Every card in Population and urbanisation, Year 11: a fast-growing city in a poorer country
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- Most people who migrate from the countryside to a fast-growing city are young adults. How does their arrival raise the rate of natural increase in the city?
They are at the age to have children, so the birth rate rises
HintThink about which stage of life comes next for people in their twenties.
WhyMigration and natural increase are linked. Young adult migrants start families in the city, so births go up. At the same time a young population has few deaths, so the gap between births and deaths widens.
- AQA asks why your case-study city matters at three scales. A city is the main market and hospital centre for the farms and towns around it, but people in the rest of the country rarely use it. At which scale does this show the city is important? (one word)
regional
HintIt is the smallest of the three scales.
WhyThe three scales are regional, national and international. Regional importance is about the area around the city. National importance covers the whole country, such as being the capital or the main port. International importance means links with other countries, such as foreign companies and long-distance flights.
- Why does it cost a government less, per person, to provide clinics, schools and piped water in a city than in scattered villages?
People live close together, so each clinic, school or pipe serves many more people
HintCompare how far one water main would have to run to reach a thousand homes in the two settings.
WhyThis is why urban growth brings social opportunities. One hospital or water main in a dense city reaches a very large number of people. In remote rural areas the same money reaches far fewer, so services there are often thinner.
- The chain reaction in which a new industry creates jobs, the workers spend their wages, and that spending creates more businesses and jobs in the same area
The multiplier effect
HintIts name comes from a maths operation that makes a number bigger.
WhyA new factory pays wages. Workers spend them in local shops and on local services, which then take on staff of their own. Firms and workers also pay taxes, which the city can spend on schools, clinics and roads. This is how an industrial area can stimulate wider economic development.
- A factory job comes with a contract, a regular wage and tax paid to the government. What name is given to the sector of a city's economy made up of jobs like this? (one word)
formal
HintThink of the kind of dress code that has the same name.
WhyFormal jobs are registered with the government. They bring steadier pay and some legal protection, and the tax helps to fund services. Growing industrial areas matter to a city in a lower income country (LIC) or newly emerging economy (NEE) because they add jobs of this kind.
- A city's population doubles in 15 years. Why do its water pipes, sewers and schools usually fall behind?
People arrive faster than the city can afford to build services for them
HintCompare two speeds: one belongs to the newcomers, the other to the builders.
WhyPipes, sewers, power lines and schools are expensive and take years to plan and build. When hundreds of thousands of people are added each year, the city authority cannot raise the money or build quickly enough. This is the root of most challenges in a fast-growing city.
- The safe collection, treatment and disposal of human waste, using toilets and sewers
Sanitation
HintIt comes from the Latin word for health.
WhySanitation is about what happens to sewage. It is a separate challenge from supplying clean water, although the two are linked: without toilets and sewers, human waste gets into the water people drink. The World Health Organization reported that in 2022 over 1.5 billion people worldwide still lacked a basic service such as a private toilet.
- Many people in a fast-growing city work in the informal economy, for example as street traders. Why does this make it harder for the city to pay for schools, clinics and sewers?
Informal workers and businesses are not registered, so they pay little or no tax
HintAsk where a council gets its money from in the first place.
WhyInformal work is unregistered: no contract, no legal protection and usually no tax. It gives millions of people an income where formal jobs are scarce, and it takes skill and effort. But a city with a large informal economy collects less tax, so it has less to spend on services.
- A city authority sends lorries to collect rubbish from an informal settlement, yet much of the waste is still not collected. What is it about the settlement's layout that causes this?
The lanes are narrow and unplanned, so lorries cannot get along them
HintPicture the width of the vehicle, then the gap between the houses.
WhyInformal settlements grow without a street plan, so homes are packed tightly with only footpaths between them. Waste that cannot be collected is dumped or burnt, which pollutes water and air and attracts pests. The same layout makes it hard for fire engines and ambulances to reach people.
- Traffic congestion pollutes the air. Why is it also an economic problem for a fast-growing city?
Time lost in jams delays workers and deliveries, which costs businesses money
HintImagine a van of goods stuck for two hours on the way to a shop.
WhyVehicle numbers grow faster than roads and public transport. Workers arrive late, deliveries take longer and fuel is wasted, so every business in the city pays more. Exhaust fumes from slow traffic also harm health, which is a social cost.
- A city authority marks out plots of land and gives each one a road, piped water and a drain. Low-income families then rent or buy a plot cheaply and build their own home on it.
A site and service scheme
HintThe name lists the two things the authority provides: the ground, and what is connected to it.
WhyThe authority does the parts residents cannot do alone: legal land, roads, water and drains. Families do the part they can: building, a room at a time as money allows. It differs from a self-help scheme, which improves homes where people already live.
- Some cities have cleared informal settlements and moved residents to new flats on the edge of the city. Many residents later moved back. What did the move to the edge cost them, in terms of earning a living?
Their work, which was close to their old homes
HintThink about the daily journey and its price.
WhyPeople in informal settlements usually live near where they earn: markets, workshops, building sites and better-off households. A flat far away means long, costly journeys or no income. This is why many planners now prefer to upgrade a settlement where it stands.
- A scheme to help the urban poor builds 500 good new homes, but the rent is more than the poorest families earn. Why would a geographer say the scheme has not met its aim?
The people it was meant for cannot afford to benefit from it
HintAsk who actually ends up living there.
WhyTo judge a scheme, ask who benefits, not just what was built. If the homes go to better-off households, the poorest are no better off and may have lost their old homes. Affordability is one of the first tests of any scheme for the urban poor.
- Families improve their homes once they hold a legal right to stay on their plot. Planners call this right security of ____.
tenure
HintThe word comes from the French for "to hold".
WhyWithout a legal right to the land, a family can be evicted at any time, so spending on a better house is a risk. Many upgrading schemes therefore begin by giving residents legal papers for their plot. The United Nations counts a lack of secure tenure as one of five signs of a slum household.
- A scheme for the urban poor can be judged on three kinds of improvement: social (such as health and education), ____ (such as jobs and income) and ____ (such as less waste and cleaner water).
economic; environmental
HintRead the examples in the brackets after each gap.
WhySorting effects into these three groups gives an evaluation its structure. A strong answer also asks whether the gains will last and whether they reach the poorest residents. Use evidence from your own example under each heading.
1★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0001
2★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0002
3★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0003
4★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0004
5★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0005
6★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0006
7★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0007
8★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0008
9★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0009
10★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0010
11★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0011
12★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0012
13★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0013
14★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0014
15★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0015
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