Urbanization: Problems and Solutions

With reference to examples, assess the degree the economic development of a country affects planning and management in urban areas (40) The planning and management of urban areas covers several different issues present in all areas such as waste, sustainability and transport. These issues come about as a result of urbanisation which originates from an increase in economic development. However certain issues will be more prevalent in certain areas of more or less economic development than others. When planning and managing different schemes, sustainability is often something that will be a large focus. Sustainable living can be defined as being able to provide for the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. As a country develops economically there is a net influx of people moving from rural areas to urban areas, a process known as urbanisation. The scale of this can be shown through the way that the population of those living in urban areas overtook that of those living in rural areas in 2011. As the population of a place increases problems such as overpopulation and traffic congestion will occur. Generally however, the issues facing MICs and LICs will differ from those in HICs. For example in MICs there are schemes such as Indonesia’s Transmigration scheme or China’s One Child Policy and the formation of slums in Rio de Janeiro whereas in HICs there are ageing populations such as those in the UK or France. Indonesia’s Transmigration programme involved moving 20 million people from overcrowded islands such as Java to some underpopulated places such as Sumatra. However though the scheme could be seen as a failure as in 1980 it was inhabited by 62% of the country’s population despite only constituting 7% of the country’s landmass. The scheme also caused other problems such as conflicts between the indigenous populations of different islands and those coming from Java, an issue known as Javanization. This issue