What is meant by Urbanization?
Urbanization means increase in the population shift from rural areas like villages and country sides to more urban areas due to technological, industrial and modern development hubs such as cities and towns. Urbanization is becoming an increasing problem worldwide as well as in Pakistan.
This is not surprising considering that urbanization is more of a problem in still developing countries. People often move to cities and towns for better livelihoods, quality of life and overall well being due to the efforts for progress and advancement being concentrated over there.
As a country becomes more advanced and more developed, there is equal distribution of resources and opportunities and hence the number of people shifting to cities and towns reduces as life is still bearable and sufficient with the minimum resources compared to the higher competition, increased pollution and other negative factors that start to show up in cities. Hence, urbanization is both good and bad for a country depending on its growth and development status.
Major Causes and Effects of Urbanization:
Some of the negative impacts of Urbanization and its causes are as follows:
- Industrialization: The establishment and operation of industries in an area for increasing GDP and national economy results in the creation of more jobs that attracts people. Naturally, the jobs being taken up require housing for the workers which settle in an around the factories that results in eventually forming into a city.
Factories ultimately end up causing a lot of pollution, that deteriorates the air, surrounding environment and ultimately the health of the residents nearby. - Commercialization: Better social benefits, improvement in lifestyles, and overall development of the area lead to commercialization of the cities. Higher transport rates, more electricity usage, and erection of higher corporation buildings and skyscrapers may also lead to the urban heat island effect caused by all the heat trapped in the cemented structures. This not only makes the cities hotter, and unsustainable but also results in all sorts of pollution from commercial activities like light pollution, noise pollution, water and food safety issues etc. For more information read: Urban Heat Islands – Causes, Effects, and Solutions
- Population Growth: Increasing population makes for a reason for people to migrate to cities and towns in large number for better well paying jobs. This causes strain on the cities resources and altogether contributes to more pollution in the event of uncontrolled urbanization where usable, and cultivable land is used to develop more housing societies and there is no limit to where a city ends. This undoubtedly causes more pollution, less agricultural yield crucial for a country like Pakistan whose national economy is sustained by this sector. Hence, population growth accompanied with unchecked urbanization leads to overall a higher cost of living as demand exceeds the resource supply.
- Increased Pollution: Water scarcity. strain on the natural and other physical resources as well as overall decline in the quality of food and safety due to contamination from the use of chemicals and toxins in everyday life are not good for human health and the environment in general. In Lahore, a large chunk of smog related health issues occur mainly due to burning of waste, and crop residue. For more information please check out, Hazardous Air Quality of Lahore- Causes, Effects, Solutions
Solution for Urbanization:
Some of the solutions to curb urbanization are:
- Strict policies should be enacted and enforced to prevent exceeding city limits. This can be seen in the example of Lahore, Pakistan. The city has exceeded past its 1990s limit by a huge margin and continues to expand eating up many villages and rural lands used for cultivation to sell as real estate and build housing societies. Such areas should be designated as ‘New Lahore’ OR any other alternative that provides a more efficient means of resource distribution and sharing so as to not burden the existing and outdated infrastructure of Lahore- such as sewage disposal pipes and sinks, medical facilities, dumping sites, industries etc.
- Urban sprawl should be controlled. a more sustainable city design should be adopted for optimal aeration, sunlight and ventilation that is not possible with a crowded city center with huge buildings and tall sky scrapers. Eco-cities and sustainable ideas should be incorporated.
For more information please read: Blueprint of an Eco-city – How To Create Sustainable Cities? - Provide more resources and facilities to rural areas so that they need not travel or migrate to cities for meeting all their basic needs. Transportation rates being too high to visit the city every day makes people opt for settling in the city for a better life style and availability of health care and other facilities rather than travelling to and fro each time. This concentrates the population in the cities and increases demand, making cities more dense and increases the pollution and carbon footprint.
- Involve local community in the local government and union councils and actually hear what they need to curb the migration to cities. Focus on developing rural areas equally makes resources accessible to those people but also improves quality of life overall that can be more productive overall for the nation in the long run.
- Equal distribution of allotted funds from the annual budget. All developmental efforts should not be focused and directed at just one city like Lahore, Karachi etc. as this creates inequality and leads to more disparity between the rich and the poor, the working class and the upper class as can be seen in Pakistan. Equal or at least moderate developments should also be focused on nearby rural areas surrounding cities.
Conclusion:
The problem of urban sprawl is one that is associated with the initial stages of development in a country. In more developed countries this problem is less pronounced mainly due to investing in the rural areas and its people so that they do not have to migrate to the cities and all human activity is not concentrated in one place. Effective city planning and development needs to be taken into consideration before starting new housing societies and mostly, land mafias need to be held accountable and a swift action needs to be taken in order to curb this menace of ever increasing urban sprawl.
Also check out, Urbanization affects Microclimate of Abbottabad Pakistan
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