Centrifugal Population Movements (DP IB Geography)

Surburbanisation

Centrifugal movements

• Centrifugal movement refers to any movement outwards of the city centre, including:

  • Suburbanisation

  • Counter-urbanisation

  • Urban Sprawl

• There are several reasons for the movement of people away from urban areas:

  • High land prices

  • Congestion

  • Pollution

  • High crime rates

  • A lack of community

  • Declining services

Suburbanisation

• As towns grow, they expand outwards by a process known as suburbanisation

  • This growth adds to the built up area, but the building densities are generally lower than in the older parts of the town

  • The new suburbs are made up of mostly houses but also include places of employment and services

Causes of suburbanisation

• There are several causes of suburbanisation including:

  • Improved transportation makes movement between the suburbs and CBD easier

  • Larger homes and more space

  • Lower-cost housing

  • Lower crime rates

  • Improved environment, with lower pollution levels and more green space

Impacts of suburbanisation

• Urban settlements may continue to prosper and grow, people move out of the town or city altogether and commute to work:

  • The places they move to are called dormitory settlements because many residents only sleep there. 

  • They continue to have links with the town or city they have left

  • They still make use of urban services, shops, education, and healthcare in the city

• Urban sprawl 

• Wealth and business shift to the suburbs

• Social segregation as the wealthier population moves to the suburbs, leaving the less wealthy in the cities

Counter-urbanisation

Counter-urbanisation

• This is the movement of people from an urban area into the surrounding rural region. Causes include:

  • Mobility and accessibility: higher personal car ownership, increase in public transport and road development making easier access to rural areas

  • Increased wealth: making housing and travel more affordable

  • Agricultural decline (mechanisation and merger of farms): more land becomes available for housing and agricultural workers leave the area

  • Green belt: this prevents building in the area immediately around the urban area so people need to go further out to get the rural life they are looking for

  • Second homes and early retirement: have increased the movement of people from the city to the countryside

Urban sprawl

• Urban sprawl is the uncontrolled growth of the city into the surrounding rural areas and the expansion of population away from central urban areas into low-density rural-urban fringe

• There are several negative environmental, social and economic impacts, including:

  • Air pollution

  • Habitat loss

  • Traffic congestion

  • Social isolation