THE HUMAN POPULATION

AND URBANIZATION
EDRAFEL CLAUDEEN M. MANOY, LPT
Marinduque State College
School of Education
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, the students can:
 distinguish between birth rate, death rate, fertility rate, and
life expectancy;
 identify the age structure of a population;
 evaluate the effects of urbanization;
 re-create a fantasy island exhibiting an ecocity; and
 list down tools to promote smart growth in societies.
How Many People Can the Earth Support?
There are three major factors that account for population
increase:
 Humans developed the ability to expand into almost all of the
planet’s climate zones and habitats.
 The emergence of early and modern agriculture allowed us to
grow more food for each unit of land area farmed.
 Death rates dropped sharply because of improved sanitation
and health care and development of antibiotics and vaccines
to help control infectious diseases.
How Many People Can the Earth Support?
 Geographically, the growth is
unevenly distributed.
 We do not know how long we
can continue increasing the
earth’s carrying capacity for
humans without seriously
degrading the life-support
system that keeps us and
many other species alive.
Natural
Capital
Degradation
How Many People Can the Earth Support?

 How many people can the earth support indefinitely? Some say
about 2 billion. Others say as many as 50 billion.
 What is the planet’s cultural carrying capacity?
 Cultural Carrying Capacity – the maximum number of people
that the earth can support at a reasonable level of comfort and
freedom without impairing the planet’s ability to sustain future
generations in the same way.
Factors Influencing the Size of the Human
Population
 If there are more births than deaths during a given period of
time, the earth’s population increases. When the reverse is true,
it decreases.
 When the number of births equals the number of deaths during
a particular period, population size does not change.
 births (fertility), deaths (mortality), migration
 Population change =(Births + Immigration)–(Deaths+Emigration)
Factors Influencing the Size of the Human
Population
 Women are having fewer babies but not few enough to
stabilize the world’s population.
 Total fertility rate (TFR) – the average number of children born to
women in a population during their reproductive years.
 Several factors affect birth rates and fertility rates:
◦ The importance of children as part of the labor force,
especially in developing countries
◦ The cost of raising and educating children
◦ The availability or lack of private and public pension systems
Factors Influencing the Size of the Human
Population
Several factors affect birth rates and fertility rates:
◦ Urbanization
◦ Educational and employment opportunities available for
women
◦ Average age at marriage
◦ Availability of legal abortions
◦ Availability of reliable birth control methods
◦ Religious beliefs, traditions, and cultural norms
Factors Influencing the Size of the Human
Population
Several factors affect death rates (infant mortality):
◦ Inadequate health care for poor women during pregnancy
and for their babies after birth
◦ Drug addiction among pregnant women
◦ High birth rate among teenagers
 Life expectancy – the average number of years a newborn
infant can expect to live
 Infant mortality rate - the number of babies out of every 1000
born who die before their first birthday
Factors Influencing the Size of the Human
Population
Population change is also affected by migration: the movement
of people into (immigration) and out of (emigration) specific
geographic areas.
 Migration is affected by job employment, ethnic conflicts,
political oppression, wars, and certain types of environmental
degradation such as soil erosion and water/food shortages.
How Does a Population’s Age Structure
Affect Its Growth or Decline?
Age Structure - the number or percentage of males and
females in young, middle, and older age groups
 Three age categories: prereproductive (ages 0-4), reproductive
(15-44), and postreproductive (45 and older)
How Does a Population’s Age Structure
Affect Its Growth or Decline?
How Does a Population’s Age Structure
Affect Its Growth or Decline?
How Does a Population’s Age Structure
Affect Its Growth or Decline?
How Does a Population’s Age Structure
Affect Its Growth or Decline?
 Populations made up mostly of
young people can grow rapidly.
 Populations made up mostly of
older people can decline rapidly.
 Population can decline from a rising
death rate: “The AIDS Tragedy”
How Can We Slow Human Population?

 Reducing poverty through economic development

 Encourage family planning
 Elevating the social and economic status of women
URBANIZATION
Urbanization

 Urban areas grow in 2 ways: natural increase and immigration

Challenges of Urban Growth:
 The proportion of the global population living in urban areas is
increasing.
 The number and sizes of large urban areas is mushrooming.
 Urban growth is much slower in developed countries than in
developing countries.
 Poverty is becoming increasingly urbanized, mostly in
developing countries.
Urbanization

 Urban Sprawl – the growth of low-density development on the

edges of cities and towns, eliminating surrounding agricultural
and wild lands.
 Urban sprawl is the product of:
• affordable land
• automobiles
• relatively cheap gasoline
• poor urban planning
Urbanization

Effects of urban sprawl:

• decreased energy efficiency
• increase traffic congestion
• destroyed crop lands, forests, and wetlands
• economic deaths of many central cities
Urbanization Has Advantages

 From an economic standpoint, cities are centers of economic

development, innovation, education, technological advances,
and jobs.
 They serve as centers of industry, commerce, and
transportation.
 Urban residents tend to live longer than do rural residents, and
to have lower infant mortality rates and fertility rates.
 Recycling is more economically feasible.
 Concentrating people in cities helps to preserve biodiversity by
reducing the stress on wildlife habitats.
Urbanization Has Disadvantages

 Most urban areas are unsustainable systems. Although urban

populations occupy only about 2% of the earth’s land area,
they consume about 75% of its resources and produce about
75% of the world’s climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions
from human activities. (Worldwatch Institute)
Urbanization Has Disadvantages
Urbanization Has Disadvantages

 Cities lack vegetation. In urban areas, most trees, shrubs, or

other plants are destroyed to make way for buildings, roads,
parking lots, and household developments.
 Cities have water problems. As cities grow, their water
demands increase. This can deprive rural and wild areas of
surface water and can deplete the underground water
supplies.
Urbanization Has Disadvantages

 They concentrate pollution and health problems. Because of

their high population densities and high resource consumption,
cities produce most of world’s air pollution, water pollution, and
solid and hazardous wastes.
 They affect local climates and cause light pollution. The
enormous amount of heat generated by cars, factories, and
furnaces, lights, air conditioners, and heat-absorbing dark roofs
and streets in cities creates an urban heat island that is
surrounded by cooler suburban and rural areas.
Transportation and Urban Environmental
Impacts
 Cities can grow outward or upward, compact or dispersed.
 Motor vehicles, despite the important benefits, have many
harmful effects on people and the environment.
 Reducing automobile use is not easy, but it can be done.
• user-pays approach
• finance mass transit systems
• bike lanes and side walks
• tax shift
Transportation and Urban Environmental
Impacts
Transportation and Urban Environmental
Impacts
How Can Cities Become More Sustainable
and Livable?
 Smart growth – one way to encourage more environmentally
sustainable development
 Ecocity – or green city; a more environmentally sustainable city
 Goals of an ecocity:
• Use solar and other locally available, renewable energy
• Build and redesign cities for people, not cars
• prevent pollution and reduce waste
• recycle, reuse, and compost at least 60% of all solid waste
• Protect and encourage biodiversity
• Promote urban gardens and farm markets
How Can Cities
Become More
Sustainable and
Livable?
SUMMARY
SUMMARY
 We do not know how long we can continue increasing the
earth’s carrying capacity for humans without seriously
degrading the life-support system that keeps us and many other
species alive.
 Population size increases through births and immigration and
decreases through deaths and emigration.
 The average number of children born to women in a
population (total fertility rate) is the key factor that determines
population size.
 The numbers of males and females in young, middle, and older
age groups determine how fast a population grows or declines.
SUMMARY
 We can slow human population growth by reducing poverty,
encouraging family planning, and elevating the status of
women.
 Most cities are unsustainable because high levels of resource
use, waste, pollution, and poverty.
 In some cities, most people live in dispersed urban areas and
depend mostly on motor vehicles for their transportation.
 An ecocity allows people to choose walking, biking, or mass
transit for most transportation needs; recycle or reuse most of
their wastes; grow much of their food; and protect biodiversity
by preserving surrounding land.
“Our numbers expand but the Earth’s natural systems don’t.”
LESTER L. BROWN
END