Urbanization
Due to the primitive and relatively stagnant state of agriculture throughout this period, the ratio of rural to urban population remained at a fixed equilibrium.
Living in a city can be culturally and economically beneficial since it can provide greater opportunities for access to the labour market, better education, housing, and safety conditions, and reduce the time and expense of commuting and transportation.
[citation needed] Suburbanization, which is happening in the cities of the largest developing countries, may be regarded as an attempt to balance these harmful aspects of urban life while still allowing access to the large extent of shared resources.
Many people move into cities for economic opportunities, but this does not fully explain the very high recent urbanization rates in places like China and India.
In a New York Times article concerning the acute migration away from farming in Thailand, life as a farmer was described as "hot and exhausting".
[24] City life, especially in modern urban slums of the developing world, is certainly hardly immune to pestilence or climatic disturbances such as floods, yet continues to strongly attract migrants.
In the United States, industrialization of agriculture has negatively affected the economy of small and middle-sized farms and strongly reduced the size of the rural labour market.
In China, where land acquisition measures are forceful, there has been far more extensive and rapid urbanization (54%) than in India (36%), where peasants form militant groups (e.g. Naxalites) to oppose such efforts.
However, women are sometimes still at a disadvantage due to their unequal position in the labour market, their inability to secure assets independently from male relatives and exposure to violence.
For example, Eric Hobsbawm's book The age of revolution: 1789–1848 (published 1962 and 2005) chapter 11, stated "Urban development in our period was a gigantic process of class segregation, which pushed the new labouring poor into great morasses of misery outside the centres of government, business, and the newly specialized residential areas of the bourgeoisie.
Yet, a growing increase for addressing other areas of life cycle consumption has occurred from initial stage reduction to heat recovery and recycling of materials.
In instances of housing and building development, many times vegetation is completely removed immediately in order to make it easier and less expensive for construction to occur, thereby obliterating any native species in that area.
However, residents in poor urban areas such as slums and informal settlements suffer "disproportionately from disease, injury, premature death, and the combination of ill-health and poverty entrenches disadvantage over time.
"[26] Many of the urban poor have difficulty accessing health services due to their inability to pay for them; so they resort to less qualified and unregulated providers.
[citation needed] While urbanization is associated with improvements in public hygiene, sanitation and access to health care, it also entails changes in occupational, dietary, and exercise patterns.
[77] Traditionally, rural populations have tended to eat plant-based diets rich in grains, fruits and vegetables, and with low fat content.
However, rural people migrating to urban areas often shift towards diets that rely more on processed foods characterized by a higher content of meat, sugars, refined grains and fats.
[81] Poor access to healthy food and high intakes of fat, sugar and salt are associated with a greater risk for obesity, diabetes and related chronic disease.
[81] One study on food deserts in Denver, Colorado found that, in addition to minorities, the affected neighbourhoods also had a high proportion of children and new births.
Researchers suggest that this difference in hazard ratios is due to the higher levels of air pollution and exposure to environmental allergens found in urban areas.
[89] Exposure to elevated levels of ambient air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5), can cause DNA methylation of CpG sites in immune cells, which increases children's risk of developing asthma.
[97] Barriers such as geographic isolation, busy and unsafe roads, and social stigmas lead to decreased physical activity in rural environments.
[95] Neighbourhoods and communities with nearby fitness venues, a common feature of urbanization, have residents that partake in increased amounts of physical activity.
[99] In a study comparing different regions in the United States, opinions across all areas were shared that environmental characteristics like access to sidewalks, safe roads, recreational facilities, and enjoyable scenery are positively associated with participation in leisure physical activity.
[99] Specific to rural residents, the safety of outdoor developed spaces and convenient availability to recreational facilities matters most when making decisions on increasing physical activity.
[102] A 2004 study of 4.4 million Swedish residents found that people who live in cities have a 20% increased chance of developing depression[need quotation to verify].
In cities of the developed world urbanization traditionally exhibited a concentration of human activities and settlements around the downtown area, the so-called in-migration.
In some developed regions, the reverse effect, originally called counter urbanization has occurred, with cities losing population to rural areas, and is particularly common for richer families.
According to research by the Overseas Development Institute pro-poor urbanization will require labour-intensive growth, supported by labour protection, flexible land use regulation and investments in basic services.
[109] Smart Growth and New Urbanism's principles include walkability, mixed-use development, comfortable high-density design, land conservation, social equity, and economic diversity.
