URBANIZATION

URBANIZATION

the process of urban growth - an increase in the proportion of the urban population, as well as the emergence of increasingly complex networks and systems of cities. General features of U.: 1 - the rapid growth of the urban population; 2 - the concentration of the population and households in large cities (there are already more than 200 "millionaire" cities); 3 - "spreading" of cities, expansion of their territory. Modern Ukraine is characterized by a transition from the city to urban agglomerations—territorial groupings of urban and rural settlements—and to megalopolises, the largest forms of settlement formed as a result of the coalescence of urban agglomerations. The largest urban agglomerations of the world are around Mexico City, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and New York (16-20 million people live in each of them). Urbanization accounts for 3/4 of total pollution environment. Despite the fact that cities occupy only 1% of the earth's land area, almost half of the world's population and the bulk of industries are concentrated in them. Large cities and urban agglomerations have a particularly strong impact on the environment - the plume of polluting and thermal effects can be traced at a distance of up to 50 km.

Brief geographical dictionary. EdwART. 2008 .

Urbanization

a multifaceted process of increasing the role of cities, which leads to changes in the distribution of productive forces, socio-demographic structure, lifestyle and culture of the population, its settlement. In the broadest sense, urbanization is the spread of urban lifestyles. In a narrow (statistical) sense, urbanization is the outstripping growth of the urban population and the growth of cities, especially large ones (over 100 thousand inhabitants). The indicators of the share of the urban population in its total population and the share of the population of large cities in the urban population most often characterize the level of urbanization, which is called urbanization. The urban population is growing due to the natural growth of its own population, the migration of the population from rural to urban settlements, the inclusion of rural settlements within the city limits, adm. transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. According to estimates, urban population in the world in 1800 it accounted for 3%, in 1900 - 14%, in 1950 - 29%, in 2000 - almost 50%. In developed countries, this figure approaches 80-90%. In Russia, the urban population is 73%. In the 20th century the world's urban population grew very rapidly, and in the 2nd half. - at a rapid pace: in the 19th century. it grew by 190 million people, during the first 50 years of the 20th century. - by 520 million, and for the second - by almost 2.2 billion. The growth of the urban population in recent decades has many times exceeded the general growth of the world's population, especially large cities have grown rapidly (see Fig. City). At present, both in the world and in Russia, they concentrate 2 /3 of the urban population, with 40% (more than 25% in Russia) living in millionaire cities. It is in the predominant growth of large cities and emerging around them urban agglomerations and even larger forms of settlement is the essence of urbanization.
Urbanization has striking geographical features; it proceeds differently in different regions and countries. As a rule, the higher the proportion of the urban population, the lower its growth rate, and when approaching 80%, growth almost stops. In many developed countries, the urban population itself has now stabilized. But the process of urbanization does not stop: the environment in the cities themselves is changing, their functions are deepening, ties between settlements are strengthening, urban agglomerations are being formed and megalopolises, there is a process suburbanization And urbanization. In developing countries, the rate of urbanization growth is very high: a population explosion (see Fig. natural movement of the population) causes rapid growth of the urban population. In some countries, there is an unbridled growth of capitals, the formation of multimillion-dollar urban agglomerations (in 1950, out of the 30 largest agglomerations of the world, 20 were located in developed countries, in 1990 - only 9; according to forecasts, only 5 will remain in 2015) - this is a different type of urbanization (cf. false urbanization) than in developed countries.

Geography. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Under the editorship of prof. A. P. Gorkina. 2006 .

Synonyms:

See what "URBANIZATION" is in other dictionaries:

URBANIZATION- (from lat. urbanus urban), the process of increasing the number of urban settlements, especially characteristic of the 20th century. Urbanization powerful environmental factor, accompanied by the transformation of the landscape, land, water resources, mass production ... ... Ecological dictionary

- (French urbanisation, from Latin urba nus urban, urbs city), historical. the process of increasing the role of cities in the development of society, which covers social prof., demographic. the structure of the population, its way of life, culture, location ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

URBANIZATION- (French urbanization, English, urbanization, from Latin urbanus urban, urbs city), historical. the process of increasing the role of cities in the development of society, which embraces changes in the location of production. forces, primarily in the resettlement of us., its socially ... Demographic Encyclopedic Dictionary

- [fr. urbanisation Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

URBANIZATION, urbanization, pl. no, female (from lat. urbanus urban) (sociological). The concentration of economic and cultural life in large urban centers, characteristic of the capitalist system. urbanization of the country. Dictionary Ushakova. ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

Concentration Dictionary of Russian synonyms. urbanization noun, number of synonyms: 2 hyperurbanization (1) … Synonym dictionary

urbanization- and, well. urbanization f. lat. urbanus urban. 1. The concentration of economic and cultural life in large urban centers, characteristic of the capitalist social order. ALS 1. 2. Giving something to l. traits, features inherent in ... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

The growth of cities, especially large ones, an increase in the proportion of urban residents, the concentration of population and economic life in large cities Dictionary of business terms. Akademik.ru. 2001 ... Glossary of business terms

- (from the Latin urbanus urban), the process of increasing the role of cities in the development of society. The prerequisites for urbanization are the growth of industry in cities, the development of their cultural and political functions, and the deepening of the territorial division of labor. For urbanization ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

- (from lat. urbanus urban) the process of increasing the role of cities in the development of society. The main social content of urbanization lies in special urban relations (K. Marx), covering the socio-professional and demographic structure ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Urbanization and ecological safety of the territory of new Moscow, R. G. Mamin, G. V. Orekhov, A. A. Bayrasheva. The main methodological problems and tasks of urbanization in terms of assessing the quality of the environment within the boundaries of the territories annexed to New Moscow are considered. Water, land,…

The characteristic feature of the city is urban concentration, i.e. dense to excess concentration of extremely diverse objects and areas of application of activities in an extremely limited area (in the area of ​​​​half-hour accessibility for public transport). This dramatically increases the diversity of areas of application of labor, ways of spending leisure time. There is a lack of freedom in the countryside to choose a way of life and occupation. Urban concentration is a concentration of diversity and interaction; By the very course of urban life, activities concentrated in the city are encouraged to close interaction, and people - to constant communication and upholding common interests. Action gives rise to opposition, various forms of alienation of the people of the city crowd from each other are growing in the urban population in proportion to the population density in urban areas, the frequency of deviant forms of behavior (alcoholism, squatting) and street crime is increasing.

In close proximity are located separately gravitating to the city, but poorly compatible with each other objects, enterprises and industries. The growth of diversity in the urban area ensures the growth of the wealth of urban residents, and it determines the “production of risks” in the urban area, increasing the anisotropy of urban space on the gradient “center (diversity and wealth, the elements of which diffuse to the outskirts) - periphery” (area of ​​increased concentration of risk, extending to the city center, primarily along highways).

The city tends to concentric expansion, depressing its development, primarily the center. It causes the alternation of periods of stagnation and radical restructuring of the planning structure. “Waves” of transformation of the urban landscape run from the city center to the periphery every 20…40 years. This caused the emergence of a dynamic city concentration, dinapolis, capable of expanding without urban planning difficulties - thanks to growth in one direction, which does not interfere with the development of either the city itself or its center (K. Doxiadis). The idea is attractive, but unrealistic - a city is not an independent unit, but a node with a specific purpose and functions in the network of cities in a given territory, and the “linear growth” of cities means destabilization of the entire network (it is possible only with complete urbanization of the territory, at the stage of megalopolises).

A successfully developing city is characterized by proportionate growth(primarily its spatial parts), the appearance of disproportions and contradictions hinders development. Example: in the process of growth, the area of ​​the largest agglomerations of the RSFSR in the period from 1950 to 1995 each maintains a strictly defined relationship between the “core” (central city) and the periphery (rings of satellites) of each agglomeration.

The city is a combination of three main subsystems: population, economic base and life support sphere. natural environment cities included in the last one. It includes natural complex, the elements of which (the ecosystems of natural areas of the city) are directly involved in optimizing the living environment of citizens. Ecological situation in the city creates the interaction of the population, urban economy with the natural environment of the city and elements (heavily modified) of natural systems within it - natural and green areas (lawns, squares, parks, boulevards, front gardens, flower beds, etc.).

The growth of cities and the urbanization of the territory are so natural that they can be described mathematical models. So the density of the city network and the average distance between neighboring nodes of the network is directly proportional not so much to the density as to the economic activity of the population (intensity of trade, transport and other contacts). For example, the Upper Oka principalities were spared by the Tatar cavalry due to the rugged terrain and high forest cover, unlike their neighbors, they were not depopulated, but the economy was destroyed - and some of the cities ceased to exist. Disappearing cities have always been located between remaining, never next to each other, so that no area was left unserved, only the intensity of service was reduced.

The “rank-size” rule ” (F. Auerbach, 1930) shows what is the proportion of large, medium and small cities needed to serve a given territory. With continuous urbanization of the territory (region, region, country, entire planet - the pattern is universal and in different cases differs only in numerical coefficients) size and population cities i -th rank is proportional to the size of the largest city in the given territory U 0 , referred to the dimensional rank of the city U i with proportionality factor ln U 0 .

Rank - a serial number in the descending order of the population of the city. The steeper the hyperbole passes, given by the “rank-size” rule, the higher the degree of development of the city network in a given territory. The lack or excess of a certain category of cities compared to the “ideal norm” given by the “rank-size” rule means incompleteness of urbanization territory and accelerated growth(or, on the contrary, a halt in development) of cities of the missing (or “excessive”) category in the near future. In the “sample” of cities around the world, the proportion of megacities (cities with a population of more than 1 million people) is significantly lower than predicted; for all cities on the Earth, the “rank-size” rule determines a steeper hyperbole than that observed only in a sample of the 20 largest megacities of the planet - U (i )= U 0 * lnU 0 / i and U (i )= U 0 * lnU 0 /( i + lnU 0 ) respectively. In the near future, we should expect the outpacing growth of megacities compared to smaller cities, especially in the “third world”. Extrapolation based on the “rank-size” rule allows you to get the figure of a stable population of the Earth after the end of growth and the completion of the demographic transition in all countries ( 13 billion) and the size of the world's largest city ( 42 million residents, S.P. Kapitsa).

Cristaller Rules (1933) describe the optimal placement structure cities - central places and the settlements they serve on the territory where, on the one hand, urbanization is completely completed, on the other hand, the location of cities is not complicated by agglomeration processes. The main function of cities of central places (CM) - service (administrative, market, provision of services, etc.) - settlements of the urban district included in the system of this city.

The main function of cities of the opposite category specialized centers - the production of strictly defined products that are in demand far beyond the boundaries of the corresponding system of cities, and not only on its territory. The more extensive the national network of cities, the higher the capacity of the internal market, the more levels in the hierarchy of CM cities and the more scattering of cities around them - specialized centers (SCs). Spatial distribution of SC does not obey According to the rules of Christaller, they form clusters outside the ordered network of central places, but usually near the centers of agglomerations, along economic and transport lines.

The "correct" system of city-central places and the settlements served by them takes on the form of a hexagonal grid. Center spots are in the center of the hexes, and serviced settlements are on the edges or in the corners. This achieves the maximum density of “packing” of all serviced settlements around the central places, minimizing the distances between them, and maximizing the availability of central places.

A specific option for placing settlements in a hexagonal “service field” of central places is determined by the dominant function of the latter and, accordingly, by which service option is optimized in space. If the market (commercial and industrial) structure of the system “the central place is the settlement of the urban district” is subject to optimization, then the served settlements are located at the corners of the hexagon ( BUT ). This maximizes the freedom of choice of the central place by each subordinate settlement - any of the 3 neighboring ones, and the number of settlements oriented to this market - 6.

When optimizing the transport structure of the territory ( B ) settlements are placed on the edges of the hex, so that the distance to the 2 nearest centers is minimized, but the freedom of choice is reduced. When optimizing the predominantly administrative structure ( IN ) the freedom to choose a central place for the inhabitants of the settlements disappears altogether, since they are all located inside the hexagon, but the delimitation of powers and the division of space between neighboring centers reach the greatest extent.

Option BUT optimal for rapid economic development of the territory; B - for ease of management, IN - to preserve the original biodiversity of the region, since the settlements are concentrated around “their” central places, the periphery and the junction of different regions remain underdeveloped, creating a reserve of intact natural areas on the far periphery of the region.

Deviations from the ideal Christaller model are investigated by Lesh. They are associated with the incomplete completion of urbanization processes, the lack of uniform coverage by the network of cities, or (the opposite effect) the beginning of the agglomeration process. The latter is accompanied center shift And reorientation of settlements to the central place that leads among the neighbors in terms of development speed. It is transformed into the center of an agglomeration, orienting the territorial ties of its neighbors “on itself”.

In Lesch's model, the growth of the city-central place occurs in a stellate pattern, along the rays of the main highways and turns out to be sharply uneven - in some rays, the urbanized strips are more developed and stretch further than in others. Therefore, the placement of subordinate settlements in each hex is strictly sectorial, and not uniform, as in the Christaller model. Another option - as you move from the CM to the periphery of the serviced territory, there is a gradual transition from uniform to sectorial distribution of subordinate settlements).

Sectors are set along the lines of city development and differ sharply in the concentration of subordinate settlements, the development of the urbanized structure and, accordingly, the specialization of the economy.

For example, in the Moscow region, the eastern and northeastern sectors are characterized by strong urbanization and predominantly industrial development. Southwestern and Western are predominantly agricultural. In Lesch's model, the serviced settlements are unevenly distributed in the space around the central places, and in sectors, the more urbanized sectors alternate with the less urbanized ones.

When one of the central places in the neighboring regions is so leading in its development that it becomes the center of an agglomeration, in the neighboring regions the network of settlements and the CM experiences center shift effect. They seem to be attracted to the growing agglomeration (and become “closer” due to the development of transport routes in this direction), the subsequent growth of these cities also turns out to be oriented towards this agglomeration.

Territorial limits for the growth of cities and agglomerations

With an area larger than 500 km2, it is impossible to provide reasonable costs for labor travel using public transport. The Metropolitan raises this threshold to 800 km2. The area suitable for urban development - 70.6 million / km 2 (square with a side of 5300 km), suitable for life for climatic reasons - 146 million km 2 (square with a side of 8400 km), already built up by cities - 28, 1 million km 2 (a square with a side of 2000 km).

Therefore, urbanization proceeds not so much in the form of growth, but in the form of city multiplication, connecting cities with agglomeration into more complex systems - supporting frame of settlement (OKR), metropolitan areas and urbanized stripes. ROC is formed at the moment when independently growing agglomerations come into contact, and their centers are connected by polyhighways so firmly that emplosion effect, that is, the “rapprochement” of interacting centers due to the reduction of the travel time between them.

As a result, the process of urbanization changes direction in all agglomerations that are part of the ROC - the growth of each in breadth is replaced by the predominant growth of agglomerations towards each other, along the highways connecting the centers. Backbone effect - accelerated development of mainline territories in the ROC while lagging behind the development of the rest).

Consecutive stages of ROC formation:

I.Center (“point concentration”) - an increase in the number and size of large cities.

II.Agglomeration : a large city becomes the core of an agglomeration and forms a galaxy of satellites around itself.

III.Regionalization + implosion : economic convergence of interacting centers based on the improvement of transport. “Larger cities benefit more from improvements in communications over time. As a result, the connection between them is carried out faster, and they seem to be approaching each other ”(P. Haggett. Geography: synthesis modern knowledge. M.: publishing house Mir, 1979).

Then comes the turn of regionalization - ? sustainable “division of labor” between agglomerations united in ROCs.

The opportunity to save on transportation between ROC centers (due to the emplosion effect) brings them even closer and forces them to expand towards each other (the effect of center shift is measured by the formula of O.D. Kudryavtsev K = l f / vSN , l f - the sum of the actual distances between the nodes in the ROC, S - total area of ​​agglomeration, N - the number of cities in its composition).

If the nodes of the ROC are so concentrated that the effect of the displacement of centers causes direct contact and connection of neighboring megacities, a megalopolis is formed if backbone effect- there is a continuous urbanized band (a chain of cities) between neighboring nodes of the OKD.

immediate cause environmental issues cities - the fact that “at any moment the diversity” of ways of applying labor and places of leisure outweighs the planning and environmental shortcomings of cities in the minds of citizens” (O.N. Yanitsky). They delegate this risk to the next generations, while anticipating this risk in advance is the task of the previous generation. It should be carried out at the design and planning stage).

The Kazakh traditional society knew various forms of trade and commercial transactions. Cattle breeders, firstly, sold their livestock and raw materials to “alypsatars” (buyers), secondly, they bought goods on usurious credit, and thirdly, they constantly practiced barter of factory products for livestock and raw materials. The main feature of trade during this period in the Kazakh

aul was its pronounced non-equivalent character. Trade was a free form of expropriation of small proprietors.

By the beginning of the 20th century, there were 3 forms of trade in Kazakhstan, which basically corresponded to three types of economy, i.e. nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary. These were: traveling-exchange, fair-periodic (fairs - periodically organized in a specified place auctions, markets) and stationary. An important feature of traveling-exchange

trade was usurious (a usurer is a person who uses the sums of money accumulated by him to provide them in the form of loans at a certain percentage) in nature - the goods were distributed on credit. Barter trade was widely developed. The main trade points of Kazakhstan with Russia were Orenburg, Troitsk, Petropavlovsk, Omsk, Semipalatinsk and Uralsk. In trade

with Russia, imports prevailed over exports. The common equivalent was a three-year-old ram. Barter trade also developed between the Kazakhs of individual clans. The objects of exchange were cattle, salt, wood products, etc.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the acceleration of the formation of the Kazakh commercial bourgeoisie. These were small merchants, brokers, alypsatars; saudagers were independent merchants, they were engaged in various trading operations: usurious capital,

opening of buying points, etc. Kazakh merchant capital was subordinate to Russian and Central Asian merchants. Some Kazakh merchants expanded their trade

operations. So, the turnover of the Verny merchant Kaldybaev was at least 80 thousand rubles. However, the Kazakh bourgeoisie grew slowly, being associated with cattle breeding and acting as an intermediary between Russian capital and the local market. IN Russian Empire fair trade played an important role. The most famous all-imperial fairs were Nizhny Novgorod with a turnover of 200 million rubles a year and Irbitskaya - 20-30 million rubles a year.

In Kazakhstan, the first fair opened in 1832 at the Khan's headquarters,

that in the Bukey Horde, but it began to play a big role in the life of the region after the reforms of the 60s. The fair network was especially developed in the Akmola region - there were three large fairs - Tayichinskaya, Akmola, Atbasarskaya, there were 50 in total - small and medium. In one Kokchetav district in 1900, 33 autumn and winter fairs were held with a total turnover of 3.2 million rubles. Since 1848, the famous Koyandinskaya (Botovskaya) fair has been operating in the Semipalatinsk region. Merchants from the most remote territories of Central Asia, China, East Turkestan came here. In 1870, the turnover of the fair was 525 thousand, and in 1899

exceeded 1 million 700 thousand rubles. Since the beginning of the 20th century, turnover has increased to 4 million rubles; 62% of the cattle sold at this fair were imported from Semirechie, 7% from China. According to the testimony of the merchants, 200,000 poods of manufactory, 50,000 poods of sugar, and so on were annually sold at the fair. The largest trade centers included Charskaya in the Semipalatinsk region, Karkaralinskaya in Semirechye, Atbasar fair in Central Kazakhstan. The turnover of each of them exceeded millions of rubles annually. Fairs contributed to the development of commodity-money relations, created an incentive to increase the marketability of livestock and contributed to the growth of the Kazakh trading bourgeoisie, which specialized in the resale of livestock and raw materials.

From the very beginning, trade in Kazakhstan was combined with usury.

Trade in the steppe often acted in the form of distribution of goods on credit. In case of non-payment on time, the amount increased. By decree of May 24, 1893, the local population was not prosecuted for usurious activities, and Russian merchants acted through figureheads-Kazakhs.

In the second half of the 19th century, urban public banks opened in large cities: in Petropavlovsk (1871), Omsk (1875), Uralsk (1876), Semipalatinsk (1887) and other cities. The turnover of the Semipalatinsk Bank in 1887 was 10.3, and in 1895 - 22.3 million rubles, which

testifies to the rapid growth of the commercial bourgeoisie, the main clients of the bank. Joint-stock banks appear. The Siberian Trade Bank opened its branches in Kazakhstan. Loan operations covered many regions of Kazakhstan. All this strengthened economic ties with Central Asia, Siberia, and Central Russia.

The development of capitalist industry in Kazakhstan, the railway network accelerated the growth of cities and their population. The population of regional and county cities grew rapidly, becoming not only administrative and commercial, but also industrial and cultural centers. The population of Pavlodar since 1889 has increased 1.5 times over 10 years and reached 7620 people.

The development of the city was largely facilitated by the fact that it served as a transit point for trade on the Irtysh. In 1900, 31 thousand people lived in Semipalatinsk. In the north of Kazakhstan, Petropavlovsk grew rapidly, in which in 1900 22 thousand people lived, 66 different enterprises for processing raw materials with a capital of more than 1 million rubles operated. The population of Kustanay, founded in 1879, increased 2.5 times over 18 years and reached 14.3 thousand people.

Akmolinsk became the center of lively trade. In the west of Kazakhstan, Uralsk was a commercial and industrial city. In 1900, 39 thousand people lived in it. The growth of the city was facilitated by the holding of the Ural-Pokrovskaya railway. Flour-grinding was developed in Aralsk, there were 93 small enterprises. Up to 10 thousand people lived in the county town of Guryev in the late 90s. The main part of the population was engaged in fishing and trade with the Kazakh nomadic population. The annual turnover of the autumn Guryev fair averaged 160 thousand rubles. Cities in South Kazakhstan began to grow rapidly. In Chimkent, according to the 1897 census, there were 11,194 residents. There was a santorini plant in the city, the products of which were exported to Russia and even abroad, as well as a cotton gin. In the center of the Semirechensk region, the city of Verny (modern Almaty), in 1900, already 37 thousand people lived. The population of other cities of Kazakhstan also grew. So, by the end of the 19th century, up to 10 thousand people lived in Ust-Kamenogorsk. Aktobe was founded in 1869, and by 1900 its population was 4,311. Zaisan arose in 1868, and by the end of the 19th century it had about 4 thousand inhabitants.

The Kazakh population grew noticeably in the cities. The stratification of the aul forced part of the ruined population to go to work in the city.

At the same time, large Kazakh bais, merchants, dealers also lived in the cities of Kazakhstan. In cities such as Irgiz, Kazakhs made up a third of the population, in Karkaralinsk - more than half.

Most of the population of the cities were artisans, industrial workers and petty employees.

Many of them were also engaged in agriculture. The growing needs of the urban population for household items, as well as clothing and footwear, contributed to the development of handicrafts. Urban

craftsmen-tailors, furriers, shoemakers, weavers, carpenters, coopers, tanners - produced all this, as well as agricultural implements. In 1920, there were 12 thousand artisans in the cities of the Akmola region. Thus, a characteristic feature of economic development

Kazakhstan in the XVIII - early XX centuries was the formation of commodity-money relations. The increased role of commodity production contributed to the formation of the Kazakh bourgeoisie. The capitalist relations that were introduced here had an ever greater influence on the development of the region's economy,

which led to the beginning of the breakdown of the Kazakh corporate society.

The progressive development of the industrial industry in Kazakhstan manifested itself in the form of colonial economic expansion of Russian and foreign capital.

The process of urbanization of the world's population is underway.

Urbanization- this is a socio-economic process, expressed in the growth of urban settlements, the concentration of the population in them, especially in large cities, in the spread of the urban lifestyle to the entire network of settlements.

Hyperurbanization- these are zones of uncontrolled development of urban settlements and overload of the natural landscape (the ecological balance is disturbed).

False urbanization- quite often used to characterize the situation in developing countries. In this case, urbanization is associated not so much with the development of urban functions, but with the “pushing out” of the population from rural areas as a result of relative agrarian overpopulation.

Hyperurbanization is typical for developed countries, false urbanization - for developing countries.

Both of these problems are characteristic of Russia (false urbanization, to a lesser extent and in a slightly different form; in Russia, it is due to the inability of cities to provide the incoming population with the necessary social infrastructure).

Benefits of urbanization

The process of urbanization contributes to an increase in labor productivity, allows solving many social problems of society.

Negative aspects of urbanization

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the urbanization of the population. Urbanization is accompanied by the growth of large million-plus cities, environmental pollution near industrial centers, and deterioration of living conditions in the regions.

The technosphere was created for:

• Improve comfort
• Providing protection from natural negative influences

The process of urbanization and its features

The city did not immediately become the dominant form of settlement. For many centuries, urban forms of life were the exception rather than the rule, due to the dominance of such forms of production, which were based on subsistence farming and individual labor. So, in the era of classical slavery, the city was closely connected with landed property, with agricultural labor. In the feudal era, urban life still bore in itself the features of its antipode - agriculture, so urban settlements were scattered over a vast area and weakly interconnected. The predominance of the village as a form of settlement in this era was ultimately due to the weak level of development of the productive forces, which did not allow a person to break away from the earth in economic terms.

Relations between town and countryside begin to change under the influence of the development of productive forces. The objective basis of these processes was the transformation of urban production on the basis of a manufactory, and then a factory. Thanks to expanding urban production, the relative size of the urban population increased quite rapidly. The Industrial Revolution in Europe at the end of the 18th century - the first half of the 19th century. fundamentally changed the face of cities. Factory towns are becoming the most typical form of urban settlement. It was then that the road was opened to the rapid growth of the "settlement" environment, artificially created by man in the course of his production life. These shifts in production brought about a new historical phase in the development of settlement, characterized by the triumph of urbanization, which means an increase in the proportion of the country's population living in cities and associated mainly with industrialization. Especially high rates of urbanization were observed in the 19th century. through migration from rural areas.

In the modern world, an intensive process of formation of agglomerations, conurbations, megacities, urbanized regions continues.

Agglomeration- the accumulation of settlements, united into one whole by intensive economic, labor and socio-cultural ties. It is formed around large cities, as well as in densely populated industrial areas. In Russia in early XXI in. there were about 140 large-scale agglomerations. They are home to 2/3 of the country's population, 2/3 of the industrial and 90% of Russia's scientific potential are concentrated.

Conurbation includes several coalescing or closely developing agglomerations (usually 3-5) with highly developed major cities. In Japan, 13 conurbations have been identified, including Tokyo, consisting of 7 agglomerations (27.6 million people), Nagoya - from 5 agglomerations (7.3 million people), Osaka, etc. The term "standard consolidated area" introduced in the USA in 1963 is similar.

Megalopolis- a system of settlements hierarchical in complexity and scale, consisting of a large number of conurbations and agglomerations. Megalopolises appeared in the middle of the 20th century. In UN terminology, a megalopolis is an entity with a population of at least 5 million inhabitants. At the same time, 2/3 of the territory of a megalopolis may not be built up. Thus, the Tokaido megalopolis consists of the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka conurbations with a length of about 800 km along the coast. Megalopolises include interstate formations, for example, the Great Lakes megalopolis (USA-Canada) or the Donetsk-Rostov system of agglomerations (Russia-Ukraine). In Russia, the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod region of settlement can be called a megalopolis; the Ural megalopolis is born.

Urbanized region, which is formed by a grid of megalopolises, is considered to be a more complex, large-scale and territorially extensive settlement system. Among the emerging urbanized regions include London-Paris-Ruhr, the Atlantic coast of North America, etc.

The basis for the allocation of such systems are cities with a population of over 100 thousand people or more. A special place among them is occupied by “millionaire” cities. In 1900 there were only 10 of them, and now there are more than 400. It is cities with a million inhabitants that grow into agglomerations and contribute to the creation of more complex settlement and urban planning systems - conurbations, megalopolises and super-large formations - urbanized regions.

At present, urbanization is due to the scientific and technological revolution, changes in the structure of productive forces and the nature of labor, deepening links between activities, as well as information links.

Common features of urbanization in the world are:

• preservation of interclass social structures and groups of the population, the division of labor, fixing the population at the place of residence;
• intensification of socio-spatial ties that determine the formation of complex settlement systems and their structures;
• integration of the countryside (as the settlement sphere of the village) with the urban area and the narrowing of the functions of the village as a socio-economic subsystem;
• a high concentration of activities such as science, culture, information, management, and an increase in their role in the country's economy;
• increased regional polarization of economic urban planning and, as a result, social development within countries.

Features of urbanization in developed countries are as follows:

• slowdown in growth rates and stabilization of the share of the urban population in the total population of the country. Slowdown is observed when the proportion of the urban population exceeds 75%, and stabilization - 80%. This level of urbanization is noted in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and;
• stabilization and influx of population in certain regions of rural areas;
• cessation of the demographic growth of metropolitan agglomerations concentrating population, capital, socio-cultural and managerial functions. Moreover, in recent years, in the metropolitan agglomerations of the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Japan, there has been a process of deconcentration of production and population, which manifests itself in the outflow of the population from the cores of the agglomerations to their outer zones and even beyond the boundaries of the agglomerations;
• change in the ethnic composition of cities due to the ongoing mythology from developing countries. The high birth rate in migrant families significantly affects the decrease in the proportion of the "titular" population of cities;
• placement of new jobs in the outer zones of the agglomeration and even beyond.

Modern urbanization has led to a deepening of socio-territorial differences. A kind of payment for the concentration and economic efficiency of production in the conditions of urbanization was the territorial and social polarization constantly reproduced in the most developed countries between backward and advanced regions, between the central regions of cities and suburbs; the emergence of unfavorable environmental conditions and, as a result, the deterioration of the health of the urban population, especially the poor.

suburbanization(the rapid growth of the suburban area around large cities), the first signs of which appeared before the Second World War, affected primarily the wealthy and was a form of their flight from social diseases big city.

Urbanization in Russia

in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. 20% of the country's urban population was concentrated in the central area, while in Siberia and the Far East the urban population did not exceed 3% with the cities of 100,000 inhabitants Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok; the scientific base of the vast region was Tomsk University. Settlement in rural areas, where 82% of the country's population lived, was characterized by extreme fragmentation, overpopulation of some areas and forced military-agricultural colonization of others (mainly national outskirts). In the North, in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, the population led a nomadic lifestyle. In rural settlements, there was a complete lack of social and cultural services, well-maintained roads. As a result, there was a huge social and spatial distance between the big cities, which concentrated almost the entire potential of culture, and the countryside. In 1920, the number of literate people was 44% of the country's population, including 32% of women, among the rural population - respectively 37 and 25%.

By the beginning of 1926, the settlement basis of the country consisted of 1925 urban settlements, in which 26 million people lived, or 18% of the country's population, and about 860 thousand rural settlements. The frame of centers of settlement and cultural development was represented by only 30 cities, of which Moscow and Leningrad were millionaires.

The process of urbanization in the USSR was associated with a rapid concentration of production in large cities, the creation of numerous new cities in areas of new development and, accordingly, with the movement of huge masses of the population from village to city and its high concentration in large and largest urban settlements.

This stage of urbanization was characterized by the following negative features, due to the fact that the settlement and organization of society took place mainly on the basis of sectoral economic criteria: extensive growth of large cities, insufficient development of small and medium-sized cities; inattention and underestimation of the role of rural settlements as a social environment; slow overcoming of socio-territorial differences.

IN modern Russia the process of urbanization is also associated with serious contradictions. The trend towards property polarization of the population within urban communities leads to the segregation of the poor population, pushing it to the “sideline” of urban life. The economic crisis and political instability stimulate unemployment and internal migration, as a result of which, due to the excessive influx of population, many cities have significantly more people than they are able to "digest". Population growth in cities, far outstripping the demand for labor, is accompanied not only by absolute, but sometimes by relative expansion of those strata that do not participate in modern production. These processes lead to an increase in urban unemployment and the development in the cities of an unorganized sector of the economy engaged in small-scale production and services. In addition, the growth of the criminal sector, which includes both the "shadow" economy and organized crime, is noticeable.

Be that as it may, urban life and urban culture have become an organic environment of social habitat. At the beginning of the XXI century. the majority of Russians are native city dwellers. They will set the tone for the development of society, and how social management systems are formed now will change how social environment will depend on the lives of new generations.

One of the most important and global processes of the modern world is urbanization, those. the growth of cities and the increase in the proportion of the urban population, as well as the emergence of more complex networks and systems of cities. Most countries of the world, including Russia, are characterized by the following features of urbanization:

Rapid urban population growth;

The concentration of population and economy in big cities;

The transition from a compact (point) city to urban agglomerations - territorial groupings of urban and rural settlements.

Urbanization is a historical process of increasing the role of cities and urban lifestyle in the development of society, associated with the spatial concentration of activities in relatively few cities and areas of predominant socio-economic development (urbanized areas). It is caused by deep structural shifts in the economy and the social sphere and is usually associated with the concentration of the population in large cities. There is a binary understanding of the process of urbanization: 1) in the narrow sense - the growth of cities, especially large ones, an increase in the share of the urban population; 2) in a broad sense, this is a historical process of increasing the role of cities and urban lifestyle in the development of society.

Urbanization is a complex, dynamic, multifaceted process and is the object of interdisciplinary research. Urbanization is a deeply spatial process, concentrated and clearly expressed in its projection onto the territory, mapping. In the process of evolution, the areas of the urbanized environment are expanding and their qualitative change is taking place.

Urbanization is a comprehensive process, it covers not only the urban area, but also increasingly the countryside, largely determining its transformation - demographic, social, economic and spatial, etc. That is why many rural problems (mobility, change structure of the rural population, depopulation) are closely related to urbanization. Cities and agglomerations have a diverse impact on the surrounding rural area, gradually, as it were, “processing” it, reducing the size of the countryside. As a result, there is a rapid development of the suburbs of large cities - suburbanization (literally, "urbanization of the suburbs"). At the same time, there is an introduction of certain urban conditions and norms of life into rural settlements, i.e., urbanization (rural urbanization, the process of spreading urban forms and living conditions to the countryside). Urbanized territories occupy 0.8% of the land area, but concentrate more than 48% of the world's population, more than 80% of GDP and give more than 80% of emissions into the atmosphere.

Agglomeration - a compact territorial grouping of urban and rural settlements, united in a complex local system by diverse intensive ties - labor, industrial, household, recreational, as well as the joint use of this area and its resources; - a highly urbanized area with a dense network of settlements, as if united by a joint suburban area.

Urban settlements (cities, urban-type settlements) are settlements that have a certain population and perform specific, predominantly non-agricultural functions (industrial, transport, administrative, cultural, commercial). Large urban settlements are almost always multifunctional.

The criteria for classifying settlements as urban settlements vary greatly in different countries. The main criteria for classifying settlements as cities are: the number of inhabitants, historical conditionality, the development of administrative, commercial, financial, cultural, and other functions. (In the Russian Federation, these are settlements with a population of more than 12 thousand people, where at least 85% of the working population is not employed in agriculture). However, due to a number of historical and socio-economic reasons, cities in terms of population can be significantly less than 12 thousand people. For example, the smallest city in Russia in terms of population - Chekalin, Suvorovsky District, Tula Region, has 1.0 thousand inhabitants. At the same time, rural settlements, especially in the conditions of large settlements in the south of the European part of Russia (Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Astrakhan, Rostov Regions, the Republic of Adygea) can have more than 15-20 thousand inhabitants.

The share of the urban population in Russia is about 73.5% (2006).

The following characteristic features of the modern city are:

economic - employment of the population outside agriculture;

· ekistic - the concentration of a significant population in a relatively small area (and, consequently, a high population density);

· demographic - formation of specific urban characteristics of population reproduction and its structure;

architectural - the formation of a characteristic urban architectural and planning environment;

social - the formation of a specific urban lifestyle;

legal - cities are, as a rule, administrative centers of various hierarchical levels.

The last indicator is considered the most important, since it indicates a change in the ratio of the urban and rural population in the country or its individual parts. It is by this indicator that the level of development of urbanization in a particular country is usually judged. But extensive urbanization reaches its “ceiling” over time, after which the values ​​of the corresponding indicators may even decrease. In particular, for the share of the urban population, this maximum figure is usually 90%.

Intensive urbanization is manifested in the formation of ever new varieties of urban settlement. So, initially separate cities develop, but the largest of them reach an ever larger population, concentrate an increasingly significant part of the urban population. At the beginning of the XIX century. there was only one city on Earth with a population of more than 1 million inhabitants (a millionaire city). At the beginning of the XX century. there were already 10 such cities. And by the end of the century, there were about 400 millionaire cities on the planet and “cities of overmillionaires” (with a population of more than 10 million inhabitants) appeared. Accordingly, if at the beginning of the XX century. in millionaire cities, there were less than 10% of the urban inhabitants of the Earth, then at the end of the century - more than 20%. In the most backward developing states, at present there are only separate cities, although sometimes quite large ones. They tend to stand out sharply in economic structure and lifestyle from the surrounding countryside.

Derbent in the Republic of Dagestan, which was founded in the 5th century BC, is the oldest city currently existing on the territory of the Russian Federation. n. e. on the northern border of the then Persian possessions. The most ancient Russian cities that appeared in the 9th century were located along the route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” - these are Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk. In the XI-XII centuries. active construction of cities was carried out in the Volga-Oka interfluve - the north-eastern outskirts of the Russian state of that time, intensively populated by Slavs. Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Moscow and many other cities appeared. But during the Mongol-Tatar invasion, most of the ancient Russian cities were destroyed, and a significant part of them never revived. Moscow became the capital of the Russian state.

A new intensive construction of cities began only in the 16th century. - after full release states from the Mongol-Tatar dependence and the accession of the Kazan, Astrakhan, and then the Siberian khanates. There was a settlement by Russians of the "wild field" (the territory of the modern Volga and Central Black Earth regions) and the construction of cities in this territory, primarily for defense purposes. Samara, Volgograd, Voronezh, and others appeared, as well as the first Siberian cities - Tyumen and Tobolsk. Arkhangelsk was founded in the north to develop trade relations with Europe. Throughout the 17th century Siberia was being developed, and new fort cities appeared on this territory - Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, etc. That is, most of the new cities of that time had mainly military functions. After the expansion of the territory of the state and the loss of military significance, only those of them that became trade and craft centers of the surrounding territories remained as cities.

IN early XVIII in. (during the reforms of Peter I) new cities appeared in the North-West (St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk), as well as in the Urals, where the intensive development of metallurgy began (Yekaterinburg). During the reign of Catherine II, an administrative reform was carried out in the country, as a result of which small towns appeared - county centers, which were supposed to be relatively evenly distributed throughout the country. In the 19th century new cities were founded in the south of Russia - in the regions annexed to the country (Vladikavkaz, Vladivostok). At the very end of the century, during the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Novosibirsk arose - the youngest of the modern millionaire cities in Russia, today the largest city in the Asian part of the country.

Intensive formation of new urban settlements was observed on the territory of Russia in the 20th century. A large-scale administrative reform was carried out after the revolutions of 1917. At the same time, many cities that did not have industry were transformed into rural settlements. But at the same time, large industrial villages and factory settlements (Izhevsk, Orekhovo-Zuevo, etc.) became cities, and urban-type settlements appeared. In the 1930s, new cities appeared near the large industrial new buildings of the first five-year plans (Magnitogorsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and others). In connection with the evacuation of industrial production to the east during the Great Patriotic War many new urban settlements arose in the Urals and Western Siberia (Severouralsk, Novoaltaisk, etc.).

In the second half of the XX century. new urban settlements on the territory of Russia arose mainly in three cases:

1) urban settlements in the areas of development natural resources mainly in the north and east of Russia: Nizhnevartovsk, Mirny, etc.;

2) urban settlements as part of agglomerations mainly in Central Russia: Protvino in the Moscow region, etc.;

3) overgrown and transformed village-district centers are, as a rule, small urban settlements throughout the country.

City-forming functions can be divided into two groups - central and special. The central functions are to provide a variety of services to the population and economy of the adjacent territories. Urban settlements - central places form a fairly strict hierarchy within the country. At the top of this hierarchy is the capital Moscow, serving the entire territory of the country. The next level is formed by cities - the largest centers of economic regions (Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, etc.). Maintenance of territories of subjects Russian Federation carried out by regional Centers (Pskov, Orel, Astrakhan, etc.). Within each region, one can usually distinguish the level of inter-district centers serving several lower administrative districts (for example, Orsk and Buzuluk in the Orenburg region). The next level is formed by settlements - regional centers (for example, Vyborg, Priozersk and others in the Leningrad region). The lowest level of the hierarchy is formed by settlements - intra-district centers that serve part of the administrative region (Aprelevka and Vereya in the Naro-Fominsk district of the Moscow region).

Special functions, often on a national scale, are performed by industry centers. Russia has the largest number of urban settlements - industrial centers (Magnitogorsk, Novokuznetsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, etc.). The most prominent representatives of transport centers are large seaports (Novorossiysk, Nakhodka). Relatively rare in our country are scientific centers (Obninsk in the Kaluga region, Dubna in the Moscow region, etc.), tourist centers (Suzdal in the Vladimir region) and resort centers (Sochi in Krasnodar Territory, Pyatigorsk in the Stavropol Territory, etc.).

Among urban-type settlements there are also several special functional types. Firstly, these are construction centers associated with the construction of large industrial facilities, as a rule, nuclear and hydraulic power plants (Shilovo in the Ryazan region, Chistye Bory in the Kostroma region, etc.). Secondly, these are suburban (dacha) settlements that have exclusively residential functions (Firsanovka, Semkhoz, Rodniki in the Moscow Region, etc.). Thirdly, these are urban-type settlements that have already lost any urban functions, since all large non-agricultural enterprises in them have been closed, and they have no labor relations with other urban settlements. Such settlements are quite common in the northern and eastern regions of the country near mined-out mineral deposits or logging operations closed due to the exhaustion of logging resources, but for some time (sometimes for decades) they still continued to be listed as urban settlements. And some of them completely lost their population. The combination of various functions in one settlement leads, as a rule, to its rapid development. Because big cities are multifunctional. Conversely, small towns and urban settlements tend to be monofunctional.

In terms of size, urban settlements are divided as follows: the smallest (up to 10 thousand inhabitants); small (from 10 to 50 thousand inhabitants); medium (from 50 to 100 thousand inhabitants); large (from 100 to 500 thousand inhabitants); the largest (from 500 thousand to 1 million inhabitants); millionaire cities (over 1 million inhabitants).

The most important and interesting cities are millionaires, of which there are only 13, about 25% of the entire urban population of the country is concentrated in them. In addition, more than 1 million inhabitants are urban agglomerations - Voronezh, Saratov, Krasnoyarsk. Since there are no strict statistical criteria for identifying agglomerations in Russia, it is impossible to give an exact number of their population.

The vast majority of urban agglomerations in Russia are monocentric, i.e. relatively small suburban settlements are grouped around one large city. Polycentric agglomerations, when a common suburban area is formed around several approximately equal cities, are almost never found. Thus, among 16 agglomerations with a population of more than 1 million people, only Samara can be considered polycentric with a high degree of conditionality, where the second largest city of Togliatti is inferior to the main center of Samara by less than 2 times.

Most of the cities - and agglomerations with millionaires in the Urals and in the Volga region (four each), together these two areas concentrate half of the cities - and agglomerations of the country's millionaires. At the same time, there are no such cities and agglomerations in the least populated Northern and Far Eastern regions. The population of Murmansk, the largest city in the northern region, does not even reach 350,000 people.

The group of the largest cities in Russia includes: Krasnoyarsk (911 thousand inhabitants), Saratov and Voronezh (from 800 thousand to 900 thousand), Tolyatti (720 thousand), Izhevsk, Krasnodar, Yaroslavl, Ulyanovsk, Barnaul (from 600 thousand to 900 thousand). up to 700 thousand), Irkutsk, Novokuznetsk, Astrakhan, Penza, Ryazan, Orenburg, Lipetsk, Naberezhnye Chelny, Tyumen, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok (from 500 thousand to 600 thousand inhabitants).

Only 3 out of 33 millionaire cities and largest cities in Russia are not regional centers. This indicates a strong influence of high-ranking Central Functions on the growth and development of cities in the country.

This is also manifested in the fact that in the vast majority of subjects of the Russian Federation, the largest cities are regional centers. Of the 89 constituent entities of the Federation, only Kemerovo and Vologda region, where the largest cities are the industrial centers of Novokuznetsk and Cherepovets, as well as the autonomous districts - Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets, where the largest oil production centers are Surgut and Noyabrsk.

A specific group of urban settlements in Russia is "closed" cities and urban-type settlements (closed administrative-territorial entities - ZATO). They are associated, as a rule, with the production of nuclear weapons, military bases and weapons testing grounds. Distinctive feature such settlements is that in the Soviet period they were not recorded in open statistics and were not plotted on geographical maps. Even their very existence was secret. The name of such settlements was formed from the name of the nearest large city and the number: Arzamas-16, Krasnoyarsk-45, etc. In the 90s, "closed" urban settlements received their own names, publications appeared about them in the press, open statistical information. The largest of the ZATOs is the city of Seversk in the Tomsk Region (more than 100,000 inhabitants). In total, about 1.2 million inhabitants of Russia live in such settlements.