Geography- Population&Settlement

The most important fact about the Earth's population is the number which it is increasing. The number can be measured in both total and density. Over the last 50 years, the total has doubled and in a few countries it will probably double again in the next 50 years. This is called exponential growth.

Natural Disasters, famines, locals wars and outbreaks of disease will reduce the growth in some areas for a limited amount of time, but will do almost nothing to affect overall growth. The only thing that will slow down the growth in any significant way is for people to have fewer children, especially in a large number of countries where growth is fastest.

There are signs that the rate of growth is slowing down. There are already fewer children being born in most of the richer countries, usually no more than two in each family and sometimes only one or none at all. The same trend is starting to happen in the world's poorer countries, for example in Asia, Africa and South America. This is important, since most of the world's people live in the LEDC's where the population increase has been the greatest.

Some places are more densely packed with people than others. These places are often where people produce a large amount of food, such as in some river valleys and deltas. There are also densely populated places where people work in services and in manufacturing industries, such as in the conurbations of Western Europe, Japan and the North east of the USA. There are complex historic reasons why these places became suitable as locations for these types of work. 

The less densely populated places are usually where the climate or relief make it hard for people to make  a living: for example, in cold environments, hot deserts and mountains. When there are too many people for them to have a good standard of living, an area is said to be overpopulated. It is hard to say exactly how many more people is 'too many' people. It all depends on the types of work they do and how they make links with people in other places such as through trade and commerce. It can be more useful to think about how people's standard of living can be sustained in the future without ruining the environment on which the standard to living depends. This is known as the optimum population total (OPT)

Family Trees

Tracing ancestors to make a family tree has become a popular pursuit, made easier by the internet than it was in the past. In the UK, it is usual to find that the further back in times, the more children there were in each family. Even 100 years ago, families with six or seven children were not unusual, though not all the children survived to become adults. People also died earlier than the average today, which is at about 81 for women and 76 for men.

Population Indices

The population change in a country is mainly because of differences between the birth rate and death rate. A third population index is called the fertility rate. This indicates the number of children that the average women in the population is likely to have. Another useful index is the replacement rate. This shows how a population is replacing itself over time; for example, the UK rate is 2.1, showing that for every two adults at least two children need to be born if the population is to stay the same. The extra over two take account of the fact that some children may die before they become adults, and that not all adults want to have children or are able to have them. 

Population change and Economic Development

The birth rate in the LEDCs is usually much higher than in the MEDCs. One view is that high birth rates hold back economic development. However, there is also the opposite view that it is the lack of economic development that makes people need to have so many children. Children can stretch a family's resources to feed, clothe and educate them. On the other hand, children can also work to earn money, even though this is illegal in most countries. Some clothes that people buy cheaply in the UK, for example, are made by children in India and other countries. In rural areas, children can help with farm work. They are also needed to support their parents where there are no pensions. Where there are high child death rates, it is important to have enough children to make sure that some survive to look after parents when they are too old to work. People also make choices as a result of their religious beliefs, for example on contraception and abortion. In some countries, government laws are based on religious beliefs. It is hard for individuals to make their own choices about the number of children to have if help with family planning is not available

Lifestyle Choices

In countries such as the UK, people think differently about the number of children they want to have. With better health car, there is a very low risk of a child dying before the age of five and adults cannot use their children to earn money. Houses are expensive and can become crowded with too many children. Childcare can also be expensive if both parents choose to go out to work. Paying for children can also mean fewer luxuries such as holidays, and there are both state and other pensions that adults expect to get when they stop work.  These things mean that decisions about the number of children to have can be based on lifestyle choices and the kinds of family life that people desire.

Following Trends

It is hard to predict what will happen to a country's population in the future based on what has happened in the past. It can, however, be useful to look at the past to see if there are any trends from other countries that can show what might happen. The study of population is called demography. Although accurate predicitons of numbers can be difficult, some of the future trends are fairly safe to predict. This is because trends for births and deaths have previously changed fairly slowly. The number of children in families, for examples, usually falls by about two in every generation. Death rates also fall slowly in line with changes to a country's economy and with better health care.

A Model of Change

One model of population change uses experience of changes in industrial countries over previous decades. The demographic transition model can be divided into stages. The model, however, only shows what happened in the past and why the changes happened. It cannot predict what might happen in the future. Governments, for example, can bring in laws to manage population numbers or there could be widespread outbreak of a disease called a pandemic. 

Behind the Model 

Some general long-term reasons for population change are easy to understand. In the past, people had more children when they depended on farming, when many children died young and when old people did not have pensions. As these reasons have become less important, fewer children have been needed. Better methods of family planning have also made it possible to choose family size. Death rates usually fall when there is better medical care, education and pensions for people who become too old to work. 

There are also short-term reasons behind a country's demographic change. A large-scale war, for example, will increase the death rate and reduce the birth rate, though the birrth rate may rise sharply when it is over. A pandemic can also increase the death rate in the short term. A new drug can reduce the death rate quickly if it can be made available quickly to everyone who needs it. A drug to help people with HIV/AIDS for example would help millions of people who are affected by it. 

Changes to the climate, such as the failure of seasonal rain, can have short term effects on crops and animals that can cause a famine. Climatic changes can also happen over longer periods of time, as may be the case with global warming. This may change the balance of people and resources, especially in countries where many people depend on farming.

The Next Stage

It is also interesting to think about what the next stage in the model might be. The situation in countries where there is an increasing number of old people and a low birth rate, for example, may make governments encourage people to have more children. At the same time, growing concerns for the environment and personal wealth may act to persuade people to have fewer children. 

Supporting Each Other

People in a country depend on each other in complex ways. Children depend on adults to provide for all their needs, then they will do the same for their own children. Adults depend on each other through paying taxes that are for everyone's benefit, such as for education, defence and other public services. When people become old and stop working, they can help with childcare, but they also depend on younger people who are still working to pay for pensions and the services they need. The ratio of people in work compared with those who are not in work is called the dependency ratio. The balance of people of different ages is called the population structure.

A people pyramid

The population structure of a country can be shown in a graph called a population pyramid. The usual pattern for an LEDC is for there to be a large number of children, making up to half the total population. The graph is like a pyramid because the number being born and surviving childhood has been increasing. In an MEDC, the shape of the pyramid is quite different. There are fewer children and because the child death rates are low, the shape is less like a pyramid and more like a rectangle.

The Gender Divide

The pyramid diagram also shows the balance of males and females in a population. The numbers of each are usually similar, though in most countries, females tend to live a few years longer than males. The difference in number between males and femalees can be for many reasons: for example, because of different rates of smoking, use of drugs, car accidents, war and manual labour. In some of the world's poorest countries, where females do much of the manual farm work and where there are higher birth rates, the life expectancy of females can be a few years less than for males. The balance of males and females can become distorted in the younger working age group if there are high levels of migration. In some countries, migration from the country is mainly of young male workers. In others, it is mainly of young female workers.

Changing Shape

The population structure of a country slowly changes shape as it becomes more economically developed. People tend to have fewer children as health care improves and they do not need as many children. The top of the pyramid also become higher and wider because more people live for longer. Sometimes, the structure changes for short terms reasons, for example, if there is a war or large-scale famine. There can also be exceptional times when there is a baby boom, such as happened in the UK after the Second World War. These 'baby boom' children are now becoming pensioners. This is causing rise in the dependency ratio, a situation that the government has to manage so that working people are not taxed too much to support people who have retired.

Statistics of Growth

A country with a rapidly growing population is likely to have an annual percentage increase of about 2%. This does not sound much, but it is enough to double a population in as little as 30 years. The increase is likely to be because of a high birth rate and a quickly falling death rate. The population structure diagram will be the shape of a pyramid, with up to half the population as children. About half the world's people live in countries in which people face daily challenges to improve their standard to living and, in many cases, to survive. Climatic change caused by global warming adds to these problems.

Pressure on the Land

A rapidly increasing population is almost certain to cause probles in countries that are already short of money. There are bound to be problems of housing, health care, pollution and every type of resource, including land. When governments are not able to cater for the increase, people have to find their own answers to their problems. This is one reason why they live in places that are not safe: for example, where there can be flooding, landslides or where there are diseases in the water. These are the places that people avoided in the past, but are now used by people with few other choices. Geographers call them marginal sites.

The effects of overpopulation- Children's needs

There are special demands on services such as health and education in a country with a large proportion of children. In some countries, the education of girls can be treated with less importance than that of boys. The result is that female literacy rates are often much lower for girls, Yet for both boys and girls, education can give them more choice of better jobs and where to work.

The effects of overpopulation-Cheap Labour

An effect of the competition for jobs is that workers can be paid low wages. People in rich countries can benefit from this because it keeps prices down. When people cannot get full-time jobs, they do short-term jobs, for example in services and labouring. Some migrate to countries where even low-paid jobs are better paid than what they can expect in their own country.

Benefits from Growth

While many people do have extreme problems living in countries with rapid population increase, it also means there are opportunities for businesses to grow. Some people with better jobs can afford a good standard of living, with all the consumer goods that people have in richer countries. A problem, however, is that this can widen the gap between rich and poor and give tensions in both the political life of a country, and also on the streets. While large numbers live in shanty town areas, people with more money may need to live in separate areas that are protected by fences and security guards.

When Growth Stops

A stable population in a country brings a lot of advantages, for example, it is easier for a government to plan and pay for new facilities. But these can also be problems in countries with zero growth, or, in some cases, where he population is falling, negative growth. These are usually the richer countries where the birth rate and death rate are either the same or where there are fewer births than deaths. his is what is now happening in countries such as Japan, Italy and the UK.

If there is no natural increase and little net migration, the population stops increasing. This causes a change in the population structure and therefore a change in the dependency ratio. When fewer children are being born and people live longer, those who work and pay taxes have to support an increasing number of people.

The Need For Workers

A benefit of living in a country with a decreasing population total is that there are likely to be jobs for everyone. But when there are not enough people or when people have the wrong skills, essential jobs may not be done. Encouraging migrants to come is one solution to this problem.

A moving pattern

A trend in the UK has been for counterurbanisation, when people move out of the big cities, even while they are still of working age. People who retire can also move to places where they want to enjoy their retirement. Seaside resorts such as Bournemouth are especially popular for this. This has several effects on the town, for example in the need for more health and care workers. Planning in the town will also need to cater more for people with mobility problems and other disabilities.

Living Apart

A new trend is for separate retirement villages that are designed to cater for older people. These create secure and supported environments for old people, though not all old people want to be separated from the rest of the community. 

A different solution for some older people is to move to another country, such as Spain, where the weather is warmer and winter heating bills are less. In spite of the advantages, there are also problems such as the different laws, language and health care. Separation from their friends, children and other relatives can also cause problems. 

Only One Child

Population control is being tried by governments in many countries. One of the strictest approaches has been in China where since 1979, most couples have only been allowed one child. The government were concerned that the country's rapidly growing population would mean shortages of food and other problems.

The policy has been carried out by a combination of laws, taxes, better health care and persuasion. Parents who refused to have only one child, for example, have been fined and made to pay for their children's health and education. Women have bbeen encourage to be sterilised after having their first child. 

The effect of he policy has been to to reduce he growth of China's population, though even now it is still set to rise by about another 100 million between 2005 and 2025. The policy is still in  place, though it is no as strictly enforced in all areas as in the past. It is easier, for example, to get permission to have two children in rural areas than in cities.

Future Troubles

Although the population increase in China has been cut, there may be problems in years ahead when the one child becomes an adult and may have to support two parents and four grandparents. This is called the 4-2-1 problem. Another concern is that the single child 'little emperor' who has not had brothers or sisters may not be able to work so easily with others when they grow up. A third problem is that many Chinese couples have preferred to have boys than girls and have used selective termination to ensure they do. The result is that there are now 30 million more boys than girls. They are known as 'spare branches' because they may not be able to find wives when they grow up. Sustaining the policy would find many problems.

Beliefs about Babies

In some countries, religious beliefs can affect the laws that a government makes. In many countries where the population is mainly Roman Catholic, there are often laws that prevent abortion, or strict controls on it. The belief of Roman Catholics is that an unborn child has a right to life from the moment of contraception, so abortion and most 'artificial' contraceptive methods such as condoms should not be allowed.

The Development Contraceptive

The best way to manage a country's population is something about which people have widely different views. It used to be thought, for example, that population increases caused poverty and kept people poor. Now, many people believe that the best contraceptive is economic development that includes better education and health care, together with family planning. Population control based on a better standard of living is more likely to be more sustainable in the long term than policies that force people to have fewer children.

China has the largest population of any country in the world- 1.3 billion. In 1949 he population was only 540 million so families were encouraged to have more children to help produce more food and build a strong army. By 1970 the population had increased to 830 million but China's resources couldn't cope there was a disastrous famine from 1958-1961 and lots of people had no access to things like water and electricity. 

The Late Long and Few Policy 

The 'late long and few' policy (1970-1979) aimed to reduce the natural population growth by encouraging people to have children later, leave longer gaps between each child and to have fewer children in total. The policy worked well- the fertility rate fell from 5.7 in 1970 to 2.9 in 1979. This policy helped to make development in China more sustainable by reducing in the rapid growth of the population. This meant that resources weren't used up as quickly and less waster was produced than if the population had continued growing rapidly. But the population was still growing, so China came up with a new policy...

The One Child Policy

The one child policy was introduced in 1979 and encourages people to have only one child. Couples that only have one child are given benefits like longer maternity leave, better housing and free education for the child. Couples that have more than one child don't get any benefits and are also fined part of their income. The policy has prevented up to 400 million births. The fertility rate has dropped from 2.9 in 1979 to 1.8 in 2009. 

Some people think that it wasn't just the one child policy that slowed population growth. They say the late,long,few policy was more effective, and that Chinese people want fewer children anyway as they've become more wealthy.

China's one child policy helps towards sustainable development- the population hasn't grown as fast as it would have done without the policy, so fewer resources have been used. But the policy has also meant that China has an ageing population- there's a lower proportion of young people compared to older people, which can cause other problems. Over the years the policy has changed so there are some exceptions:

• In some rural areas, couples are allowed to have a second child if the first is a girl, or has a physical disability. This is because more children are still needed to work on farms in rural areas. 
• If one of the parents has a disability or if both parents are only children, then couples are allowed to have a second child. This is so there are enough people to look after the parents.

Japan's population has been growing at its lowest rate since the end of the Second World War. The latest census report showed that Japan's population stood at 127 million, up 1.1% from the last survey 5 years ago. The figure is a significant drop from the previous record low growth of 1.6%. The report raises fears that with a shrinking you workforce, the country will be ill-equipped to support the elderly. The burgeoning elderly population- which includes those over 65 years- hit a record high a 22 million, or 1 in 6 people, in October. By 2025 it is estimated that 1 in 3 Japanese will be elderly. Japan has one of the highest life expectancy in the world at 74.5 years.

Japan has the smallest proportion of under 15s at 13.6%, which will result in huge difficulties for Japan in the future, as the number of working people will be unable to support the population. These changes are happening more quickly in Japan than in Europe or the USA and could seriously effect the economy of one of the world's wealthiest countries.

The current census found the number of family members per household had dropped from 2.85 in 1995 to 2.7. It said that the nation's population- which comprised slightly more women than men- ranked ninth in the world and accounted for 2.1% of the global population of 6.06 billion. The decline in birth rates has been attributed to the trend of late marriages, as more women focus on their careers. This results in fewer women giving birth in their 20s-in 1999, the average age of a mother who gave birth to their first child stood a a record high of 27.9 years. Couples also tend to have fewer children. 

Since the 1980s, population growth has slowed and, having peaked in 2005, it is now in decline. Estimates suggest that the population will fall to 121 million by 2025 and 100 million by 2050. 

Why is the Population Declining?

The main reason for the decline in numbers is that Japanese women are not having enough children. Many Japanese are choosing to marry at a later age, on average between 28 and 30 years old, and this means that they have children later, or not at all. Many women also decide not to get married, choosing to study or pursue a career instead of having children.

In Japanese culture bringing up children is usually left to the mothers. Very few men take any childcare leave. This fact, and the lack of childcare facilities, means that few women return to work after having their children, and many other women feel they would have to give up too much in order to have a family.

There are also strong economic reasons why people choose not to have children or to have only 1 or 2. Being pregnant in Japan is expensive, as pregnancy is not covered by health insurance. This means that women must pay for their own medical care during pregnancy, including hospital check ups. After the birth, healthcare is only provided free for infants up to the ages of 3. Added to this are huge costs of schooling and university education, and many families decide they can only afford to have 1 or 2 kids. Child benefit paid by the government to families is low and hardly enough to pay for nappies, let alone all the other costs associated with having a family.

Does it Matter if the Population Falls?

There are two problems that will result from the declining population:

The first is the cost of looking after people as they get older and the second is the lack of younger workers to fill jobs. A more and more people reach retirement age, the country will have to find more money for their pensions. This has already meant raising the retirement age and obtaining higher contributions from both employers and employees, and it will have to be reviewed again in the future. Already there is evidence of older people working in shops, at the main airports, on the Tokyo subway or driving taxis.

In the future there will be a great strain on the country as it tries to provide adequate healthcare to support the elderly. This will inevitably mean larger tax bills for people who are working. The second and more immediate problem is that businesses are finding it difficult to recruit new staff, and this will become even harder in the future. If the jobs cannot be filled, then the productivity of the country will fall and so will its prosperity.

What is being done?

In the long term, it is hoped that Japanese women can be persuaded to have more children, but social attitudes and trends are difficult for the government to tackle. Reforms such as increasing the amount of child benefit, providing tax allowances for families and making childcare more accessible are being considered, in the hope that this will increase birth rates. However, many people do not think birth rates will increase unless there are also social and cultural changes.

In the short term, Japan must solve its labour shortage. One obvious way is to encourage more immigration. At the moment there are only about 2 million foreigners living in Japan, and this is nowhere near enough. Workers are needed in a whole range of jobs, including dirty or dangerous jobs that Japanese people do not want to do and jobs for which people need to be highly skilled and trained.

Although the Japanese government is considering how to encourage more migrant workers it also want to impose controls on immigration. It will be difficult to change the views of most Japanese people, who fear that migration threatens what they consider to be the purity of the Japanese culture.

The number of people in any area on any scale is important to the quality of life that they can have. This is true in the rural areas of countries where people mainly make a living by farming. In these kinds of places, there is a direct link between people and the natural environment on which they depend. 

If the number of people goes up by too much, they can find it hard to grow enough food for everyone. They can try to overcome this by growing more food, but doing this can cause soil erosion and destroy water resources, making matters even worse. 

In cities, there are different kinds of links between people and resources. Too many people can mean a shortage of houses and too much traffic, which causes congestion and pollution. There is not enough open space for recreation and waste disposal become a problem. Money is needed to resolve these problems, though solutions also need people who can make good decisions about how to spend the money.

The National Scale-The number of people is also important on a national scale. Some regions can become more attractive for work and quality of life than others and encourage people to move there. Too many people and too much business growth in a region, however, can lead to it becoming overheated with pressure of congestion, pollution and high prices for houses.

Governments can try to give everyone in a country equal access to jobs and a good standard of living by using money from taxes as subsidies and grants to businesses to support them in the poorer regions. However, governments also have to bear in mind what voters will think about how and where they spend money from taxes.

Global Population Issues

Many people believe that the biggest environmental problem facing people everywhere is that of global climate change. One cause of this is the rise in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that are being produced by the industrial, transport and other activities of so many people. Managing people on a global scale is beyond the power of any single government. However, the problems caused by an increase in population in one country can affect people in other countries. More people and a growing economy in China, for example, means more demand and higher prices for oil and other resources that are traded internationally. Of course, it is also true that more people in some countries can mean lower labour costs, so goods can be made and sold more cheaply.

Crossing Borders

Every day around the world, tens of thousands of people migrate between countries. In some way, it has never been easier to migrate, for example, by aircraft, trains, buses, trains and ships. It is also easier to find out about other places via the internet, televisions and other media. But in other ways, migration can be incredibly difficult because of international borders and laws that stop immigration. Managing immigration is one of the most controversial issues in the world today.

Pushed and Pulled

People must have very good reasons to leave their home area or country. There are also usually strong reasons to attract the migrant to somewhere else. These are called 'push' and 'pull factors'. Reasons to leave a country can be extreme, such as war or a natural disaster that put lives at serous risk. People who leave for these kinds of reasons are called refugees. Others leave because they cannot find work or because wages are too low for them to have a good quality of life. These called economic migrants. There are also people who move for political reasons when government's laws put their lives at risk. They can claim asylum in another country where they think they will be safe.

Pulled by Places

There are usually important reasons why a migrant chooses to move to one place rather than to another. Some are recruited to do jobs that need to be done in another country. Many migrants, for example, have been recruited to work in the health service or to work in temporary jobs on farms in the UK. Migrants also have to think about whether they will be allowed into a country. Laws in the European union countries allow people to move freely for work within the member countries. his is how migrants from the EU countries in eastern Europe have been able to move to the more wealthy EU countries where even poorly paid jobs can be worth doing.

Often migrants with university degrees and other skills take poorly paid jobs in the hope of a better life in the future. Others earn money to send home, then return when they have earned enough to have a better life. A problem is that many migrants are misled by what they think about a place. They can find that conditions for them can be as hard as in the place they left.

Migration Risks

Migrants who have the greatest problems are those who try to move from desperately poor countries to countries that are richer, but that will not give them permission to enter. This affects, for example, people from many countries in Africa and Central America who want to migrate to the richer EU countries or to the USA. Many have died when attempting sea crossings, for example across the Mediterranean or from Africa to the Canary Islands. When migrants do arrive, they can be taken to detention camps and then sent back. Even if allowed to stay, they are likely to have the lowest paid jobs that make it hard to find accommodation and earn a living. 

It is worth asking why their home country is so poor and whether there is anything that richer countries can do better trade arrangements and help with health care, for example.

Some of the Causes of Urbansation

Urbanisation is the movement of people from rural to urban areas, a human process that is changing both where and how people live. In 2008, about 3.3 billion people were living in urban areas. On 23 May 2007 it was calculated that, for the first time in history, the global urban population was bigger than the rural population. The MEDCs urbanised during the last century. Now it is happening rapidly in other countries, especially in the LEDCs, where the population is increasing the most. These are mainly in Asia, Africa and South America.

A lack of options

Urbanisation is usually the result of migration inside a country as people move from rural to urban areas. Although the percentage of people in the cities is increasing, the number of people living in rural areas is often also increasing. This makes it hard to sustain a living from the land, either by subsistence farming or by growing and selling produce. arming become unsustainable when trees are cut down, water supplies dry up and soil is eroded. Global climate change, much of it caused by pollution and carbon dioxide produced by people in rich countries, is adding to these problems. Problems are sometimes made worse by short term event such as war, drought or other disasters. With few opportunities for work and a better standard of living, staying in rural areas is usually not an option.

Some Consequences of Urbanisation

Moving to a city is an option that many people believe will give them some hope of a better life. Usually, it is the young, most educated and economically active who move to the cities. A few find work in offices and factories, but most work in what is called the informal sector. These are jobs, for example, in local services, as temporary labourers or in making goods from scrap materials. There are usually no social security or unemployment payments, so everyone has to be inventive and work hard to survive.

Living on the Edge

Vast areas called shanty towns have grown up on the edges of the big cities. These are where most of the poorest people have built their homes. Other smaller spaces are also used throughout the cities, sometimes next to a modern high-rise building. There are also areas of slums in older crowded pars of the cities. Shanty towns that are still growing do not have the basic amenities that people in a city really need, such as water supply, sewerage and electricity. Instead, water has to be bought from water tankers or may come from polluted streams. Human waste is put wherever can be found to dispose of it, often in the same rivers that are used for drinking and cooking water. At the moment, it is estimated hat about 1 billion people in the world live in shanty towns and slums where conditions are poor.

Benefits from Urbanisation

In spite of he problems, urbanisation is bringing many advantages to people in countries where it is growing rapidly. Cities can become centres of business and enterprise. There is a source of cheap labour for factory work that helps to build the country's economy. It also means that people in rich countries can benefit from low cost goods. It is useful to remember that problems in one part of the world can no be separated from what people do in other places.

Runaway Growth

One way to manage urbanisation is to stop people moving to the cities. Another is to make life better in the country areas so people will not want to move. Both of these ideas are hard for a government to do in practice. 

Managing a city means building new roads, sewerage, schools, hospitals, water and energy supplies and planning how land can be used in different places. These things are all part of a city's infrastructure. When a city is growing by thousands of people every week, especially in a country that does not have the money to pay for the infrastructure, it is hardly surprising that there are problems.

The Upgrade Challenge

The shanty towns and slums are the areas with the worst living conditions. The shanty towns have often been built on marginal sites: marshy land or steep and dangerous land that nobody else wanted.No matter where they are, the people have often just moved onto the land as illegal squatters who have no rights of ownership. Every type of poor area needs to be upgraded. It might be easier to plan and manage an area if it could be done from the start, but upgrading means changing what is there already. This means changing not only buildings and roads; it can also mean changing communities and ways that people make a living. e.g. the Rocinha district in Rio de Janeiro 

The Dharavi Solution

The Dharavi district of Mumbai in India is one of the world's biggest slums and has similar problems to the slums of Rocinha. There is a plan to redevelop the area by building new 20-storey blocks of flats with 100,000 new apartments, as well as providing the res of the infrastructure that people need. To do this, the slum houses are being pulled down, together with the many workshops and other facilities that people ahve built for themselves. Anyone who can prove that they have lived in the district since before 1995 is offered a new home for free in one of the new housing blocks.

Impact of Change

Not everyone agrees with how the redevelopment is being done. Private building companies have been given land in exchanges for building the new homes. They will be able to build more houses on this land and sell them at a profit. The redevelopment also involves breaking up the social networks of friends and families that help people to survive. Many of the small scale businesses will also be affected. This model of large scale redevelopment will bring benefits to many, but it seems that not everyone will share in these benefits.

Move to the Country

In most of the MEDCs, people are moving between urban and rural areas in a variety of ways. While some people still move to urban areas, others are moving out of the cities. This process is called counterurbanisation. 

The areas that are attracting most people from cities are mostly within commuting range so they can travel daily to their work in the city. A railway line or motorway can give fairly quick and affordable access to places that are up to 60 miles from a city centre. Many people travel even further. The places that people move to in rural areas, however, can be quite varied. These can be to villages, new housing estates and to country towns.

Understanding Data

It is also important to know that cities are defined by the boundaries of administrative areas. When a new housing area is built just outside this boundary line, the statistics will not include he new residents in the city's total. So while the built-up areas continues to grow, the city's population total can show its declining. 

Reasons to Move

A major attraction of living in the country used to be the lower cost of houses. Because of demand from commuters, this is no longer true in some cases. A difference, however, is that there is likely to be more garden space in a country area, the local scenery is likely to be more attractive, crime rates are generally lower and pupils in the local schools may achieve higher exam results than in some city schools. There are fewer places in some types of entertainment and shopping in rural areas, but the city is easily accessible when needed.

Pressure on Property

Some new residents spend money on renovating buildings and in some cases, completely change their use. Old bars, village schools and chapels can be converted into homes. But many of the new residents prefer to buy new houses. This causes extra demand that puts up their value. This makes it impossible for young people to stay in the area, unless they stay living with their parents. One solution is to build houses that only local people can buy, but it takes a special agreement with a housing association for this to work.

City meets country

A village can become a dormitory village where people sleep, but don't work in the nearby area. But the new residents can help local shops, schools and businesses to stay open. The same areas can be attractive for businesses that need space and good access to the same communications link that the commuters use. This can bring much-need jobs to rural areas.

Incomers can also affect the social life of the area. Some try to integrate with the local people and can bring new ideas to a community. But this is not always easy and the result can be a divide between the newcomers and the locals. The changes that people from the cities bring to rural areas are called the process of rubanisation.

Coming and Going

Every year, millions of people emigrate from the country in which they were born. They become an immigrant in the country to which they move. Both emigration and immigration are human processes that have gone on throughout history. Every country has different laws about migration, especially immigration.

Emigration Issues

Most emigrants leave their country to find better paid work elsewhere. Some are getting away from extreme poverty and sometimes, from danger. Often, it is the most qualified and skilled who choose to emigrate, such as nurses from the Philippines to the UK or scientists from the UK to the USA. This, of course, takes these skills out of countries where they are needed and that have spent money in training. 

Benefits for Some

Immigrant workers often do jobs that people in the home country don't want to do. In the UK, some migrants are hired by 'gangmasters' to work at seasonal jobs on farms such as picking fruits and vegetables. Many work in hotels, other service jobs and in industries where they are paid a minimum wage. The low wages paid to immigrant workers help keep prices down for people in the UK. In time, some immigrants settle down to a new life, paying taxes, raising families and becoming full citizens. This is a benefit, especially in a country in which there is a low or even a falling birth rate such as in the UK. They also bring the richness of new ideas and new cultures to a country. 

Issues to Address

Immigration, however, can, also bring some problems. Many of these are short-term problems that can affect some areas more than others. There, can, for example, be difficulties in housing, school places and in competition for jobs. Sometimes, these difficulties are to do with what people think rather than what is true. This is when immigration can become a political as well as a practical issue that has to be addressed. 

The usual way to address these issues is for politicians to make laws to control the number of immigrants and to make sure that only those with particular skills are allowed to come in. A work permit that gives permission to work for a short time is one way to do this. The number of work permits can be controlled by a government, depending on the demand for particular skills. 

A problem is when people try to enter and stay in country illegally. Those caught doing this can be sent to a detention camp, then deported. There are many different viewpoints over this and the other questions concerned with international migration.

Land Use in Zones

The ways that land is used are broadly the same in all towns and cities. The land use, for example, consists of areas for houses, businesses, leisure and transport. Areas with the same types of land use are called zones. 

Most towns and cities grow out from their historic core. An increase in population and changing technology such as in transport and energy then changed their buildings, land use and size. Often, nearby towns and villages with their own historic core and are surrounded as cities sprawl and merge to become one big city, or a conurbation where cities merge. 

Problem Land Use

Some zones grew at special times in history, such as during the Industrial Revolution when factories docks and rows of workers' houses were built close to each other. Now, many of these old industries have closed down and the docks are no longer used for cargo ships. The buildings can become derelict and dangerous and the land becomes wasteland. This ruins the environment for people who live there and wastes land that may be needed for something else. Land in a city, however, is usually too valuable to be left empty for long, no matter what it costs to change its use.

Plans to Conserve :Some towns and cities in the UK have a history that is 2000 years old. Some of the streets have survived over hundreds of years, sometimes with original buildings still there. Nowadays, historic buildings are preserved in conservation areas to help give variety and character to a place so they are more interesting to live in. Sometimes, old buildings and streets get in the way of new developments so decisions must be made about what to keep and what to knock down.

Land for Living

Land for houses, called residential land, takes up the biggest amount of land in towns and cities. Some residential areas were built by councils to rent to people, often when older residential areas were knocked down in inner city areas. Housing estates are also built by building companies to sell. Though local councils do not build houses any more, they still need to make sure that there are enough houses in their area and that people can live in good quality environments with proper services and amenities. 

Parts of city can get a reputation. Some become known as what estate agents call 'desirable' areas. These are usually where houses are the most expensive and often where there is a school in which the pupils are thought to get high exam grades. There are also parts of most cities that have bad reputations, with poor quality houses, high unemployment and high crime rates. The work areas are called 'sink estates'. Planning how land is used is one way to give everyone a fair chance of a decent living environment and not separating people in such extreme ways.

From decline to regeneration

Businesses come and go as technology, transport, products and markets change. This has affected places such as city docklands and land near canals. When they close, jobs are lost, people have less money to spend and the whole area can go into a spiral of decline. When this happens, an area will need to be improved. Doing this is called urban regeneration. 

Waterfront sites in old city dockland and canal areas have become some of the most desirable places in which to live and to visit. People who live there can have a lifestyle that lets them work in the nearby centre and also enjoy the city centre nightlife.

New life to the centre

In many cities in the UK, a lot of shoppers have stopped going to the city's Central Business District (CBD). They prefer to go to out-of-down shopping malls where there is more space, the shopping area is under cover and it is easier to part a car. Besides, many of the buildings in the UK city centres were built about 50 years ago and no longer meet the needs of shoppers. City councils want to keep businesses, and the money and jobs they bring, in their city centres. One approach to improving them is to knock down large areas and completely change the buildings and the whole environment. 

Challenge on the estates

Improving a run-down housing area is a different kind of challenge. These can be mixed housing and industrial areas from the 19th century or peripheral housing estates that were built by local councils about 50 years ago. While buildings are fairly easy to demolish or renovate, this is not enough to improve people's lives. Getting rid of tower blocks and replacing them with low-rise individual houses is usually a good start. However, people also need jobs, local services, leisure amenities, security in their homes and to feel safe on the streets.  

It is important that local people are involved in plans to redevelop their area. That is the best way to make sure that they get what they really need and value, rather than being given what someone else thinks they need.

Zero Carbon Living

About 25% of the UK's carbon emissions come from homes. This is why the government has said that all new homes are to be zero carbon by 2016. This is a big challenge since heating, cooking and using electricity all depend on gas or electricity, much of which is made by burning fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide. 

Counting the Carbon

Living in a way that causes global warming and that uses up finite resources is not sustainable. One meaning of sustainable living is that it can go on without causing big problems in the environment. There are many ways in which people who live in towns and cities can live more sustainably; for example, by reducing waste, by recycling, buying goods in local shops and living near their work. Using public transport or cycling instead of going by car can also help. Some cities now have rapid transit systems. People need to have a lifestyle that is at least carbon neutral. 

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Low-Energy Homes

Inside the home, electricity can be saved by turning off standby switches and using low-energy electrical goods. Better insulation and double glazing reduce heat loss and save money on heating bills. Some houses called eco-homes are now being built to have zero, or near zero carbon dioxide emissions. They can do this by saving and making energy, for example, by using solar panels, insulation and other methods.

Eco-town plans 

Building houses with zero carbon emissions is a start but the UK government also wants to build at least 10 new eco-homes by the year 2020. Each is planned o have between 50,000 and 20,000 zero-carbon houses. There is certainly a need for more affordable homes and the idea of an eco-town has supporters.

However, not everyone thinks they are a good idea or would be built in the best places. One problem is that they could be too small to have the services they need, such as schools, shops and hospitals. That would mean people would have to travel out of the town, causing more carbon dioxide emissions. They argue that new homes should first be built on brownfield land in cities, so that countryside land is not destroyed. 

People who live near the new towns are also likely to object as they would increase local traffic, put more pressure on local services and could lower the value of their homes. There is a suspicion that eco-towns are just a way to let house building companies build on more greenfield land.

A Pattern of Shops and Services

Shops and most services have to make a profit from customers to stay in business. This means that the distribution of shops and services depends on where customers live and on how easy it is for them to get there. The area customers come from is called a shop's catchment area.

In the past, there was a simple hierarchy of shopping and service centres that ranged from a city centre at the top of the hierarchy, to a large number of single corner shops or small group of shops at the bottom. Specialist goods and consumer goods such as furniture and electrical goods were mostly in department stores and other big shops in the city centre. Everyday convenience goods such as bread, newspapers and daily groceries were bought in small shops serving a very local community.

A Changing Distribution 

The distribution of shops is now more complex than in the past. There have never been so many different ways and places in which to buy goods and services. There are new transport links such as motorways that can make some places more accessible. At the same time, problems of car parking in city centres make them less accessible. The distribution of shops changes because of changes to how people do their shopping and how often they shop.

Complex Consumer Landscapes

The shops and services that customers need form a consumer landscape that has become very complicated. Petrol stations sell food, while superstores sell petrol. There are even travel agents, chemists and opticians in superstores.

New superstores and much bigger shopping areas called shopping malls that have as many shops as a city centre have been built on the edges of cities and further out into the countryside. These can affect the distribution of older shops, taking their customers and forcing them to close. 

Markets and Car Boot Sales

Another change has been in the growth of farmers' markets, often set up on a few days a week in a shopping centre. This has become popular because many people are concerned about the environmental effects of shopping about the environmental effects of shopping and about how food has been produced. Car boot sales on a farmer's field are another way in which people can buy and sell goods. 

Closing Post Offices 

The distribution of Post offices is a special problem for some people. A post office is a special type of business that people need, but they too are being forced to close because they do not make a profit. This is mainly because more people are handling their money through the Internet and banks.

Clone Town Shops

Shops and services compete against each other for customers. Some become successful and grow to become national chains. There is a Tesco, Starbucks and WH smith in almost every town and city in Britain. This brings the benefits of successful businesses to everyone. 

A problem, however, is that they often replace locally run businesses so that all shopping centres can look the same. Towns that look the same are called 'cone towns' because the individual character of each place has been lost. Some businesses are multinational such as IKEA and McDonald's bringing the same appearance to different countries as well as different cities. 

Small Business Battles

Small businesses have been closing down at a rate of about 2000 every year over the last 10 years. Shops owned by natonal chains have been taking a greater percentage of people's shopping money. Even the big chains compete against each other for the biggest market share and the best sites.

Some shop owners also say hat charity shops are taking some of their business away. Charity shops pay less tax for their shops. This gives them an advantage over other shops when trying to make a profit and stay in business. 

E-tailing hits the High Street: The internet is changing people's shopping habits in ways that are affecting the number and location of shops and services. This is called e-tailing. Some shops also use the internet to sell goods, both for specialist goods and for weekly groceries. Many services such as banking and booking holidays are also done online. 

In 2007,one music chain store sold off all its branches because so many people now buy music from online suppliers to play on an iPod. Superstores were also taking part of their trade. Books and many other types of goods and services are also being bought online.Even ebay is increasingly being used for fixed-price rather than for auction sales. Shops that sell specialist goods are especially at risk from internet sales, unless they take advantage of it by selling their own gods online. With the internet, customers can shop from anywhere, including from other countries.

Ethical Shopping

Customers can choose to buy from some shops rather than from others for a range of reasons. Some take account of where goods were produced and the conditions under which they were produced. The idea of food miles, for example, is now a cause for concern. A problem, however, is that some locally grown food may need more energy to grow it compared with food from another country where the climate may be warmer. Other ethical issues include that affect how and where some people shop include demand for organic products for Fairtrade products and for products that not use child labour. All these things have an effect on he shopping landscape.

Space-hungry Superstores:  Superstores and retail parks need a lot of space. This is one reason why new superstores are often on greenfield land outside the city. All types of new building have to get planning permission from a local council. This can be given if a superstore company can argue that there is a need for one to give more choice or to provide goods for people in new housing areas. 

Often, land around a city is protected green belt land that is mostly used for farming and for different types of recreation. Permission is sometimes given to build on this land if a need can be proven/ There can be a Public Inquiry if there is enough disagreement about a proposal. This is held like a court case in which everyone can put their case to an inspector, who reports to a government minister for a decision.

A Tough Choice

People can be faced with a hard choice if a supermarket company applies for planning permission to build near their homes. A new superstore can bring the advantages of lower prices and a wider choice of some goods, together with easy and free parking. However, it also brings more cars and lorries to the area. The biggest superstores may be open 24/7, bringing noise and traffic for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The building may also not look right in the landscape. The result is that the quality of local people's lives can be made worse. The value of their homes can also fall if there is more traffic. In almost every case where there is an application to build a superstore, some local people form protest groups to try to stop the development.