And countries. Urbanization is the growth of cities, an increase in the proportion of the urban population in a country, region, or world. Urbanization is accompanied by a concentration of socio-economic functions in cities, an increase in their role in the entire life of society, the spread of an urban lifestyle and the formation of networks and settlement systems.

Modern urbanization - as a global process - has three common features that are characteristic of most countries.

The first feature is the rapid growth of the urban population (Table 22).

Table 22

Dynamics urban population world in the XX - early XXI century.

From the table it follows that during the XX century. The number of city dwellers in the world has increased 13 times! Only in 1950-1970. it increased by more than 80%, and in 1970-1990. - almost 70%. Nowadays, the urban population is growing at about 3 times the rate of the rural population due to mass Migrations to cities and the administrative transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. This trend should continue into the first quarter of the 21st century. According to forecasts, in 2025 the number of urban residents will exceed 5 billion people, and their share in the world population will rise to 61%. This means that the burden on the environment will increase even more.

The second feature is the continuing concentration of the urban population, primarily in large cities. This is explained by the nature of production, the complication of its ties with science, education, and the development of the non-productive sphere. Large cities usually satisfy the spiritual needs of people more fully, better provide an abundance and variety of goods and services, and access to information.

At the beginning of the XX century. in the world there were 360 ​​large cities (with a population of over 100 thousand inhabitants), in which only 5% of the total urban population lived. In the late 1980s there are already 2.5 thousand such cities, and their share in the world population has exceeded U3; by the beginning of the XXI century. the number of large cities reached 4 thousand. Among large cities, it is customary to highlight the largest million-plus cities with a population of over 1 million inhabitants. At the beginning of the XX century. there were only 10 of them, in the early 1980s. - more than 200, and by the beginning of the XXI century. became about 400. In Russia in 2009, there were 11 million-plus cities.

The third feature is the "spread" of cities, the expansion of their territory. The current stage of urbanization is especially characterized by the transition from a "point" city to urban agglomerations - compact spatial groupings of urban settlements, united by diverse and intensive industrial, labor and cultural ties. Capitals, large industrial, port, administrative and other centers usually become the cores of such agglomerations. Recently, to characterize the largest cities in the world, as a rule, data on the agglomerations formed by them are used, since such an approach is more correct (Table 23).

Many of these agglomerations have transformed into even larger formations - megalopolises (clusters of agglomerations), urbanized zones.

Levels and rates of urbanization. With the world average level of urbanization, which is now 50%, individual regions differ greatly in this indicator (Table 24).

The differences between individual countries are even greater.

Table 23

Agglomeration	Million inhabitants	Agglomeration	Million inhabitants
1. Tokyo	33,8	11. Osaka	16,7
2. Seoul	23,9	12. Kol kata	16,0
3. Mexico City	22,9	13. Karachi	15,7
4. Delhi	22,4	14. Guangzhou	15,3
5. Mumbai	22,3	15. Jakarta	15,1
6. New York	21,9	16. Cairo	14,8
7. Sao Paulo	21,0	17. Buenos Aires	13,8
8. Manila	19,2	18. Moscow	13,5
9. Los Angeles	18,0	19. Beijing	13,2
10. Shanghai	17,9	20. Dhaka	13,1

Table 24

Level of urbanization by region of the world in 2008

highly urbanized those countries where the proportion of the urban population exceeds 50% can be considered. This group includes virtually all economically developed countries, as well as many of the developing countries. Among them, the “champion” countries stand out, where the level of urbanization exceeds 80%, for example, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates.

Medium urbanized countries have a share of the urban population from 20 to 50%. This group includes most of the developing countries of Asia (China, India, Indonesia, etc.), Africa(Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, etc.) and some Latin American countries (Bolivia, Guatemala, etc.).

Weakly urbanized countries are countries where the proportion of the urban population is below 20%. It includes the most backward countries of the world, mainly in Africa. In some of them (Burundi), less than 10% of all residents live in cities.

Differences in the level of urbanization between developed and developing countries are very large: 75% and 42%, respectively. A completely different situation is emerging with the pace of urbanization. In the economically developed countries of the world and in some developing countries in Latin America, where the level of urbanization is very high, the proportion of the urban population is either not growing at all or is growing slowly. In developing countries, by contrast, in recent decades there has been a real “urban explosion”: both the number of cities and their population are growing rapidly here. For example, in 1990 there were already 115 “millionaire” agglomerations in Asia, 40 in Latin America, and 24 in Africa. Table 23 also shows that developing countries have already taken the lead in terms of the number of super-large agglomerations. If in 1950 only 7 of the 20 largest agglomerations of the world were located in developing countries, then in 2005 there were already 15 (including 6 of them were in the top ten).

As a result, the total number of city dwellers in this group of countries has increased from 304 million people in 1950 to 1.9 billion people in 2005, or 6.7 times, and in 2010 will most likely exceed 2.5 billion people. Already in 1975, the number of city dwellers in developing countries exceeded them number in developed countries, and by 2005 this preponderance increased to 1 billion people.

At the same time, however, it must be taken into account that the growth in the proportion of the urban population in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America is far ahead of the real development of these countries. It occurs largely due to the constant “pushing” of the surplus rural population into cities, especially large ones, where such migrants join the ranks of disadvantaged people living in poverty. Therefore, this type of urbanization is sometimes referred to as "false urbanization".

Questions and tasks for preparing for the exam

1. Explain the concept of "population explosion". Where and why did it spread?
2. What is called the reproduction (natural movement) of the population? Describe the first and second types of population reproduction and the features of their distribution.
3. What is included in the concept of "quality of the population"?
4. Name the largest peoples in the world.
5. Give a brief description of world religions and name the number of their adherents.
6. Show on the map the most and least populated areas of the world and explain the reasons for their occurrence. Tell us about the contrasts in the population density indicator related to large regions and countries.
7. Describe the geography of modern international migrations of the population.
8. What are the forms of urban and rural settlement?
9. Give examples of highly, medium and slightly urbanized countries and explain the patterns of their placement.
10. Name the largest cities in the world.

Maksakovskiy V.P., Petrova N.N., Physical and economic geography of the world. - M.: Iris-press, 2010. - 368 pp.: ill.

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Man is a being, of course, a social being, striving for the society of other people. That is why it continues to rapidly "flow" into big cities. On the other hand, man is a natural being. It is an integral part, a link of a natural, natural landscape. Thus, cities and - without industry and remain today the two main axes around which the life of modern society revolves.

In this article we will consider the concepts related to the section of urban studies. What is suburbanization, deurbanization and urbanization? What is the meaning of these three concepts?

The meaning of the concept of "urbanization"

The term "urbanization" comes from the Latin word "urbanus", which translates as "urban". Urbanization (in a broad sense) is understood as the growing role of the city in the life of a person and society. In a narrower sense, this is the process of urban population growth and the "flow" of residents from - to cities and metropolitan areas.

Urbanization, as a socio-economic phenomenon and process, began to be actively discussed in the middle of the 20th century, when the percentage of the urban population began to grow rapidly. The reason for this was the development of industry in cities, the emergence of new ones in them, as well as the development of cultural and educational functions in urban settlements.

Scientists identify several aspects of urbanization processes, namely:

• the outflow of the population from the countryside to the cities;
• transformation of villages and villages into urban-type settlements;
• the formation of large and integral suburban areas of settlement.

To the questions "what is suburbanization, urbanization, deurbanization, ruralization?" answers the science of geourban studies - one of the important sections of modern social geography.

The concept of "urbanization" is closely related to the so-called phenomenon of false urbanization, which is typical for such regions of the world as Latin America and Southeast Asia. What is false urbanization. In fact, this is an unjustified growth of cities, which is not accompanied by the necessary growth of jobs and the development of appropriate infrastructure. As a result, the rural population is simply "forced out" to large cities. False urbanization, as a rule, is accompanied by a surge in unemployment and the appearance within the city of the so-called "slums" - city blocks not intended for normal human life.

The level of urbanization in different countries of the world

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs annually prepares the next rating of urbanization of the countries of the world. These studies have been carried out since 1980.

The level of urbanization is the percentage of the urban population to the total population of a country. And it is not the same in different states of the world. Thus, the highest rates of urbanization (if you do not take into account the dwarf states, consisting of one city) are recorded in Qatar, Kuwait, Belgium and Malta. In all these countries, the rates of urbanization of the population exceed 95%. Also, the level of urbanization is quite high in Iceland, Argentina, Japan, Israel, Venezuela and Uruguay (above 90%).

Russia's figure in this rating, according to UN estimates, is 74%. At the bottom of the urbanization ranking are Papua New Guinea and Burundi (with urbanization rates of 12.6% and 11.5%, respectively). In Europe, the lowest urbanization rate is typical for Moldova (49 percent).

The concept of urban agglomeration

Urban agglomerations are a phenomenon that is inextricably linked with the process of urbanization. This is the process of combining neighboring urban settlements into one complex and integral system. Within this system, stable and intensive ties are formed: industrial, transport, scientific and cultural. Urban agglomerations are one of the natural stages of urbanization processes.

There are two main types of agglomerations:

• monocentric (formed on the basis of one central core city);
• polycentric (accumulation of several equivalent urban settlements).

The following distinguishing features are characteristic of the urban agglomeration:

1. Connection of the central city with other cities and settlements adjacent to it (without significant territorial gaps).
2. The share of built-up areas in the agglomeration must necessarily exceed the percentage of agricultural land.
3. Any agglomeration is characterized by daily pendulum migrations - labor, educational, cultural and tourist.

According to the UN, there are at least 450 urban agglomerations on our planet, each of which is home to at least one million people. The Tokyo metropolitan area is recognized as the largest agglomeration in the world, in which about 35 million people live. The leading countries in terms of the total number of urban agglomerations are: China, USA, India, Brazil and Russia.

Urban agglomerations in Russia

It is interesting that in Russia at the state level there is no accounting of urban agglomerations within the country. Therefore, the actual data on this matter may differ slightly from each other.

Nevertheless, it is customary to single out 22 agglomerations on the territory of Russia. The largest of them are the following (approximate population is indicated in brackets):

1. Moscow (about 16 million).
2. St. Petersburg (5.6 million).
3. Samara-Togliatti (2.3 million).
4. Yekaterinburg (2.2 million).
5. Rostov (1.7 million).

Russian urban agglomerations are characterized by high industrialization of the territory, a high level of infrastructure development, a large number of research and higher educational institutions. The main part of the agglomerations in Russia are monocentric, that is, they have one, pronounced center, which subordinates all other settlements and suburbs.

Suburbanization: definition of the concept

Now it is worth considering other concepts that are actively used in urban studies. Suburbanization - what is this concept and what is its essence?

This term came into active use in the second half of the twentieth century. Suburbanization is a phenomenon accompanied by the active development of suburbs - zones located around large metropolitan areas.

Toward the end of the last century, an increasing number of people began to move to the outskirts of cities, away from the noise of factories and dirty air and closer to natural landscapes. At the same time, such "settlers" do not begin to plow the land and raise chickens. They continue to work in the city, spending several hours every day to get to their place of work. Of course, suburbanization became possible only thanks to the development of mass motorization.

From urbanization to suburbanization!

Recently, The Economist published an interesting article called "The Planet of the Suburbs". According to the text of this article, suburbanization is nothing but "disguised" urbanization! Indeed, all over the world today, cities and megacities are growing exclusively at the expense of the suburbs. The Economist lists only two modern metropolitan areas as exceptions: London and Tokyo.

And now we can observe an interesting picture: if 30-40 years ago the outskirts became a "home" for the poorer segments of the population, today everything has changed diametrically. And now blocks of elite housing can be increasingly seen in suburban areas.

What is deurbanization?

Finally, one more concept needs to be dealt with. Dezurbanization is a process opposite to urbanization (from the French "dez" - means negation).

De-urbanization is characterized by the processes of population resettlement outside the cities. In a more global sense, this term also means a denial of the positive role of the city in society. The main goal of the theory of deurbanization is to eliminate all

Finally...

Urbanization, deurbanization, suburbanization... All these concepts are very closely related to each other. If urbanization is the process of increasing the role of the city in the life of society, then suburbanization is, on the contrary, the outflow of the population to suburban areas.

The process of urbanization of the world's population is underway.

Urbanization- this is a socio-economic process, expressed in the growth of urban settlements, the concentration of the population in them, especially in large cities, in the spread of the urban lifestyle to the entire network of settlements.

Hyperurbanization- these are zones of uncontrolled development of urban settlements and overload of the natural landscape (the ecological balance is disturbed).

False urbanization- quite often used to characterize the situation in developing countries. In this case, urbanization is associated not so much with the development of urban functions, but with the “pushing out” of the population from rural areas as a result of relative agrarian overpopulation.

Hyperurbanization is typical for developed countries, false urbanization - for developing countries.

Both of these problems are characteristic of Russia (false urbanization, to a lesser extent and in a slightly different form; in Russia, it is due to the inability of cities to provide the incoming population with the necessary social infrastructure).

Benefits of urbanization

The process of urbanization contributes to an increase in labor productivity, allows solving many social problems of society.

Negative aspects of urbanization

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the urbanization of the population. Urbanization is accompanied by the growth of large million-plus cities, environmental pollution near industrial centers, and deterioration of living conditions in the regions.

The technosphere was created for:

• Improve comfort
• Providing protection from natural negative influences

The process of urbanization and its features

The city did not immediately become the dominant form of settlement. For many centuries, urban forms of life were the exception rather than the rule, due to the dominance of such forms of production, which were based on subsistence farming and individual labor. So, in the era of classical slavery, the city was closely connected with landed property, with agricultural labor. In the feudal era, urban life still bore in itself the features of its antipode - agriculture, so urban settlements were scattered over a vast area and weakly interconnected. The predominance of the village as a form of settlement in this era was ultimately due to the weak level of development of the productive forces, which did not allow a person to break away from the earth in economic terms.

Relations between town and countryside begin to change under the influence of the development of productive forces. The objective basis of these processes was the transformation of urban production on the basis of a manufactory, and then a factory. Thanks to expanding urban production, the relative size of the urban population increased quite rapidly. The Industrial Revolution in Europe at the end of the 18th century - the first half of the 19th century. fundamentally changed the face of cities. Factory towns are becoming the most typical form of urban settlement. It was then that the road was opened to the rapid growth of the "settlement" environment, artificially created by man in the course of his production life. These shifts in production brought about a new historical phase in the development of settlement, characterized by the triumph of urbanization, which means an increase in the proportion of the country's population living in cities and associated mainly with industrialization. Especially high rates of urbanization were observed in the 19th century. through migration from rural areas.

In the modern world, an intensive process of formation of agglomerations, conurbations, megacities, urbanized regions continues.

Agglomeration- the accumulation of settlements, united into one whole by intensive economic, labor and socio-cultural ties. It is formed around large cities, as well as in densely populated industrial areas. in Russia at the beginning of the 21st century. there were about 140 large-scale agglomerations. They are home to 2/3 of the country's population, 2/3 of the industrial and 90% of Russia's scientific potential are concentrated.

Conurbation includes several coalescing or closely developing agglomerations (usually 3-5) with highly developed major cities. In Japan, 13 conurbations have been identified, including Tokyo, consisting of 7 agglomerations (27.6 million people), Nagoya - from 5 agglomerations (7.3 million people), Osaka, etc. The term "standard consolidated area" introduced in the USA in 1963 is similar.

Megalopolis- a system of settlements hierarchical in complexity and scale, consisting of a large number of conurbations and agglomerations. Megalopolises appeared in the middle of the 20th century. In UN terminology, a megalopolis is an entity with a population of at least 5 million inhabitants. At the same time, 2/3 of the territory of a megalopolis may not be built up. Thus, the Tokaido megalopolis consists of the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka conurbations with a length of about 800 km along the coast. Megalopolises include interstate entities, such as the Great Lakes megalopolis (USA-Canada) or the Donetsk-Rostov system of agglomerations (Russia-Ukraine). In Russia, the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod region of settlement can be called a megalopolis; the Ural megalopolis is born.

Urbanized region, which is formed by a grid of megalopolises, is considered to be a more complex, large-scale and territorially extensive settlement system. Among the emerging urbanized regions include London-Paris-Ruhr, the Atlantic coast of North America, etc.

The basis for the allocation of such systems are cities with a population of over 100 thousand people or more. A special place among them is occupied by “millionaire” cities. In 1900 there were only 10 of them, and now there are more than 400. It is cities with a million inhabitants that grow into agglomerations and contribute to the creation of more complex settlement and urban planning systems - conurbations, megalopolises and super-large formations - urbanized regions.

At present, urbanization is due to the scientific and technological revolution, changes in the structure of productive forces and the nature of labor, the deepening of links between activities, as well as information links.

Common features of urbanization in the world are:

• the preservation of interclass social structures and population groups, the division of labor, which fixes the population at the place of residence;
• intensification of socio-spatial ties that determine the formation of complex settlement systems and their structures;
• integration of the countryside (as the settlement sphere of the village) with the urban area and the narrowing of the functions of the village as a socio-economic subsystem;
• a high concentration of activities such as science, culture, information, management, and an increase in their role in the country's economy;
• increased regional polarization of economic urban planning and, as a result, social development within countries.

Features of urbanization in developed countries are as follows:

• slowdown in growth rates and stabilization of the share of the urban population in the total population of the country. Slowdown is observed when the proportion of the urban population exceeds 75%, and stabilization - 80%. This level of urbanization is noted in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and;
• stabilization and influx of population in certain regions of rural areas;
• cessation of the demographic growth of metropolitan agglomerations concentrating population, capital, socio-cultural and managerial functions. Moreover, in recent years, in the metropolitan agglomerations of the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Japan, there has been a process of deconcentration of production and population, which manifests itself in the outflow of the population from the cores of the agglomerations to their outer zones and even beyond the boundaries of the agglomerations;
• change in the ethnic composition of cities due to the ongoing mythology from developing countries. The high birth rate in migrant families significantly affects the decrease in the proportion of the "titular" population of cities;
• placement of new jobs in the outer zones of the agglomeration and even beyond.

Modern urbanization has led to a deepening of socio-territorial differences. A kind of payment for the concentration and economic efficiency of production in the conditions of urbanization was the territorial and social polarization constantly reproduced in the most developed countries between backward and advanced regions, between the central regions of cities and suburbs; the emergence of unfavorable environmental conditions and, as a result, the deterioration of the health of the urban population, especially the poor.

suburbanization(the rapid growth of the suburban area around large cities), the first signs of which appeared before the Second World War, affected primarily the wealthy and was a form of their flight from the social diseases of the big city.

Urbanization in Russia

in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. 20% of the country's urban population was concentrated in the central area, while in Siberia and the Far East the urban population did not exceed 3% with the cities of 100,000 inhabitants Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok; the scientific base of the vast region was Tomsk University. Settlement in rural areas, where 82% of the country's population lived, was characterized by extreme fragmentation, overpopulation of some areas and forced military-agricultural colonization of others (mainly national outskirts). In the North, in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, the population led a nomadic lifestyle. In rural settlements, there was a complete lack of social and cultural services, well-maintained roads. As a result, there was a huge social and spatial distance between the big cities, which concentrated almost the entire potential of culture, and the countryside. In 1920, the number of literate people was 44% of the country's population, including 32% of women, among the rural population - respectively 37 and 25%.

By the beginning of 1926, the settlement base of the country consisted of 1925 urban settlements, in which 26 million people lived, or 18% of the country's population, and about 860 thousand rural settlements. The frame of centers of settlement and cultural development was represented by only 30 cities, of which Moscow and Leningrad were millionaires.

The process of urbanization in the USSR was associated with a rapid concentration of production in large cities, the creation of numerous new cities in areas of new development and, accordingly, with the movement of huge masses of the population from village to city and its high concentration in large and largest urban settlements.

This stage of urbanization was characterized by the following negative features, due to the fact that the settlement and organization of society took place mainly on the basis of sectoral economic criteria: extensive growth of large cities, insufficient development of small and medium-sized cities; inattention and underestimation of the role of rural settlements as a social environment; slow overcoming of socio-territorial differences.

In modern Russia, the process of urbanization is also associated with serious contradictions. The trend towards property polarization of the population within urban communities leads to the segregation of the poor population, pushing it to the “sideline” of urban life. The economic crisis and political instability stimulate unemployment and internal migration, as a result of which, due to the excessive influx of population, many cities have significantly more people than they are able to "digest". Population growth in cities, far outstripping the demand for labor, is accompanied not only by absolute, but sometimes by relative expansion of those strata that do not participate in modern production. These processes lead to an increase in urban unemployment and the development in the cities of an unorganized sector of the economy engaged in small-scale production and services. In addition, the growth of the criminal sector, which includes both the "shadow" economy and organized crime, is noticeable.

Be that as it may, urban life and urban culture have become an organic environment of social habitat. At the beginning of the XXI century. the majority of Russians are native city dwellers. They will set the tone for the development of society, and the way the social management systems are formed now, how the social environment changes, the life of new generations will depend.

Urbanization is a historical process of increasing the role of cities in the development of society, which covers changes in the location of production and, above all, in the population distribution, its socio-professional, demographic structure, lifestyle, culture, etc. . The process of urbanization is inextricably linked with the growth of cities. A city is a large settlement that performs industrial, organizational, economic, managerial, cultural, transport and other non-agricultural functions.

The population of cities can determine their type:

large cities (population over 100 thousand people);

· millionaire cities (population exceeding 1 million people);

super-cities (or mega-cities). UN demographers include here cities with a population of more than 8 million, but the figure of 10 million is more commonly used.

Now there are about 85 thousand urban-type settlements in the world, of which 372 are “millionaire” cities and 21 agglomerations (the largest are Tokyo-Yokohama, Mexico City and Sao Paulo). An agglomeration is an accumulation around the center (big city) of closely located urban and rural settlements, united by intensive and stable ties. Recently, such forms of urban settlements as megalopolises and conurbations have appeared. Conurbations are formed by the merger of economically and populously equivalent cities. And megalopolises are formed as they coalesce with each other. Moreover, it is characteristic that the megalopolis is not a continuous urban development ─ approximately 90% of its area is open spaces.

Along with the process of urbanization, the processes of suburbanization and urbanization have recently been manifested. Suburbanization is the process of formation and development of the suburban area of ​​large cities, resulting in the formation of agglomerations. Urbanization is the process of transferring urban forms and living conditions to the countryside.

There is such a concept that characterizes the share of the urban population in the entire population of the country ─ this is the degree of urbanization. A state where the share of urban residents is more than 50% is highly urbanized, from 20 to 50% is medium urbanized, and less than 20% is low urbanized. Currently, the most urbanized states (except for such city-states as, for example, Hong Kong, Singapore, Monaco, where this figure reaches 100%) are Kuwait (98.3% of the population lives in cities), Bahrain (96.2%) , Qatar (95.3%) and Malta (95%). The least urbanized countries include countries in Africa and Asia, especially Burundi (9.7%), Bhutan (10.8%), Trinidad and Tobago (11.9%) and Uganda (12.5% ​​of the urban population). In Belarus, this figure is 72% (according to the 1999 census).

The following trends in the development of urbanization at this stage can be distinguished:

Steady growth in the number of cities and an increase in their population;

· strengthening the concentration of population, production and cultural life in large and major cities;

· sprawl of cities across the territory, the emergence of megalopolises and agglomerations.

Now urbanization is developing at an accelerated pace, and the geography of this phenomenon is quite wide and diverse; This process has already spread to all countries and continents. Qualitative differences are observed between urban areas in industrialized and developing countries.

If we talk about the geography of this process, then we can say that usually the level of urbanization directly depends on the degree of economic development of the country. However, one can name such exceptions as Djibouti ─ 85.6%, Jordan ─ 81%, Iceland ─ 92.7% of the urban population, where, despite the weak industrial development, the level of urbanization is quite high.

The modern type of urbanization in economically developed countries is not only a rapid increase in the proportion of the urban population, but also the spread of new forms of urban settlement ─ agglomerations and megalopolises, and recently the growth of such settlements in peripheral areas has prevailed.

In economically developed countries, the process of urbanization has practically stabilized and in some of them it is already close to 90%. Many experts attribute this to deurbanization, as a result of which the growth rate of the urban population decreased to 0.6-0.8%.

As the centers of world urbanization, 3 “centers” are distinguished ─ Western Europe, the USA and Japan. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, a trend towards the strengthening of the Southeast Asian vector in world urbanization is already clearly visible. This is due to an increase in the number of urban residents in these countries (now about half of the city dwellers are concentrated in Asian countries).

Three parts of the world - Australia and Oceania, America and Europe - are dominated by urban dwellers; at the same time, the population of African and Asian countries creates a preponderance of the village over the city on average in the world. However, it should be noted that it is in the countries of Asia and Africa that the greatest growth of the urban population occurs. Unfortunately, due to “false urbanization” (an increase in the number of urban residents without increasing the level of urbanization), since migrants maintain their former way of life in the so-called "poverty belts".

Urbanization in developing countries covers more and more territories, but still the proportion of city dwellers in them is much lower. In the least developed, the level of urbanization barely reaches 10%, but in some regions, due to natural, historical and economic reasons, the rate of urbanization is quite high (for example, in many countries of Latin America). In addition, the process of urbanization in such countries is very fast, and these rates even outpace the growth of city dwellers in economically developed countries - on average, they are about 3.5% per year, i.e. 4-5 times higher than in developed countries.

As the industrial growth of developing countries, their degree of urbanization will tend to the level of industrialized countries.

Land and water resources of the world

I) Land is a universal natural resource, without which no branch of human economic activity can practically exist. Features of land resources in comparison with other natural resources. resources: they are practically impossible to move, they are exhaustible and, moreover, limited to a certain territory.

Of particular value to people is the topmost layer of the earth - the soil, which has fertility, the ability to produce biomass (it can be both natural and artificial, supported by people).

Land fund - the totality of all lands within a particular territory (from a small area to the entire earth's surface), subdivided according to the type of economic use. The entire land fund of the planet is usually estimated at 149 million km2 = the entire land area. In most sources - 130-135 million km2, without the area of ​​Antarctica and Greenland.

The structure of the world land. fund:

1. Agricultural land - only 37%, including the most valuable lands under arable land and perennial crops (88% of the necessary food products) account for 11%, pastures - 26% (10% of all world agricultural production)

2. Forest land - 32%. Their significance - climate-forming, water protection, forestry - is very high. However, in the supply of food, their role is purely auxiliary (hunting, fishing, etc.)

3. Other lands - 31% (very many). This category includes lands of very different productivity and households. use. Land under residential development, industrial and infrastructure facilities, mine workings (quarries, mines, dumps), etc. - 2.5-3% of land. fund. The vast majority of other lands are unproductive and unproductive lands - deserted deserts, high mountains, rocky outcrops, areas under glaciers and water bodies, etc.

The structure of the earth. funds by major regions:

1. The largest share of cultivated land and land occupied by residential, industrial and transport development in its land. The fund is held by Foreign Europe (29% and 5% respectively). For comparison, the corresponding figures for Australia and Oceania are 5% and 1%, and for the CIS, 10% and 1%.

2. The share of pastures is especially high in the structure of land fund in Australia - 54% (North America - 16%, CIS - 17%).

3. The share of forests is maximum in South America - 52% (Foreign Asia - 17%, Australia and Oceania - 18%).

4. The largest share of unproductive and unproductive land in Asia is 42% (Foreign Europe - 17%, South America - 20%)

The record-breaking countries in terms of the share of arable land in the land fund are Ukraine (56.9%), India (55.9%), Bangladesh and Denmark (56-57%)

In terms of the share of pastures, Kazakhstan (70%), Australia and Argentina (50-55%), Mongolia (75%) stand out

Share of other land - sub-Saharan Libya (91%) and Algeria (82%)

The question of the provision of land with resources is also related to the characteristics of the structure and size of the land fund. (calculated in hectares per capita). The world average is 2 ha/person. Australia - 30, CIS - 8, South Am - 5.3, North Am - 4.5, Africa - 1.25, Europe - 0.9, Asia - 0.8 ha/person.

Provision of arable land. The world average is 0.2 ha/person. Australia and Oceania - 1.8, CIS - 0.8, North Am - 0.6, South Am - 0.35, Europe - 0.25, Africa - 0.22, Asia - 0.13.

Problems - the use of productive land for construction, etc., land degradation due to improper land use, their use "for depletion", erosion, waterlogging, salinization, leaching, dust storms, desertification.

II) Water resources - in a broad sense - the entire volume of hydrosphere water contained in rivers, lakes, glaciers, seas and oceans, in underground horizons and the atmosphere (inexhaustible). The oceans - 71% of the total area of ​​​​the planet + glaciers, rivers, lakes, etc. The entire volume of the hydrosphere is 1390 million km3 (for one person - 220 million m3). But the use of most of these waters is very difficult (the World Ocean - 96% of the volume, glaciers 2% and groundwater 2%).

In a narrow sense, water resources are fresh waters suitable for consumption. (2.5% of all waters of the hydrosphere). The main source of fresh water supply is river channel waters, their share is extremely small (surface waters of the continents: rivers, swamps, lakes - 0.02%), their volume = 2100 km2. per year, the volume of water in the rivers is renewed about 23 times, so the river runoff resources = approximately 41 thousand km3/year. More than half of them drain into the sea, so that the resources actually available for use do not exceed 15,000 km3.

Distribution by regions of total river flow: Asia (Yangtze, Ganges, Brahmaputra rivers) - 11 thousand km3, SAm (Amazon, Orinoco, Parana) - 10.5, CAm (Mississippi) - 7, CIS (Yenisei, Lena) - 5, 3, Africa (Congo, Zambezi) - 4.2, Austria and Oak - 1.6, Europe - 1.4 thousand km3.

Top 10 countries in terms of freshwater resources: Brazil, Russia, Canada, China, Indonesia, USA, Bangladesh, India, Venezuela, Myanmar.

Water supply. Calculation either for 1 km2 of territory, or for 1 person. The world average is 8 thousand m3/year. Above this level - Austria. and OK - 83, SAAM - 32, CIS and CAm - 15 each. The indicators are lower - Africa - 5.7, Europe - 4.1, Asia - 3.1.

About 60% of the total land area on Earth is in areas where there is not enough fresh water.

The countries with the highest water availability are Suriname (470 thousand m3/year), DR Congo (310), Guyana, Papua New Guinea, Gabon, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia. 7 of them are equatorial, tropical, subtropical belts.

Countries with the lowest water supply: Egypt (0.96 thousand m 3 / year), Burundi, Algeria, Tunisia, Israel, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia (0.12), Libya (0.1), Kuwait (0.011) .

To imagine the real water supply, it is necessary to take into account the size of water consumption. During the 20th century, the global water supply increased by 6.8 times (2005 - 6000 km3). Nearly 1.2 billion people now lack access to clean drinking water. Water consumption structure: 70% of fresh water - agriculture, 20% - industry, 10% - household needs. It is in cx that the irretrievable water consumption is very high. Nowadays, humanity already uses more than ¼ of the actually available water resources, and irretrievable losses account for more than ½ of their total consumption. The largest water supply – Turkmenistan (7000 m3 per person per year), Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, etc. (countries with irrigated agriculture)

The limited and uneven distribution of fresh water resources over the earth's surface, the growing pollution of surface and ground waters are one of the components of the global resource problem. Overcoming scarcity - through rational use of .

The earth is one of the main resources of nature, the source of life. The world land fund is about 13.5 billion hectares. In its structure, cultivated lands, meadows and pastures, forests and shrubs, unproductive and unproductive lands are distinguished. Of great value are cultivated lands, which provide 88% of the food necessary for mankind. Cultivated lands are mainly concentrated in the forest, forest-steppe and steppe zones of the planet. Of considerable importance are meadows and pastures, which provide 10% of the food consumed by humans.

The structure of the land fund is constantly changing. It is influenced by two opposite processes: the artificial expansion of land by man and the degradation of land due to natural process.

Every year, 6-7 million hectares of land fall out of agricultural circulation due to soil erosion and desertification. As a result of these processes, the load on the land is constantly increasing, and the availability of land resources is constantly falling. The least secured land resources include Egypt, Japan, South Africa, etc.

The biomass of the Earth is created by plant and animal organisms. Plant resources are represented by both cultivated and wild plants. Among the wild vegetation, forest vegetation predominates, which forms forest resources.

Forest resources are characterized by two indicators:

1) the size of the forest area (4.1 billion hectares);

2) standing wood reserves (330 billion hectares).

This reserve increases annually by 5.5 billion m3. At the end of the XX century. forests began to be cut down for arable land, plantations and construction. As a result, the area of ​​forests is reduced annually by 15 million hectares. This leads to a reduction in the woodworking industry.

The forests of the world form two huge belts. The northern forest belt is located in the temperate and subtropical zones. The most densely forested countries of this belt are Russia, USA, Canada, Finland, Sweden. The southern forest belt is located in the zone of the tropical and equatorial belts. The forests of this belt are concentrated in three areas: in the Amazon, in the Congo basins and in Southeast Asia.

Resources of the animal world are also classified as renewable. Together, plants and animals form the genetic fund (gene pool) of the planet. One of the most important tasks of our time is the preservation of biological diversity, the prevention of "erosion" of the gene pool.

The water shell of the globe - oceans, seas, rivers, lakes - is called the hydrosphere. It covers 70.8% of the earth's surface. The volume of the hydrosphere reaches 1370.3 mln. rivers, swamps and lakes.

Water resources are the main source of meeting human needs for water. Until recently, water was considered one of the free gifts of nature, only in areas of artificial irrigation, it has always had a high price. The water reserves of the planet are 47 thousand m3. Moreover, only half of the water reserves can actually be used. Fresh water resources make up only 2.5% of the total volume of the hydrosphere. In absolute terms, this is 30-35 million m3, which is 10 thousand times more than the needs of mankind. But the vast majority of fresh water is conserved in the glaciers of Antarctica, Greenland, in the ice of the Arctic, in mountain glaciers and forms an "emergency reserve", which is not yet suitable for use. River waters (“water rations”) remain the main source of meeting the needs of mankind in fresh water. It is not so significant and you can actually use about half of this amount. The main consumer of fresh water is agriculture. Almost 2/3 of water is used in agriculture for land irrigation. The constant increase in water consumption creates a threat of fresh water scarcity. Such a shortage is experienced by the countries of Asia, Africa, Western Europe.

The role of the ocean in people's lives

It is difficult to overestimate the role of the World Ocean in the life of mankind. It largely determines the face of the planet as a whole, including its climate, the water cycle on Earth. In the ocean, there were vital waterways connecting the continents and islands. Its biological resources are colossal. More than 160 thousand species of animals and about 10 thousand species of algae live in the World Ocean. The annual reproducible number of commercial fish is estimated at 200 million tons, of which approximately 1/3 is caught. More than 90% of the world's catch comes from the coastal shelf, especially in the temperate and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The share of the Pacific Ocean in the world catch is about 60%, the Atlantic - about 35%.

The shelf of the World Ocean has huge reserves of oil and gas, large reserves of iron-manganese ores and other minerals. Mankind is just beginning to use the energy resources of the World Ocean, including the energy of the tides. The World Ocean accounts for 94% of the volume of the hydrosphere. Desalination of sea waters is associated with the solution of many water problems of the future.

Unfortunately, humanity does not always use the natural resources of the oceans wisely. In many areas, its biological resources are depleted. A significant part of the water area is polluted with anthropogenic waste, primarily oil products.

To solve the problems of water supply, a person uses several ways: for example, he builds reservoirs; saves water through the introduction of technologies that reduce its losses; carries out desalination of sea water, redistribution of river runoff in moisture-rich areas, etc.

River flow is also used to obtain hydraulic potential. There are three types of hydraulic potential: gross (30-35 trillion kW/h), technical (20 trillion kW/h), economic (10 trillion kW/h). The economic potential is a part of the gross and technical hydraulic potential, the use of which is justified. The countries of foreign Asia, Latin America, North America, Europe and Australia have the greatest economic hydraulic potential. However, in Europe this potential has already been used by 70%, in Asia - by 14%, in Africa - by 3%.

The oceans contain a large group of natural resources. First, it is sea water, which contains 75 chemical elements. Secondly, these are mineral resources, such as oil, natural gas, solid minerals. Thirdly, energy resources (tidal energy). Fourth, biological resources (animals and plants). Fourthly, these are the biological resources of the World Ocean. The biomass of the ocean has 140 thousand species, and the mass is estimated at 35 billion tons. The most productive resources of the Norwegian, Bering, Okhotsk and Japanese seas. Water resources management. One of the directions for solving water problems is to attract the currently underused water resources of desalinated waters of the World Ocean, groundwater and glacier waters for the purposes of water supply. At present, the share of desalinated water in the total volume of world water supply is small - 0.05%, which is explained by the high cost and significant energy intensity of desalination processes. Even in the United States, where the number of desalination plants has increased 30-fold since 1955, desalinated water accounts for only 7% of water consumption. In Kazakhstan, in 1963, the first pilot-industrial distiller was put into operation in the city of Aktau (Shevchenko). Due to the high cost, desalination is used only where surface or underground fresh water resources are completely absent or extremely difficult to access, and their transportation turns out to be more expensive compared to desalination of high salinity water directly on site. In the future, water desalination will be carried out in a single technical complex with the extraction of useful components from it: sodium chloride, magnesium, potassium, sulfur, boron, bromine, iodine, strontium, non-ferrous and rare metals, which will increase the economic efficiency of desalination plants. An important reserve of water supply is groundwater. The greatest value for society is fresh groundwater, which makes up 24% of the volume of the fresh part of the hydrosphere. Brackish and saline underground waters can also serve as a reserve in water supply when they are used in a mixture with fresh water or after their artificial desalination. The factors limiting underground water intake include: 1) uneven distribution of water over the territory of the earth; 2) difficulties in processing saline groundwater; 3) rapidly declining rates of natural renewal with an increase in the depth of aquifers. Utilization of water in the solid phase (ice, ice sheets) is expected, firstly, by increasing the water yield of mountain glaciers, and secondly, by transporting ice from the polar regions. However, both of these methods are practically difficult to implement and the environmental consequences of their implementation have not yet been studied. Thus, at the present stage of development, the possibilities of attracting additional volumes of water resources are limited. The uneven distribution of water resources across the globe should also be pointed out. The highest availability of river and underground runoff resources falls on the equatorial belt of South America and Africa. In Europe and Asia, where 70% of the world's population lives, only 39% of river waters are concentrated. The largest rivers in the world are the Amazon (annual flow 3780 km3), Congo (1200 km3), Mississippi (600 km3), Zamberi (599 km3), Yangtze (639 km3), Irrawaddy (410 km3), Mekong (379 km3), Brahmaputra ( 252 km3) . In Western Europe, the average annual surface runoff is 400 km3, including about 200 km3 in the Danube, 79 km3 on the Rhine, and 57 km3 on the Rhone. The largest lakes in the world are the Great American Lakes (total area - 245 thousand km3), Victoria (68 thousand km3), Tanganyika (34 thousand km3), Nyasa (30.8 thousand km3). The Great American Lakes contain 23,000 km3 of water, the same amount as Baikal. To characterize the distribution of hydro resources, the volume of total river flow per unit of territory (1 km3) and population is calculated. For 1 million inhabitants of the USSR, there is 5.2 km3 of total sustainable runoff (including regulated by reservoirs) against 4 km3 for the entire globe; 19 km3 of total river flow versus 13 km3; 4.1 sustainable groundwater flow versus 3.3 km3. The average water supply per 1 km2 is 212 thousand m3 in the CIS, and 278 thousand m3 in the world. The main ways to manage water resources are the creation of reservoirs and the territorial transfer of runoff. .

6. Urban and rural population of the world. Urbanization, problems of urbanization in the modern world

1. Cities and rural settlements as forms of settlement.

2. Dynamics of the ratio of the urban and rural population.

3. Urbanization as a global process and its stages.

4. Common features of urbanization and examples of their manifestation.

5. Levels and rates of urbanization in countries and regions.

6. Problems of urbanization.

tests for self-control on the topic “Urban and rural population of the world. Urbanization."

1. According to the nature of settlement, the population of the world can be divided into urban and rural.

rural settlement arose with the development of agriculture. Currently, more than half of the world's population lives in rural areas. There are 15-20 million rural settlements. They are different in size, form, specialization of the economy.

There are two forms of rural settlement:

• group (village) - most typical for the countries of Central and Southern Europe, Russia, Japan, as well as for most developing countries;
• scattered (farm) - most common in the USA, Canada, Australia, Northern Europe.

In areas of nomadic pastoralism, there are no permanent settlements at all.

urban settlement . Cities arose in ancient times in the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates, and then in the lower reaches and the delta of the Nile as centers of administrative power, trade and crafts. With the development of industry, industrial production was concentrated in them, infrastructure was formed, and transport links developed. Cities gradually became centers of attraction for the entire surrounding territory, their role in the territorial organization of the economy increased. Today, the functions of large cities have expanded. They are industrial, cultural, scientific, administrative centers, transport hubs. Most cities are multifunctional. However, there are cities that have a "specialization" - single-function. These include mining centers, resort towns, scientific centers, and some capitals.

The definition of a city varies from country to country. For example, in the United States, a settlement of more than 2.5 thousand people is considered a city, in India - over 5 thousand, in the Netherlands - 20 thousand, Japan - 30 thousand, and in Sweden, Denmark, Finland - only more than 200 people. In Russia, not only the number of inhabitants is taken into account, but also the employment rate (industry, service sector).

Currently, the distribution of the population is increasingly determined by the geography of cities, they are gradually becoming the main form of human settlement.

2. This is confirmed by the change in the ratio of the urban and rural population. Thus, during the 20th century, the urban population increased from 220 million people to 2276 million people, and the proportion of urban residents in the total population increased from 14% to 45%. At the same time, the share of the rural population fell from 86% to 55%, respectively.

3. The process of urban population growth, the increase in the number of cities and their consolidation, the emergence of networks and systems of cities, as well as the increasing role of cities in the modern world is called urbanization. Urbanization is the most important socio-economic process of our time. There are three stages in its development:

1. first half of the 20th century. This stage is characterized by an acceleration in the growth of the urban population and the spread of urbanization to almost all regions of the world;
2. second half of the 20th century. This stage is characterized by an even greater acceleration of urban population growth, the development of large cities, the transition from a point city to an agglomeration (territorial grouping of cities and rural settlements), as well as the formation of megalopolises (the merger of urban agglomerations), which leads to the spread of an urban lifestyle to a rural one. terrain.

4. Urbanization as a global process has common features that are characteristic of most countries.

Features of urbanization	Display examples
1. Rapid urban population growth	During the second half of the 20th century, the share of the urban population increased by 16% (at the same time, the number of urban population increases by 50 million people annually).
2. Population concentration mainly in big cities	At the beginning of the 20th century there were 360 ​​large cities (over 100 thousand people), by now - more than 2500 The number of millionaire cities has exceeded 200. 20 cities in the world have a population of more than 10 million people.
3. "Sprawl" of cities, expansion of their territory	Formation of agglomerations. For example, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, New York with a population of 16-20 million people. Formation of megalopolises: Boswash (45 million people), Tokaido (60 million people), etc.

5. While there are common features, the process of urbanization in different countries has its own characteristics, which are expressed in the level and pace of urbanization.

The level of urbanization in different regions of the world is different. It is highest in North America, Foreign Europe, Latin America and Australia (71-75%); a low level is in Foreign Asia (especially in South and Southeast) and Africa (27-34%).

In terms of urbanization There is a sharp difference between developed and developing countries. In developing countries, the growth rate of the urban population is 4.5 times higher than in developed countries. They are highest in Africa and Foreign Asia, in countries where the level of urbanization today is the lowest. The high rate of growth in the number of city dwellers in developing countries has been called the "urban explosion". It is accompanied by an increase in the number of large cities and millionaire cities.

A feature of the process of urbanization in developed countries has become the phenomenon suburbanization- moving part of the urban population to the suburbs. In the US, 60% of the inhabitants of agglomerations live in the suburbs. This is due to the deterioration of environmental conditions in large cities, the rise in the cost of infrastructure.

6. Environmental problems of cities are the main problems of urbanization. Cities provide 80% of all atmospheric emissions and E/4 of the total volume of all environmental pollution.

All cities in the world annually "throw" into the environment up to 3 billion tons of solid waste, over 500 m3 of industrial and domestic wastewater, about 1 billion tons of aerosols.

Large cities and agglomerations have a particularly strong impact on the environment, their polluting and thermal effects can be traced at a distance of 50 km.

In addition, cities change natural landscapes. They form urban anthropogenic landscapes.

Another problem of urbanization is that this process is spontaneous and difficult to manage. The "urban explosion" in developing countries is leading to so-called "slum urbanization", associated with the influx of the poor rural population into large cities.

Efforts are being made in developed countries to regulate the process of urbanization. Various measures are being taken to protect and improve the urban environment. This is an interdisciplinary problem, and its solution requires the participation of various specialists.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

1. Why has the pace of urbanization slowed down in developed countries?

The rate of urbanization is directly related to its level. In developed countries, the level of urbanization is high, the share of the urban population in many countries reaches 80% or more, so further growth in the share of the urban population is almost impossible. Moreover, in many developed countries there is a process of suburbanization (resettlement to the suburbs).

2. Why have cities become the main form of human settlement in the modern world?

Cities have become the main form of human settlement, since it is in them that industrial production and infrastructure are concentrated, they are scientific, administrative and cultural centers, and the main transport routes intersect in them.

3. Explain the concept of "false urbanization".

The concept of "false urbanization" is associated with a sharp increase in the proportion of the urban population in developing countries, in which the rural population is "pushed out" to the cities from overpopulated agrarian areas. However, with this phenomenon, there is no development of urban functions that characterize the global process of urbanization.

The distribution of the population on the territory of the Earth.

demographic policy.

In the second half of the XX century.

world population growth rates have increased dramatically due to advances in health care and reduced mortality. By the end of the century, the world population is increasing by more than 90 million people annually. Such a sharp increase in population has been called the ʼʼpopulation explosionʼʼ. At the same time, the "population explosion" occurred mainly in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, which are characterized by the second type of population reproduction - they account for 90% of the total world population growth.

The rapid population growth in these countries has created acute problems related to the critical importance of providing people with jobs, housing, medical care, etc. In countries with low population growth (for example, France, Germany), problems arise, associated with the "aging of the nation" - an increase in the proportion of older people in the age structure of the population. For this reason, today many countries of the world are pursuing a targeted demographic policy - a set of measures (economic, propaganda, etc.) aimed at regulating the birth rate in order to increase or reduce natural population growth.

The population of the Earth is very unevenly distributed: 70% of the population is concentrated on 7% of the land area.

The population density in these areas is several hundred people per 1 km2. At the same time, on most of the inhabited land, the population density does not exceed 5 people / km2, and 15% of the land is not inhabited at all. This uneven distribution of the population is caused by a number of interrelated factors: natural, historical, demographic and socio-economic. Since ancient times, people settled in areas with favorable conditions for human life, but as the economy developed, its location began to have a decisive influence on the distribution of the population.

People settle in areas with developed industry, agriculture, along transport routes. Also, high or low natural growth significantly affects the population density of people. Today, half of humanity lives in a 200-kilometer seaside strip. The largest densely populated regions of the world are currently South and Southeast Asia, Europe and the Northeast of the United States, as well as the West African region (Nigeria, Benin, Ghana).

At the same time, there are vast territories (in North America, in northern Asia, in Australia, in northern Africa), where the average population density is less than 10 people / km2.

The process of urban population growth, the increase in the number of cities and their consolidation, the emergence of networks and systems of cities, as well as the increasing role of cities in the modern world is commonly called urbanization. Urbanization is the most important socio-economic process of our time.

There are three stages in its development:

1. the initial stage is the 19th century. The process of urbanization has begun in Europe and North America;
2. first half of the 20th century. This stage is characterized by the acceleration of urban population growth and the spread of urbanization to almost all regions of the world;
3. second half of the 20th century.

   This stage is characterized by an even greater acceleration in the growth rate of the urban population, the development of large cities, the transition from a point city to an agglomeration (a territorial grouping of cities and rural settlements), as well as the formation of megalopolises (the merger of urban agglomerations), which leads to spreading the urban way of life to the countryside.

Urbanization as a global process has common features that are characteristic of most countries.

Features of urbanization	Display examples
1. Rapid urban population growth	Over the second half of the 20th century, the share of the urban population increased by 16% (at the same time, the number of urban population increases by 50 million people annually)
2. Population concentration mainly in big cities	At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 360 ​​large cities (over 100 thousand people), by now - more than 2500. The number of millionaire cities has exceeded 200. 20 cities in the world have a population of more than 10 million people.
3. "Sprawl" of cities, expansion of their territory	Formation of agglomerations. For example, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, New York with a population of 16-20 million people. Formation of megalopolises: Boswash (45 million people), Tokaido (60 million people), etc.

Read also

— Common features of urbanization and examples of their manifestation.

Distribution of the population on the territory of the Earth.

demographic policy. In the second half of the XX century. the growth rate of the world's population has risen sharply on the back of advances in health care and declining mortality. The world population by the end of the century annually… [read more].

20 countries of the world with the highest level of urbanization

20 most urbanized countries in the world wikipedia
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COMPARISON OF URBAN AND RURAL POPULATION

1. Urban population: increasing role.

From history courses, you know that cities arose in ancient times in the deltas of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates as centers of administrative power, trade and crafts, as military fortifications. With the development of capitalism and the growth of large-scale machine industry, transport and the world market, industry was increasingly concentrated in them, many cities became transport hubs and trade and distribution centers.

Their role as administrative and cultural centers also increased. In the second half of the XX century. the functions of cities have expanded even more - primarily due to the branches of the non-productive sphere. Usually a modern city performs several functions. But there are also single-functional cities - mining, scientific, resort and even metropolitan. Some cities were specially built to become capitals.
Nowadays, the distribution of the population is increasingly determined by the geography of cities, the total number of which
around the world is in the tens of thousands.

Cities have an increasing influence on the entire area around them - both the natural environment and rural settlements. It is no coincidence that N. N. Baransky called the cities the "commanding staff" of the territory of each country.

2. The concept of urbanization.

Urbanization is one of the most important socio-economic processes of our time.
Urbanization (from lat. urbs - city) is the growth of cities, the increase in the proportion of the urban population in the country, region, world, the emergence and development of increasingly complex networks and systems of cities.

Consequently, urbanization is a historical process of increasing the role of cities in the life of society, its gradual transformation into a predominantly urban one in terms of the nature of work, the lifestyle and culture of the population, and the specifics of the location of production.

Urbanization is one of the most important components of socio-economic development.
Modern urbanization as a global process has three common features that are characteristic of most countries.
The first feature is the rapid growth of the urban population, especially in the less developed countries.

Example. About 14% of the world's population lived in cities, 29% in the city, and 45% in the city. On average, the urban population is increasing annually by about 60 million people.

V., according to the forecasts of demographers, the share of citizens should be 47.5%.

The second feature is the concentration of population and economy mainly in big cities. This is explained primarily by the nature of production, the complication of its links with science and education.

In addition, large cities usually satisfy people's spiritual needs more fully, better provide an abundance and variety of goods and services, and access to information repositories. "Big cities," wrote the famous French architect Le Corbusier, "are spiritual workshops where the best works of the universe are created."

At the beginning of the XX century. there were 360 ​​large cities in the world (with a population of over 100 thousand inhabitants), in which only 5% of the total population lived. At the end of the 80s. there were already 2.5 thousand such cities, and their share in the world population exceeded 1/3.

Urbanization of Foreign Europe

By the beginning of the XXI century. The number of large cities will obviously reach 4,000.

Among large cities, it is customary to single out the largest "millionaire" cities with a population of over 1 million inhabitants. Historically, the first such city was Rome in the time of Julius Caesar. At the beginning of the XX century. there were only 10 at the beginning
80s - more than 200, century - 325, and by the end of the century their number, apparently, will exceed 400.

In Russia c. There are 13 such cities.

The third feature is the "sprawl" of cities, the expansion of their territory. Modern urbanization is especially characterized by the transition from a compact ("point") city to urban agglomerations - territorial groupings of urban and rural settlements. The cores of the largest urban agglomerations most often become the capitals, the most important industrial and port centers.

There were only three urban agglomerations in the world with a population of over 10 million people—Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai. There are already 12 such "super-cities" in V., and their number is expected to increase to 20.

At the same time, Tokyo has been and remains the largest agglomeration of the world, but their subsequent order should noticeably change.

Many of these agglomerations are already being transformed into even larger entities - urbanized areas and zones.

Levels and rates of urbanization: how to regulate them?

Despite the presence of common features of urbanization as a global process in different countries and regions, it has its own characteristics, which are primarily expressed in different levels and rates of urbanization.
According to the level of urbanization, all countries of the world can be divided into three large groups.

But the main watershed passes nevertheless between more and less developed countries. In the late 90s. in developed countries, the level of urbanization averaged 75%, and in developing countries -41%.
The pace of urbanization largely depends on its level. In most economically developed countries that have reached a high level of urbanization, the proportion of the urban population has recently grown relatively slowly, and the number of inhabitants in capitals and other largest cities, as a rule, even decreases.

Many city dwellers now prefer to live not in the centers of large cities, but in suburbs and rural areas.

This is due to the rise in the cost of engineering equipment, dilapidated infrastructure, the extreme complication of transport problems, and environmental pollution.
But urbanization continues to develop "in depth", acquiring new forms.
In developing countries, where the level of urbanization is much lower, it continues to grow "in breadth" and the urban population is growing rapidly.

Now they account for more than 4/5 of the total annual increase in the number of urban residents, and the absolute number of city dwellers has already far exceeded their number in economically developed countries.

Example. In terms of the total number of urban residents, developing countries caught up with economically developed countries as early as the mid-1970s. And by the end of the 90s. this preponderance has already become more than twofold: 2 billion and 900 million citizens.

Developing countries now also have a large
most cities-millionaires and "super-cities". Particularly large (up to 1/2) is the share of foreign Asia.

This phenomenon, known in science as the "urban explosion", has become one of the most important factors in the entire socio-economic development of developing countries. However, the population growth of cities in these regions is far ahead of their real development. It occurs largely due to the constant "pushing" of the surplus rural population into the cities, especially large ones.

At the same time, the poor usually settle on the outskirts of large cities, where there are belts of poverty, belts of slums. Such, as is sometimes said, "slum urbanization" has taken on very large proportions.
That is why a number of international documents speak of an urbanization crisis in developing countries, where it continues to be largely spontaneous and disordered.
In economically developed countries, on the contrary, great efforts are being made to regulate the process of urbanization and manage it.

In this work, which is often carried out by trial and error, architects, demographers, geographers, economists, sociologists, and representatives of many other sciences participate along with government agencies. According to one of the researchers, "everyone rushes into the same stream, only from different parts of the coast."
As one of the ways to solve the problem of big cities, ultra-tall buildings are being built and designed.

Semi-fantastic projects are also put forward for the construction of underground cities, floating cities, underwater cities, cone cities, tree cities, tower cities, funnel cities, bridge cities, etc.

4. Rural population: village and farm.

Despite the rapid growth of cities, 1/2 of the world's population still lives in rural areas, and the total number of rural settlements is 15-20 million.
There are two main forms of rural settlement: group and scattered.

Their distribution depends on historical, economic development, on the zonal features of nature.
The group (village) form of settlement prevails in Russia, in foreign Europe, China, Japan, and in the vast majority of developing countries (see Figure 19). At the same time, the layout of villages can be very different. Farms are most common in the USA, Canada, Australia. There are also mixed forms of settlement, and in the areas of nomadic pastoralism there are no permanent settlements at all.

Population and environment: the impact of urbanization.

As you already know, urbanization has become one of the main drivers of environmental change these days. It is with it that 3/4 of the total pollution is associated. This is not surprising, given that cities occupy only 2-3% of the earth's land area, but they concentrate almost half of the world's population and the bulk of production.

Large cities and agglomerations, which are almost the main source of pollution, have a particularly strong impact on the environment. Perhaps the number one priority is air pollution.
According to chemical studies, the plume of the polluting and thermal effects of large cities can be traced at a distance of up to, covering an area of ​​800-1000 km2.

At the same time, the most active impact is manifested in an area that is 1.5-2 times larger than the area of ​​the city itself. Cities such as Los Angeles, Mexico City, not by chance received the nickname "smogopolis".

It is no coincidence that a comic advice to the townspeople was born: "Let everyone breathe less and only in case of emergency."
Recently, the authorities and the public in economically developed countries have been taking various measures to protect and improve the urban environment.
In developing countries, the situation is much more difficult. In conditions of an extreme lack of funds, they cannot ensure not only the transition to low-waste technologies, but also the construction of treatment facilities and waste processing plants.

We are interested in population geography.

The geography of the population studies the size, structure and distribution of the population, considered in the process of social reproduction and interaction with the natural environment. Recently, two main directions have developed in the geography of the population.

The first direction is geodemographic. It studies the size and structure of the population, the main demographic indicators (mortality, birth rate, natural increase, average life expectancy) and population reproduction, the demographic situation and demographic policy in the world, individual regions and countries.

The second direction is actually geographical.

It studies the general geographical picture of the distribution of the population in the world, individual regions and countries, and in particular the geography of settlement and populated areas.

Geourban studies have received the greatest development in this direction.

It studies: 1) the main historical stages of urban development, 2) the main features of the modern process of urbanization, 3) the geographical aspects of urbanization and the development of large urbanized zones of the world, 4) networks and systems of cities, 5) the basics of city design and urban planning.
Such new areas of scientific research as recreational geography, medical geography, geography of culture, geography of religions, geography of lifestyle, etc. are closely connected with population geography.
Main conclusion.

Modern processes of growth, composition and distribution of the population give rise to many complex problems, some of which are global in nature, and some are specific to countries of various types. The most important are the continuing rapid growth of the world's population, interethnic relations, and urbanization.

List of countries by urban population

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By the level of urbanization, you can combine all the countries of the world into groups:

a) highly urbanized countries (the share of the urban population is above 50%). These are the countries of North and South America (except Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Australia, the countries of Western Europe (except Portugal), Japan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, the Baltic States, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, South Africa, Tunisia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, etc.;

b) medium urbanized countries (the share of the urban population is below 20%).

These are such states as Afghanistan, Nepal, Laos, Bhutan, Bangladesh in Asia; Ethiopia, Somalia, Madagascar, Botswana, Uganda, Burundi, Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Tonga, Sierra Leone and Guinea in Africa.

In the early 90s. the level of urbanization in developed countries was approximately 72%, in developing countries 33%.

Despite rapid urban growth, half of the world's population still lives in rural areas.

Their total number on Earth is 12-20 million. They are different in their size, the predominant occupations of their inhabitants. The difference between them is determined by the socio-economic development of the country, the level of development of its productive forces and the specialization of the economy.

Large rural settlements are emerging in the developed countries of the world. Dacha and resort villages, large villas are added to them. Most of the population of these countries is employed not in agriculture, but in production in large cities.

Therefore, they make daily permanent trips to the city to work or study.

In developing countries, rural settlements are very diverse. Their inhabitants are engaged in plantation farming.

In areas of nomadic pastoralism, the population is almost absent.

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