urbanization in rural and urban areas

Urbanization is a process that brings people from rural areas to urban areas and creates a large population agglomeration into towns and cities. This phenomena usually, and rapidly occurs when a country is developing. The chief cause of urbanization is the new economic opportunities it brings to people and governments. Nowadays, it is the fact that there are severe shortages of resources, required technology and higher education in the countryside or less developed areas. As a result, workers have a tendency to move to urban centers to cultivate their skills and approach real opportunities. Simultaneously, they will have the chance to afford better lives with higher standards, which are previously limited by the poverty in rural areas. In the addition, the subsequent shift from agricultural jobs to factory jobs made it more profitable for companies and enterprises to relocate their factories to large cities and this also leads to the rural-urban migration of people. Propitiously, urbanization brings societies with a number of beneficial impacts, if managed effectively with alacrity. With the rural - urban migration, productivity of towns or cities has had a dramatic growth due to an abundant source of manpower occupying in cities. To illustrate, in recent years urban productivity in Asia is more than 5 times that of its in rural areas. Undoubtedly there are loads of commercial opportunities with urbanization, resulting in more profits and more job vacancies, stimulating general prosperity of nations. Equally important, the higher standard of living associated with urbanization provides citizens with better food, education, housing, health care and other needed services. Urban sprawl generates revenues that subsidise infrastructure projects, curb traffic congestion and advance public health. Anticipatingly, urbanization has been promised to enhance life quality of city dwellers. However, urbanization has adverse effects on the society and prosperity of countries. Firstly, urbanization degrades the environment, according to conventional wisdom and there is a rise of the environmental issues which need to be solved urgently. Beside the air pollution that resulted from the released emissions, water contamination in cities is an alarming dilemma owing to harmful waste disposal. These kinds of pollution have exacerbated existing environmental sustainability problems and deteriorated the populace’s quality-of-life. Secondly, rapid housing construction leads to overcrowding and eventually to SLUMS, which experience major issues such as underprivileged life, poor sanitation, unemployment and high crime rates. Slums are squalid and overcrowded areas on urban streets or districts that inhabited by impoverished people and urbanization plays an important role in the shaping of inner-city slums. Mentally speaking, commuting in cities may be overwhelming and stressful for residents because of the traffic problems, the anxiety about future and it ironically contributes to an increase in mental health disorders despite the improvement in quality-of-life. Ultimately, urbanization is an inevitable part for every country. It is a testament to the strong prosperity of nations and simultaneously prompts countries to curtail the drawbacks to maintain sustainability for long-term development.