Urbanization is the process by which an increasing percentage of a country's population lives in urban areas. It occurs through rural-urban migration, driven by push factors in rural areas like lack of opportunity and pull factors in cities like jobs and amenities. It also increases through natural population growth in cities. Centripetal movements involve migration into cities, while centrifugal movements are the outward expansion of urban areas through suburbanization and sprawl. While urbanization brings economic growth, it also creates issues like gentrification, loss of open space, and pollution that planners aim to address.

1. Urbanization,
Centripetal and
Centrifugal
Movements
IB Geography

2. PART 1: URBANIZATION

3. The Process of Urbanization
 Urbanization: the process by which an increasing percentage
of a country’s population comes to live in towns and cities. It
may involve both rural-urban migration and natural increase.

4. Causes of urbanization
Urbanization: the process by which an increasing percentage of a
country’s population comes to live in towns and cities. It may
involve both rural-urban migration and natural increase
Causes:
1.Rural to urban migration
2.Natural Increase

5. Rural – urban migration
 Rural to urban migration – result of push and pull
factors

6. Push and pull factors
Push factors Pull factors
Difficult/harsh climate – eg. droughts Chance of a better life
Struggle to provide food for family Better housing and amenities
Very low income Chance of good jobs – higher wages, more
varied employment
High rates of population growth have put
pressure on natural resources such as
water/energy/land
Better medical/health care
Can’t afford to fertilizers to increase yields Children able to go to school
Mechanization of farming favors rich farmer
and leads to unemployment or
underemployment of poor farmer.

7. Natural increase
 The people that migrate into towns and cities
tend to be young resulting in high levels of
natural increase
 high % of young adults = high levels of births
 Falling death rates due to improved medical
care means more babies are born than people
dying, further increasing the urban population

8. Compare the
two graphs can
you see any
similarities?

10. World Urban Population
Number in billions of the world’s population living in
cities

11. Elbow Partner Discussions
 Using the last two data slides, discuss this question:
 Why are there higher rates of urbanization in developing nations
compared to developed nations?

12. PART 2: CENTRIPETAL
MOVEMENTS

13. Centripetal Movements
involve the migration of
people into towns and cities

14. Inward Movement (Centripetal)
Rural to urban migration,
gentrification, re-urbanization, urban
renewal
Outward Movement (Centrifugal)
Suburbanization, urban sprawl,
counter-urbanization
Urban Processes can be seen
as inward and outward
movements

15. Rural Push Factors
 High rates of population growth have put pressure on natural
resource such as water and energy and reduced the size of
land holdings
 New farming technology favors the rich farmer, but for others it
leads to unemployment or underemployment
 Migration for work is often the only option
 (See complete list of rural push factors in yesterday’s notes)

16. Urban Pull Factors
 Higher wages
 More varied employment
 Educational opportunities
 (See complete list in earlier notes)

17. The Consequences of
Urbanization
Economic Growth:
Urban economies are
almost always more
productive than rural
ones
Industrial productivity
is higher in cities.
Cities are usually
responsible for a
greater percentage
of total GDP

18. The Consequences of
Urbanization
 Gentrification
 The Reinvestment of capital into inner-city areas.
 Improvement in residential areas
 It is a type of filtering that may lead to the social displacement of
poor people (as a place becomes gentrified, housing prices rise
and the poor are unable to afford it– often times minorities)

19. The Consequences of
Urbanization
– Re-urbanization: (urban renewal) the
development of activities to increase
residential population densities within the
existing built-up area of a city.
– This may include the redevelopment of
vacant land and the refurbishment of
housing and the development of new
businesses.

20. The Consequences of
Urbanization
– Brownfield Sites: abandoned or
underused industrial buildings
and land, which may be
contaminated but have
potential for redevelopment

21. Centrifugal
Movements

22. Centrifugal Movements
 Also known as Decentralization
 The outward movements of a population from the center of a
city towards its edge or periphery, resulting in the expansion of
a city.

23. Suburbanization
 Suburb: a residential area just outside the boundaries of a city.
 Suburbanization: the outward growth of towns and cities to
engulf surrounding villages and rural areas. This may result from
the out-migration of population from the inner urban areas to
the suburbs.

25. Urban Sprawl
 The unplanned and uncontrolled physical expansion of an
urban area into the surrounding countryside. It is closely linked
with the process of suburbanization.
 Good examples of Urban Sprawl include Mexico City
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2401975/Amazing-aerial-photo

27. Counter-Urbanization
 A process involving the movement of populations away from
inner urban areas to a new town, new estate, commuter town
or village on the edge or just beyond the city limits or rural-
urban fringe.
 Characteristic of wealthy cities in MEDCs
 It is a response to increasing stress of overcrowding,
congestion, pollution and crime.

28. Reasons for counter-urbanization
o Increased car ownership
o Increased wealth
o De-industrialization
o Relocation of industry/employment to rural urban fringe
o Desire for safe, pleasant environment, the rural
ideal/utopia
o Perception of urban areas as dangerous, high levels of
crime, racial/ethnic problems – ‘white flight’
o Change in tenure from public/renting to private
ownership. Sell property and move out.

29. The Consequences of
Centrifugal Movements
 Centrifugal movements involve a shift of population and
economic activity from the center of the urban area to its
periphery and beyond, which is detrimental to the center.
 Construction of roads and buildings destroy open space and
increases air pollution

30. Response to Consequences
 Urban Planners have focused on ways of reviving the urban
center(urban renewal/gentrification) and restricting new
construction in urban hinterlands
 Hinterlands: the zone surrounding a city

31. The Family Life Cycle
 Intra-urban population movement may involve shifts of
population during the family life cycle.
 A person is likely to move around different zones of city
depending on their age and their need for a house of a
certain size.