SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN URBANIZATION

2010 

AZIS KEMAL FAUZIE

School of Environmental Studies

University of Delhi

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN URBANIZATION

by Azis Kemal Fauzie

School of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi - India

Urbanization (also spelled "urbanisation") is the physical growth of urban

areas as a result of global change. The United Nations define urbanization as a

movement of people from rural to urban areas with population growth equating to

urban migration. Urbanization is closely linked to modernization, industrialization,

and the sociological process of rationalization. The United Nations projected that half

of the world’s population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008.

Urbanization refers to an increase in the ratio of urban to rural population.

Each country may have different definitions in what they called urban areas. What

may be defined as urban in one country may be rural in another. For example, areas

with as few as 400 inhabitants are designated as urban in Albania, while in Japan

the lower limit is 50,000 inhabitants. Urban status in some other countries is

assigned on the basis of density. In Sweden, urban areas are those built-up areas

with less than 200 m between houses. In India, places having a density of not less

than 1000 persons per square kilometer where at least three-fourths of the male

adult is employed in nonagricultural work are called urban. Other countries define

urban areas in terms of the extent of urban characteristics, such as the number of

plazas or schools or the availability of sewers, electric, or water supply facilities.

People move from rural areas to urban areas to seek economic opportunities.

They believe that cities can give lots of fortune to them. Cities provide better basic

services as well as other specialist services that are not found in rural areas. There

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are more job opportunities and a greater variety of jobs. Health is another major

factor. People, especially the elderly are often forced to move to cities where there

are doctors and hospitals that can cater for their health needs. Other factors include

a greater variety of entertainment (restaurants, movie theaters, theme parks, etc.)

and a better quality of education, namely universities. Due to their high populations,

urban areas can also have much more diverse social communities allowing others to

find people like them when they might not be able to in rural areas.

According to Yap Kioe Sheng, rural-to-urban migration can take different forms, each

with its own conditions and motives, and each requiring specific policy responses:

a. Permanent or long-term migration of the entire family.

This is the stereotypical form of migration, but an entire family is unlikely to

migrate together during the first move. Because it is easier for them to find

accommodation, the men in the family will move first to establish a foothold in

the city before the rest of the family moves. Family migration has important

consequences for the local authorities, because the family needs access to

permanent housing, infrastructure and services. While the parents may plan to

return to the rural areas, the move is likely to be permanent for the children.

b. Temporary or permanent migration of an unmarried family member.

The main reason for such migration is economic, but in some countries up to 10

per cent of the migrants move for educational reasons. Depending on the

culture, such migration traditionally concerned men only or also women. Recent

foreign direct investment in the textile and electronics industries has created

employment opportunities, especially for young women. Unmarried sons and

daughters may move to support their family or to start their own life. The

successful migrant is often quickly absorbed in the urban society.

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c. Temporary migration of a married family member leaving back home.

Such a migrant may stay a part of the year or a couple of years in the urban

areas to earn a living and support the family through remittances. The migrant’s

primary goal is to spend as little as possible in the urban areas and to save as

much money as possible. Temporary migrants are typically house renters rather

than house owners; rental housing tends to be among the worst kind of urban

accommodation, but receives little attention from policy makers.

d. Seasonal migration of the entire family during the low agricultural season.

Such migrants move with the entire family, despite higher transport costs

because the family cannot survive in the absence of the income-earning

members, while sending small amounts of money is not affordable. The family

may earn an income from various sources, ranging from construction work with

the family living on the construction site and the family members contributing

from doing odd construction jobs, to begging. Their very low income may not

suffice to cover the cost of renting adequate housing, and the family may live as

pavement dwellers.

Problem of urbanization is manifestation of lopsided urbanization, faulty urban

planning, and urbanization with poor economic base and without having functional

categories. Hence, urbanization is followed by some basic problems in the field of

poverty, unemployment, housing, transport, class conflict, social conflict (between

majority and minority, ethnic groups, and racism), social and economic inequalities,

crime and victimization, drug and alcohol addiction, broken family, personality and

mental health, environmental degradation (water supply, sanitation, pollution in

water, air, noise, etc.) and degradation in quality of urban life. In this paper, we will

further discuss some of these urbanization basic problems.

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Poverty

Defining urban poverty solely via income poverty and measuring it with

normative concepts such as the World Bank’s definition of extreme poverty (less

than the equivalent of US$ 1 in purchasing power a day) cannot reflect the reality of

the poor in cities with more than a million inhabitants of the developing countries.

There is no unambiguous definition of poverty.

Rather, poverty is a multidimensional problem that can be encountered in

different forms depending on the local conditions in the cities of the developing

countries. The street beggars and inhabitants of rubbish tips in Madras, the kiosk

vendor living in the Favelas in the hills of Rio de Janeiro and the cafe waiter in

Buenos Aires living on the outskirts and supporting a family of five may have

different monetary resources, but poor access is common to all of them, such as:

• poor access to secure income sources;

• poor access to health facilities (doctors, midwives, hospitals);

• poor access to educational institutions (primary and secondary modern schools,

vocational training institutions, higher education institutions);

• poor access to safe accommodation;

• poor access to social policy and other socio-cultural institutions enabling them to

actively participate in public affairs (Kaltheier, 2002).

Poverty is a serious social problem occurs not only in the poor countries, but

also in the developed countries, such as United States. It is not a wholly urban

phenomenon. Yet, it is useful to analyze urban poverty alone because poverty is

closely related to the nature of contemporary urban experience and the structure of

opportunity in cities.

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Table 1 - Poor in different locations in United States of America, 1999

Total number of residents

Number below poverty line Percentage

USA 271,059,000 32,258,000 11.8

Metropolitan Areas 221,348,000 24,816,000 11.2

Central Cities 80,761,000 13,123,000 16.4

Outside Metropolitan Areas 52,145,000 7,442,000 14.3

Source: Dalaker and Proctor, 2000

Table 1 shows the distribution of the poor among metropolitan, central city,

and nonmetropolitan locations, and the numbers and proportion of these divisions of

the population that felt below the poverty line in 1999. Given the greater proportion of

the US population living in cities within them (a subset of the metropolitan

population) contains more poor people than nonmetropolitan areas. Note, that when

we contrast metropolitan and nonmetropolitan populations, we find that a somewhat

greater proportion of people living in nonmetropolitan areas is poor. However, the

highest concentration of poverty overall is found within central cities: 16.4% of

central city populations are poor, in contrast to a 11.2% poverty level for metropolitan

populations in general, and 14.3% of the nonmetropolitan populations.

In order to be understood fully, poverty must be considered in connection with

the economic and political system that distributes opportunities and rewards, as well

as in connection with race and ethnic group, age, and gender. It is well-known that

the problem of concentrated urban poverty is usually serious for the minority

populations rather than the majority. For example, 40% of American blacks lived in

central city poverty areas in 1990, while the whites only 14% (Flanagan, 2002).

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Housing, Slums, and Squatter Settlements

The most visible impact of rapid urbanization has been the growth of what is

commonly called ‘slums’. Massive rural-to-urban migration in the 1960s and 1970s

turned many erstwhile pleasant colonial towns into large slums. Although no

accurate figures exist, 30- 50% of the population of major cities live in such housing.

The term slum actually refers to old, dilapidated structures that belong to the

formal housing stock, although they may be unsuitable for habitation. It usually refers

to housing – but it can be any type of building – abandoned by its original users,

subdivided and rented to the poor at low rates. The buildings tend to be

overcrowded, and because of lack of maintenance, the quality is often poor and will

decline further, until the owner finds another use for the land and demolishes the

structure. Here, new and temporary migrants find accommodation, because of the

centrality, the low cost and the ease of transaction. In most cities, local government

tolerates informal settlements because there is no alternative and such settlements

enable the residents to improve their living conditions on a self-help basis.

Squatter settlements are built without the approval of the landowner and

without permission from the authorities. They are, therefore, under a permanent

threat of eviction, lack secure land tenure and basic infrastructure and services. Over

time, some gain recognition by default and this encourages the population to

improve their housing and infrastructure on a self-help basis. It is now becoming

increasingly difficult for the poor to find land on which to squat; in many cities there is

a market in unauthorized land occupation so even squatting has its price.

Established families buy or build housing in squatter settlements as a form of

savings and investment, but many urban poor can only rent their accommodation.

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Single migrants often live in boarding houses and dormitories or share rental rooms

with other migrants from the same village. Families that migrate on a seasonal basis

have a problem finding accommodation, unless they can find work in the sector such

as construction where the employer provides accommodation on site. Many families

may end up living on the pavement or under bridges.

In the early 1940s, during the involvement of United States in World War II,

many of these slum housing problems were developed. As the US industries

expanded into the production of weapons and other war materials, a sudden growth

of urbanization were took place in many of the industry cities. Million of people had

left from rural areas to war production areas by the fall of 1941. Under conditions of

rapid growth, people were forced to live in whatever shelter they could find or build.

At Alabama, newly arrived steelworkers set up house in garages, barns, old store

buildings, and shacks with dirt floors. At Texas, men paid $3 to rent cots in tar-paper

shacks with no sanitary facilities. In Florida, some made shelters of palmetto leaves

spread over wooden frames. Clearly, the circumstance were intensified by the

housing shortages that often causing many convulsive effects in urban areas.

Not all residents of slum and squatter settlements are migrants. Some of them

are second-generation migrants who were born in the city, but their parents were

born in the rural areas. Not all migrants are poor when they arrive or after finding

work in the city. The successful migrants will not live in squatter settlements.

The slum residents are often facing conflicts with other residents who live

nearby to them. The nearby residents usually complain about the unsanitary and

dilapidated slum conditions as well as the seemingly suspicious nature of many slum

dwellers. They fear the spread of disease, fire, crime, and prostitution into their

neighborhood. They brought an accusation against the slums to the government.

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The land where the slums and squatters built their settlements usually

belongs to central government unit, not the municipality. But, the central unit refuses

to take responsibility for its land. It had plans to build an office building and housing

compound there, but since the arrival of the squatters, the official prefer not to force

the people off; It would probably create a political incident having unfavorable public

relations consequences for the central officials. They blame the municipality for

failing to regulate this land. Since the municipality lacks authority to regulate land

use, it can do little except send health section officials and fire brigade to inspect and

take preventive measures in the squatter settlements. Municipal officials blame both

the central government unit and the police for this problem.

In their operation, the police are uncooperative because they fail to enforce

local sanitation codes. Publicly, they sympathize with the squatters and claim they

lack the necessary manpower to enforce local ordinance. Privately, the police prefer

avoiding this area because they fear the local toughs and because some police

officers have a vested interest in keeping the houses of prostitution operating.

Hence, the police acquiesce to the slum conditions and shift responsibility by

blaming the municipality for allowing these conditions to develop.

The slum continues to grow as more squatters move into the area. Moreover,

slum residents are particularly pleased with the provision of municipal health and

sanitation services into the area. Their children were also accepted to join the

municipal schools. Because of they do not own the land, the slum and squatter

dwellers pay no taxes, but still they gain continuing services from the municipality. A

few local politicians were also helped the squatters by promising to increase services

to the slum area – if residents agreed to vote them in the election. Consequently, the

problem of the slum and squatter settlement is not solved (Flanagan, 2002).

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Racial, Minority, and Ethnic Conflict

At the beginning of the 21st century, it is too easy to see in everyday

experience and news accounts that racism remains an important structural feature of

the distribution of opportunity and of poverty in the United States. A more helpful way

to make distinction between historical and contemporary effects is to differentiate

between overt racism and institutional racism.

Overt racism may be explicit or subtle. The law has made it more difficult to

discriminate and to seem to be discriminating. Overt racism has to do with the

willingness and ability of employers and others to discriminate openly against

members of minority groups. In the past, the relative disadvantage faced by blacks

(Afro-American) in the United States. Blacks were disproportionately represented in

the growing underclass because they were relatively recent arrivals to the industrial

cities. They had been discriminated against in jobs, education and housing in the

past, but in the post-Civil Rights era, their problems were not a matter of deliberate

discrimination based on prejudice, but were the result of the structural and color-

blind elimination of urban employment prospects due to increased international

competition and technological changes in manufacturing.

Subtle racism or discrimination involves unfair practices accompanied by an

attempt to hide the intent from the victim and any other interested parties.

Employers, realtors and rental agents have devised various practices to circumvent

fair housing and employment laws without seeming to do so. The following passage

demonstrates what may have been a crude and inept attempt to conceal

discrimination. Although one can never be sure, several such encounters in an

individual’s experience would suggest the obvious conclusion. The account also

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offers insights into how expectations of discrimination, combined with the structural

disadvantages of urban poverty, deeply discourage young people who are

attempting to find work. This concise but vivid picture is presented by Regina

Eugene, a black teenage resident of Louisville:

Employment is a joke for most people and it’s also a joke for me. I’m growing up in a poverty

stricken area. It’s hard trying to find a job. Day in and day out I’m looking in the want ads.

Usually you got to be 18 years old. Most of the time, the job is in some community that I’ve

never heard of. Every time something turns up that I’m qualified for, it’s way out of my district.

Once I went to a Wendy’s because they had an ad in the paper. When I got there I was told

there weren’t any more applications in the store and to come back tomorrow. The next day I

came back and I was told the ten positions had been filled. Then I asked the man was he

prejudiced. He looked at me stunned. I walked out. Finding a job is a bitch in our democratic

society. Our system was designed so that everyone can develop to his or her potential, but

we can’t develop to our potentials because we can’t get what we need. (Williams and

Kornblum,1985).

Urban arena definitely affects intergroup relations and the dynamics of group

experience. The terms ‘ethnic group and minority group’ are often associated in

these relations. An ethnic group is often based on attachment to a culturally

distinguishable group that is contained along with other groups within a particular

society, while a minority group is identified as a group whose members have

politically shared-position marked by some disadvantage and degree of

powerlessness. A minority may or may not be an ethnic group, e.g. the Jews in Nazi

Germany and the Chinese in North Sumatera, Indonesia are examples of ethnic

minorities, while women, handicapped persons, and homosexuals are minorities, but

are not generally considered ethnic groups. In fact, some ethnic groups could be

majority groups, but the important point is that ethnicity is a concept altogether

independent of intergroup or power relationship.

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Many Third World cities, recruit their migrants from culturally diverse regions.

As a consequence, the urbanization experienced by these populations includes an

ethnic dimension. It has been suggested, that similarities in urban ethnicity invite the

emergence of ethnic solidarity. One examples of ethnic solidarity from Indonesia

serve as reminders of the importance – and could be an advantage – of the

urbanization of culturally diverse groups in urban areas.

In Indonesia, there are cross-cutting territorial and ethnic divisions. In two

main islands, Sumatera and Java, it is found that ethnic identity affected all aspects

of social life – residence, educational and occupational opportunity, religion,

friendship and political patterns. In North Sumatera, all other groups are opposed to

the large and successful Chinese population. Yet, the population of Sumatera,

including the Chinese, taken as a whole, generally resent the Javanese domination

of Indonesia, a domination symbolized by the location of the capital, Jakarta.

An interesting dynamic ethnicity can be found from the Batak groups, whose

sense of peoplehood interacted with their urban locations and political situation. The

city of Medan on North Sumatera is the home region of many groups of Batak.

There, the Bataks distinguished themselves and prefer to dissociate into many group

identities, i.e. Batak Toba, Batak Karo, Batak Simalungun, Batak Pakpak, and Batak

Mandailing, and they lock themselves socially among other groups. In the city of

Bandung on Java, the population of Batak is smaller than in Medan because they

were only migrants. The Sundanese as native in Bandung failed to perceive the

relevance of such a distinction and lumped together the Batak as one group.

Ultimately, the Batak members saw this condition as an advantage for all urban

Batak uniting. The relevant analysis in understanding this pattern of ethnicity was the

urban area, where they cannot find such group unification in their hometown.

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Mental Health

Urbanization brings with it a unique set of advantages and disadvantages. It

has also brought its own set of problems pertaining to mental health and well-being.

Mostly because of increased speed and decreased costs of communication and

transportation, cities are growing more diverse in their population. Consequently,

cultural factors have taken place in understanding of urban mental health.

Most migrants coming from rural areas are bringing values, beliefs, and

expectations about mental health that are often very different from the ones they

encounter in their new location. In many instances, people coming from rural areas

have endured years of isolations, lack of technology connection, poor health,

poverty, unemployment, and inadequate housing. They need to acculturate and

adapt not only to a new challenging urban environment, but also to alternative

systems of symbols, meanings, and traditions. They should also ready for facing

social processes such as competition, assimilation, and class conflict.

The multiculturalism of today’s cities contributes to increased tolerance, better

quality of life, and sociocultural stimulation. At the same time, it often contributes to

heightened social tension, interethnic striving, and cultural conflicts that carry mental

health ramifications. The range of disorders and deviancies associated with urban

areas may include psychoses, depression, sociopathy, substance abuse, alcoholism,

crime, delinquency, vandalism, family disintegration, and alienation. Such negative

impact often results in unreasonable means which may result in communal violence.

Negative impact is also experienced by behavior constraints practiced or imposed

upon the urban people. If behavior is unduly suppressive, it may result in learned

helplessness leading to stress-related disorders.

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Rapid urbanization has also led to creation of ‘fringe population’ mostly living

from hand to mouth which further added to poverty. Poverty and mental health have

a complex and multidimensional relationship. Poverty is understood as lack of both

social and educational resources. Poor and the deprived nations have a high

prevalence of mental and behavioral disorders by either the social causation theory

or the social drift theory. In the absence organized social welfare agencies, in the

deprived countries, vicious cycle and impoverishment progress. Low socioeconomic

status is known to be associated with a higher prevalence of major depression,

substance abuse, and personality disorders.

Urban alters the dynamics of society at large and family in particular. It is

affecting the entire gamut of population especially the vulnerable sections of society

– elderly, children and adolescents, and women. Rapid urbanization has created a

huge population of older men and women left to fend for themselves in the rural

areas. This also means less availability of caregivers when older people fall ill.

Children and adolescents in socioeconomically deprived urban areas are

often drawn to antisocial behavior. Although not exclusively an urban phenomenon, it

thrives in inner cities where degradation, poverty, drug use, and unemployment

result in an explosive blend favoring violent solutions.

Women are particularly vulnerable with urbanization. In rural setup, they

would work mostly at homes, but in urban environment women bear the burden of

being wives, mothers, educators, and careers at the same time as part of labor force.

Significant gender discrimination, malnutrition, overworks, domestic and sexual

violence add up to the problems. Social support and help of close relationships

(more commonly observed in rural society) appear to be missing in rural society due

to high force of individualism in urban neighborhood (Trivedi, 2008).

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Crime and Victimization

The 2008 Crime Index in the United States compiled by the Federal Bureau of

Investigation (FBI) indicated that serious offences reported to police had declined

2.5% from the previous year for violent crime and property crime had declined 1.7%

from the year 2007. According to FBI, violent crime is composed of four offenses:

murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated

assault, while property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor

vehicle theft, and arson. Both violent and property crime are known as ‘index

offences’. Until now, crime remains a serious problem and it is highly understood that

violent and property crimes are often associated with urban areas. It is well known

that crimes are more vulnerable in urban areas rather than in rural areas.

The urban poor are disproportionately represented in national crime statistics,

both as accused perpetrators and as victims. In general, people in cities are more

likely to commit common crimes or be victimized. Table 2 reflects one of the clearest

and most consistent relationships known to the social sciences – the size of cities as

it relates to the incidence of crime. As the population of cities increases, the overall

rates of violent and property crimes increases, as does the incidence of each of the

individual categories of crime shown in the table. There is evidence to deny any

simple explanation based on the idea that crime results from a simple frustration-

aggression reaction due to conditions of crowding. What is clear is that urban crime

remains concentrated in a relatively small number of areas within a city, areas

characterized by high levels of chronic poverty, unemployment, substandard

housing, teenage pregnancy, and drug use. While the economic costs of crime are

spread throughout the urban population, its effects are greatest on the poor.

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Table 2 - Crime Rates by City Size in the United States, 2008

Violent Crime

City Size Murder Forcible Rape Robbery Aggravated

Assault Total

> 250,000 6,502 19,145 203,730 259,698 489,075

100,000-249,999 1,981 10,057 61,874 95,300 169,212

50,000-99,999 1,360 9,119 44,032 79,520 134,031

25,000-49,999 831 7,276 27,221 56,213 91,541

10,000-24,999 689 6,759 20,358 51,336 79,142

< 10,000 559 5,895 12,169 49,057 67,680

Property Crime

City Size Burglary Larceny Theft

Motor Vehicle Theft Arson Total

> 250,000 541,896 1,520,608 349,004 17,706 2,429,214

100,000-249,999 268,600 798,869 128,283 7,357 1,203,109

50,000-99,999 225,361 740,309 98,919 6,838 1,071,427

25,000-49,999 167,855 600,722 59,807 5,002 833,386

10,000-24,999 161,949 590,024 48,487 4,405 804,865

< 10,000 136,769 534,073 34,106 4,231 709,179

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2009

Even though crime rates are higher in the poorer districts within cities, but

there were controversy about the linkages between poverty or inequality and criminal

behavior. Take the example of two Highland Parks in the Midwest, United States.

Highland Park, Michigan, is part of the inner city of Detroit. It had population just

under 30,000 in 1983; in that year, one in three families was poor; there were 27

murders, 55 reported rapes, and 796 robberies. Highland Park, Illinois, a community

of about the same size, is a lakeside suburb just north of Chicago. In 1983, one in 67

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families was poor; in that year, there were no murders, one reported rape, and seven

robberies. Clearly, the poverty is not usually a direct cause of crime.

Crime grew not because people were poor, but because many among the

poor had become part of a lower class, a category set off by its cultural values and

habits. The growth of this category has been marked by several factors: the

increasing number who have applied for and received welfare payments, the

increasing use of drugs, and the increasing proportion of the poor who are young.

The dominant numbers of poor young people, especially who grow on the street,

allowed them to tone down their moralities in public life that lead them to the crime.

There is also a convincing linkage between unemployment and crime.

Unemployment is associated with higher rates of drug use and gambling, and the

high cost of drug and gambling dependency with property crime. Unemployment is

also associated with alcohol use, and alcohol is associated with violent crime.

The impact of lack of employment opportunity on crime rates may be

compounded by segregation and race. It is likely that the young Afro- and Latino-

American urban males face harder in unemployment rather than the white, and it

may affect fundamentally on criminal involvements and illegal activities. The black

neighborhood, with shrinking numbers of commercial establishments, experienced a

higher number of predatory crimes than other neighborhoods due to the fact that

there were few opportunities for targeting commercial properties. The Latino

neighborhood contained factories owned and operated by outsiders, which were a

favorite target of young burglars. In the white neighborhood, participation in criminal

activity was reportedly lower among young people. Although crime among white

youths was economically motivated, it typically ended when young men found jobs

through family and neighborhood networks (Flanagan, 2002).

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Transport

Transport is one of many crucial impacts arise in the cities of the developed

and developing countries. Here, strong evidence was proven that the transport

problem in the cities is caused by the rapid growth of urbanization. Transport

problems in the metropolises mainly form in transport infrastructures, high local

levels of air pollution, noise, traffic jams even outside the peak traffic times as well as

decreasing safety levels for non-motorized road-users. The above problems have a

particular impact on other people especially who rely heavily on non-motorized

transport and are therefore particularly vulnerable to road accidents.

For decades, urban transport infrastructure in the developing countries has

been oriented on motorized private transport (MPT), following the example of the

developed countries. Many Asian cities with more than a million inhabitants and a

high population density used to feature a hot mix road in residential and commercial

areas, so that travel by MPT in the peripheral city centre were more comfortable, and

people usually use motorized transport means within the city.

According to Ralf M. Kaltheier, there are three groups of transport means based on

its accessibility and system capacity:

• Group 1 (normal bus, public motor vehicle, bicycle/tricycle taxis, bicycle,

pedestrians): Suitable for intra and inter connections and feeder services to more

efficient mass transport means and for distribution traffic in the inner-city area.

• Group 2 (exclusive bus ways, tram with its own right of way): Suitable for

medium and large volumes of traffic and periphery-to-centre journeys of

distances up to 20 km (cities of approx. 1-1.5 million inhabitants); possibly also

for periphery-to-periphery transport and as a feeder in megacities.

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• Group 3 (elevated or underground metros, suburban railways): Suitable for

principal axes of traffic (periphery-centre, in the centre) of large cities with more

than a million inhabitants and megacities (more than 2-3 million inhabitants).

Transport is a service that cannot be stored. It required several years for

construction of transport infrastructure and considerable investments have to be

made for the means of transport. The chief determinant of transport supply is the

physical infrastructure of roads, cycle and footpaths, railways and waterways. The

extent and state of the transport routes influence the operational of transport means

(cars, buses, trams, light rail transit, metro, pedestrians, bicycles, etc.). Different

technologies and modes of operation used by these transport systems result in

different frequencies, journey time, capacities and costs or tariffs.

The volume of mass transit on a suburban railway in full use cannot be

substituted by normal bus transport. And although it would be comfortable and use

modern technology, an above-ground light railway system would be just as

unsuitable as a replacement for an underground railway or an elevated metro for

inner-city transport in the principal traffic corridors of megacities.

In some Asian cities (Hanoi, Surabaya, Jakarta), where fuel and vehicle prices

are subsidized, poor people also have access to motorcycles, so that MPT accounts

for a significant proportion of the modal split, with a high share of 25-40% of all trips.

The high share of motorbikes in the modal split - that can also be observed among

the urban population - is a special phenomenon in some Southeast Asian countries

(Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand).

For example, approx. 80-90% of the households in the Vietnamese metropolis

of Ho Chi Minh City have access to a motorcycle. In the Indonesian city of Surabaya,

which has 2.5 million inhabitants, the share of motorbike trips is approx. 30% (more

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than 60% of all motorized passenger trips), while it is 52% (65% of all motorized

trips) in the city of Denpasar, which has 1.5 million inhabitants.

There are various reasons for the phenomenon of the poor people often used

motorcycles beside bicycles and tricycles. On the one hand, the procurement and

maintenance costs of motorbike are very low. These countries often have a

motorbike industry of their own or plants that assemble imported components. Import

duties on spare parts are very low, and fuel prices are subsidized. We can say that

just like the car for the rich, motorbikes also play status role among the poor people.

Further disadvantages arise from urban transport sector beside increased

traffic volumes and traffic jams. Health hazards owing to settlements being built

along roads or on the periphery of urban districts are also affected by urban transport

sector that releasing high levels of environmental pollution (air and noise pollution).

Two-stroke engines, which have mainly been in use so far, can even pollute the

urban environment with higher emissions of pollutants (in particular hydrocarbons,

carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide). This is why four-stroke engines are being

used more and more, even they are more expensive.

Urban transport policy and planning over the last few decades has been an

important thing in sustainable development for most of the developing countries.

Following the example set by the industrialized countries, developments have been

biased towards promoting the MPT urban road infrastructure. In the cities of the

poorer developing countries, the MPT share still lies below 15% on average of

overall transport and traffic demand. Non-motorized transport (footpaths, bicycles,

rickshaws, etc.), which accounts for more than 50% of the total traffic volume in cities

with more than a million inhabitants, especially in Asia and Africa, was hardly

considered in communal transport infrastructure planning (Kaltheier, 2002).

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Environmental Degradation

It is important to recognize the impacts of urbanization on the environment.

Urbanization that has various aspects, i.e. population, land use, transportation, and

services, is identified to have impacts on various components of the environment,

including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, human impacts, and others.

The impacts identified can then be classified as severe, moderate, slight, and zero.

The classification is ultimately subjective and influenced by the opinion of others.

Table 3 - The Environmental Impacts of Urbanization

Urban Component

Environmental Component Population Land use Transportation Services

Atmosphere Increasing release of CO2, decreased O2 production, as plant colonies are destroyed by spreading urban areas

Increased average temperatures for most urbanized areas

Air pollution from combustion of fuels

Particulates, noxious fumes from incinerators, landfills, sewage treatment works, etc.

Creation of photo-chemical smog

Emission of lead from some engines

Hydrosphere Greater demand on water resources (both surface and subsurface)

More intense use of hydrologic resources causing increased pollution load

Rain, surface waters polluted with lead

Leaching of pollutant from landfills

Drainage patterns altered by infrastructure

Discharges from sewage outfalls

Pollution from boats

Lithosphere Increased transfor-mation of uninha-bited agricultural or unutilized land to urban uses

Complete changes due to construction, landscaping, etc.

Disruption of disfigurement of landscape, etc.

Sanitary landfill of urban wastes and installation, repairs of services disturb landscape

Human Impacts Psychological impact of high-density living

Psychological impact Increased noise level

Health effects of air and noise pollution

Source: Henry and Heinke, 1996

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The environmental effects of urbanization are many and varied as shown in

Table 3. The predominant atmospheric effect of urbanization is the alteration of the

atmosphere’s chemistry through the release of massive quantities of carbon dioxide,

oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, dust, particulate matter, noxious and toxic chemicals.

The sources of these contaminants are diverse: industry, most forms of

transportation, the heating of buildings, municipal incinerators, sewage treatment

works, open fires, and landfill sites. In addition, significant heating of air masses over

urban centers occurs as a result of reradiation from heat-absorbing surfaces such as

roads, parking lots, and rooftops. The combustion of hydrocarbon, particularly those

used in the transportation sector and industrial systems, also gives rise to

‘photochemical smog’ as a result of the interaction of various by-products of the

combustion process and energy from solar radiation.

The impact of urbanization upon the hydrosphere is severe because of the

large volumes of pure water that must be provided and the correspondingly large

volumes of used water requiring disposal. Storm water also has an impact. Although

the total quantities of runoff from rainfall may not be altered significantly, the rate and

characteristics of the runoff may be changed sufficiently to cause damage or

inconvenience. The rate at which water runs off a paved road or parking lot, or off a

smooth pitched roof, is considerably greater than the rate it runs off a rural or

forested area (such as a golf course or park). As a result, water can accumulate

rapidly in an urban drainage system, and if an overflow occurs, extensive flood

damage is possible. Moreover, these storm waters are often contaminated by

chemicals or particulates adsorbed or absorbed during rainfall, or material such as

oil being washed off street sand parking lots. Degradation of water resources by

storm water is a problem in most urban environments. Another potential contributor

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to the contamination of the hydrosphere is the drainage called ‘leachate’ that comes

from landfills of municipal solid waste or toxic and hazardous wastes.

From a visual inspection of the urban environment, it can be concluded that

lithosphere was the part of environment that most dramatically altered by

urbanization. The original state of the environment appears to have changed

irreparably. The elevations of the surface have been altered, rivers diverted, and

lowlands either excavated for harbors or filled in for building. The ‘water edge’ in

many cities has been pushed farther into the lake to facilitate development and

expansion of industry, transportation, and recreational facilities. In fact, the

construction of buildings and roads has revamped the character of regions. Native

ecosystems have been replaced by urban patterns. Circulation of air has been

altered on a local scale by the presence of obstructions, such as tall buildings and

smokestacks. Transportation, both public and private, is responsible for substantial

alteration of the landscape because of the construction of roads, railroads, parking

lots, airports, harbors, and warehousing and shipping facilities. The provision of

municipal services such as water towers, pumping stations, reservoirs, sanitary

landfills, and other structures accounts for the changes in the urban environment.

The human impacts of urbanization tend to be rather difficult to define and

assess. The health effects of noise, air, and water pollution, and the psychological

stresses caused by high density and a relatively fast-paced environment are not

easily quantified. Many of the effects are not particularly harmful in isolated contacts,

but continued exposure to inhalation of low-level concentrations of lead, for example,

may be a much more serious problem. The psychological impacts are the least

understood and as a result are the most difficult to evaluate. However, there are few

people who would deny that these stresses do exist (Henry and Heinke, 1996).

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