How Economic Development In A Country Affects Planning And Management In Urban Areas

With reference to examples, discuss the degree to which the level od economic development in country affects planning and management in urban areas. The type of that require careful planning and management are largely decided by the economic wealth of a countryside. LEDC countries have problems with rapid urbanisation into the cities. However, on the other hand the problems that MEDC countries face include; suburbanisation, counter urbanisation. Urbanisation is the process in which people move to the city and start to make a home there.

This is mainly happening in LEDC countries due to the lack of work in the countryside. People flood to the cities to try and find employment. Suburbanisation is the way that people move out from the central business district and out into the rural urban fringe, this mainly occurred in MEDC countries after industrialization; people had got more spare money and transport allowed them to move away from the centre of the city to the large houses in the suburbs. Finally, counter urbanisation is the move that people make completely away from the city and into the rural landscape.

Happening primarily in the richer countries where people aspire to be away from the stress of the city when they are not working and move into the countryside. Each of these processes have their own problems that require the careful management mentioned above. Urbanisation can cause a lot of problems. When there are such a large number of people moving into the city there are not enough houses to accommodate them all. In many cases the pull factor towards the city is the prospect of work and this is not always possible.

The situation that then occurs it that you have a lot of people moved to the city without any work or housing; so, they simply build their own cheap homes on the side of the main city called a slum. These slums can prevent easy excess in and out of the city; but, not only this because way that the houses are built there are no proper facilities for the people in the slum. Disease is often a consequence of poor sanitation and crime can pervade in these areas because of the high unemployment and lack of money. It is for the benefit for everyone that these slums are redeveloped into proper housing and sanitation.

A example of how urban area need to be managed. Rocinha is the largest favela in Brazil, and is located in Rio de Janeiro’s South Zone between the districts of Sao Conrado and Gavea. Rocinha is built on a steep hillside overlooking Rio de Janeiro, and is located about one kilometre from a nearby beach. Most of the favela is on a very steep hill, with many trees surrounding it. 69,161 people live in Rocinha. The authorities in Rio de Janeiro have taken a number of steps to reduce problems in favelas.

They have set up self-help schemes; this is when the local authority provide local residents with the materials needs to construct permanent accommodation. This includes breeze blocks and cement. The Local residents provide the labour. The money saved can be spent on providing basic amenities such as electricity and water. Today, almost all the houses in Rocinha are made from concrete and brick. Some buildings are three and four stories tall and almost all houses have basic sanitation, plumbing, and electricity. Compared to simple shanty towns or slums, Rocinha has a better developed infrastructure.

The favela also has a cable car to promote easy movement around the favela and into the main city. This was a government lead initiative. This is not the only one way that slums can be redeveloped. Government lead slum clearance is where land is bought under the residents and redeveloped into better accommodation. The other option is for the people of the slum redeveloping their own house individually making the whole area look better. The decision for which of these management options is the best is something that is decided at government level.

Slums that are in a extremely bad situation are likely to be tackled with slum clearance as it is the quickest method. Conversely, in MEDC countries slums are not such a problem because urbanisation happened many years ago after industrialisation and the country has moved on economically. The problem here is suburbanisation. The people who can move away from the central business district because it is loud and polluted but it left the unfortunate people who could not afford to move out in the CBD. This can lead to a state of urban decline.

If there is a high percentage of council owned buildings the resident feel like they do not need to look after the environment because it is not their problem, graffiti and littering is a result of not caring. The situation from here can just get worse and worse and crime rates goes up and empty buildings are left unused. This process is not something that just occurs with the residents of an area, if all the people move out to the suburbs of a district the shops and facilities will either go out of business or the will soon follow into the suburbs.

This does not help the process of urban decline as it means that more local people are made unemployed. A good example of where this has happened is the development of Mary hill shopping park in the west Midlands. Mary Hill has had to face the complaints of the businesses in the local centres of Solihull and Birmingham. Business have had to drive down prices to be competitive with the shopping centre with is not good for the economics of the area. Management of urban decline can be tackled in three ways. Property lead redevelopment, partnership schemes and gentrification.

Property lead redevelopment is when the government decide to redevelop a area a invest large amount of money are on a large scale. A good example of where this has helped to bring a urban area out of decline is in Cardiff. Cardiff bay was a declining area when the loss of industry in the 1970s left a lot of people in unemployment and poverty. 3000 new homes were created, 1200 new jobs were created along with a new glass factory and water front. The area now has 2. 1 million visitors a year. Partnership schemes help the community rebuild a declining area such as in Hulme in Manchester.

City challenge and the local people worked together to redevelop the area. The government provided ?37. 5 million for this to happen. For some people being on the edge of the city is still too much stress and decide to move completely away to the rural villages that surround big cities. This process of counter urbanisation can cause problems of their own. Rural villages are in danger of becoming places that people go to sleep. People still work in the cities and commute from their rural location every day. The local shops are no longer used because the supermarkets on the way out of the city from are not only more convenient but cheaper.

The community feeling if the village is lost and the reason that people thought they were moving to the countryside for is no longer valid. Again this forces the closer of shops and local facilities. These places can also fall into a state of decline To conclude. Economic development and urban management and planning are directly linked. On the surface it seems like MEDC counties have more problems to deal with (sub urbanisation and counter urbanisation) whereas LEDC countries only have the problem of urbanisation.

However, I believe that urbanisation is greater problem that requires more careful management than other problems may require. Furthermore, the level of economic development within a country may effects the ability of the country to manage these urban issues; the planning a management strategies adopted in a country will be affected by this. In poorer countries emphasis may be placed on self-help schemes or partnerships scheme that require less money from the government. On the other hand, richer governments may choose to head redevelopment projects themselves