Suburbanization - is that a concept? What is the difference between urbanization, de-urbanization and suburbanization?

Man is a creature, certainly a social being, striving for the society of other people. That's why the population of the planet continues to rapidly "flow" into big cities. On the other hand, man is a natural being. It is an integral part, a link of the natural, natural landscape. Thus, cities and natural areas - without industry and exhaust gases, remain today the two main axes around which the life of modern society revolves.

In this article we will consider concepts related to the section of urbanistics. What is suburbanization, de-urbanization and urbanization? What is the meaning of these three concepts?

The meaning of the concept of "urbanization"

The term "urbanization" comes from the Latin word "urbanus", which translates as "urban". Urbanization (in the broad sense) is understood as the growth of the city's role in the life of man and society. In a narrower sense, this is the process of growth of the urban population and the "overflow" of residents from rural areas - to cities and megacities.

About urbanization, as a socio-economic phenomenon and process, actively began to speak in the middle of the twentieth century, when the percentage of urban population began to grow rapidly. The reason for this was the development of industry in cities, the emergence of new jobs in them , as well as the development of cultural and educational functions in urban settlements.

Scientists distinguish several aspects of urbanization processes, namely:

• Outflow of population from rural areas to cities;
• The transformation of villages and villages into urban settlements;
• Formation of large and integral suburban areas of settlement.

To the questions "what is suburbanization, urbanization, de-urbanization, ruralization?" Meets the science of georbanistics - one of the important sections of modern social geography.

The so-called phenomenon of false urbanization, which is typical for such regions of the world as Latin America and South-East Asia, is closely connected with the concept of "urbanization". What is false urbanization. In fact, this is an unjustified growth of cities, which is not accompanied by the necessary growth of jobs and the development of the corresponding infrastructure. As a result, the rural population is simply "squeezed out" into large cities. False urbanization, as a rule, is accompanied by a surge of unemployment and the appearance in the city of the so-called "slums" - unintended for normal human life in urban areas.

The level of urbanization in different countries of the world

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs annually prepares the next rating of urbanization of the countries of the world. These studies have been conducted since 1980.

The level of urbanization is the percentage of the urban population in the total population of a country. And it is not the same in different countries of the world. Thus, the highest rates of urbanization (if not to take into account dwarf states consisting of one city) are fixed in Qatar, Kuwait, Belgium and Malta. In all these countries, the urbanization of the population exceeds 95%. Also, the level of urbanization is quite high in Iceland, Argentina, Japan, Israel, Venezuela and Uruguay (above 90%).

The indicator of Russia in this rating according to UN estimates is 74%. Below the rating of urbanization is located Papua New Guinea and Burundi (with urbanization rates of 12.6 and 11.5% respectively). In Europe, the lowest urbanization rate is typical for Moldova (49 percent).

The concept of urban agglomeration

Urban agglomerations - a phenomenon that is inextricably linked with the process of urbanization. This is the process of uniting neighboring urban settlements, into one complex and integrated system. Within this system, stable and intensive links are formed: production, transport, scientific and cultural. Urban agglomerations - this is one of the regular stages of urbanization processes.

There are two main types of agglomerations:

• Monocentric (formed on the basis of one central city-nucleus);
• Polycentric (a cluster of several equivalent urban settlements).

For urban agglomeration the following distinguishing features are characteristic:

1. Connection of the central city with other cities and settlements adjoining it (without significant territorial discontinuities).
2. The proportion of built-up areas in the agglomeration must necessarily exceed the percentage of agricultural land.
3. Every agglomeration is characterized by daily pendulum migrations - labor, educational, cultural and tourist.

According to the UN, on our planet there are at least 450 urban agglomerations, in each of which at least one million people live. The largest agglomeration in the world is the city agglomeration of Tokyo, in which about 35 million people live. The leading countries in the total number of urban agglomerations are: China, USA, India, Brazil and Russia.

Urban agglomerations in Russia

It is interesting that in Russia at the state level there is no accounting for urban agglomerations within the country. Therefore, the actual data on this issue may differ slightly from each other.

Nevertheless, it is customary to allocate 22 agglomerations on the territory of Russia. The largest of these are the following (in brackets, the approximate population is indicated):

1. Moscow (about 16 million).
2. St. Petersburg (5.6 million).
3. Samara-Togliatti (2.3 million).
4. Ekaterinburg (2.2 million).
5. Rostov (1.7 million).

For Russian urban agglomerations typical high industrialization of the territory, a high level of infrastructure development, a large number of research and higher education institutions. Most of the agglomerations in Russia are monocentric, that is, they have one, clearly expressed center, in the subordination of which are all other settlements and suburbs.

Suburbanization: definition of the concept

Now it is worthwhile to consider other concepts actively used in urban planning. Suburbanization is what a concept is and what is its essence?

This term came into active use in the second half of the twentieth century. Suburbanization is a phenomenon accompanied by the active development of suburbs - zones around large metropolises.

Toward the end of the last century, an increasing number of people began to move to the outskirts of cities, away from the noises of factories and dirty air and closer to the natural landscapes. At the same time, such "settlers" do not start plowing the land and planting chicken. They continue to work in the city, spending several hours a day to get to their place of work. Of course, suburbanization became possible only thanks to the development of mass motorization.

From urbanization to suburbanization!

Recently, the magazine "The Economist" published a curious article entitled "The Planet of the Suburbs." According to the text of this article, suburbanization is nothing but a "disguised" urbanization! After all, throughout the world today, cities and megacities are expanding exclusively at the expense of suburbs. The exception of "The Economist" refers to only two modern metropolises - it's London and Tokyo.

And now we can observe an interesting picture: if even 30-40 years ago the outskirts of big cities became a "home" for the poorer strata of the population, today everything has changed diametrically. And now quarters of elite housing are increasingly seen in suburban areas.

What is de-urbanization?

Finally, we need to understand one more concept. De-urbanization is a process opposite to urbanization (from the French "dez" means denial).

De-urbanization is characterized by processes of population dispersal outside of cities. In a more global sense, this term also means denying the positive role of the city in the life of society. The main goal of the theory of de-urbanization is to eliminate all major cities in the world.

Finally...

Urbanization, de-urbanization, suburbanization ... All these concepts are very closely related to each other. If urbanization is a process of increasing the role of the city in the life of society, then suburbanization is, on the contrary, outflow of population to suburban areas.