Discuss the negative impacts of Urbanisation

by muggeryay (student)

Many small town dwellers and villagers had left their hometown for the cities in search of higher standard of living. This movement from rural areas to big cities is called urbanization. Thus, urbanization is the process by which there is an increase in the number and the proportion of people living in the urban settlements and the amount of industrialization of the settlement. It also refers to the increase in the size of land area occupied by urban settlements such as towns and cities.

Although urbanization has brought about numerous positive impacts, it also has its share of disadvantages as well. The nature and scale of impact, be it positive or negative, will vary depending on the level of development of the country. The negative impacts of urbanization shall be discuss via the economic , environmental, social and cultural aspect.

The main negative economic impact of urbanization is unemployment. With massive migration from rural areas, jobs in the urban area may not be created fast enough to meet the needs. Therefore, the first problem faced by newly arrived migrant in the urban area is finding a job. While it is true that opportunities exist in cities, it is also true that the competition for these opportunities is fierce as there are more demands for jobs than are available. This is made even more difficult because these migrant are mostly farmers, non-skilled and illiterate rural people. Very few people make their fortunes, some end up as illegal street sellers, cleaners, waste collectors, domestic servants or odd jobs laborers while the rest must still find ways to eat and sleep while waiting for their chance. With unemployment and poverty, it leads to one of the most obvious effects of urbanization, that is, the growth of slum. and its associate problems.

For example, multi-national companies tend to set up labour intensive industries in the less developing countries to take advantage of cheap labour cost. Country such as India has a large pool of unskilled and less-educated labour. They will be attracted to go to the cities to look for comparatively better paid job offered by these multi-national companies. When these people flock from the rural areas to the cities, the cities will have a population explosion. However, there might not be enough jobs to cater to these large group of people, resulting in high unemployment. As this point, it may not be flexible for them to go back to their hometown, as they might have migrated the whole family to the city. Without a job but having family to take care, these people might resort to commit crime such as robberies and drug trafficking for survival.

Unemployment is thus the main negative economic impact that causes a series of other negative impact in urbanization. If people have a secure job, they will be able to afford a decent house to live in and buy enough food to eat. If they are contented, they will not create problems for the society.

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The negative environmental impacts of urbanization vary with the level of development of the country. The more industrialization matured a city is, the more opportunities there are for work and investment, and this brought about greater urbanization as more people move to the cities as consumers and workers. These brought with it a host of environmental problems, such as air, water pollution and destruction of natural habitats.

Air pollution is one of the major problems of urbanization. The air quality between rural areas and the urban areas is significant. Factories and automobiles are part and parcel of urbanization. Harmful emission of gases and smoke from factories and vehicles causes air pollution. As studies shown, these harmful particles in the air resulted in many cases of allergies and respiratory problems in city dwellers. Due to the heavy motor vehicle traffic, and also to energy production, a blanket of smog hangs over many cities such as Linfen, China and Sukinda, India. This polluted air is, in addition to being quite ugly, a public health problem. High levels of pollutants in the air can cause many lung related problems such as tuberculosis or pneumonia. Causing health hazard as a result of air pollution is definitely an adverse effects of urbanisation.

Water pollution is also a serious environmental problem in most overpopulated urban cities. First of all, cities have more pollutants and convection currents serves as magnets for raindrop formation. Once the water falls, instead of being absorbed by the soil, it is instead channeled into run-off systems, picking up ground pollutants along the way. As people from the villages are not educated on how to dispose of their rubbish properly, they has little regard for the environment and would litter everywhere. This pollution is added to that brought about by industrial waste and sewage disposal, which is often untreated, especially in cities in the development countries.

For instance, water pollution is one major problems facing Vietnam’s cities, especially the larger ones, exacerbated by the high densities in core cities. For instance, in Hanoi, as many as 300 factories had been discharging untreated waste including chemicals, and some heavy metals, directly into water bodies. These are toxic to marine life such as fish and shellfish, and can affect the rest of the food chain and those who eat them. Hence, urbanisation has brought negative environment impact in terms of water pollution.

The destruction of habitats is another negative impact to the environment that is due to urbanisation. The conversion of a natural area to an urban area for more people means the destruction of whatever was there previously. When wetlands, for example, are paved over, an ecosystem is lost, and any species dependent on that ecosystem die out in the area. A less drastic example is that of erosion - valleys tend to contain fertile topsoil, which tends to get washed away if the valley is urbanised. Therefore, with urbanisation comes the need for more land and the natural environment is usually sacrificed to make way for more infrastructures. Indonesia is one example of a country that resort to burning down wetland to pave way for land. Thus, urbanisation has an adverse impact on the maintenance of the natural habitats.

The main negative social impact of urbanization is the increase in crime rate. This is closely linked to the negative economic impact of unemployment as mentioned earlier. Due to high rates of unemployment, poverty often resulted, causing the unemployed or poorly paid not being able to afford proper housing. This leads to the growth of slums. Slums are urban areas that are heavily populated with the substandard housing and very poor living conditions. Such slum conditions makes it difficult for the maintenance of law and order. Poverty and Unemployment force the poor into anti-social activities or criminal activities such as robberies, drug-trafficking and illegal gambling.

The slums in Manila depict the social and environmental negative impact of urbanization. Many people in the rural areas of Philippines flock to the city in hope to improve their income and standard of living. With too many people coming to the city, Manila cannot create enough jobs to sustain them, thus leading to many slums in the city. Slums are urban areas that are heavily populated with substandard housing and very poor living conditions. The houses in slums are often made of any materials at hand, which could include mud, sticks, sheet metal, cartons, and other waste materials. Over-crowding is a very serious problem, with entire families living in one-room structures, and very little space between one structure and the next. Depression can easily set in causing a chain of other problems such as mental illness and suicidal. The environmental conditions are also unacceptable. Sanitation in slums are often poor, which contributes to the spread of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and bilharzia. Some of these diseases can be deadly and there are still many people living in such conditions. Utilities such as electricity, water and sewage disposal are either not available or only available on a very unreliable basis.

One of the negative cultural impact of urbanization is that it fasten the pace of the way people lived . Life in the rural area is at a slower more relaxing pace as compared to living in the cities. People work on the farm at a more leisurely pace, although the working hours may be long. The fast pace and long hours of work in urban area are causing city people a lot of stress and mental health problem such as depression. Compounding the problem is that many city people are living in units on their own, causing people to be cut off from society.

Life style differences between the rural and urban areas also causes cultural conflict. When the rural people move to the city initially, they might undergo identity problem as they do not understand or get use to the city life-style. If they cannot adapt, it may lead to insensitivity, disinterested and aggressive behaviours. Eventually, the balance and order of the community deteriorates. These people may also live on their own in accordance with their own rules, isolating themselves from the existing urbanism, creating a hostile environment. On the other hand, some of these rural people may lost their own traditional culture values and spirit to be so influenced by urban way of life which may include unhealthy, selfish, and egoistic tendencies.

In conclusion, urbanisation is one of the most controversial issues in the world today, containing various subjects, including both good and bad effects. Among them, the most significant negative impact of urbanization is always on economic and environmental effects, follows by social and culture effects. It is important to remember that urbanization is a long term process. and it is possible to solve these problems in the future.

References:-

Science Daily (June 17, 2008), Global Impact Of Urbanization Threatening World's Biodiversity And Natural Resources, Retrieved March 16, 2011 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080610182856.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

News.com.au (February 18, 2011), City life is making us sick, study warns, Retrieved March 16, 2011 from http://www.news.com.au/national/city-life-is-making-us-sick-with-rising-stress-and-social-isolation-rising-study-warns/story-e6frfkvr-1226007855283#ixzz1HT8YfYVp

Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry (2008; 9:238-243), Retrieved March 16, 2011 Impacts of urbanization process on mental health, from http://openmed.nic.in/3215/02/238_en.pdf

Times, The World’s Most Polluted Places, Retrieved March 18, 2011 from http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1661031_1661028,00.html

Urbanization Dynamics and Policy Frameworks in Developing East Asia,East Asia Infrastructure Department,The World Bank, Issues and Dynamics: Urban Systems in Developing East Asia, Retrieved March 17, 2011 from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEAPREGTOPURBDEV/Resources/vietnam-Urbanisation.pdf

Wikipedia, Urbanization,Retrieved March 16, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization

Teacher Reviews

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Katie Price

15th of May 2013

Overall rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Very well structured essay. Each aspect of urbanisation is covered in detail and with appropriate examples. There is a good range of sources referenced in the bibliography - it would be good to use some quotes as specific research evidence and perhaps some statistics to back up statements, eg. number of people with access to fresh water/sanitation etc. The conclusion is a little weak, sounding more like a basic intro. It needs to give some insight overall to the issues covered and a more specific consideration of the future.

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