CITIES IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

The United States urban models are the cities of AFRICA, ASIA and LATIN AMERICA. Industrialization has come to them
only recently, modern technologies in transportation and public facilities are sparsely available, and the structures of cities and the
cultures of their inhabitants and far different from the urban world familiar to North Americans. The developing world is vast in
extent, and diverse in physical and social content. For example, Islamic cities of North America are sharply distinct from the sub-
Saharan African, the Southeast Asian, or the Latin American city.

Some common features of the cities in the developing world are recognizable. For example, have endured massive in-
migrations from rural areas. As a result, most are ringed by vast squatter settlement high in density and low in public facilities and
services. All, apparently, have populations greater than their formal functions and employment bases can support. In all, large
numbers support themselves in the “informal” sector-as snack-food vendors, peddlers of cigarettes or trinkets, street-side
barbers or tailors, errand runners or package carrier, and the like outside the usual forms of wage labor.

Downtown Nairobi Kenya, is a busy, modern urban core complete with a high-rise commercial buildings.

There are certain characteristics features of cities in different parts of the developing world. Many are the product of
Western colonialism, established as ports or outposts of administration and exploitation, built by Europeans on the Western model.
Urban structure in those cities is a function of the role the city plays in their own cultural milieu. Cities may be religious centers
(Mecca in Saudi Arabia and Varanasi in India are examples), traditional markets centers for a wide area (Timbuktu in
Mali and Lahore in Pakistan), and cultural capitals (Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Cuzco in Peru).

Wherever the automobile or modern transport systems are an integral part of the growth of cities in the developing world,
the metropolis begins to take on Western characteristics. In places like Bombay (India), Lagos (Nigeria), Jakarta (Indonesia) and
Bangkok (Thailand), where the public transport system is limited, the result has been overcrowded cities centered on a single
major business district on the old tradition. The developing countries, emerging from formerly dominant subsistence economics
have experienced dis proportionate population concentrations, particularly in their national and regional capital. The Primate City
dominates their urban systems. More than a quarter of all nearly one-third of the populace of Gabon. Vast numbers of surplus,
low-income rural populations now depend on these developed seats of wealth and political centrality in the hope of findings a job.

Additional:

 Globally, Guangzhou in China had the largest population growth (in absolute terms), growing by 3.3 million between 2000
and 2010. It was followed by Karachi in Pakistan (3.1 million increase) and Delhi (2.9 million increase). The ten cities with
the largest population increments between 2000 and 2010 were all located in Asia and Africa;
 According to UN figures, 324 global cities with a population of over 750,000 registered rapid growth of more than 20.0%
between 2000 and 2010. The fastest-growing city was Abuja in Nigeria (139.7% increase) followed by the Yemenite cities
al-Hudayda (108.1% increase) and Ta’izz (94.0%). Of the 324 fastest-growing cities, 53.1% were located in Asia Pacific,
24.4% in Africa and the Middle East, 16.0% in Latin America and the remaining 6.5% in North America, Australasia and
Western Europe;
  Of the world’s 324 fastest-growing cities between 2000 and 2010, 84 were in China. Of the world’s regions, Asia Pacific had
the largest growth of urban population between 2000 and 2010, with an increase of 378 million;
 Africa, the world’s least urbanised continent, is also the one with the fastest rate of urbanisation. The average annual rate of
urban population growth in the Middle East and Africa between 2000 and 2010 stood at 3.3%, compared to 2.7% in Asia
Pacific, 1.7% in Latin America, 1.3% in North America, 0.9% in Western Europe and -0.1% in Eastern Europe;
 Latin America’s urban population grew by 18.9% between 2000 and 2010, and there were considerable differences between
countries with slow urban growth such as Argentina (11.4% increase), and countries with fast-growing urban populations
such as Guatemala (40.3%).

THE LATIN AMERICAN CITY

“City life” is the cultural norm in Latin America. The vast majority of the residents of Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina,
Chile and other countries live in the cities and very often in the primate city. The urbanization process is rapidly making Latin cities
among the largest in the world. Analyst predicts that by year of 2010, six of the largest 28 cities will be in Latin America, with
Mexico City and san Paulo being the second and sixth largest cities respectively. The entire transportation system focuses on the
downtown, where the vast majority of jobs are found. The city centers are lively and modern, with many tall office buildings, clubs,
restaurants and stores of every variety. Condominium, apartments house the well-to-do who prefer living in the center because of
the convenience to workplaces, theater, museums, friends, specially shops and restaurant.

Building along the PASEO DE LA REFORMA IN MEXICO CITY

A diagrammatic representation of the Latin American City

Two features of the pattern worth noting:

1. Spine – which is a continuation of the features of the CBD outward along the main wide of boulevard.
2. Concentrix ring around the center - housing ever poorer people as distance increases from the center.

This social patterning is just the opposite of many American cities. The slums (barrios, favelas) are on the outskirts of the
city. In rapidly growing, like Mexico City, the barrios are found in the furthest concentric ring, which is several kilometers wide.
Many people within these areas eke out a living by selling goods and services to other slum-dwellers. Once Latin residents establish
themselves in the city they tend to remain at their original site, and as income permits they improve their homes.

When times are good, there is a great deal of house repair and upgrading activity. Those in the city for the longest time are
generally the most prosperous. As the result, the quality of housing continually improves inward toward the city center. The homes
closest to the center are substantial and need little upgrading, but farther out where slums were once in evidence, one now finds
modest houses with new additions being built or planned.

Latin cities have been economically depressed. This has increased the number of homeless people, many of whom resort to
begging or stealing. The cities are now marred by this social phenomenon. In Brazil, thousands of abandoned street children from
into gangs for criminal purposes and survival, for examples some cities of Columbia and Peru, drug dealing has become the main
economic activity.

THE URBAN LANDSCAPE

Latin American cities look very similar. They are all highly unequal and contain wide extremes of poverty and affluence.
Urban sprawl has produced almost identical suburbs, so that it is difficult to tell either the shanty towns or the high-income
residential areas in one city from those in another. The ubiquitous bootblack, street vendor and beggar frequent the central streets
of every major city along with elegantly dressed business people and government workers. Traffic congestion, skyscrapers and
street children are found everywhere.

THE GROWTH OF THE LATIN AMERICAN CITY

The Latin American city is very old. The Aztecs, Mayas and Incas had all created impressive urban forms as much as a
thousand years before the Iberian invasions of the sixteenth century. The remains of Cuzco in Peru, Tiahuanuco in Bolivia and
Monte Albán, Tenochtitlán, Teotihuacán and Xochicalco in Mexico are eloquent testimony to the presence of urban civilizations well
before the arrival of Europeans.
 THE ASIAN AND AFRICAN CITY

Many large cities of Asia and Africa were founded and developed by European colonists. For example, the British built
Calcutta, madras, New Delhi, and Bombay, in India and Nairobi and Harare in Africa; and the French developed Ho Chi Minh City
(Saigon) in Vietnam, Dakar in Senegal, and Bangui in the Central African Republic. The Dutch had, as their main outpost, Jakarta in
Indonesia, and many colonial countries established Shanghai. They stand in marked contrast to the North American and European
cities and have much in common with Latin American cities, in that large areas on the periphery of the city contain slum housing.

The main differences between Asian and African cities and their Latin American counterparts is the colonial imprint from
another culture. The British usually built a fort by the water surrounding it by a large green space to protect the fort from enemies.

A diagrammatic representation of the colonial-based South Asian City

The city proper developed around the fort. A large section was given over to administrative headquarters of the occupying army
and to trading agencies. The CBD was commercially divided into parts that served the Europeans and local residents. A European
city and indigenous city developed side by side.

The European City

Almost all of the world’s biggest cities will be in Asia and Africa by 2030

Tokyo is the undisputed champion of mega-cities. With a population of 37.8 million, it dwarfs second-place Delhi.
The Japanese capital has such a big lead in population that even though it’s expected to lose about half a million people over the
next 16 years, it will still be the world’s biggest metropolis in 2030, according to a new report by the United Nations:

Why is the balance shifting so radically? Mostly because the rest of the world is already highly urbanized, while Africa and Asia still
have a long way to go:

Africa and Asia are home to nearly 90% of the world’s remaining rural population, the UN report notes. India has
the most rural dwellers, with 857 million, followed by China’s 635 million. But those people are steadily moving into cities, and in
the process tilting the percentage of the world’s population that lives in urban areas:
 Commission on Higher Education
CALABANGA COMMUTY COLLEGE
Brgy. Belen Site, Calabanga Camarines Sur

URBAN GEOGRAPHY
COMPILATION OF REPORTS

Submitted by:

MARIA CRISTINA S. IMPORTANTE

Submitted to:

LOPE ESPIRITU JR.