The Origin and Influences of Urbanization
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| urbanization | 城市化 | chéng shì huà |
| site | 地点 | dì diǎn |
| situation | 区位 | qū wèi |
| suburb | 郊区 | jiāo qū |
| suburbanization | 郊区化 | jiāo qū huà |
| urban sprawl | 城市蔓延 | chéng shì màn yán |
The growth of cities
- Urbanization 城市化 is the growth in the share of people living in cities.
- It began with the farming surplus that freed people from the land.
- It sped up hugely with the Industrial Revolution and its factories.
Urbanization is best defined as...
Urbanization = a rising percentage of people in cities.
Site and situation
- Site 地点 is the physical features of a place (a hill, a harbour, a river).
- Situation 区位 is its location relative to other places (near trade routes).
- Both help explain why a city grew where it did.
Site or situation?
Sort each description as a site factor or a situation factor.
A city's site refers to its physical features, like a harbour or a hill.
Site = physical features; situation = relative location.
Select all situation factors for a city.
Trade routes, markets, and convergence are situation; a cliff is a site feature.
Match each term to its meaning.
Site = features; situation = location; suburbanization = outward spread.
Spreading outward
- A suburb 郊区 is a residential area on the edge of a city.
- Suburbanization 郊区化 and urban sprawl 城市蔓延 spread cities outward.
- Cars and cheap land at the edge drive this outward growth.
The outward spread of a city into low-density edges is called urban ____.
Urban sprawl is car-driven low-density outward growth.
Urbanization (a rising share of people in cities) is not the same as a city just getting bigger. A country urbanizes when the percentage living in cities rises — driven today mostly by rural-to-urban migration in the developing world.
A trading city grew at the mouth of a river: its site (a sheltered harbour) and its situation (where inland trade routes meet the sea) both made it a natural place for a port. Centuries later, cars let its people spread into suburbs at the edge.
Urbanization is the rising share of people in cities, begun by farming surplus and sped by industry. A city's site (physical features) and situation (relative location) explain where it grew. Suburbanization and sprawl spread cities outward.