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Development geography is the study of the Earth's geography and its relationship with economic development. It is very closely related to Economic Geography and Development Economics . This branch of Human Geography is intertwined with resource distribution and consumption, Demographics , soil quality, Topography , Climate and natural disasters. As the world is divided into the More Economically Developed Countries ( MEDC s, also called Developed countries and First World Countries) and Less Economically Developed Countries ( LEDC s, also Developing countries and Third World Countries) wealth (both money and materials resources) is unequally distributed among the world's population with large consequences for people's lifestyles and the environment. In development geography geographers study spatial patterns in development and try to find by what characteristics they can measure economic development. They seek to understand both the geographical causes and consequences of varying development. MEASURING DEVELOPMENT There are many methods that geographers use to quantify and compare the development of different countries and they have different strengths and weaknesses. Quantitative Indicators are numerical indications of development.
Composite Indicators combine several quantitative indicators into one figure and generally provide a more balanced view of a country. Usually they include one economic, one health and one educational indicator.
Qualitative Indicators include descriptions of living conditions and people's quality of life. They are useful in analysing features that are not easily converted to numbers such as freedom and security. Data Example Source UN Human Development Report (HDR) . The UN Human Development Report is the standard for most development statistics worldwide and provides them freely on their website. Geographic variations in development It is important to grasp just how unequally distributed the world's wealth is. Economic growth over the past 50 years has been impressive. In general richer countries are improving at a faster rate than the poorer countries because they have more money to invest in improvements. ''"Global wealth also increased in material terms, and during the period 1947 to 2000, average per capita incomes tripled as global GDP increased almost tenfold (from trillion to trillion)... Over 25% of the 4.5 billion people in LEDCs still have life expectancies below 40 years. More than 80 countries have a lower annual per capita income in 2000 than they did in 1990. The average income in the world's five richest countries is 74 times the level in the world's poorest five, the widest it has ever been. Nearly 1.3 billion people have no access to clean water. About 840 million people are malnourished."'' - Codrington, Stephen. ''Planet Geography 3rd Edition'' (2005) Page 97 {Link without Title} The most famous pattern in development is the North-South Divide . The North-South divide is the divide which separates the rich North or the developed world, from the poor South. This line of division is not as straightforward as it sounds and splits the globe into two main parts. The "North" in this divide is regarded as being North America, Europe, Russia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The countries within this area are generally the more economically developed. The "South" therefore encompasses the remainder of the Southern Hemisphere, mostly consisting of LEDCs. Another possible dividing line is the Tropic of Cancer with the exceptions of Australia and New Zealand. It is critical to understand that the status of countries is far from static and the pattern is likely to become distorted with the fast development of certain southern countries, many of them NICs (Newly Industrialised Countries) including Thailand, Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico and others. These countries are experiencing sustained fast development on the back of growing manufacturing industries and exports. Most countries are experiencing significant increases in wealth and standard of living. However there are unfortunate exceptions to this rule. Noticeably the former Soviet Union has experienced major disruption of industry in the transition to a market economy. Many African nations have recently experienced reduced GNPs due to wars and the AIDS epidemic, including Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone and others. Arab oil producers rely very heavily on oil exports to support their GDPs so any reduction in oil's market price (currently unlikely) can lead to rapid decreases in GNP. Countries which rely on only a few exports for much of their income are very vulnerable to changes in the market value of those commodities and are often derogatively called Banana Republics . Many developing countries do rely on exports of a few primary goods for a large amount of their income (coffee and timber for example), and this can create havoc when the value of these commodities drops, leaving these countries with no way to pay off their debts. Within countries the pattern is that wealth is more concentrated around urban areas than rural areas. Wealth also tends towards areas with natural resources or in areas that are involved in tertiary (service) industries and trade. This leads to a gathering of wealth around mines and monetary centres such as New York, London and Tokyo. CAUSES OF INEQUALITY There are many reasons why some countries develop faster than others. They can be placed under 5 headings using the mnemonic SHEEP, but there is much overlap: Social The more money a country has, the more it can spend on health care, education and birth control. Social traditions that discourage birth control increase birth rates and impede the economic development of poor countries. Different societies value hard work, material gain and social cohesion differently and this will clearly have an effect on growth and efficiency. Also, there is the vicious "poverty cycle." This is when the general attitude in developing countries is to have large amounts of children, as they are a guarantee, almost insurance for later life. However, it is hard to cope with large amounts of children, this leads to over population in a country and therefore more poverty. The cycle then starts again. Historical Historically Colonialism has probably had the largest influence on development. It channeled resource wealth towards Europe and North America at the expense of many African, South American and Asian countries which did not receive reasonable prices for their goods. European colonizers build strong industries from this wealth while not investing in such development in their colonies. At the end of colonialism many countries were left without the social, economic or political structures that encouraged development so poverty became entrenched. In many cases artificial borders were drawn which did not reflect the desires of the local inhabitants, leading to civil wars or social instability. Other historical influences can include incompetent governments or a retention of tribal lifestyles that prevented countries from developing economically. Economic Countries with resources such as Iron Ore , Oil and Coal are likely to develop industrially more easily because they do not have to import these resources, leading to debt. Their extraction and sale create jobs and Transport systems while giving certain countries trade and political leverage over others. The resources can also earn large sums of money in trade, allowing a country to invest in other industries. Many European nations developed during the industrial revolution on the back of coal and iron industries. However, the fact that many resource-rich (oil in particular) African and Middle-Eastern nations have not developed economically while their resources are mined demonstrates that these factors are not sufficient in themselves. Often Kleptocracies develop around these industries and grow very rich while investing little in the country's population itself. Nigeria and Saudi Arabia are two examples of this. In fact the wealth generated can often help to entrench an incompetent Dictatorship in power or even lead to destructive Resource War s as has occurred in Africa. Environmental Natural hazards including flooding, droughts, earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, hurricanes, diseases, illnesses and pests all prevent economic development. Large natural disasters can set countries back greatly in their economic development, as in periodic flooding of Bangladesh. Volcanos and floods can often have both positive and negative effects as they bring in nutrient rich sediment. Areas around volcanoes and flooding deltas are often heavily populated, as in Egypt, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Diseases such as malaria which thrive in tropical climates and AIDS which is endemic in Africa prevent people from working and create an economic burden on society. Pests such as locusts reduce agricultural output and make it more difficult for a country to earn sufficient money to escape from Subsistence Agriculture . Reliable sources of water are necessary for productive agriculture and to a lesser extent industry. Human induced environmental problems include desertification, salinity, water pollution, land clearing and many more. Desertification is caused by poor land management removing the nutrients necessary for plant growth. It is a worldwide problem with massive consequences for the countries it affects. Salinity is caused by poor irrigation techniques. Water Pollution from industry can include acids and bases, poisonous minerals and material with a high BOD which cause algal blooms. This pollution makes it more difficult for a populations to access fresh water. Logging initially brings in investment but often land with trees removed is of far reduced agricultural value and is vulnerable to desertification. Logged rain forests are especially vulnerable to mineral leeching due to high rainfall and often become worthless. As tourism is now a major source of income for most LEDCs it is necessary to care for natural resources which can bring in this long-term source of wealth. Political Countries are far more likely to develop when they have stable governments that well macro-manage the economy and invest in national infrastructure, trade, environmental management and avoid civil wars. The rule of law is necessary to make investors feel confident enough to send their money into a country. Clear legal rules on property ownership provides people the opportunity to use the property for collateral on loans for capital development, or sell some property to achieve capital for other endeavors. Ensuring workers rights can mean that workers receive more money and can pull themselves out of poverty but can have the effect of encouraging multinationals to leave the country and seek other countries with fewer restrictions. It has been suggested that good governance is a prerequisite for economic development and most aid-donor countries now recognise that much of their money has achieved nothing due to corrupt recipients. For this reason standards of governance are now requirements for most aid money. Unfortunately, many governments, especially in Africa, are either unable or unwilling to help their own countries develop and without this support a country can rarely progress. Issues to come:
See also REFERENCES Codrington, Stephen. ''Planet Geography 3rd Edition'' (2005) Section A {Link without Title} |