These slides a re on spatial distribution.

1. Population distribution
• Population is a group of individuals of the same species living in the same general
area
• there are different kinds of population that we can talk about.
• For the purpose of our study we look at human population
• Population means the total number of people in an area
• Population distribution describes how people are spread out across the world
• Population is not evenly distributed around the earths surface
• Population is not distributed evenly because of several factors.

2. Factors that influence population distribution
• The factors that influence population distribution ranges fromnatural resources, climate,
economic development, government policy, rural/urban settlement, capital resources, and
conflicts.
• Natural Resources: People live closer to valuable resources such as oil, arable land, and fresh
water. Most people in the world live near the coast or along a major waterway and they live on
flat ground that is easy to farm.
• Climate: There are parts of the earth where people cannot live or it is very difficult to live because
it is too cold. People do not live in Antarctica and very few people live in the arctic. Wet climates
can also be a problem such as tropical rainforests. The Amazon rainforest is sparsely populated
because the soil is not very fertile.
• Economic Development: People do not live in areas where there are no jobs. This is one reason
why people migrate to other countries or to cities. We will discuss this in a later lesson.
• Government Policy: In the so called democratic countries, people are free to live wherever they
want, however, in countries such as China or the former Soviet Union the government forced
people to live in certain areas.
• Conflicts: Wars have a major impact on population distribution because people flee areas that
have conflicts. Some examples are the Sudan, Rwanda, and the Former Yugoslavia.

3. Spatial Divisions
• Spatial divisions are regions of the Earth’s surface over which groups
of people establish social, economic and political control
• Spatial divisions may generate conflict and/or cooperation
• Reasons for Spatial Divisions
Why are spatial divisions necessary at the local and regional levels?
1) Desire for government to be closer to home;
2) need to solve local problems and
3) need to administer resources more efficiently

4. Causes of conflict within spatial divisions
• How do spatial systems generate conflict?
• 1) Citizens may argue over boundaries;
2) Citizens may have low tolerance for different cultures;
3) Citizens may fight/compete over scarce resources and
4) Citizens and/or politicians may try to gain political advantage

5. Reasons for Cooperation within spatial division
1)Natural disasters
2) Economic advantages (attracts new businesses)
3) Cultural similarities—ethnic backgrounds
4) Addressing regional issues like waste management, magnet schools
and transportation

6. Movements and their impacts on space
• There are different types of movements
• Movement of every sort creates spatial structure and alter existing
spatial organization
• Massive movements create massive impacts
• Once new spatial patterns or arrangement are established, they
influence subsequent movement

7. why do things or people move?
• Complementarity- either need for survival, unequal distribution of
resources or even relative attraction of destinations.
A breadwinner goes to town to work
A housewife go to town to buy(e.g. grocery)
Businessman goes to town for trade
• All the above three go to town but for different reasons and as such
their movement patterns may not be the same
• Every movement comes out of decision making

8. Human Migration
• The Movement of People
• Humans have always been on the move
• When people move from place to place it is called migration.
• Migration is the movement of a person or a group of people, to live in another place,
often across a political or administrative border.
• Migration can be temporal or permanent, it might be voluntarily or forced
• Immigrants are people who leave one country and move to another
• Demographers use the “push-pull” theory to explain immigration: It says that people
migrate because certain things push them to leave, like a bad economy, a war, or to
escape a harsh government.
• The hope for better living conditions may pull people to a different country
• .

9. Different types of migration
• internal migration: moving within a state, country, or continent
• external migration: moving to a different state, country, or continent
• emigration: leaving one country to move to another
• immigration: moving into a new country
• return migration: moving back to where you came from
• seasonal migration: moving with each season or in response to labor or climate conditions
• Voluntary migration- people willingly moving from one place to
another
• Involuntary migration- forced migration
• Net migration- difference between emigration and
immigration
• Circulatory migration- the day-to-day movement/route of a
person.

10. Why do people migrate
Push and Pull factors
• Push factor- a force that induces people to move
out of their present location
• Pull factor- a force that induces people to move
into a new location
economic purposes: Migration in search of better economic conditions like employment e.g.
urbanization (moving to the cities because of poor economic conditions in rural areas)
Cultural: migration to escape social ills like to escape overpopulation and its effects
Religious: Migration to spread a religion
Educational:
Social : migrate to secure better living conditions— especially better school districts, less crowded
living conditions, Migration to reunite with family, friends, etc.who have previously migrated
Political:

11. Why Do People Migrate?
• E. G. Ravenstein wrote 11 “laws” of migration in 19th century
• Serves as basis for modern migration study
• “laws” concerned three areas of study
1. Why migrants move
2. The distance they typically move
3. The characteristics of migrants
• Ravenstein law of migration states that: Most migrants travel short distances and
with the increase in distances the numbers of migrants decreases.
• The law is based on two main assumptions i.e the fear for the unknown and the cost
of travelling
• The law farther states that migration occur in stages and with a wave like motion. It
propagates that migration occurs in steps where people gradually moves in
accordance with settlement hierarchy from homestead to a Village, town to a city
and so on.

12. Spatial impact of migration
• Migration pause both negative and positive spatial impacts
Economically migration could create positive development for both the hoist
and the donors
Demographically: migration leads to redistribution of people, it results into
balanced access to resources
Environmentally: migration could to overcrowding unplanned growth of
urban settlement and formation of slums, shanty and squatters

13. Who are the Migrants
• Historically, males were more likely than females to migrant
internationally-Because men worked more than women and left to find job
opportunities
• Most long distance migrants are young adults seeking work –not children
or elderly
• An emigrant is a person who is leaving one country to live in another.
• An immigrant is a person who is entering a country from another to make a
new home.
• A refugee is a person who has moved to a new country because of a
problem in their former home.
• Deterministic Approach to migration: an increasing population = increasing
numbers of migrants; increasing distance between origin and destination =
decreasing numbers of migrants.

14. Patterns of migration
• Economic patterns:
Elites are international migration,
they are hhighly skilled workers and socially influential people,
They encounter few obstacles to movement
 Some have multiple homes in multiple countries (Global citizens)
Increased competition for access to services between the host communities and
migrants
• Environmental patterns:
Climate change has impacted on some areas making it harder to earn an income
from the land thus pushing masses out of the land
Outbreaks of pandemics and natural disasters had their role

15. Classification of migration
• Inter countries- international
• Intra country - national
• Rural to rural
• Rural to urban
• Urban to rural
• Urban to urban
• Daily commuters
• Regional

16. Challenges
Lack of reliable
migration data and
statistics
Labour Migration
– creating legal
channels
Efficient Border
Management
Options to
return home
voluntary in a
humane way
Migration and
Development
Regional
Cooperation on
migration
Combating
Xenophobia and
integrating
migrants
Smuggling and
trafficking
IRREGULAR
Migration

17. Solutions to migration
• Coherent and systematic migration management
• Address Underlying Factors
• Ensure respect for Human Rights, Dignity and Well-being of All
Migrants
• Inter-State and Inter-Agency Co-operation

18. SPATIAL DECISION MAKING
• Decision making is a process or a mechanism that involves the working
together of different parts or organs of decision maker.
• There are decisions that are explicitly concerned with locations and
decisions that are not concerned with space/location
• Geographers are interested in the spatial effects of decision making.
• These are conscious decisions and sub-conscious decisions.
• Location decisions are those that involve movement from one point to the
other.
• They can be differentiated according to the frequency of occurrences
• The choice of a particular route to the shop or to the lecture room follows
a particular path that a walker prefers or is used to

19. Types of decisions
• Habitual decisions are repetitive kind of decision that a person take sub-
consciously. They are taken routinely.
• Responsive decisions are the kind of decisions that are triggered by
incidence or circumstances. They are taken in response to such incidences
• Calculative decisions are decisions that are premeditated. They are
planned in advanced checking the possible resultant effects of such
decision before time.
• Complex decisions are multi-facets decisions that involve evaluation of
alternatives but within a very limited time span.
• Critical decisions are decisions that are not supposed to go wrong.
• Inconsequential decisions are decisions that are unusual and they
• lack logic.

20. Good or bad decision
• Making good strategic decision is learnable and teachable through
effective, efficient and systematic process known as the decision making
process
• Good decisions do not come accidental; they are the results of high
intentions, effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution.
• Difficulties in life emanate from either bad decisions or tutelage
• One bad decision may force in another bad decision.
• Tutelage is a person’s inability to make his or her own decision.
• When decision making is complex, the interests at stake are usually high.
• When a good decision represents the wise choice from many alternatives
many people remains in the bondage of self –incurred “tutelage”.

21. Model for decision making
• setting the goal
• acquiring information
• considering alternative options
• predicting the possible outcome
• choose the best alternative
• Implement the right decision

22. Goals setting Gathering
informatio
n
Evaluating
alternatives
Decision
Making
Stimuli Experience Certainty
Stress Search Un-certainty
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23. Urbanization
• Urbanization is a multi-dimensional process that can be defined from
different perspectives
• Urbanization refers the process which increases the proportion of
people in living in cities.
• It also refers to the process in which rural populations move to urban
areas.
• It is the increase in the percentage of a population living in settlements
which could be classified as urban areas
• Urbanization refers to all of the cities in a country, considered as an
urban system.
• Urbanization is the growth of cities, brought about by a population
shift from rural areas and small communities to large ones, and change
from a largely agricultural economy to an industrial one

24. Causes of Urbanization
• The process of urbanisation is influenced by:
• Natural population increase (births – deaths)
• Migration from rural areas (especially in countries with large rural
populations)
• Immigration from other countries (especially in developed countries)
• Reclassification of urban boundaries to encompass formerly rural areas
• Industrialization: historically, urbanization has been closely connected
with industrialization

25. FACTORS CAUSING OF URBANISATION
Push factors
• Poverty in rural areas
• Lack of land to grow food
• Agricultural revolution which
caused declining labor market in
agriculture
• War, famine, conflicts
• Political instability from home
countries of international
immigrants
• Mushrooming numbers and sizes
of urban areas in different places
Pull factors
• Industrial revolution which
diversified Jobs opportunities,
create specializations ,
• Better Education caused brain
drain migration in rural areas
• Better standard of living in
urban areas
• Improved health facilities

26. The effects of Urbanization process
Positive effect/advantages
• Economic development
• Innovation
• Education
• Technological advances
• Jobs
• Industry, commerce, transportation
• Longer lives
• Lower infant mortality
• Better medical care
• Better social services
• More recycling programs
Negative effects/ disadvantages
• Huge ecological footprints (contribute to land
degradation)
• Deforestation/ Loss of vegetation/erosion
• Pollution of all kinds: Air, Land,Water and
Noise
• Health problems
• All kinds of crime
• Housing problems
• Traffic congestion
• Squatter settlements/shantytowns
• Terrible living conditions