URBAN ECONOMIC I (ESM 415)ALPHA 2013/2014 ACADEMIC SESSION

Urban Land Use and

Problems:

Overpopulation and

Urban Sprawl

LECTURE FIVE

What is Overpopulation? ➔ A country is overpopulated when that country

does not have enough available living space to accommodate all of it's population.

➔ Overpopulation refers to a condition by which the population density enlarges to a limit that provokes the environmental deterioration, a remarkable decline in the quality of life, or a population collapse.

LECTURE FIVE

➔ Overpopulation is a condition where the number of organisms exceeds the carrying capacity of their habitat. It is an increase in the population density of a place so much that the amount of food, water and land is insufficient in providing resources.

What causes overpopulation?

There are some schools of torts on the causes of overpopulation. It is believed that:

1. Religion is the main cause of overpopulation. Religion causes people to be pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-family planning e.t.c.

LECTURE FIVE

2. Overpopulation of humans is caused by lack of birth control, lack of education, and poverty.

3. The last school of tort believe that high birth rate and low death rate are the major causes of overpopulation.

Which school(s) of tort do you subscribe to?

LECTURE FIVE

Overpopulation is caused by:

1. People have a continuous fertility cycle, we can produce children all year unlike animals with a fixed breeding period.

2. People eliminate natural causes of death from disease and hunger by medicine and agriculture. Hence, we have longer life span.

3. Infants' death at childbirth has reduced due to advance technology.

LECTURE FIVE

4. The social pressure to have children is strong in almost every culture.

5. Birth control is not available in many/some cultures.

6. High birth rate.

7. Children are a sign of virility (being capable of copulation and procreation).

8. Religion.

9. Migration.

10. Lack of education.

LECTURE FIVE

11. In some cultures male children are preferred. This indirectly forces couples to produce children till a child of the preferred gender is conceived.

Effects of Overpopulation

1. Food & water shortage

2. Limited space

3. Environmental Degradation

4. Health Problems: Poor environmental sanitation is a major cause of diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid and cholera. e.t.c.

LECTURE FIVE

Urban sprawl

Urban sprawl means the spread of urban areas into rural areas such as farmland, forests and coastal lands that lie on the outer edges of cities.

Urban sprawl is the unchecked spreading of a city or its suburbs. It often involves the construction of residential and commercial buildings in rural areas or otherwise undeveloped land at the outskirts of a city.

LECTURE FIVE

Characteristics of Urban Sprawl

1. Increased traffic congestion.

2. A decrease in social interaction among neighbours because of changes in the physical structure of neighbourhoods.

3. Water quality degradation due to increases in impervious surface area associated with new roads and parking lots.

4. Air pollution resulting from the increased volume of traffic as people must drive longer distances, often on congested roads.

LECTURE FIVE

Consequences of Urban Sprawl

1. Overcrowding of limited services.

2. Increased travelling distances and times to work, school and recreation areas.

3. Increased traffic congestion.

4. Increased urban pollution,

5. Lack of hygiene and sanitation.

6. Development of slums and shanty towns

NEXT WEEK

Lecture Six

• What is Pollution?

• Types of Pollution – Water, Land, Air,

Noise & Chemical Pollution

• Sources of Water, Land, Air, Noise &

Chemical Pollution

• Preventive Measures