Urbanization and Urban Settlement

Urban Areas: It is a human settlement with a high population density and

infrastructure of built environment. It is created through urbanization and is categorized by cities,
towns, conurbations or suburbs.

Urbanization: It is a process which involve two phases:

a. movement of people from rural to urban places where they involve in secondary activities

b. change in lifestyle that results from leaving the countryside

Urban Settlement: It is a densely populated area comprising mostly man made structures.

Factors or Causes of Urbanization

i. Natural Increase in Population

One important cause of rapid urbanization is the natural increase in population. The number by which the birth rate exceeds the death rate in urban area gives natural increase in population.  

ii. Migration from Rural Areas

In developing countries, urbanization usually occurs when people migrate from village to settle in cities in hope of gaining a better standard of living. Migration is influence by economic growth and development an by technological change and by conflict and social disruption.

iii. Boundary Changes

As cities expanded, the outlaying rural areas have been included in the urban areas. They may even continue to retain the most of the characteristics of villages but they are counted as urban population by virtue of being classified as urban areas.

iv. Industrialization

It is a trend representing the shift from old agricultural economy to novel non-agricultural economy which creates modernized society. Through industrial revolution, more people have been engaged in secondary activities and are attracted to move from rural to urban areas on the account of employment opportunities.

v. Commercialization

Commerce and trade play a major role in urbanization. The distribution of goods and services and commercial transcations in the modern era has developed the modern marketing institutions and exchange methods that have tremendously given rise to the growth of town and cities. Commercialization comes with the two perception that towns and cities offer better commercial opportunities and returns compared to the rural areas.

vi. Social benefit and services

There are numerous social benefit found in the life of towns and cities like education, better living standards, health care , etc. On this account, more and more people of rural area are prone to migrate into cities and towns for achieving those benefits.

vii. Modernization and changes in the mode of living

As urban area is becoming more technology known with highly sophisticated communication, infrastructure and liberalization, people believe that they can lead a happy life in cities. As a result, people migrate to other cities and the cities grow by absorbing the growing number of people.