual population growth on average over 100 years) that have formed modern list largest agglomerations of the world, almost 2/3 of which are located in developing countries.
Table 4.3 Largest urban agglomerations in the world
| № | Agglomeration | Population, million people | The country |
| Tokyo | 31,0 | Japan | |
| mexico city | 21,0 | Mexico | |
| seoul | 19,9 | Korea | |
| Sao Paulo | 18,5 | Brazil | |
| Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe | 17,6 | Japan | |
| Jakarta | 17,4 | Indonesia | |
| New York | 17,0 | USA | |
| Delhi | 16,7 | India | |
| Bombay | 16,7 | India | |
| Los Angeles | 16,6 | USA | |
| Cairo | 15,6 | Egypt | |
| Calcutta | 13,8 | India | |
| Manila | 13,5 | Philippines | |
| Buenos Aires | 12,9 | Argentina | |
| Moscow | 12,1 | Russia | |
| Shanghai | 11,9 | China | |
| Rhine-Ruhr | 11,3 | Germany | |
| Paris | 11,3 | France | |
| Rio de Janeiro | 11,3 | Brazil | |
| London | 11,2 | United Kingdom | |
| Tehran | 11,0 | Iran | |
| Chicago | 10,9 | USA | |
| Karachi | 10,3 | Pakistan | |
| Dhaka | 10,2 | Bangladesh |
Over time, suburban settlements within agglomerations begin to develop faster than the central city, including due to the relocation of some residents from the central city to the suburbs. This process is called suburbanization (from the Latin word suburb - suburb). At the same time, residents are "pushed" out of central cities by a difficult environmental situation, an increase in crime, the high cost of real estate, high taxes and other conditions that are much better in suburban settlements.
A necessary condition for suburbanization is the development of transport to ensure transportation between the place of residence and place of work, since most of the resettlers continue to work in the main city. That is why the first signs of suburbanization appeared in developed countries after the development of suburban rail links in them. But intensive suburbanization began only with the mass motorization of the population, since only a private car provides a sufficiently high degree of freedom in the relative location of the place of residence and place of work.
Initially, the wealthiest segments of the population, the elite of society, move to the suburbs. By doing this, they create for the rest of the population a pattern of behavior that cannot be realized for material reasons. But as the well-being of society grows, more and more masses of the population are involved in resettlement. Intensive suburbanization is associated with the resettlement of the "middle" class, which is numerous in developed countries. Following the resettlement of residents, the movement to the suburbs of industry and other areas of employment begins. The movement of trade and the service sector is directly related to the resettlement of residents and goes almost simultaneously with it. To some extent, they move to the suburbs and managerial functions. Nevertheless, the movement of jobs to the suburbs still occurs to a lesser extent than the resettlement of residents.
Currently, most developed countries have already passed the stage of suburbanization. As a result, the bulk of the urban population in these countries lives in the suburbs. And the crisis of the main cities, which was one of the causes of suburbanization, intensified as a result. The main cities lost a significant part of the tax base and the number of jobs decreased. Accordingly, unemployment rose, the concentration of marginalized strata of the population with low incomes increased, etc. Therefore, in the first decades after the Second World War, most developed countries implemented state programs aimed at deconcentration of the population and economy, spurring suburbanization, then in recent decades, state, and local programs are aimed at, the revitalization of urban centers. Although basically not as places of residence, but as places of concentration of various progressive types of activity.
But urban agglomerations are not the final form of development of the Yurod settlement. In some areas that are especially attractive for urban development, neighboring agglomerations grow and merge with their peripheral parts. Sometimes smaller agglomerations fall into the zone of influence of a larger agglomeration and become second-order agglomerations. The resulting systems of 3-5 agglomerations are called urbanized areas. In Russia, similar areas formed around the Moscow agglomeration, along the Volga, along the eastern slopes Ural mountains, in the Kuznetsk coal basin.
In some cases, as a rule, along the most important transport polyhighways, the number of merged agglomerations can be dozens. Such the largest this moment forms of urban settlement are called urbanized zones or megalopolises. Megalopolis is originally a proper name for the first such urban structure, which was described in the 1950s. by the French urbanist J. Gottman in the northeast of the United States, as a result, similar formations were formed in
other regions of the earth. The characteristics of the largest megalopolises of the Earth are presented in Table. 4.4.
Man is a being with social needs who always tries to surround himself with some kind of society. It is for this reason that most of the population of our world is moving more and more to the territory of cities.
But from another point of view, man is a being and biological. Man is considered an important part, as well as a special link in the arrangement and development of natural landscapes. On the other hand, populous cities and countries, as well as natural areas without industrial enterprises and increased emissions remain today the main parties around which the entire process of development of modern society takes place.
What do such concepts as urbanization, suburbanization and deurbanization mean? What is the main meaning of these definitions?
The term urbanization of cities, what does it mean?
Word urbanization originated from the Latin word urbanus, which literally translates as urban. The term urbanization (in its broadest sense) refers to the growing role of urban areas in common life man and the society around him. In a narrow sense, this word means urban population development process, as well as the resettlement of people from the territory of the village - to simple cities, as well as to cities with a population of over a million.
Urbanization as a socio-economic phenomenon and the process of developing the number of cities began to be mentioned in the middle of the 20th century, when the number of urban residents began to increase continuously. The main factor that contributed to this was the process of rapid development of industrial enterprises in urban areas, the emergence of a need for new specialists, as well as the development of science, culture and spirituality in the territory of large cities.
Scientists classify urbanization by several processes:
The science of georbunastics will help answer such questions as: what does urbanization, suburbanization, as well as deurbanization and ruralization mean. Geourbanistics is one of the main branches of modern geography.
The concept of urbanization is similar to such a term as false urbanization, which is described and presented in such areas of the planet as Latin America as well as Southeast Asia. What does false urbanization include? This is mainly unsupported and unofficial urban population growth, while it is not accompanied by an increase in the number of jobs and specializations, as well as the development of infrastructure.
In the end, the population living in the countryside is simply forcibly transferred to the territory of developed cities. So, false urbanization, as a rule, is capable of bringing with it a special increase in the level of unemployment in a certain territory and the emergence of so-called houses - slums in the territories of cities, which cannot in any way correspond to a normal standard of human life, and are also simply unfavorable for living.
What rate of urbanization exists in other countries?
Thus, the UN Department of Social and Environmental Affairs every year is new rating on urbanization in the countries of the world. Such studies and annual rechecking began in 1980.
To find level of urbanization it is not difficult - you just need to correlate the percentage of urban residents and the total number of people living in the territory of a particular region. The rate of urbanization is very different in each country. So, the highest level of urbanization(if you do not consider small countries that consist of only one town) have: Belgium, Malta, Qatar, Kuwait.
In these countries, the parameter of urbanization of the population reaches the level of 95%. With all this, the rate of urbanization is just as high in Argentina, Japan, Israel, Venezuela, Iceland, and Uruguay (more than 90 percent).
The level of urbanization of our country according to the UN is only 74%. Burundi, Papua New Guinea, is at the bottom of the rankings, with urbanization levels of just 12.6 and 11.5 percent.
On the territory of Europe, Moldova has the smallest indicator of urbanization - only 49 percent.
What does the urban agglomeration include?
is a term that goes along with the process of urbanization of the entire population of the world. This concept means the combination of city points located in the neighborhood into one large and functional system. Within such a system, strong and multifunctional ties arise and grow: transport, industrial, cultural, and also scientific. Urban agglomerations are one of the important urbanization processes.
This is interesting: about the concept and functions.
Scientists distinguish two main types of agglomerations:
- Monocentric type (development based on one central city - the core)
- Polycentric (a combination of several cities of an equivalent nature).
The urban agglomeration has its own characteristics and distinctive features:
According to the results of a UN study, there are less than 450 urban agglomerations on the territory of our planet, in each of which no less than one million people live freely. Tokyo is considered the largest agglomeration in the world, in which, according to compiled data, there are about 35 million people. The leading countries in which it is located largest number urban agglomerations are: Brazil, Russia, USA, China and India.
Urbanization in Russia: what large urban agglomerations exist in Russia?
It should be noted that no research and accounting of the number of urban agglomerations is conducted on the territory of Russia. Therefore, the actual figures may vary comparatively with each other.
Nevertheless, on the territory of our country is about 22 urban agglomerations. The largest of which are:
For urban agglomerations in Russia characterized by high industrialization of the regions, as well as a large level of developed infrastructure. We also have a large number of research complexes and educational institutions top level. The main parts of the Russian agglomerations are considered monocentric, that is, they have one core - a pronounced center, from which the rest of the suburbs, as well as small settlements, diverge.
What does suburbanization entail?
Now it is worth talking about other terms that are actively used in urbanization. Suburbanization, this word came into use in the second half of the 20th century. suburbanization- this is one of the phenomena that is accompanied by a rapid and targeted development of suburban areas located near large metropolitan areas.
By the end of the last century, most of the population began to move to the outskirts of large cities, where there is not much noise and air pollutants, and there are also natural landscapes. At the same time, such people begin to actively use agricultural land and breed domestic animals. At the same time, they continue to work in the city and spend a large amount of their free time on the road. Of course, suburbanization began to develop actively only after mass motorization.
Urbanization is turning into suburbanization
Not so long ago, a fascinating article was published in one of the magazines, which was called "The Planet of the Suburbs." If you carefully read the text of the article, you can understand that suburbanization is nothing but urbanization in disguise. So, throughout the planet, megacities and small towns are increasing only due to the development of the territory of the suburbs. The only exceptions in the magazine are considered to be only two modern metropolitan areas - Tokyo and London.
Now we can see a very interesting picture. So, even 30–40 years ago, the outskirts of large cities became a place of residence for the poorer segments of the population, but today everything has changed dramatically. Now quarters with luxury houses increasingly seen in the suburbs.
What does deurbanization mean?
In the end, it is worth noting another important concept. is a process that is fundamentally different from urbanization (translated from French des is negation).
De-urbanization is characteristic of the process of resettlement of people outside of developed cities, that is, in rural areas. In a more profound sense, such a term carries a denial of the positive side of society in the city. The main principle of deurbanization is the elimination of all large cities around the world.
Causes of urbanization
The city did not immediately become recognized and did not immediately become the main area for human habitation. For a long time, urban areas were the exception rather than the rule due to the dominance of such forms of production, which were based on the individual labor of each person, as well as work on agricultural plots. So, during the days of slavery cities were considered closely related to landed property as well as agricultural labor.
In the era of feudal processes cities carried the features of their antipode - agriculture, it is for this reason that all cities were scattered over a large territory and did not communicate well with each other. The predominance of the countryside in the life of that society was mainly due to the fact that the function of production and industry was still undeveloped, which did not allow a person to break away from his territory in financial plan.
Relations between urban areas and rural areas began to change after they began to actively develop factors of production. main foundation for this was the improvement of urban production by including manufactories in it, and then full-fledged factories. With the help of the rapid growth of production in the city, the number of the urban population also began to actively increase. The industrial revolution in Europe at the end of the 17th century and the 19th century radically changed the face of modern cities.
Urban conditions are becoming the most typical form of life for the population. It was at this time that a rapid build-up of the settlement environment developed, artificially obtained from a person in the process of his life.
These changes in production processes created a new historical stage in the processes of population settlement, characterized by an increase in urbanization, which meant a rapid increase in the proportion of the population of urban settlements, closely related to the processes of industrialization and the development of production. The fastest rates of urbanization were noted in the 19th century, since at that time there was an active migration of the population to the cities from the countryside.
Conclusion
Urbanization, suburbanization and deurbanization - all these concepts are interconnected with each other. Thus, if urbanization means only an increase in the role of cities in Everyday life society, then suburbanization is a radically opposite concept, the outflow of the population to rural areas of settlement.
