XL INDIAN SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS

0411233 FAUZIE, AZIS KEMAL (Department of Studies in Environmental Science, University of

Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore-570006, India) SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
PROBLEMS OF URBANIZATION IN GLOBAL WORLD
Urbanization is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. It is closely linked to
modernization, industrialization, and the sociological process of rationalization. Mostly because of increased
speed and decreased cost of communication and transportation, cities are growing more to attract rural people
to come. Urbanization brings a unique set of advantages and disadvantages. The problems vary from poverty,
slum settlements, minority and ethnic conflicts, mental health, crimes, urban transport and environmental
degradation.

Introduction
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 sq.km 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 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.

Sheng reported that rural-to-urban migration can take different forms, each with its own conditions and
motives, and each requiring specific policy responses: (i) Permanent or long-term migration of the entire family;
(ii) Temporary or permanent migration of an unmarried family member; (iii) Temporary migration of a married
family member leaving back home; and (iv) Seasonal migration of entire family during low agricultural season.

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, some
of these urbanization basic problems will be further discussed.

Poverty
There is no unambiguous definition of 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 the cities with more than
a million inhabitants.

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; and poor access to social policy
and other socio-cultural institutions enabling them to actively participate in public affairs (Kaltheier, 2002).

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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. 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.

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

Total number of Number below
Percentage
residents poverty line
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.

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).

Housings
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. 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. Millions 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

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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.

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).

Minority and Ethnic Conflicts

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
(African-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 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, its way out of my district. Once I went to a Wendy’s because they had an ad in the

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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.

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.

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.

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

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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).

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. 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.

Table 2. Crime rates by city size in the United States, 2008.

Violent Crime
Aggravated
City Size Murder Forcible rape Robbery Total
assault
> 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
Larceny Motor vehicle
City Size Burglary Arson Total
theft theft
> 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.

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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 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).

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.

Kaltheier (2002) divided three groups of transport means based on its accessibility and system capacity:
a. 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.
b. 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.
c. 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.

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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 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%,
while it is 52% 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 HC, CO and SO2).
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).

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.

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 to the contamination of the hydrosphere is
the drainage called ‘leachate’ that comes from landfills of municipal solid waste or toxic and hazardous wastes.

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 PEOPLES’ HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN INDIA

Table 3. The environmental impacts of urbanization.

Environmental Urban Component
Component Population Land use Transportation Services
Atmosphere Increasing release of Increased average Air pollution from Particulates, noxious
CO2, decreased O2 temperatures combustion of fuels fumes from
production, as plant for most Creation of photo- incinerators,
colonies are des- urbanized areas chemical smog landfills, sewage
troyed by spreading Emission of lead treatment works,
urban areas from some engines etc.
Hydrosphere Greater demand on More intense use Rain, surface waters Leaching of pollut-
water resources of hydrologic polluted with lead ant from landfills
(both surface and resources caus- Drainage patterns Discharges from
subsurface) ing increased altered by sewage outfalls
pollution load infrastructure Pollution from boats
Lithosphere Increased transfor- Complete changes Disruption of Sanitary landfill of
mation of uninha- due to disfigurement of urban wastes and
bited agricultural or construction, landscape, etc. installation, repairs
unutilized land to landscaping, of services disturb
urban uses etc. landscape
Human Psychological impact Psychological Increased noise level
Impacts of high-density impact Health effects of air
living and noise pollution
Source: Henry and Heinke, 1996.

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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