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What is the name of the process of urban growth rise. Urbanization is the process of growing cities and the percentage of the urban population relative to the rural population. The process of urbanization and its features

One of the most characteristic features development modern society is the rapid growth of cities and the continuous rate of increase in the number of their inhabitants, that is, there is urbanization, which entails significant social transformations in the life of mankind.

Urbanization (from the Latin "urbanus" - urban) is a historical process of increasing the role of cities in the development of society, which covers the socio-professional, demographic structure of the population, its lifestyle, culture, production location, population resettlement, etc.

AT early XIX centuries, about 30 million people (3% of the world's population) lived in the cities of the world; by 1900 - almost 225 million (about 14%); by 1950 - mail 730 million (about 30%); by 1980 - 1 billion 820 million (more than 41%), by 2010 - more than 2 billion (more than 43%).

Nowadays, most of the world's citizens are born city dwellers. The share of the urban population in Europe is almost 70%, in Asia - about 40%, in Africa - 20%, in North America- 75%, Latin America - 65%, Australia and Oceania - 76%. The proportion of the urban population is especially high in developed countries. A country is considered almost completely urbanized if 4/5 of its population lives in cities.

An example is the United Kingdom, where for decades there has been a relative stability of the urban and rural population. At the same time, in Africa and Asia, the processes of urbanization are currently particularly dynamic, which is associated with rapid development states of these continents. In developing countries, the process of urbanization is characterized not only by pace, but also by heterogeneity - the rapid growth of the largest cities occurs with a moderate growth of medium ones. We will dwell on the urbanization of developing countries, as well as its impact on the environment, later.

The prerequisites for urbanization are the growth of industry in cities, the development of cultural and political functions of the population. With the expansion of large cities, natural landscapes turn into urban asphalt-concrete areas, which are characterized by dense development of the territory with various buildings and structures inherent in the city, a change in the type of rivers and other water bodies located on its territory, the construction of new production and industrial facilities, the construction of new transport nodes, highways, etc.

Urbanization has a huge impact on the development of various socio-economic formations and states, because the main achievements of civilization are associated with cities. However, transformations can be either positive or negative.

Urbanization, on the one hand, improves the living conditions of the population, on the other hand, it leads to the displacement of natural systems by artificial ones, environmental pollution, and an increase in the chemical, physical and psychological, technogenic load on the human body.

Cities change almost all components of the natural environment - the atmosphere, vegetation, soil, relief, hydrographic network, groundwater, soil, and even climate. The process of urbanization, due to the development of social production and the nature social relations, itself exerts an increasingly diversified influence on the development of another sphere of society's activity - ecological.

The relationship between urbanization and the state of the natural environment is due to a number of factors in a complex system of social and economic development and interaction between society and nature. Understanding the general and specific features of the state of the natural environment in cities is important for developing the necessary measures to solve global problems of the population and the environment. Large centers of urbanization have become the focus of most of the global problems of mankind. They have the greatest impact on the environment.

The emergence and development of large cities-megalopolises leads to the reconstruction of large areas of the planet. At the same time, air and water basins, green areas suffer, transport links are disrupted, which leads to discomfort in all respects. Many cities are expanding so that they can no longer accommodate on land and begin to "slide into the sea." It is impossible not to mention the city-islands, urban structures on the water area or in its immediate vicinity. For example, in the United Arab Emirates, or, to go far, the construction of a multi-storey building in Laspi Bay.

The process of population concentration in cities is inevitable and essentially positive. But the structure of the city, which must develop, its industrial, “city-forming” factor, which includes the construction and further operation of large industrial enterprises, comes into conflict with the historical purpose of the city and its role in raising the living standards of the population.

Modern large cities, especially megalopolises, expand spontaneously, include residential facilities, numerous scientific and public institutions, industrial enterprises and transport facilities, grow, expand, merge with each other, crowding and destroying wildlife. Modern large cities are in most cases a mass of concrete, asphalt, burning, poisonous emissions.

The city is the highest form of space organization for human society. The economic and social advantages of urban forms of settlement are indisputable. They have a significant potential for economic development, their residents have more opportunities for education, choice of profession, familiarization with cultural values. However, large-scale construction, concentration and intensification of industrial activities have a huge impact on the environment. In cities, almost all components of the natural environment change: the atmosphere, relief, hydrographic network and water regime of the territory, soil, vegetation, soils, groundwater, climate, and even geological structure. Moreover, such actions can lead both to an increase in the possibilities of satisfying the biological and social needs of a modern person, and to their decrease, that is, to an improvement or worsening of his living conditions. Gravitational, thermal, electrical, magnetic and other physical fields of the Earth change in cities. There is less solar radiation, especially ultraviolet rays, but more precipitation, more cloudy and foggy days and a slightly higher average annual temperature.

The randomness of urban development, the huge crowding of the population both in the central and peripheral parts of cities, the limitations of integrated urban planning and legislative regulation have a very unfavorable effect. There are very frequent cases of close proximity of built-up and densely populated residential areas and industrial enterprises with outdated technology and without treatment facilities. This further worsens the state of the environment.

In cities, people are more likely to develop various diseases, including infectious ones. A city dweller moves away from nature, in the city the population density is very high, the air is polluted, there are many different noises. In cities, 500-1500 kg of dust, soot and other substances fall per day per 1 km 2 of the area, while far from cities, in rural areas, they are only 5-15 kg per day.

During the operation of industrial enterprises, for street lighting, heating of apartments, buildings, institutions and other vital facilities, a lot of energy is expended. Energy is mainly generated at thermal power plants, so in cities it is warmer in winter than in rural areas, but burning coal, oil and gas pollutes the atmosphere with emissions of various harmful substances, thereby changing the ratio of gases in the atmosphere.

The city requires a huge amount of water. Some small part of it goes to direct consumption by residents, the rest - after being used in factories, in public utilities - turns into polluted wastewater. These waters contain impurities of heavy metals, oil, various organic compounds and other substances. Naturally, if measures are not taken to treat wastewater, they will pollute clean natural waters and eventually lead them into an unusable state.

The city throws thousands and thousands of tons of garbage into the environment every day. If you simply put them together outside the city, they will require more and more new areas, and concentrated in them harmful substances, especially poisonous, will pollute and poison natural waters, and through them the soil and other components of the natural environment.

A very important ecological function is performed by urban vegetation, in particular trees. Their role in air purification is very great. They create a microclimate in the city, providing comfortable conditions for the human environment.

However, it is difficult to maintain ecological balance in cities. Here, all elements of the natural ecosystem change. In the urban environment, metabolism and energy flows are largely controlled by man, his activity is entirely devoted to maintaining dynamic balance in urban ecosystems.

AT major cities intertwined both positive and negative sides scientific and technological progress and industrialization. A new ecological environment with a high concentration of anthropogenic factors, that is, the results of human activity, leading to a change in the habitat, the environment. The most famous of them, such as pollution atmospheric air, high noise level, electromagnetic radiation, are a direct product of urbanization.

Human health largely depends on the quality of both the natural and anthropogenic environment. In the conditions of a large city, the influence of the natural component on a person is weakened, and the effect of anthropogenic factors is sharply increased. Cities in which relatively small areas are concentrated a large number of people, vehicles and various enterprises are centers of man-made impact on nature. Gas and dust emissions from industrial enterprises, their discharge into the surrounding water bodies of sewage, municipal and household waste of a large city pollute the environment with a variety of chemical elements. In most industrial wastes, the content of such elements as mercury, lead, cadmium, zinc, tin, copper, tungsten, antimony, bismuth is tens of thousands of times higher than in natural soils.

Atmospheric pollution is responsible for up to 30% of the general diseases of the population of industrial centers. In connection with the development in cities of various types of industry, especially chemical, an increasing amount of harmful substances is emitted into the atmosphere.

Clouds of black smoke first enveloped many cities in Europe and America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Leader of the Industrial Revolution - Great Britain ranked first in air pollution. London became famous for its dense fog, which gave a peculiar flavor to detective stories, but shortened the lives of many citizens. However, in the early days of industrialization, the extent of the health effects of air pollution was not determined, because during this period, as a result of improved sanitation and nutrition, there was a sharp decrease in deaths from infectious diseases, which masked the harm caused by polluted air. In 1943, residents of Los Angeles began to complain about the periodic appearance of an annoying light blue haze in the air. Experts have established its connection with the presence of sulfur dioxide.

The industrial release of this substance was reduced, but the haze over the city continued to appear. Studies have shown that carbohydrates contained in gasoline vapor, interacting with other pollutants, under the influence of sun rays form new compounds. The city administration decided to eliminate the leakage of gases from the fuel storage facilities of numerous oil refineries, but the haze over the city still did not disappear. Then it became clear that air pollutants are cars. So the world was introduced to photochemical oxidants - ozone compounds with various substances, which are formed by the interaction of hydrocarbons with nitrogen oxides emitted by cars and energy enterprises in sunlight.

The term "smog" was first applied to a cloud looming over Los Angeles. With the increase in the number of cars, a similar phenomenon began to be observed over other cities.

Currently, the car is in first place in terms of absolute emissions of gases. It is the source of almost half of the air pollutants. The main harm is carbon monoxide However, carbohydrates, nitrogen oxides contained in exhaust gases, and photochemical oxidants also negatively affect the human body.

In Ukraine, Kyiv is the leader in transport emissions. Nitrogen oxides, when in contact with the moist surface of the lungs, form acids, and those, in turn, form nitrates and nitrites. Both the acids themselves and their derivatives irritate the mucous membranes, especially the deep sections of the respiratory tract, which can lead to reflex respiratory disorders and even pulmonary edema.

Among the sources of pollution that adversely affect human health, the car plays a significant, but not the main role. Automobiles cause 10-25% of diseases, although, as we have said, they produce almost half of all air pollutants. Sulfur oxides and various fine particles (mixtures of soot, ash, dust, droplets of sulfuric acid, asbestos fibers, etc.) cause more diseases than car exhaust fumes. They enter the atmosphere from power plants, factories and residential buildings. Sulfur oxides and dust particles are usually concentrated in places where coal is burned most intensively, they are dangerous, mainly in winter, when more fuel is burned. It has been proven that a high concentration of sulfur oxides and fine particles aggravates the course of chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Environmental pollution also affects the occurrence of such a disease as lung cancer, although the main role in the pathogenesis of this disease belongs to smoking. For residents of large cities, the likelihood of this disease is about 20-30% higher than for people living in villages or small towns. A relationship has been established between the content of particulate matter in the air and the incidence of stomach and prostate cancer. It is assumed that nitrogen oxides in the air, when combined with other pollutants, form substances that are among the most active carcinogens.

Apparently, radioactive particles scattered around the world in connection with tests also take part in the occurrence of lung cancer. nuclear weapons and activities of nuclear power plants. Among the various radioactive substances, plutonium is the most dangerous, characterized by a very slow decay. After the accident on Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the territory of Ukraine, Russian Federation and Belarus formed vast areas of pollution.

A connection between atmospheric air pollution and the growth of diseases of a genetic nature has been found, while the level of congenital malformations in industrial cities depends not only on the intensity of pollution, but also on the nature of atmospheric emissions. Row chemical substances has a mutagenic effect, which can manifest itself in an increase in the frequency of chromosomal changes in germ cells, which leads to neoplasms, spontaneous abortions, perinatal death of the fetus, developmental anomalies and infertility. In contaminated areas, adverse pregnancies and childbirth are more common.

Outdoor air pollution has aroused more concern in people than any other form of environmental destruction. Air pollution prevention programs in large cities were slow to implement, costly and often violated. However, they have brought some results. Currently, most developed countries are engaged in the elimination of the main sources of air pollution. Translation power plants on oil and natural gas significantly reduced the emission of sulfur oxides. Improvements in the design of automobiles have reduced the emission of gases containing carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. Where measures are taken to combat air pollution, improvements in public health can also be noted.

An additional source of chemicals for the body of urban residents is agricultural products. Cultivated near cities, it is polluted with fertilizers and pesticides (often in excess of reasonable levels). A significant impact on soil pollution is exerted by agriculture chemicals - pesticides, herbicides, which rank first in environmental pollution.

One of the most acute problems of a large city is water. Recently, most large cities are experiencing ever-increasing difficulties with water supply. Although 5 liters of water per day is enough to satisfy a person’s vital needs, he needs much more: only for personal hygiene and domestic needs, at least 40-50 liters must be spent. Water consumption in the city averages from 150 to 200 liters, and in a number of industrial centers - up to 500 liters per capita per day. In small towns, water is used to a greater extent for domestic needs, while in large centers the ratio between the amount of water for industrial and domestic needs is exactly the opposite.

Despite the fact that water consumption is steadily increasing due to the growth of the world's population, the main threat is not this, but the progressive pollution of rivers, lakes and groundwater. Water purity is a huge public health problem. The danger of diseases caused by bacteria transmitted through water (for example, diphtheria) lies in the fact that they have a high biological activity and are involved in many human life processes. Water pollution has become the subject of intensive study, as the number of people suffering from diseases transmitted through contaminated water. numbered in the millions. Now this problem is being intensively solved: treatment facilities are used more efficiently before it is supplied to residential buildings, the population has the opportunity to use a variety of water filters, or buy already purified water.

Noise plays a significant role in human life, especially in large cities. The negative impact of noise on the central nervous system human, blood pressure, activity internal organs. High noise levels contribute to the increase of various diseases. The impact of noise and vibration on the human body will be discussed later.

Among physical factors environment, negatively affecting the health of citizens, an increasing role is also played by electromagnetic fields. The human nervous and reproductive systems are most vulnerable to such influences.

More recently, in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, it was widely believed that environmental problems (including in cities) are typical only for industrialized countries. A turning point in approaches to the problems of the state and quality of the natural environment in developing countries occurred in the early 1970s. In 1972, the United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Environment described the ecological state of cities as one of the most critical problems in a group of developing countries.

In the cities of developing countries, with their disorderly development, environmental problems are increasingly noted. Construction of various large structures leads to soil subsidence, sinkholes and a number of other unfavorable environmental consequences. The reasons for these phenomena are different, but among them is the increased pressure of the economy and the population on the built-up area. Of no small importance is the fact that new settlements are often created on sites that are unfavorable in engineering-geological and hydro-geological terms, “climb” the slopes of hills and high mountains, or “descend” into swampy areas.

For example, in the Mexico City agglomeration, located at an average altitude of 2240 m above sea level, temporary settlements are found at altitudes of more than 3000 m. Settling in these areas contributes to the spread of slope erosion. The ecological situation in the Mexico City agglomeration is greatly and threateningly affected by the subsidence of a significant part of its territory as a result of the continued use of groundwater to supply the multi-million capital of Mexico. At the same time, despite the threatening hydrogeological situation in the central part of the city of Mexico City, intensive industrial and residential construction continues.

The situation is aggravated by the limitedness and remoteness of the Mexican capital from the high-mountain resources of surface water runoff. Many buildings and various transport structures are under threat of destruction due to the lowering of the territory. Drainage (drying) of the territory at the site of drained lakes causes frequent dust storms. Up to 7 such storms are observed annually, especially during the dry season. In the metropolitan area of ​​Mexico, in no small part due to the deterioration of environmental conditions and environmental quality, there is an increase in cancer. Various allergic diseases affect 1/7 of the population of Mexico City.

In Calcutta, the only large river port complex in India, there is a violation of the lithological structure - the structure of sedimentary rocks. The same reason hinders the development of Bangkok, where the lowering of the territory is also observed due to the increasing use of groundwater in an unfavorable hydrogeological situation. Lowering territory in this largest industrial center of India and South-East Asia increases the risk of devastating floods.

The deterioration of the quality of the air basin of large cities in developing countries is associated with the growth of population and industry, the pace of production and consumption of energy. The basis for the development of the electric power industry in developing countries has been the construction of thermal power plants, as a rule, without expensive environmental protection devices.

The volume of solid waste in the cities of developing countries is on average 3-4 times less than in industrialized countries, however, the problems of collection, storage, transportation and disposal of solid waste pose considerable difficulties for cities in countries high level development. In Africa, only up to 1/3 of the urban population is served by municipal solid waste collection services. This has become an important factor in the instability of the health of citizens. Weakness in organized urban cleanup in cities in developing countries causes clogging and disables already inadequate drainage facilities. This complicates water supply and wastewater disposal. The problem of disposal of human waste will also be considered later.

There are also important geographic factors that affect the state of the environment in cities. This, in particular, is the ability of the atmosphere to dilute pollutants entering it, depending on meteorological conditions at different latitudes. In the tropics, where the majority of developing countries are located, the ability of the atmosphere to absorb and dilute the pollutants entering it is approximately 3 times lower than in the middle latitudes in Western Europe. Studies conducted in a number of developing countries have shown the presence of especially dangerous concentrations of pollutants in the atmosphere of their largest cities.

In the largest cities, a high, and often dangerous, degree of air pollution, to a certain extent, is due to a very significant concentration of industry.

Emissions of carbon monoxide lead to mass poisoning, which is accompanied by a drop in hemoglobin in the blood and a deterioration in the supply of oxygen to body tissues. The danger to the health of the urban population is also increasing because large capacities are moving from industrial countries to the "third world" region. chemical industry and ferrous metallurgy. At the same time, large production complexes in these industries, especially those built by transnational corporations, often do not have modern and expensive treatment facilities to reduce the cost of projects.

A high degree of pollution of the air basin and water supply sources, unregulated development of industry and road transport contribute to the spread of cardiovascular, carcinogenic, respiratory, infectious, gastrointestinal diseases, as well as a number of other serious health disorders for large groups of the population.

A very important circumstance affecting the ecological state of vast territories and water areas outside large agglomerations should be considered the transfer of their pollution. In developing countries, cases of adverse environmental impact of the largest centers on the environment are not uncommon with ever-increasing radii of such impact. For example, traces of pollution of the air basin of the São Paulo agglomeration in Brazil are also found far from it. river systems in the interior regions of Brazil, and over the Atlantic Ocean.

Nevertheless, based on the understanding of the growing threat of an environmental catastrophe, in developing countries, an understanding of the special importance and priority of the problems of protecting and improving the natural environment, including in cities, is gradually growing. The necessary state regulations are being adopted, as well as resolutions of local authorities aimed at preserving natural resources, prevention of actions aimed at negative impact on the environment, conservation of nature.

Thus, it is undeniable that urbanization is accompanied by a negative impact on the state of the environment, which can lead to deterioration of the environment, health and life of the population.

The characteristic feature of the city is urban concentration, i.e. dense to excess concentration of extremely diverse objects and areas of application of activities in an extremely limited area (in the area of ​​​​half-hour accessibility for public transport). This dramatically increases the diversity of areas of application of labor, ways of spending leisure time. There is a lack of freedom in the countryside to choose a way of life and occupation. Urban concentration is a concentration of diversity and interaction; By the very course of urban life, activities concentrated in the city are encouraged to close interaction, and people - to constant communication and upholding common interests. Action gives rise to opposition, various forms of alienation of the people of the city crowd from each other are growing in the urban population in proportion to the population density in urban areas, the frequency of deviant forms of behavior (alcoholism, squatting) and street crime is increasing.

In close proximity are located separately gravitating to the city, but poorly compatible with each other objects, enterprises and industries. The growth of diversity in the urban area ensures the growth of the wealth of urban residents, and it determines the “production of risks” in the urban area, increasing the anisotropy of urban space on the gradient “center (diversity and wealth, the elements of which diffuse to the outskirts) - periphery” (area of ​​increased concentration of risk, extending to the city center, primarily along highways).

The city tends to concentric expansion, depressing its development, primarily the center. It causes the alternation of periods of stagnation and radical restructuring of the planning structure. “Waves” of transformation of the urban landscape run from the city center to the periphery every 20…40 years. This caused the emergence of a dynamic city concentration, dinapolis, capable of expanding without urban planning difficulties - thanks to growth in one direction, which does not interfere with the development of either the city itself or its center (K. Doxiadis). The idea is attractive, but unrealistic - a city is not an independent unit, but a node with a specific purpose and functions in the network of cities in a given territory, and the “linear growth” of cities means destabilization of the entire network (it is possible only with complete urbanization of the territory, at the stage of megalopolises).

A successfully developing city is characterized by proportionate growth(primarily its spatial parts), the appearance of disproportions and contradictions hinders development. Example: in the process of growth, the area of ​​the largest agglomerations of the RSFSR in the period from 1950 to 1995 each maintains a strictly defined relationship between the “core” (central city) and the periphery (rings of satellites) of each agglomeration.

The city is a combination of three main subsystems: population, economic base and life support sphere. The natural environment of the city included in the last one. It includes natural complex , whose elements (ecosystems natural areas cities) are directly involved in optimizing the living environment of citizens. Ecological situation in the city creates the interaction of the population, urban economy with the natural environment of the city and elements (heavily modified) of natural systems within it - natural and green areas (lawns, squares, parks, boulevards, front gardens, flower beds, etc.).

The growth of cities and the urbanization of the territory are so natural that they can be described mathematical models. So the density of the city network and the average distance between neighboring nodes of the network is directly proportional not so much to the density as to the economic activity of the population (intensity of trade, transport and other contacts). For example, the Upper Oka principalities were spared by the Tatar cavalry due to the rugged terrain and high forest cover, unlike their neighbors, they were not depopulated, but the economy was destroyed - and some of the cities ceased to exist. Disappearing cities have always been located between remaining, never next to each other, so that no area was left unserved, only the intensity of service was reduced.

The “rank-size” rule ” (F. Auerbach, 1930) shows what is the proportion of large, medium and small cities needed to serve a given territory. With continuous urbanization of the territory (region, region, country, entire planet - the pattern is universal and in different cases differs only in numerical coefficients) size and population cities i -th rank is proportional to the size of the largest city in the given territory U 0 , referred to the dimensional rank of the city U i with proportionality factor ln U 0 .

Rank - a serial number in the descending order of the population of the city. The steeper the hyperbole passes, given by the “rank-size” rule, the higher the degree of development of the city network in a given territory. The lack or excess of a certain category of cities compared to the “ideal norm” given by the “rank-size” rule means incompleteness of urbanization territory and accelerated growth(or, on the contrary, a halt in development) of cities of the missing (or “excessive”) category in the near future. In the “sample” of cities around the world, the proportion of megacities (cities with a population of more than 1 million people) is significantly lower than predicted; for all cities on the Earth, the “rank-size” rule determines a steeper hyperbole than that observed only in a sample of the 20 largest megacities of the planet - U (i )= U 0 * lnU 0 / i and U (i )= U 0 * lnU 0 /( i + lnU 0 ) respectively. In the near future, we should expect outpacing growth of megacities compared to smaller cities, especially in the “third world”. Extrapolation based on the “rank-size” rule allows you to get the figure of a stable population of the Earth after the end of growth and the completion of the demographic transition in all countries ( 13 billion) and the size of the world's largest city ( 42 million residents, S.P. Kapitsa).

Cristaller Rules (1933) describe the optimal placement structure cities - central places and the settlements they serve on the territory where, on the one hand, urbanization is completely completed, on the other hand, the location of cities is not complicated by agglomeration processes. The main function of cities of central places (CM) - service (administrative, market, provision of services, etc.) - settlements of the urban district included in the system of this city.

The main function of cities of the opposite category specialized centers - the production of strictly defined products that are in demand far beyond the boundaries of the corresponding system of cities, and not only on its territory. The more extensive the national network of cities, the higher the capacity of the internal market, the more levels in the hierarchy of CM cities and the more scattering of cities around them - specialized centers (SCs). Spatial distribution of SC does not obey According to the rules of Christaller, they form clusters outside the ordered network of central places, but usually near the centers of agglomerations, along economic and transport lines.

The "correct" system of city-central places and the settlements served by them takes on the form of a hexagonal grid. Center spots are in the center of the hexes, and serviced settlements are on the edges or in the corners. This achieves the maximum density of “packing” of all serviced settlements around the central places, minimizing the distances between them, and maximizing the availability of central places.

A specific option for placing settlements in a hexagonal “service field” of central places is determined by the dominant function of the latter and, accordingly, by which service option is optimized in space. If the market (commercial and industrial) structure of the system “the central place is the settlement of the urban district” is subject to optimization, then the served settlements are located at the corners of the hexagon ( BUT ). This maximizes the freedom of choice of the central place by each subordinate settlement - any of the 3 neighboring ones, and the number of settlements oriented to this market - 6.

When optimizing the transport structure of the territory ( B ) settlements are placed on the edges of the hex, so that the distance to the 2 nearest centers is minimized, but the freedom of choice is reduced. When optimizing the predominantly administrative structure ( AT ) the freedom to choose a central place for the inhabitants of the settlements disappears altogether, since they are all located inside the hexagon, but the delimitation of powers and the division of space between neighboring centers reach the greatest extent.

Option BUT optimal for rapid economic development of the territory; B - for ease of management, AT - to preserve the original biodiversity of the region, since the settlements are concentrated around “their” central places, the periphery and the junction of different regions remain underdeveloped, creating a reserve of intact natural areas on the far periphery of the region.

Deviations from the ideal Christaller model are investigated by Lesh. They are associated with the incomplete completion of urbanization processes, the lack of uniform coverage by the network of cities, or (the opposite effect) the beginning of the agglomeration process. The latter is accompanied center shift and reorientation of settlements to the central place that leads among the neighbors in terms of development speed. It is transformed into the center of an agglomeration, orienting the territorial ties of its neighbors “on itself”.

In Lesch's model, the growth of the city-central place occurs in a stellate pattern, along the rays of the main highways and turns out to be sharply uneven - in some rays, the urbanized strips are more developed and stretch further than in others. Therefore, the placement of subordinate settlements in each hex is strictly sectorial, and not uniform, as in the Christaller model. Another option - as you move from the CM to the periphery of the serviced territory, there is a gradual transition from uniform to sectorial distribution of subordinate settlements).

Sectors are set along the lines of city development and differ sharply in the concentration of subordinate settlements, the development of the urbanized structure and, accordingly, the specialization of the economy.

For example, in the Moscow region, the eastern and northeastern sectors are characterized by strong urbanization and predominantly industrial development. Southwestern and Western are predominantly agricultural. In Lesch's model, the serviced settlements are unevenly distributed in the space around the central places, and in sectors, more urbanized sectors alternate with less urbanized ones.

When one of the central places in the neighboring regions is so leading in its development that it becomes the center of an agglomeration, in the neighboring regions the network of settlements and the CM experiences center shift effect. They seem to be attracted to the growing agglomeration (and become “closer” due to the development of transport routes in this direction), the subsequent growth of these cities also turns out to be oriented towards this agglomeration.

Territorial limits for the growth of cities and agglomerations

With an area larger than 500 km2, it is impossible to provide reasonable costs for labor travel using public transport. The Metropolitan raises this threshold to 800 km2. The area suitable for urban development - 70.6 million / km 2 (square with a side of 5300 km), suitable for life for climatic reasons - 146 million km 2 (square with a side of 8400 km), already built up by cities - 28, 1 million km 2 (a square with a side of 2000 km).

Therefore, urbanization proceeds not so much in the form of growth, but in the form of city multiplication, connecting cities with agglomeration into more complex systems - supporting frame of settlement (OKR), metropolitan areas and urbanized stripes. ROC is formed at the moment when independently growing agglomerations come into contact, and their centers are connected by polyhighways so firmly that emplosion effect, that is, the “rapprochement” of interacting centers due to the reduction of the travel time between them.

As a result, the process of urbanization changes direction in all agglomerations that are part of the ROC - the growth of each in breadth is replaced by the predominant growth of agglomerations towards each other, along the highways connecting the centers. Backbone effect - accelerated development of mainline territories in the ROC while lagging behind the development of the rest).

Consecutive stages of ROC formation:

I.Center (“point concentration”) - an increase in the number and size of large cities.

II.Agglomeration : a large city becomes the core of an agglomeration and forms a galaxy of satellites around itself.

III.Regionalization + implosion : economic convergence of interacting centers based on the improvement of transport. “Larger cities benefit more from improvements in communications over time. As a result, the connection between them is carried out faster, and they seem to be approaching each other ”(P. Haggett. Geography: synthesis modern knowledge. M.: publishing house Mir, 1979).

Then comes the turn of regionalization - ? sustainable “division of labor” between agglomerations united in ROCs.

The opportunity to save on transportation between ROC centers (due to the emplosion effect) brings them even closer and forces them to expand towards each other (the effect of center shift is measured by the formula of O.D. Kudryavtsev K = l f / vSN , l f - the sum of the actual distances between the nodes in the ROC, S - total area of ​​agglomeration, N - the number of cities in its composition).

If the nodes of the ROC are so concentrated that the effect of the displacement of centers causes direct contact and connection of neighboring megacities, a megalopolis is formed if backbone effect- there is a continuous urbanized band (a chain of cities) between neighboring nodes of the OKD.

The immediate cause of the environmental problems of cities is the fact that “at any moment the diversity” of ways of applying labor and places of leisure outweighs the planning and environmental shortcomings of cities in the minds of citizens” (O.N. Yanitsky). They delegate this risk to the next generations, while anticipating this risk in advance is the task of the previous generation. It should be carried out at the design and planning stage).

Urbanization is a historical process of increasing the role of the city in the development of society, which embraces changes in the location of production and, above all, in the distribution of the population, its socio-professional structure, lifestyle, culture, etc. - a multilateral socio-economic, demographic and geographical process occurring on the basis of historically established forms of social and territorial division of labor. In a narrower, demographic and statistical sense, urbanization is the growth of cities, especially large ones, an increase in the proportion of urban population in a country, region, world (urbanization of the population).

The first cities appeared in the III-I millennium BC. in, Mesopotamia, China, as well as in some areas and adjacent to. In the Greco-Roman world, cities such as Athens, Rome, Carthage played a huge role. With the development of an industrial society, the objective necessity of concentration and integration of various forms and types of material and spiritual activity was the reason for the intensification of the process of urbanization, an increase in the concentration of the population in cities. On the present stage urbanization in the economically developed there is a predominance of large-town forms of settlements.

The development of the urbanization process is closely related to the peculiarities of the formation of the urban population and the growth of cities: the urban population itself; inclusion in the city limits or assignment to the administrative subordination of suburban areas (including cities, towns and villages); transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. The actual growth of cities is also due to the formation of more or less wide suburban areas and urbanized areas. The living conditions of the population in these areas are increasingly approaching the conditions of life in large cities, the centers of gravity of these zones.

A comparative analysis of the demographic aspects of the process of urbanization in various countries of the world is usually based on data on the growth of the urbanization of the population - the share of the urban, or urbanized, population. However, in the reports different countries there is no information given for one date (the amplitude of fluctuations is up to 10 years), the methods of counting the urban population and determining the boundaries of cities are not the same. In the countries of the world, there are three different types by which settlements are classified as urban:

  • when settlements are subdivided according to a chosen criterion (for example, by type local government, by the number of inhabitants, by the proportion of the population employed in );
  • when the administrative center of a rural area is classified as a city, and the rest of it as a village;
  • when clusters of a population of a certain size belong to cities, regardless of their administrative affiliation.

Since the criteria for identifying urban settlements vary considerably in individual countries, in order to obtain comparable data, the population of all settlements that have reached a certain population size is often included in the urban population. The values ​​of 2, 5, 10 and 20 thousand inhabitants are proposed as the world statistical qualification of the population of the city (almost not connected with its definition in essence). Thus, the population of settlements with a population of at least 2,000 is often considered urbanized. But such a qualification, while suitable for certain countries, is still too low for the world standard. However, the actual scale of urbanization is so complex that it is preferable to use several criteria as steps. When using national criteria for the allocation of urban settlements, the dynamics of urbanization of the population is as follows. In 1800, the share of the urban population in the entire population of the globe was about 3%, in 1860 - 6.4%, in 1900 - 19.6%, by 1990 it increased to 43% (14 times).

The outpacing growth of the urban and non-agricultural population compared to the rural and agricultural population is the most characteristic feature of modern urbanization. In three parts of the world - and, America, Europe, urban residents predominate, at the same time, the African population, and due to its large numbers, creates a preponderance of the village over the city on average in the world. The countries of Asia and Africa have the largest reserves of urban population growth, and it is here that its most rapid growth has recently taken place.

The highest percentage of the urban population is economically . In 1990, the urban population was (in%): in - 74.3; c — 78.3; — 75; — 60; - 77.5; - 77.4; — 90; China - 26.2; - 25.7. When the proportion of the urban population exceeds 70%, the rate of its growth, as a rule, slows down and gradually (when approaching 80%) stops.

Urbanization is characterized by the concentration of the population in large and super-large cities. It is the growth of large cities (100 thousand people), the new forms of settlement associated with it, and the spread of the urban way of life that most clearly reflect the process of urbanization of the population. The share of large cities in the total population of the world has increased over 100 extra years(from 1860 to 1980) from 1.7 to 20%. No less remarkable is the development of the largest "millionaire" cities. If in 1800 there was only one city with more than 1 million inhabitants, then in 1990 there were over 300 such cities.

The modern type of urbanization in economically developed countries is no longer so much a rapid rate of growth in the proportion of the urban population as a particularly intensive development of suburbanization processes and the formation on this basis of new spatial forms of urban settlement - megacities. Under these conditions, the processes of territorial deconcentration of the population were clearly manifested. This refers not only to the movement of the population from large cities to their suburban areas - a process that was widely developed back in the 50s. XX century, but also the predominant growth of cities in peripheral areas compared to highly urbanized ones. In the 70s. For the first time in the United States, population growth rates were below the national average. The data for France confirm a general population shift from urban areas to small and medium-sized cities as a result of a change in direction. In , there was a decline in the population in the largest cities, and from the city centers the flows of migrants were directed mainly to their suburban areas. In many large urban agglomerations, the population has stopped increasing or even started to decline (often due to the decrease in the population of the city centers).

In the world, as already noted, the “population explosion” was accompanied by an “urban explosion”. With comparatively low urbanization rates, many of these countries have relatively high rates of urbanization. The disproportionate growth of the capitals of a number of Asian and African states is associated with a special type of urbanization, which is distinguished by mass traction in big cities peasants. The influx of the rural population into the cities, as a rule, far outstrips the growth in labor demand. In developing countries, multi-million urban agglomerations are being formed (for example, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Calcutta, etc.). On the one hand, the process of urbanization contributes to the progress of these countries, raises the role of cities, on the other hand, it exacerbates the socio-economic problems generated by economic backwardness and associated with excessive “demographic” for large cities.

The impact of urbanization on demographic processes is manifested, to a large extent, depending on the differentiation of the urban environment, primarily on the differences in cities in size and economic profile (functional type). As the process of urbanization develops, the urban population decreases in comparison with the rural population, and in the future there is a drop in the birth rate in rural areas. Some developing countries (such as Egypt) have higher urban birth rates due to a range of socioeconomic, demographic and religious factors, in particular the more balanced sex ratios in cities. In almost all countries, the birth rate of urban residents who have recently moved from rural areas is higher than that of long-term residents of cities (if the adaptation of rural residents to cities is not very difficult).

As urbanization develops, the role of migration in urban population growth is gradually decreasing. The intensity of the territorial mobility of the population as a whole is growing, especially the intensity of pendulum movements. The main role in the formation of the urban population of the Russian Federation for many years was played by migration from rural areas to cities and the transformation of villages into urban settlements. However, over time, the importance of natural increase in the formation of the population of cities increases. In conditions when the rate of natural growth is declining, the growth rate of the urban population is also slowing down. In the early 90s. 20th century Population growth in many of Russia's largest cities has halted.

The profound influence of modern urbanization on many aspects of social life leads to the emergence of new theories that try to explain the role of urbanization in the development of society. This is, first of all, the socio-evolutionary theory of the "urban revolution", according to which, in the course of urbanization, its contradictions are gradually eliminated, significant antagonisms between the city and the countryside are removed. The urban revolution must eventually lead to a "post-urban society". According to M. Weber, the theorist of urbanization, it leads to the creation of a “post-urban society” - a “society outside the cities” - by including most of the population in the information production industry, the development of universal spatial mobility.

1. The process of increasing the share of the urban population, increasing the role of cities and spreading the urban lifestyle is:

A) urbanization

B) migration

B) emancipation

D) adaptation

2. Natural population growth is:

A) the ratio of births to deaths

B) the difference between fertility and mortality

C) the difference between the number of people who entered and those who left the country

D) the ratio of those who entered the country to the number of births per year

3. The movement of the population across the territory is:

A) urbanization

B) migration

B) recreation

D) emancipation

4. To the Slavic language group peoples include:

A) Buryats

B) Russians

B) Altaians

5. In the Asian part of Russia live:

A) Karelians

B) Chuvash

D) Buryats

6. To the nations North Caucasus relate:

A) Bashkirs

B) Chechens

B) Karelians

D) Udmurts

7. Which of the listed peoples belongs to the Indo-European language family:

A) Buryats

B) Russians

B) Kalmyks

D) Tatars

8. The smallest people are:

A) Tatars

B) Russians

D) Chuvash

A) 7 thousand people

B) 3 thousand people

C) 12 thousand people

D) 30 thousand people

10. The largest urban agglomeration in Russia is:

A) Moscow

B) Samara

B) Nizhny Novgorod

D) Novosibirsk

11. Specify natural area, within which the largest rural settlements:

A) tundra

D) desert

12. Indicate the region through which the Main Settlement Strip passes:

A) European North

B) Central Russia

B) North Far East

D) North of Eastern Siberia

13. Select the subject of the Russian Federation with the highest proportion of the urban population:

A) Kalmykia

B) Moscow region

C) Magadan region

D) Murmansk region

14. The lowest population density in the region:

A) Rostov

B) Vladimirskaya

B) Magadan

D) Moscow

15. Select the region in which there is a migration increase in the population:

A) Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

B) Moscow region

C) Magadan region

D) Khabarovsk Territory

16.Select the region in which there is a migration outflow of the population:

A) Moscow region

B) Krasnodar Territory

C) Magadan region

D) Leningrad region

17. The current demographic situation in Russia is characterized by:

A) high natural growth

B) low natural increase

B) zero natural increase

D) negative natural increase

18. In which of the republics of the Russian Federation is there a high natural increase:

A) Karelia

B) Yakutia

B) Dagestan

19. Religion, which occupies a leading place in the number of believers in Russia:

B) orthodoxy

B) Buddhism

D) shamanism

20. A significant part of believers profess Islam in:

A) Karelia

B) Kalmykia

D) Yakutia

Answers:

    2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

A B B B D B B C C A C B B C B C D C B B

Concept of Urbanization

Urbanization (from Latin Urbanus - urban, urbs - city) is a historical process of increasing the role of cities, urban lifestyle and urban culture in the development of society, associated with a spatial concentration of activities in relatively few centers and areas of predominant socio-economic development.

Concretizing this definition, which has become too general from the standpoint of modern geourban studies, two important points should be added to it:

1. wide exit of the city beyond its official (which has become too close) boundaries and the formation of post-urban urban systems - agglomerations, urbanized areas, megacities;

2. a significant change in the person himself in the city, meaning an increase in the diversity of needs, an increase in the requirements for quality, level and lifestyle, a change in the system of values, norms of behavior, culture, intelligence, etc.

The term "urbanization" appeared for the first time in foreign literature in 1867 in Spain, in Russian - in 1957 (in the translation of the "Report on the World social status» UN). This term began to be used more regularly in the Soviet scientific literature since the late 1960s, i.e. a century later than for the first time abroad, and at the same time, the phenomenon itself was often assessed negatively. Therefore, in the study of the process of urbanization, especially in the early stages, Soviet science lagged noticeably behind Western science.

Urbanization as a complex, dynamic, multifaceted process is the object of interdisciplinary research. Representatives of different sciences, and sometimes even one science, have their own vision of this process. Therefore, there is still no single generally accepted definition of urbanization.

Keeping in mind the different content that is embedded in the understanding of urbanization, two types of its definition are proposed:

1. urbanization in the narrow sense means the growth of cities, especially large ones, an increase in the share of the urban population;

2. in a broad sense - the historical process of increasing the role of cities, urban lifestyle and urban culture in the development of the city.

The ambiguity of understanding urbanization was largely facilitated by the very versatility of the process, which covers a variety of problems and aspects of urban development: social, economic, demographic, ethnic, cultural, etc.

The essence of urbanization is the process of development of large cities (more than 100 thousand inhabitants) and large agglomerations and vast urbanized areas that are formed on their basis, which are the main focuses of territorial development and the main carriers of the properties and features of modern urbanization. Therefore, only when urban processes are considered within a wider territorial framework than the city, using the agglomeration, urbanized area and other urban systems for this, do they get an idea of ​​the true scale of modern urbanization.

The particular importance of studying urbanization is explained by the fact that it is the resulting process that forms the relationship between man, society and the environment. The most important result, the measure of urbanization, is now increasingly recognized by the person himself with the growth of his capabilities, abilities and creativity in the context of the spread of the urban value system on a global scale.

The process of becoming urbanization

The increasing role of cities in the life of society has accompanied mankind throughout its history. But only in the 19th century. begins a noticeable concentration of the population in cities. At the beginning of the 20th century it intensifies even more, but the scale of urbanization especially increases after the Second World War, when, according to G. Child, the "urban revolution" began. Since the 1950s the process is increasingly characterized not only by quantitative but also by qualitative changes (the emergence of new forms of settlement, agglomeration, suburbanization, etc.). Thus, when the definition of "modern" is used in relation to urbanization, it means, as a rule, its functioning since the middle of the last century.

With the deepening of urbanization, however, the inevitable evolution of socio-geographical ideas about it takes place, especially noticeable in the second half of the 20th century. the emphasis in determining the essence of urbanization is gradually shifting from the growth of the urban population, its share in the population of a country or region to the level of population concentration in large cities, agglomerations and supra-glomeration settlement systems; then to the spread of the urban way of life, changing the norms of human behavior in the city, the quality of the urban environment and the study of man in the city as a phenomenon of culture and, more broadly, of the whole civilization. These signs do not oppose each other; the transfer of emphasis to one of them reflects only the successive stages of the knowledge of urbanization as the process itself deepens, and its study by science.

Urbanization as a classic global process

In modern science, global processes can be represented, firstly, as covering the whole world and, secondly, as systemic phenomena that permeate all human life.

The globality and universality of the modern process of urbanization have deep historical roots. They manifest themselves in our time on two levels:

1. on the philosophical and worldview (interdisciplinary). Urbanization occupies one of the first places among the global problems of our time, since it is in the city, as a focus, that most of the world's problems are concentrated and the prospects for the development of mankind are determined. Therefore, urbanization largely determines the development of terrestrial civilization from the time of the appearance of the ancient city to the present day.

2. on the problem. Urbanization in today's highly controversial and differentiated world is characterized by the following common main problems:

The conflict between rapidly expanding urbanized areas and the resources of cultivated agricultural land, forest land, etc., necessary to maintain a balance between nature and society;

Cultural and economic conflict between urban and rural areas, degradation of the economy and the demographic state of the rural population under the influence of the expansion of urbanization;

The conflict between the explosiveness of the formally increasing urban population and the obviously non-urban level (for a significant part) of its culture and consciousness, the insufficient preparedness of the production and service sectors for such a rapid growth of cities; this is the problem of the so-called pseudo or false urbanization that began in the mid-1930s. in the USSR;

The conflict of a socio-cultural and socio-ethnic nature within the urbanized territories as a result of sharply increased property and other differences between the so-called old and new residents of cities, due to the replenishment of low-skilled labor at the expense of emigrants.

Urbanization is a deeply spatial process, concentrated and clearly expressed when it is projected onto the territory, mapped. In the process of evolution, the areas of the urbanized environment are expanding and their qualitative change is taking place.

The following essential features are characteristic of the spatial evolution of modern urbanization:

1. concentration, intensification, differentiation and diversity of urban activities (functions), and more recently, agriculture in suburban areas major centers;

2. distribution outside the centers and urbanized areas of the urban lifestyle with a special structure of communication, culture, system of value orientations;

3. development of large urban agglomerations, urbanized areas and zones as a result of strengthening interconnections in settlement systems;

4. complication of forms and systems of urban settlement: the transition from point and linear to nodal, strip, etc.;

5. increase in the radii of settlement within agglomerations and urbanized areas, associated with places of application of labor, recreation areas, etc., and causing the territorial growth of urban systems; accordingly, there is an increase in the areas of highly urbanized territories due to the expansion of old and the emergence of new centers of urbanization.

The spatial development of urbanization is further characterized by the transformation of the network of urban settlements into settlement systems, the differentiation of urban space, the involvement of new territories in the sphere of influence of cities of various types and ranks, and the expansion of the areas of the urbanized environment.

When determining the nature of the urbanization of a country or region, the concepts of urban structure and territorial-urban structure are used. The urban structure is the ratio of settlements of various sizes (population) in their total number, the total population. The territorial-urban structure is understood as the ratio and mutual arrangement of territories, which are characterized by:

1. development of urbanization in breadth (development of new cells) or in depth (complication of forms and structures of settlement);

2. the severity and pattern of the network of supporting urban centers;

3. degree of maturity of urban agglomerations;

4. spatial differentiation of regional urban systems.

Urbanization is a comprehensive process, it encompasses not only the urban area, but increasingly the countryside as well, largely determining its transformation - demographic, social, economic, spatial, etc. That is why many rural problems (mobility, change structures of the rural population, depopulation) are now very closely connected with urbanization. Cities influence the environment in many ways. rural area, gradually, as it were, "processing" it, reducing the size of the countryside. As a result, there is a rapid development of the suburbs of large cities - suburbanization (literally, "urbanization of the suburbs"). At the same time, some urban conditions and norms of life are being introduced into rural settlements, i.e. Rurbanization (rural urbanization). The urbanization of rural areas also leads to qualitative changes: non-agricultural occupations of the rural population are growing, its pendulum migration is increasing, especially to cities and the suburban zone of large centers, the socio-professional and demographic structure of rural residents, their lifestyle, and the level of improvement are changing. rural settlements etc. Vast zones of gravity of large centers are being formed, in which close direct and reverse links are formed between the city and the countryside.

Urbanization of the population

A comparative analysis of the demographic aspects of the development of the urbanization process in various countries of the world is usually based on data on the growth of the urbanization of the population - the share of the urban or so-called urbanized population. Since the criterion for identifying urban settlements varies significantly in individual countries, in order to obtain comparable data, the population of all settlements that have reached a certain population level is often included in the urban population. In 2002, more than 1/3 of the world's population lived in settlements with more than 5,000 inhabitants (less than 3% at the beginning of the 19th century); - more than 1/4. When using national criteria for the allocation of urban settlements, the dynamics of urbanization of the population is as follows. In 1800, the share of the urban population in the entire population of the globe was about 3%, in 1850 - 6.4%, in 1900 - 19.6%. From 1800 to 2000, it increased almost 18 times (up to 51.2%).

The outstripping growth of the urban and non-agricultural population in comparison with the rural and agricultural population is the most characteristic feature of modern urbanization. In three parts of the world - Australia and Oceania, North America and Europe, urban dwellers predominate; they are being overtaken by the rapidly urbanizing Latin America; at the same time, the population of the Afro-Asian countries, due to its large numbers, creates a preponderance of the village over the city on average in the world. The developed countries of the first world have the highest percentage of the urban population: in Europe - Great Britain (91%), Sweden (87%), Germany (85%), Denmark (84%), France (78%), the Netherlands (76%), Spain (74%), Belgium (72%); in North America, the USA (77%) and Canada (76%); in Asia, Israel (89%) and Japan (78%); in Australia and Oceania - Australia (89%) and New Zealand (85%); in Africa - South Africa (50%). When the proportion of the urban population exceeds 70%, the rate of its growth, as a rule, slows down and gradually (when approaching 80%) stops.

Urbanization is characterized by the concentration of the population in large and super-large cities. It is the growth of large cities (with a population of over 100,000 people), the new forms of settlement associated with them and the spread of the urban lifestyle that most clearly reflect the process of urbanization of the population.

Table 1 - Dynamics of the world process of urbanization in the 19th - 20th centuries

Year Urban population, million people Share of urban population in the world population, %
1800 50 5,1
1850 80 4,3
1900 220 13,3
1950 738 29,3
1960 1033 34,2
1970 1353 36,6
1980 1752 39,4
1990 2277 43,1
2000 2926 47,5

This table shows the dynamics of the global urbanization process, the increase in the share of the urban population, due to the increase in the rural population, the growth of cities and urban infrastructure, the creation of new jobs and the improvement of the quality of life in cities.