Urban areas are usually thought to be centers of business, commerce, industry, and population. Urbanized essentially means the proportion of the population living in urban places. Early in the Unites States history urban areas were far outnumbered by rural areas. Yet, every year more and more cities are considered urban. These cities were located close to transportation routes either waterways, rails, or roads. In the 1800's cities began to grow in importance as centers of commerce and industry due to transportation constraints in order to participate in these opportunities you had to live in the city center otherwise you were located in the rural periphery that supplied raw materials to cities population. The opportunities presented by industrialization increased the rural to urban migration and cities began to grow.
Rural To Urban Migration
By the middle of the 1900's cities began to sprawl out from the center into suburbs consequently city's population density began to decrease. People and businesses began to move out from the central city. This phenomena was facilitated by the broadening of transportation networks including the creation of subways and more roads. In the past few decades the increase in service related industries makes distance to the city center more flexible for businesses.
Suburban Sprawl has both costs and benefits. The slogan "Sprawl Costs Us All" has been used to describe the cost of necessary infrastructure, traffic, loss of prime agricultural land, and the increase in impervious surfaces that create both runoff problems and decrease infiltration of water into the land. The benefits suburbia offer are in the form of offering a way to own ones own home complete with yard and picket fence. Sprawl has become a continual process at the expense of the inner city that has been left to the poor while being abandoned by the middle class for the dream of owning a home.
Urbanization in Developing Countries
The process of urbanization has occurred differently in much of the developing world. Historically many of these countries were former colonies They have some of the highest rates of population growth and the largest urban areas. They are characterized as being poor having significantly less technology then the developed world, and a very rapid transition from rural to urban societies. In the United State the rural to urban migration was facilitated by large-scale industrialization and the need for labor. In the developing world this is not the case. Rather, population is placing a great deal of pressure on urban areas and without having the benefit of industrialization the lack of employment opportunities for the mass of urban migrants is undermining the ability of cities to incorporate people. The consequences of this lack of employment opportunities are growing urban areas a large percent of whose population is unemployed and living in poverty and forced to live in unsanitary squatter settlements.
Mid Atlantic RESAC: Urban Modeling and Future Growth Press Releases
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