- Pei Zhang is proposing a final year project on counter urbanization for their subject code MMD 3213. - The project will be an interactive website aimed at educating people about counter urbanization, comparing urban and rural lifestyles, and providing ideas for improving life in cities. - The website will have sections on the introduction to counter urbanization, comparing urban and rural living, giving ideas for better city living, and an online forum for discussion. It will utilize text, photos, videos, tutorials and an interactive map.

1. Final year project
Name: Pei Zhang
Student ID: 1081107134
Subject Code: MMD 3213
Date: 13. 09. 2012

2.  Research topic: Counter Urbanization
Background
 Counter-Urbanization is the movement of population and economic activity away from urban areas. Counter
urbanization was observed for the first time in the USA. The population redistribution started in the 1960s, but
became an important feature only in the 1970s.
The process involves the moving of the population away from urban areas such as towns and cities to a new town, a
new estate, a commuter town or a village. The first two of these destinations were often encouraged by government
schemes whereas the latter two were generally the choice of more middle class, socially mobile persons from their own
prerogative. With the improvement of inner city transport infrastructure, and more sustainable public transport,
people no-longer have to live close to their work, and so can easily commute each day.
The main reasons why counter urbanization happened are high land values, high local taxes, traffic problems, high
living pace, high living costs and pollutions. But for different cities, there are maybe some specific reasons for each of
them.
There are some major effects caused by counter urbanization. The first one is that the majority of the services in the
area are forced to close. This is because the majority of people moving into the areas commute to work everyday so
instead of using the small village shops for their groceries they use the large supermarkets in the urban areas in which
they work. Business in rural areas then have to close because they cannot get enough trade. The second one is Counter-
urbanization affects the layout if rural settlements, modern housing is built on the outside of the area and industrial
estates are built on large main roads leading into the settlements.
http://www.lewishistoricalsociety.com/wiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=74
 http://static.sdu.dk/mediafiles/Files/Om_SDU/Institutter/Iful/Formidling/IFUL_WP_6_Counterurbanization.pdf
 http://brooksbankgeographyyr13.wikispaces.com/Case+Study+-+Effects+of+Counterurbanisation


3. 
Problem Identification
 -Causes and effects of counter urbanization
-How to balance the development of cities and the qualities of human lives in cities
 -How to improve people’s life in cities
Aim and Objectives
 -To make people learn more about counter urbanization
-To attract people pay more attention on this topic and try to think about some solutions
-Maybe also give some tips of what everyone can do to improve their own lives in urban areas without moving to rural
areas
Motivation
 I'm interested in this problem. I want to find more about why two such different thing happen at the same time. And
as a person who lives in the city, I want to try to find some simple ways to help ourselves live better.
Ideation and concept
 Do an interaction design to show this topic. Try to combine different media such as texts, photos, videos, etc in one
design.
Review, Analysis and precedence studies
 http://www.daydreameducation.co.uk/servlet/Detail?no=2864&category=Geography%3AInteractive+Software
 http://www.notchstudio.com/
Design Approach
 Interaction Design (Flash, website, etc)

4. Research Methods
 Online research
 Online Survey
 Online Interview (Unfinished)
Problem Statement
 How much do people know about counter urbanization?
 What are counter urbanization and its causes?
 What are the effects of counter urbanization to urban and rural areas?
 What is its impact on the development of counter urbanization?
 Is there any methods can help to balance the development of cities and the
qualities of human lives in cities?
 What kind of life do people more prefer?
 Is there any ways to help people to improve their lives without changing living
place?

5.  Based on online research
The concept of counter urbanization was introduced firstly by Berry in America, 1976. Counter urbanization describes the
process of people moving away from urban areas to smaller settlements and rural areas. This kind of process leads to the growth
of rural areas beyond urban areas.
There are some main causes of counter urbanization. People move out from urban areas mainly because they want to avoid
those negative effects and they want better and easier lives. According to the materials, the first cause is the high living costs in
urban areas. High living costs make people’s lives hard and sometimes they cannot afford it, so they choose to move to rural
areas since the living costs in rural areas are lower such as the house price. The second reason is environmental problems in
urban areas such as sound pollutions, air pollutions and water pollutions. People prefer to live in a healthier environment, so
they choose to move. Then, overcrowding and traffic problems because of the large population in urban areas is anther main
cause of counter urbanization. Next cause is the high crime rate in urban. High living pace in urban areas is also a cause of
counter urbanization. Last but not least, the development of technology is also considered to be a reason. Since the
development of technology, people don’t have to live near their working place. It is possible for them to transport every day
between the working place in cities and their homes in rural areas by modern transport tools, and technology like Internet and
laptop makes it easier to work everywhere.
 Counter urbanization also brings many impacts both to urban and rural areas. For rural areas, counter urbanization make them
develop faster and bring them more chances and people. Next, farmers can make large amounts of money by selling lands to
developers from cities. But counter urbanization will also make some negative impacts on rural areas. Such as environment in
rural areas may be damaged because of the development, and there may be some conflict between old and new residents or
modern and traditional culture.

 To urban areas, counter urbanization also make both positive and negative impacts on them. After some population migrate to
rural areas, current situation in cities will become better, pressures of cities can be relieved. But on the other hand, when many
people move out from cities, urban areas may be lack of labor force and development will be slower. At the same time, negative
impact will happen on economy in urban areas.

6.  Based on online survey and online interview
- People do not know very much about counter
urbanization.
- People sometimes ignore this issue.
- The main reason why people prefer to live in the city
is the convenience.
- The main reason why people prefer to live in rural
areas are better environment, lower costs and lower
living pace.
- People have some ideas to help themselves to
improve their lives

7.  Photos and Videos

8.  Tutorials about D.I.Y, recycling, etc.

9.  Approach: Interactive website
 Aims
- To make people know more about counter
urbanization
- To help people to choose their life styles
- To give ideas and tutorials about D.I.Y, recycling, etc.
- To offer a place for people to share their opinions
about counter urbanization and life styles.
- To make it easier and more interesting for people to
learn about counter urbanization

10.  Geographical Context
 Cultural Context
 Personal Context
 Social Context

11.  Content introduction
 What I am going to do is a website. The four main parts of the website are as following:
- Introduction
- Urban life vs. Rural life
- Ideas to live better in the city
- Forum
-Introduction
In this part, users can get to know the basic information about counter urbanization such as what is counter
urbanization, the causes and effects of counter urbanization. The information about this part is come from articles and
journals I have read and I will try to explain it based on our daily lives to make it easier to understand.
-Urban life vs. Rural life
I will compare these two different life styles in this part. To discuss about the advantages and disadvantages of either of
them to help people to choose the life style they like. The information for this part is based on what I have read, and
also based on my research and survey. The photos and concept video will be used for this part, too.
-Ideas to live better in the city
In this part, I try to give ideas about how to live better in the city such as recycling, DIY and low-carbon life. The
contents of this part come from my research and survey, and also my experience.
-Forum
Under this part, users can give their opinions about counter urbanization, different life style, smart ideas to improve
their life, and etc. Users also can check the others' opinions and give comments. A map will also be used for users to
locate themselves.

12. Flowchart

13. Storyboards

14. Storyboards

15. Functional specification worksheets

16. Functional specification worksheets

17.  Software
 Software going to be used for this project are:
-Adobe Photoshop For editing images and UI design
-Adobe Illustrator For UI design
-Adobe Dreamweaver For building the website
-Some other software may be used
Tutorials
 Since a website contents many details, so I just find some general tutorials online and
some books. I also fond some tutorials for how to do a map for users.
Online tutorials:
http://trendytuts.com/
http://learning.artech.cn/
http://www.8bears.com/
http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/
Tutorials for the map:
http://www.html5china.com/HTML5features/Geolocation/20110924_1928.html
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/getmaps/plot-one.html