The city of Los Angeles is an example of urbanisation

Urbanization or Urbanisation means the removal of the rural characteristics of a town or area, a process associated with the development of civilization. Demographically, the term denotes redistribution of populations from rural to urban settlements Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (976x1296, 497 KB) Summary Photo taken from Mulholland drive by Eino Mustonen Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (976x1296, 497 KB) Summary Photo taken from Mulholland drive by Eino Mustonen Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version... Los Angeles and L.A. redirect here. ...

Urbanization today

The 2005 and one half Revision of the UN World Urbanization Prospects report described the 20th century as witnessing "the rapid urbanization of the world’s population", as the global proportion of urban population rose dramatically from 13% (220 million) in 1900, to 29% (732 million) in 1950, to 49% (3.2 billion) in 2005. The same report projected that the figure is likely to rise to 60% (4.9 billion) by 2030.^[1]

Urbanization rates vary across the world. The United States and United Kingdom have a far higher urbanization level than China, India, Swaziland or Niger, but a far slower annual urbanization rate, since much less of the population is living in a rural area. The immaculate urbanization of Mexico City has invoked environmental reforms to improve the status of it's surrounding troposphere and ecology.

• Urbanization in the United States has affected the Rocky Mountains in locations such as Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Telluride, Colorado, Taos, New Mexico, Douglas County, Colorado and Aspen, Colorado. The lake district of northern Minnesota has also been affected as has Vermont, the coast of Florida, the Birmingham-Jefferson County, AL area, the Pacific Northwest and the barrier islands of North Carolina.
• In the United Kingdom, two major examples of new urbanization can be seen in Swindon, Wiltshire and Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. These two towns show some of the quickest growth rates in Europe.

Jackson is a town located in the Jackson Hole valley of Teton County, Wyoming. ... The Town of Telluride, a Home Rule Municipality, is the county seat of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the State of Colorado in the United States. ... Taos (IPA: ) is a city in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico. ... Douglas County is the eighth most populous of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. ... The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the most populous city and the county seat of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. ... Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Area  Ranked 12th  - Total 87,014 sq mi (225,365 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 400 miles (645 km)  - % water 8. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Florida. ... Nickname: Location in Jefferson County in the state of Alabama Coordinates: , Country State Counties Jefferson, Shelby Incorporated December 19, 1871 Government  - Type Mayor - Council  - Mayor Bernard Kincaid (Current) Larry Langford (Mayor-Elect) Area  - City 151. ... Jefferson County is the most densely population county in the State of Alabama the county seat being Birmingham. ... The Pacific Northwest from space The Pacific Northwest, abbreviated PNW, or PacNW is a region in the northwest of North America. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Largest metro area Charlotte metro area Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (900 km)  - % water 9. ... , For other places with the same name, see Swindon (disambiguation). ... Wiltshire (abbreviated Wilts) is a large southern English county. ... , Milton Keynes ( ; IPA ) is a large town in South East England, about 45 miles (75 km) north-west of London. ... Buckinghamshire (abbreviated Bucks) is one of the home counties in South East England. ...

Urbanization projections

According to the UN-HABITAT 2006 Annual Report, sometime in the middle of 2007, the majority of people worldwide will be living in towns or cities, for the first time in history; this is referred to as the arrival of the "Urban Millennium". In regard to future trends, it is estimated 93% of urban growth will occur in Asia and Africa, and to a lesser extent in Latin America and the Caribbean. By 2050 over 6 billion people, two thirds of humanity, will be living in towns and cities. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN–HABITAT) is the United Nations agency for human settlements. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... For other uses, see Asia (disambiguation). ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... West Indies redirects here. ...

Economic effects

One of the last houses of the old Russian village of Lukeryino, most of which has been mostly demolished over the last 30 years to make way for 9-story apartment buildings of the growing city of Kstovo, such as the one in the background

Over the last few years urbanization of rural areas has increased. As agriculture, more traditional local services, and small-scale industry give way to modern industry the urban and related commerce with the city drawing on the resources of an ever-widening area for its own sustenance and goods to be traded or processed into manufactures. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2048 × 1536 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2048 × 1536 pixel, file size: 1. ... Kstovo (Кстово in Russian) is a town in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in Russia. ... Manufacturing (from Latin manu factura, making by hand) is the use of tools and labor to make things for use or sale. ...

Research in urban ecology finds that larger cities provide more specialized goods and services to the local market and surrounding areas, function as a transportation and wholesale hub for smaller places, and accumulate more capital, financial service provision, and an educated labor force, as well as often concentrating administrative functions for the area in which they lie. This relation among places of different sizes is called the urban hierarchy. Urban ecology is the subfield of ecology which deals with the interaction of plants, animals and humans with each other and with their environment in urban or urbanizing settings. ... Urban Heirarchy is a term that relates to the stucture of towns within an area. ...

As cities develop, effects can include a dramatic increase in rents, often pricing the local working class out of the market, including such functionaries as employees of the local municipalities. For example, Eric Hobsbawm's book The age of the revolution: 1789–1848 (published 1962 and 2005) chapter 11, stated "Urban development in our period [1789–1848] was a gigantic process of class segregation, which pushed the new labouring poor into great morasses of misery outside the centres of government and business and the newly specialised residential areas of the bourgeoisie. The almost universal European division into a 'good' west end and a 'poor' east end of large cities developed in this period." This is likely due the prevailing south-west wind which carries coal smoke and other airborne pollutants downwind, making the western edges of towns preferable to the eastern ones. The term working class is used to denote a social class. ...

Changing form of urbanization

Traditional urbanization exhibits a concentration of human activities and settlements around the downtown area. When the residential area shifts outward, this is called suburbanization. A number of researchers and writers suggest that suburbanization has gone so far to form new points of concentration outside the downtown. This networked, poly-centric form of concentration is considered by some an emerging pattern of urbanization. It is called variously exurbia, edge city (Garreau, 1991), network city (Batten, 1995), or postmodern city (Dear, 2000). Los Angeles is the best-known example of this type of urbanization. Suburbanisation is a term used by many to describe the current social urban dynamic operating within many parts of the developed world and is related to the phenomenon of urban sprawl. ...

Planning for urbanization

The construction of new towns by the Housing Development Board of Singapore, is an example of planned urbanization

Urbanization can be planned or organic. Planned urbanization, ie: new town or the garden city movement, is based on an advance plan, which can be prepared for military, aesthetic, economic or urban design reasons. Unplanned (organic) cities are the oldest form of urbanization. Examples can be seen in many ancient cities; although with exploration came the collision of nations, which meant that many invaded cities took on the desired planned characteristics of their occupiers. Many ancient organic cities experienced redevelopment for military and economic purposes, new roads carved through the cities, and new parcels of land were cordoned off serving various planned purposes giving cities distinctive geometric UN agencies prefer to see urban infrastructure installed before urbanization occurs. landscape planners are responsible for landscape infrastructure (public parks, sustainable urban drainage systems, greenways etc) which can be planned before urbanization takes place, or afterward to revitalized an area and create greater livability within a region. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2592x1944, 2216 KB) Summary Top view of Bukit Batok, Singapore. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2592x1944, 2216 KB) Summary Top view of Bukit Batok, Singapore. ... A new town, planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was designed from scratch, and grew up more or less following the plan. ... HDB Logo The Housing and Development Board (HDB) is the government agency responsible for Singapores public housing programme. ... A new town, planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was designed from scratch, and grew up more or less following the plan. ... Ebenezer Howards 3 magnets diagram which addressed the question Where will the people go?, the choices being Town, Country or Town-Country The garden city movement is an approach to urban planning that was founded in 1898 by Ebenezer Howard in England. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Infrastructure is generally a set of interconnected structural elements that provide the framework supporting an entire structure. ... Landscape planning is a branch of landscape architecture. ... For the Korean family name Park, see Korean name. ... Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) are designed to reduce the potential of flooding on new and existing urban developments. ... Greenways is a set of three short atmospheric piano works composed by John Ireland in 1937; entitled The Cherry Tree, Cypress and The Palm and May. ... The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important concern in economics and political science. ...

New Urbanism

New Urbanism was a movement which started in the 1980s. New Urbanism believes in shifting design focus from the car-centric development of suburbia and the business park, to concentrated pedestrian and transit-centric, walk able, mixed-use communities. New Urbanism is an amalgamation of old-world design patterns, merged with present day demands. It is a backlash to the age of suburban sprawl, which splintered communities, and isolated people from each other, as well as had severe environmental impacts. Concepts for New Urbanism include people and destinations into dense, vibrant communities, and decreasing dependency on vehicular transportation as the primary mode of transit. The New urbanism is an American urban design movement that arose in the early 1980s. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Suburb. ... A business park in Santa Barbara County, California A business park or business estate is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. ...

See also

• Counter urbanisation
• Suburban sprawl
• Urbanization in Africa

Counter urbanisation is a demographic and social process whereby people move from urban areas to rural areas. ... Urban sprawl (also called suburban sprawl and Los Angelization) describes the growth of a metropolitan area, particularly the suburbs, over a large area. ... This article concerns Urbanization in Africa, but since it is based on a paper about the relationship between urbanization and politics in Sub-Saharan Africa its main focus lies there. ...

References

External links

• Urbanisation Worldwide, World Bank 2005 World Development Indicators
• Open History Cityviewer, a dynamic map of the world cities' growth
• Tomorrow's Crises Today - the humanitarian dimension of urbanisation, by IRIN
• The Natural History of Urbanization, by Lewis Mumford
• Urban Outfitters, at FT.com