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How does urbanization affect the human population?
1)Urbanization is the movement of people from rural to urban regions, expanding cities and towns. It is the process through which cities grow as higher percentages of the population come to live in the city.
2)Urban people change their environment through their consumption of food, energy, water, and land. And in turn, the polluted urban environment affects the health and quality of life of the urban population. People who live in urban areas have very different consumption patterns than residents in rural areas
3)Poor air and water quality, insufficient water availability, waste-disposal problems, and high energy consumption are exacerbated by the increasing population density and demands of urban environments.
4)Some of the major health problems resulting from urbanization include poor nutrition, pollution-related health conditions and communicable diseases, poor sanitation and housing conditions, and related health conditions.
5)Urbanization has many adverse effects on the structure of society as gigantic concentrations of people compete for limited resources. Rapid housing construction leads to overcrowding and slums, which experience major problems such as poverty, poor sanitation, unemployment and high crime rates.
6)The positive effects include economic development and education. However, urbanisation places stress on existing social services and infrastructure. Crime, prostitution, drug abuse and street children are all negative effects of urbanisation.
Factors that leads to Urbanization
Industrialization
It has improved job opportunities by allowing individuals to work in occupations that contribute to economic progress. Because of better job possibilities, more individuals have been drawn to relocate from rural to urban regions since the industrial revolution. Even students are preferring to move to crowded cities due to better coaching and university facilities.
Commercialization
Commercialization and commerce are associated with the belief that towns and cities provide better business possibilities and results than rural regions.
Health and hygiene facilities
Better educational facilities, higher living standards, improved sanitation and housing, improved health care, improved recreation facilities, and improved social life are other important factors that lead to Urbanization.
Life security
Higher-value-added occupations are created and increased by services and industries, resulting in additional work possibilities. Cities also emerge when rural regions gradually transition into urban landscapes. Such a transition may be a result of mineral discoveries, resource exploitation, or agricultural operations.
Urbanization -a challenge to the society
1)In India, the urban population amounts to 461 million people. This number is growing by 2.3 per cent each year.
2)By 2031, 75 per cent of India’s national income is estimated to come from cities.
3)Seventy to eighty per cent of the infrastructure that will be needed by 2050 has not been built yet, and the estimated investment gap amounts to approximately 827 billion US dollars.
