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For instance, the United States or United Kingdom have a far higher urbanization level than China , India or Nigeria , but a far slower annual urbanization rate, since much less of the population is living in a rural area while in the process of moving to the city. Australia is at the opposite of the former two in terms of urbanization rate but also the latter three in urbanisation level, making it one of the most urbanised countries in the world. is an example of urbanization.]] The rate of urbanization over time is distinct from the rate of ''urban growth'', which is the rate at which the urban population or area increases in a given period relative to its own size at the start of that period. The urbanization rate represents the increase in the proportion of the urban population over the period. In terms of a place, urbanization means increased spatial scale and/or density of settlement and/or business and other activities in the area over time. The process could occur either as natural expansion of the existing population (usually not a major factor since urban reproduction tends to be lower than rural), the transformation of peripheral population from rural to urban, incoming migration, or a combination of these. In either case, urbanization has profound effects on the Ecology of a region and on its Economy . Urban Sociology also observes that people's psychology and lifestyles change in an urban environment. The increase in spatial scale is often called "urban sprawl". It is frequently used as a derogatory term by opponents of large-scale urban peripheral expansion especially for low-density urban development on or beyond the city fringe. Sprawl is considered unsightly and undesirable by those critics, who point also to diseconomies in travel time and service provision and the danger of social polarisation through suburbanites' remoteness from inner-city problems. ECONOMIC EFFECTS The most striking immediate change accompanying urbanization is the rapid change in the prevailing character of local livelihoods as agriculture or more traditional local services and small-scale industry give way to modern industry and urban and related commerce, with the city drawing on the resources of an ever-widening area for its own sustenance and goods to be traded or processed into Manufactures . Research in Urban Ecology finds that larger cities provide more specialized goods and services to the local market and surrounding areas, function as a transportation and wholesale hub for smaller places, and accumulate more capital, financial service provision, and an educated labor force, as well as often concentrating administrative functions for the area in which they lie. This relation among places of different sizes is called the Urban Hierarchy . As cities develop, effects can include a dramatic increase in rents, often pricing the local Working Class out of the market, including such functionaries as employees of the local municipalities. Supermarkets and Schools sometimes relocate or close down owing to the same financial pressure. Dramatic increases in land values also encourage further development, and may bring an increased tax revenue for local government. In order to mitigate the problems of city growth, certain policies such as Zoning Or Growth Control or creation of an Urban Growth Boundary are put in place, although the eventual effect of those policies sometimes turn out to be inflated land and housing prices due to a restricted supply. ECOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS A major issue facing large cities is the disposal of the ever-growing volume of waste which accompanies increased affluence and reliance on purchased goods. Apart from the unsightliness of disposal sites, harmful synthetic materials in packaging, household appliances or machinery may threaten neighboring rural areas or water sources. Though municipal authorities are trying to address the problem, its rapid growth threatens to outstrip the resources of developing countries. Urbanization often brings people into contact with Wildlife such as Deer (often Hunting is not permitted in settled areas, and deer become quite tame - some people even consider them pests that eat cultivated gardens), and Puma , a natural predator of deer and Pet s such as Dog s and Cat s. As the puma become at home in the urban setting they sometimes turn to people too as a source of food. Increases in the size of urban areas can have significant impacts on local Airshed s and Watershed s. With urban areas sprawling outward from the city core, where the majority of economic activity often occurs, people need to travel greater distances to offices and markets in the core: conversely, people in inner-city areas need to travel further to escape the city. The travel mode most often used is the Car , which can pollute the air with emissions and can pollute waterways with auto fluids, grime, rubber and metal, and road salts. Often new urban areas are built in areas where the natural Water Cycle once occurred, such as Forests , Meadows or Wetlands . This can harm the recharging of the Groundwater table, and can affect local bodies of water. The natural water cycle is disrupted, and often, new Pollutant s such as Pesticide s can create problems for the Ecology of an area. Conversely, while urban air is often more polluted than suburban or rural air, concentrating a population in a relatively small area can reduce the average amount of travel, and thus reduce transport-related pollution. Similarly, city-dwellers occupy less space per household than suburbanites, and use less fresh water, Fertilizer , and Herbicide s (because they have smaller lawns and gardens, if any). CHANGING FORM OF URBANIZATION There are different forms of urbanization, or concentration of human activities, settlements, and social infrastructures. Some suggest that the dominant form of urbanization has been changing over time. Traditional urbanization exhibits a concentration of human activities and settlements around the downtown area. When the residential area shifts outward, this is called suburbanization. A number of researchers and writers suggest that suburbanization has gone so far to form new points of concentration outside the downtown. This networked, poly-centric form of concentration is considered by some an emerging pattern of urbanization. It is called variously exurbia, edge city (Garreau, 1991), network city (Batten, 1995), or postmodern city (Dear, 2000). Los Angeles is the best-known example of this type of urbanization. EXAMPLES Urbanization has in the United States affected the Rocky Mountains in locations such as Jackson Hole, Wyoming , Telluride, Colorado , Taos, New Mexico , Douglas County, Colorado and Aspen, Colorado . The lake district of northern Minnesota has also been affected as has Vermont , the coast of Florida , the Birmingham - Jefferson County, AL area, and the barrier islands of North Carolina . In the United Kingdom, two major examples of new urbanization can be seen in Swindon , Wiltshire and Milton Keynes , Buckinghamshire . These two towns show some of the quickest growth rates in Europe. EXTERNAL LINKS
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