Urbanisation

Start with urban growth

Urbanisation is one section of Settlement and Rural Environments in Geography. The resources on this page explore how towns and cities grow, how people move between rural and urban areas, and how urban places are organized.

For a starting point, try the mind map that defines urbanisation as growth in the proportion of people living in towns and cities. It distinguishes that change from cities simply getting bigger. Use the definition as a way into the other maps on the page.

Follow the links to settlement

The Settlement mind map that covers migration links rural-to-urban movement with jobs, informal work and crowded housing. Another Settlement map connects urbanisation with urban land use, development and counter-urbanisation. Comparing them can help you see how the topic fits into the wider Settlement and Rural Environments unit.

G: Urbanisation includes rural and urban settlement, services and population size. It also raises questions about the limits of collecting data. Use it alongside the definition map to consider how urban places are described.

Move from maps to flashcards

The settlement flashcards cover rural-to-urban migration, reasons for moving and impacts such as overcrowding and traffic. After reading a map, use the cards to recall those ideas without looking back. Return to the map when you want to trace a connection again.

There are no quizzes listed on this page, so the flashcards offer a way to check your recall alongside the maps. Other maps cover functional zones, movement, unemployment, traffic congestion and shanty towns. Choose a map that interests you and follow it with the settlement flashcards.