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0:24
Welcome to the course- Introduction to Urban Planning. In this session today, in the process to understand the need and the objectives of urban planning, we are going to look at urbanization and its relationship with sustainable development. We have earlier covered Conceptual Understanding of Urban Areas. Today we will explore the Concept of Urbanization, how we measure urbanization, why cities grow, look at the Global Urbanization Pattern and review the relationship between urbanization
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and sustainable development. So accordingly the coverage will include the following. Accordingly, the learning outcomes will include that after completion of this session you should be able to explain the Concept of Urbanization, discuss how urbanization is measured. You should be able to review the growth of urban areas. Further, you should be able to discuss the Global Urbanization Pattern, and provide facts. And finally you should be able
1:40
to synthesize the relationship between urbanization and sustainable development. In the previous lecture, we looked at varied definitions of urban areas from different countries. Now let us try to understand the term urbanization and how we measure it, when we review the process. According to the document of Department of Social Affair of United Nation, published in 2019- We determine the degree or the level of urbanization by taking the percentage of population residing
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in the urban areas. Urban areas, which are defined according to the criteria used by the National Governments for distinguishing between the urban and the rural areas, as we had already seen in the previous class. In practice, urbanization refers both to the increase in the percentage of population residing in the urban areas and to the associated growth in number of urban areas, in the size of cities and in the total area occupied by the urban settlements. Now let us look into why cities grow.
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As per the world population study, we see that there are 3 components to how urban growth happens. First by Natural Increase, second by Migration and third identified component is Reclassification. How these components influence the growth of the cities varies depending on how population changes take place in a country. And how the size of a given settlement changes and how there spatial planning policies and the national definitions of urban
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space area and how the physical environment and other countries specific local circumstances changes. Looking at the natural increase, the urban population results when more people are born than the number of deaths which takes place in urban areas. The balance of birth and that depends on level of fertility, affecting the number of births and life expectancy at birth, affecting the number of deaths. And on the distribution of population by age or other
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things being equal older population tend to experience fewer births and more deaths. We see that, women living in urban areas typically have greater access to education and modern methods of family planning. As a result, their fertility is often lower compare to the women living in the rural areas. However, despite a lower level of fertility there is often in excess of births over deaths in cities due to a lower level of mortality and younger age distribution.
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We see that migration also affects the growth of cities. Migration to cities from the rural areas or from the other countries contributes to the urban growth whenever the number of in migrants exceeds the number of out migrants. We see that the migrants are often younger on average compared to the population living in the areas of origin or the destination. Therefore, migration tends to have an impact on the age distribution of both the sending and receiving populations. Since most migrants
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in the urban areas are adults in working ages or their children, migrant population tend to be younger than average. Therefore, migration tends to increase the average age of the population in areas of origin of migration, while lowering the average age in areas of destination. We further see that how we classify our urban areas, also further changes the growth rate of the cities. Reclassification contributes growth of the cities by enlarging the size of urban areas.
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We often see that when cities grow in area, the administration incorporate neighboring settlements and the population which were formally classified as rural in their planning boundaries are classified as urban. Also when village population grows that may also result in reclassification of the settlements from the rural to the urban, thus it will accelerate the pace of urbanization. Now let us see the urbanization trend.
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As per the World Urbanization prospects study, undertaken in 2018, 55% of the world s population resided in the urban areas. Overall 4.2 billion people resided in the urban settlements compared to 3.4 billion in the rural areas. It is noted that the world s population has gone through a process of rapid urbanization since 1950. In 1950 more than two thirds, that is 70% of people worldwide, lived in rural settlements. In 2007 it was observed that for the first time in the history the
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Global Urban Population crossed the Global Rural Population. Since then, the number of people in the cities have continued to grow faster than the people in the villages. As per the World Urbanization study, it is estimated that towards the end of the Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2030, the share of the world s population living in the urban areas is expected to reach 60%. It is projected that by 2050 the world will be more than two third s urban, 68%. Roughly
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the reverse of the Global Rural Urban Population distribution of the mid-20th century. The study shows that Africa and Asia are urbanizing more rapidly than the other regions of the world. The rate of urbanization measured as the average annual rate of change of the percentage urban is the highest in Asia and Africa. These 2 regions are urbanizing faster with the proportion urban, increasing by 1.3 and 1.1% annually between 2015 and 2020 respectively. While
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regions that already have relatively high levels of urbanization are urbanizing at a slower pace, at less than 0.3% annually during the same period. We see that most of the world s fastest growing cities are in Asia and Africa. We also see that most of the cities are vulnerable for at least one type of natural disaster. Here, we can see the range of disaster which can happen to all the cities. We review India s growth so far.
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Looking at the last 5 years data from 1500 to 2016 our urbanization rate has been lower compared to the world: Japan, United States and China. We see that the rural population is higher than the urban population in India currently. However, it is projected that in India, urbanization is increasing and it is estimated that by 2050 we will have more urban population than the rural population. In this table we see the decadal growth rate of different global areas based on the census
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of 2001 and 2011. We see that this statutory towns and non-statutory towns have both increased in a considerable rate. We see that we have total 7932 towns as per census 2011. As per the increase in total number of towns we see the decadal growth rate of 53.7. We see that statutory towns have shown 6.4 growth rate and non-statutory towns have shown above 185 growth rate. So we see that how drastically our urban areas, urbanization is happening in our country.
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As per 2018 data we have 5 cities with above 10 million populations and it is projected that we will have 7 cities by 2030. 4 cities which have population ranging from 5 to 10 million further it is projected that we will have 2 such cities by 2030. 52 cities which have population ranging 1 to 5 million, it is projected that there will be 62 such cities in 2030. Now let us see and comprehend the purpose of urban planning.
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Let us first understand the relationship between the urbanization and sustainable development. Let us see what are the challenges and what urban planning really needs to do in this direction. You must be seeing around that how your area is changing. And how the nearby villages around you are transforming. And how people from villages are moving to cities everyday looking for livelihood and better opportunities. And we may even reflect, that even you and me,
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or our parents moved to cities or planned to move at some point in time from the villages to witness the life we aspire for. We see that more and more area around us is urbanizing. Urbanization is a complex socio-economic process. We may also connect with our previous lecture, where, we discussed on characteristics of urban compared to rural and looked at definition of urban areas. With that understanding and
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perspective we can see that when urbanization happens, when these changes happen, the built environment changes. And shifts also happen in this spatial pattern. We observe changes in our occupation, life style, culture and behavior. Therefore, the urbanization process alters the demographic, the people around us and the social structure of both urban and rural areas. A major consequence of urbanization process we see is the rise in the number, land area and population size
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of the urban settlements compared to villages. Now let us look at the urbanization opportunities and challenges and try to understand needs and objectives of urban planning. Urbanization is shaped by spatial meaning, how the cities are placed in geographic context and urban planning, what kind of planning interventions we undertake to shape our cities. As well as, how much money we invest through public and private investment in building and infrastructure in our place.
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We see that cities have increasing share of economic activities and we see more innovations happening in cities. And cities develop as centers, where transport, trade and information continuously flows. We see that the people in cities also enjoy highest quality range of services compared to our rural areas. Because of urbanization we also see that demographic and social structure of both urban and rural areas change.
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We have been historically linking urbanization to economic development. In Europe and Northern America rapid urbanization during the nineteenth and twentieth century was accompanied by industrialization and rapid economic growth. We often link the two together because the transformation takes place because the economic development accelerates urbanization. More people are attracted to cities that offer varied opportunities for education and employment.
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Particularly in the Industry and Service Sectors. Urbanization in turn has generally been a positive force for economic growth, poverty reduction and human development. It is indicted that approximately 80% of the Global Gross Domestic Product is generated in cities. However, our association of urbanization with economic development has been challenged by recent trends in the developing regions, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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As per the population study of the United Nation, it is indicated that urbanization process is continued in Sub-Saharan Africa between 1970 and 2000. But the economic development reduced in the region over that period. We see that as suggested in the United Nation study that in most region including in Sub-Saharan Africa the process of urbanization has occurred side by side of declining mortality and fertility rates.
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So probably urbanization process indicates the demographic transaction however, does not ensure the economic development. Those are the things which we need to take care off while we look at the urbanization process. We further see that in our settlements we notice enormous inequalities. Addressing inequalities is a key to achieve sustainable development. (Refer Slide Time: 16:51) We see that in our slums, the dwellers face greater exposure to environmental hazards
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such as pollution and suffer increased health risk. In the past 15 years, countries have steadily improved urban slum condition by improving the housing conditions, improving access to water, hand sanitation and improving security against eviction. Countries have managed to move millions of people out of substandard conditions and providing them with adequate housing. As a result of these interventions by various governments, the proportion of world s urban
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population living in slums declined by 20% between 2000 and 2015. In our cities we simultaneously see that the rate of new home construction is often not at the same speed of the growth of urban population. The number of people living in slums actually increased from 807 million to 883 million over this period. As per United Nation s study of 2018, the majority of those living in slums are located in 3 regions: Eastern and Southern- Eastern Asia, Central and Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan
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Africa. Further the study indicates as per the evidence from 100 of demographic and health surveys conducted in countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America undertaken over last several years, that infants and children residing in slums have substantially greater incidents of illness than their urban pears and a less likely to survive their fifth birthday. The urban poor underdeveloped countries, also faces marked disparities in health and wellbeing.
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In this picture we see Pilipino children in front of their slum homes in Manila in Philippines. Furthermore, we see that through the study that much of the increase in number of urban poor is taking place in locations that are highly vulnerable to natural disasters and are expected to experience the greatest impact of climate change. Such as low elevation coastal zones and arid regions known as dry lands. Nearly 60% of
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cities with 3 lakh inhabitants today, are at high risk of exposure to at least 1 type of 6 natural disasters including cyclones, droughts, floods, earth quake, land sliding and volcanic eruptions and the number is growing. We see that households, to counter this disaster due to climate variability to take care of food and livelihood, migrate seasonally temporarily or permanently. Such migration is anticipated to increase in future. We can reflect and see that the
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future growth of cities and how we allocate land for different purposes and how we use our natural resources, will determine our success towards environmentally sustainable future. We often see that in our cities unplanned and inadequately managed urban expansion takes place which leads to rapid sprawl, which means fast spread of the city area. We see increasing pollution and we see increasing environmental degradation. We also see that
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all this is often clubbed with unsustainable way of how we produce and how we consume goods in our cities, we can see the way we are producing and consuming goods today. Today s cities are growing twice as fast in terms of land areas as they are in terms of population. Therefore, the projection estimates indicate that future trends in urbanization could produce a near tripling in global urban land area between 2000 and 2030. This will
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happen because as hundreds or thousands of additional square kilometers are developed to urban levels of density now regularly. We can reflect that such urban expansions growth threatens to destroy habitats in key biodiversity hotspots and contributes to carbon emission associated with tropical deforestation and land use change. We further see that environmental sustainability is additionally challenged by the consumption pattern that prevails in the urban settings.
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We see these changes in pattern because now the people living in cities earn more and tend to consume more per capita than people in villages. Today cities account for between 71 to 76% of CO2 emission and between 67 and 76% of global energy use. Nevertheless, living in cities it appears to be more sustainable, yet the researches show that as high density areas tend to consume less than low density urban area. The UN study indicates that as per the data from Toronto, the energy consumption
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and greenhouse gas emissions are twice as high on per capita basis in low densities sub-urban, development compared to the high density urban core. However, there are also links being established between density the level of service in particular to health with current pandemic which raises concerns for health in cities and how we approach planning for our cities. We shall be reviewing this aspect in the later part of our course.
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We see that while the loss of population in a number of cities in west in Europe, Canada, New Zealand seems in general not to effect negatively the quality of living of the population. We see that a smaller population size can actually also favor sustainable strategies such as control of urban sprawl or the modernization of public services or promote new collaborative governance with stronger citizen and local community participation.
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So we saw how that urbanization is connected with sustainable development, there are so many things which are interdependent. And what decision we make for our settlement and how we change or approach and change our life style, how we address inequality has direct relationship with the sustainable development for all. So we see that if we manage urbanization well, taking care of all factors as far as possible, knowing well the population trends over a long period of time, we can help to maximize
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the benefits of agglomeration, meet the scales of economy. At the same time, minimize the environmental degradation and other potential adverse impact of growing number of city dwellers. Unplanned or inadequately managed urban expansion in combination with unsustainable protection, consumption pattern and lack of capacity for public institution to manage urbanization, can impair sustainability due to urban sprawl, population and environmental degradation.
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Planning for the delivery of services in the urban and rural dwellers should include consideration of different scenarios for the future growth of urban centers and surrounding rural settlements. We need to see how, which direction we are going to take, what possibilities are there, what our future would look like and accordingly plan for. Government policies for planning and managing sustainable urban growth can help ensure that the benefits of urbanization are shared equitably.
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Sustainable Development Goal 11 is a commitment to making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable and participatory planning can play an important role in the implementation. Sustainable Urbanization requires that cities generate adequate income and decent employment opportunities. Provide the necessary infrastructure for water and sanitation, energy, transportation and communication. Ensure equitable access to housing and services, minimize the number of people living in slums,
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preserve a healthy environment within the city and surrounding areas. To ensure that the benefits of urbanization are shared and that no one is left behind, policies to manage the urban growth need to consider the needs of women, including equal access to services, property rights and political participation. Youth, including policies to provide education employment, older persons including policy to promote healthy aging.
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Persons with disabilities, including policy and law on accessible housing. Public infrastructure and transportation and focus on urban poor and other vulnerable groups including Indigenous people, people of color, people of different orientation. Fulfilling their needs allow them to play a positive economic, social, cultural role and so on. So if we will allow people to feel their complete potential, they would be really able to translate well in our environment.
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Planning, we see is a powerful tool to manage Sustainable Urbanization. To ensure that the benefits of urbanization are shared and no one is left behind, policies to manage urban growth need to ensure access to infrastructure and social services for all, focusing on the needs of urban poor and vulnerable groups for housing, education, health care, decent work and a safe environment. As the world continuous to urbanize, sustainable development depends increasingly on the successful
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management of urban growth, that is why we need urban planning, especially in low-income and lower middle income countries where the most rapid urbanization is expected between now and 2050. Integrated policies to improve the lives of both urban and rural dwellers are needed. Strengthening the linkages between urban and rural areas and building on their existing economic, social and environmental ties are required. We see that urbanization has generally
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been a positive force for economic growth, poverty reduction and human development. In cities we see diversity and well educated people because of their entrepreneurship, technological innovation and we see business thriving in cities. Urban areas also service center for development were the nearness of commerce we have all the areas what we need close by, we have government close to us, we have transportation and infrastructure
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necessary for sharing knowledge and we also have access to information. Urban dwellers are often younger, more literate and more highly educated and are more likely to have access to the decent work, adequate housing and social services and can enjoy enhance opportunities for cultural and political participation, as well as gender equality. Economy of scale in urban areas and technological innovations can facilitate the sustainable
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provision of infrastructure such as roads, piped water and electricity, as well as basic services such as education and health care, all of which are essential to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Further we see that we need policies that aim to restrict rural and urban migration. We see that we need approach for Sustainable Urbanization, that cities generate adequate
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income and decent employment opportunities for the people. Provide the necessary structure for water and sanitation, energy transport and communication, ensure equitable access to housing and services, minimize the number of people living in slums and preserve a healthy environment within the city and the surrounding areas. So we see that the need and objective of planning when we review the sustainability and urbanization
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aspect and we look at various concerns for economic access, social access, cultural access, equity, quality of life, access to services, we see that our need and objective range from sustainable development. Need to nurture innovation ensure economic development, poverty reduction and human development reduce inequality. We see the need for making cities inclusive for women, youth, older people differently
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abled people, poor, vulnerable groups, Indigenous people, people of diverse culture, color and orientation. There is need to ensure better health, housing, livelihood education, and safe environment. We need to make our cities resilient, we need to contain migration, we need to look at sustainable resource management, attain environmental sustainability, provide necessary access to services to all, including water supplies, sanitation and energy transportation and communication.
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We also need to look at allowing community to realize the full potential in economic, social and cultural role to be played. So summarizing, we see that today we covered, looked at the concept of urbanization. We looked at how we measure urbanization, we also looked at how urbanization is happening and we reviewed the global urbanization pattern, we also looked at the urbanization pattern in our country. We reviewed how the urbanization and sustainable development are discussed
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together and we looked at a range of problems. So taking those ranges of problems we see and now put in picture all the problems which the urban planning needs to address. So far in this session our references included, United Nation s study on world population. Our coverage was limited with the scope to make you aware of the topic, there are enormous readings and movies available to explore. Few are suggested here, this is not an extensive
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list, you may feel free to suggest more from your experience. Please feel free to ask questions, let us know about your concerns, do share your opinions, experiences and suggestions. Looking forward to interacting and co-learning with you while exploring cities and urban planning. So that is all for today s session, thank you.
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