Special Features of Urbanisation in Tropical Africa

1971 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-296
Author(s):  
A. Gavrilova

The attention of many Africanists is now absorbed by the extraordinary rate of social-demographic development in the countries of tropical Africa during recent decades, the rapid change of the demographic balance between town and country, and the intensive growth of towns. Africa is now ahead of all other continents in the rate of urban population growth, as indicated by Table I; this shows ten-year rates of growth in the total population of towns with over 20,000 inhabitants, for eight major regions and for the world as a whole. Africa is the only region whose rate of urban growth has accelerated from decade to decade since 1920; during 1950–60, she overtook Latin America, and her growth rate of 69 per cent was well above the world average.

Author(s):  
Fayez M. Elessawy

<p>The total population of Dubai has grown by 1000% over the last 40 years alone. In 1975 the total population was 183,000 inhabitances, which increased in 2015 to about 2 million. This increase makes Dubai population one of the fastest growing in the world. In a related context, the guest workers (immigrants) have profoundly contributed to this population growth since they constituted 91% of the total population. Dubai is a good example of a rapidly developing city. Until 1955 Dubai was characterized by its slow growing economy. Its population lived in traditional houses made of palm fronds with poor infrastructure. In 1957 Dubai municipality was established and the first master plan was formed which resulted into the appearance of a road system and anew town center in addition to the construction of new modern buildings made of concrete blocks. These buildings started to emerge at that time. Nevertheless, the urban growth continued a slow pace. From 1975 to present the urban area expanded enormously, the rapid development of the city transforms Dubai from a small regional business, financial and leisure hub into a global center. During the last two decades Dubai built up area expanded like never before, the economic growth accelerated and so did the investment level, more development projects were planned to support the urban growth. The total built up area increased from only 54 square Kms in 1975 to 977 square Kms in 2015, as Dubai increased (1700 % in only 38 years) that high percentage make Dubai one of the fastest growing cities in the world.</p><p><em>Key Words</em>: Dubai. Economic boom, Guest workers, Asians, Infrastructure, Built up area, global business hub</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Rana Sağıroğlu

Margaret Atwood, one of the most spectacular authors of postmodern movement, achieved to unite debatable and in demand critical points of 21st century such as science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism in the novel The Year of The Flood written in 2009. The novel could be regarded as an ecocritical manifesto and a dystopic mirror against today’s degenerated world, tending to a superficial base to keep the already order in use, by moving away from the fundamental solution of all humanity: nature. Although Atwood does not want her works to be called science fiction, it is obvious that science fiction plays an introductory role and gives the novel a ground explaining all ‘why’ questions of the novel. However, Atwood is not unjust while claiming that her works are not science fiction because of the inevitable rapid change of 21st century world becoming addicted to technology, especially Internet. It is easily observed by the reader that what she fictionalises throughout the novel is quite close to possibility, and the world may witness in the near future what she creates in the novel as science fiction. Additionally, postmodernism serves to the novel as the answerer of ‘how’ questions: How the world embraces pluralities, how heterogeneous social order is needed, and how impossible to run the world by dichotomies of patriarchal social order anymore. And lastly, ecocriticism gives the answers of ‘why’ questions of the novel: Why humanity is in chaos, why humanity has organized the world according to its own needs as if there were no living creatures apart from humanity. Therefore, The Year of The Flood meets the reader as a compact embodiment of science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism not only with its theme, but also with its narrative techniques.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Vesa Kilpi ◽  
Tomi Solakivi ◽  
Tuomas Kiiski

AbstractShipping plays an important role in the world, transporting over 80% of international trade and employing over 1.5 million seafarers. The maritime industry, including shipbuilding and equipment manufacturing, is extensive. Both of these interconnected businesses are facing rapid change caused by increasingly speedy technological development and the tightening of environmental regulation. This survey-based research analyzes the current and future competence needs of firms operating in maritime logistics and the maritime industry. The findings indicate that in both contexts, the increasing importance of various general competences is understood and the need is recognized in particular to improve those related to environmental regulation as well as technology and automation. Overall, the gap between current and desired levels of competence is expected to widen. In terms of education, this is likely to affect vocational training and university-level learning differently in that functional competences are emphasized more in the former and social and meta-competences in the latter.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 5954
Author(s):  
Juste Raimbault ◽  
Eric Denis ◽  
Denise Pumain

Cities are facing many sustainability issues in the context of the current global interdependency characterized by an economic uncertainty coupled to climate changes, which challenge their local policies aiming to better conciliate reasonable growth with livable urban environment. The urban dynamic models developed by the so-called “urban science” can provide a useful foundation for more sustainable urban policies. It implies that their proposals have been validated by correct observations of the diversity of situations in the world. However, international comparisons of the evolution of cities often produce unclear results because national territorial frameworks are not always in strict correspondence with the dynamics of urban systems. We propose to provide various compositions of systems of cities in order to better take into account the dynamic networking of cities that go beyond regional and national territorial boundaries. Different models conceived for explaining city size and urban growth distributions enable the establishing of a correspondence between urban trajectories when observed at the level of cities and systems of cities. We test the validity and representativeness of several dynamic models of complex urban systems and their variations across regions of the world, at the macroscopic scale of systems of cities. The originality of the approach resides in the way it considers spatial interaction and evolutionary path dependence as major features in the general behavior of urban entities. The models studied include diverse and complementary processes, such as economic exchanges, diffusion of innovations, and physical network flows. Complex systems dynamics is in principle unpredictable, but contextualizing it regarding demographic, income, and resource components may help in minimizing the forecasting errors. We use, among others, a new unique source correlating population and built-up footprint at world scale: the Global Human Settlement built-up areas (GHS-BU). Following the methodology and results already obtained in the European GeoDiverCity project, including USA, Europe, and BRICS countries, we complete them with this new dataset at world scale and different models. This research helps in further empirical testing of the hypotheses of the evolutionary theory of urban systems and partially revising them. We also suggest research directions towards the coupling of these models into a multi-scale model of urban growth.


1982 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald C. Newton

Between 1933 and the end of World War II, Argentina became the home of some 43,000 Jewish refugees from Nazism, almost all of them of German, Austrian, or West European origin. Measured against the country's total population, 13 million in 1931, 16 million according to the 1947 census, Argentina received more Jewish refugees per capita than any other country in the world except Palestine (Wasserstein, 1979: 7,45). This did not occur by design of the Argentine government; on the contrary, its immigration policies became interestingly restrictive as the years of the world crisis wore on.In practice, however, Argentina was unable to patrol effectively its long borders with the neighboring republics of Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, and Uruguay. The overseas consuls of these nations, especially the first three, did a brisk and lucrative trade in visas and entry permits for persons desperate to escape the Nazi terror.


2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 507-514
Author(s):  
Ivan Vuković

In this paper we researched European Union starting with the Agreement from Maastrich from year 1992, even though the European Union has a long traditional history and its origin is founded on regulations of economical integrations in Europe beginning from the 1950’s through the Roman treaty from year 1957 and the forming of the European Union Committee in year 1965. Further we follow her expansion and introduction of the European economic and monetary policy, to last, the joining perspective of Croatia. According to the Agreement from Maastrich, European Union lies on three posts: 1) Legal-political and regulative post, 2) Economical post, where the forming of European economical and monetary policy is in the first plan, especially the introducing of Euro as the unique European currency, 3) Post of Mutual foreign security policy within European Union. In that context we need to highlight the research conducted here and in European Union, including the world, regarding development of European Union and its economical, legal, political and cultural, as well as foreign diplomatic results, which are all perspectives of European Union. All the scientists and researches which were involved in exploring the development of EU with its modern tendencies and development perspective, agree that extraordinary results are achieved regards to economical, legal, political, foreign-security and diplomatic views, even tough many repercussions exist in progress of some particular members and within the EU as a whole. The biggest controversy arises in the perspective and expanding of European Union regarding ratification of the Constitution of EU from particular country members, but especially after the referendum was refused from two European countries, France and Netherlands. According to some estimates, the Constitution of EU would have difficulty to be adopted in Switzerland and some other Scandinavian countries, but also in Great Britain and other very developed countries. However the European Community and European Union were developing and expanding towards third European countries, regardless of Constitutional non-existence, where we can assume that if and when the Constitution of EU will be ratified, the EU will further develop as one of the most modern communities. This will enable economical development, especially development of European business, unique European market and free trade of goods and services, market of financial capital and labour market in free movement of labour. Being that EU has become one of the most largest dominating markets in the world, it offers a possibility to all new members to divide labour by using modern knowledge and high technology which insure economical, social and political prosperity. This results to forming a society of European countries which will guarantee all rights and freedom of development for all nations and ethnic groups. As well as, all European countries with somewhat less sovereignty, but in international relations will be stronger and significant, not only in sense of economics, but also in politics and military diplomatic relations. Therefore, Croatia has no choice and perspective if she does not join the European Union till year 2010, but until than it needs to create its strategy of economical and scientific-technological development, including demographic development, which will insure equal progress of Croatia as an equal member of European Union.


Author(s):  
Ibrahim Faruk Gaya ◽  
Mu’azu Audu Zanuwa ◽  
Kamaludeen Adamu Muhammad ◽  
Mashkurah Ahmed Usman ◽  
Shehu Muhammad

Urban growth concept has dragged the attention of several scholars of different fields of study for decades. Urban growth refers to expansion of urban centres in size due population growth, which hiked the number of buildings in urban centres around the world. The finding of the paper indicate that Gombe Metropolis expanded by (85 hectares) each year from 2000 to 2010 and the expansion of Gombe Metropolis occur in all direction. The rate at which Gombe Metropolis expand grown to (203 hectares) each year from 2010 up to date. Therefore, the rate at which Gombe metropolis expanded increases by 138% from 2010 to date and how number of markets increases to 16 currently from 12 in the year 2010. This paper study the Impact of urban growth on market in Gombe Metropolis. Coordinate of markets of existing markets was collected. For second set of data used in this paper i.e. secondary data which include map of Gombe metropolis, related journals, text books, published and unpublished document, and Newspaper were consulted. The data generated from questionnaire administration were analysed using tables, graphs and charts. Satellite images showing how urban growth is taken place in Gombe Metropolis were also analysed. The study examines the impact of urban growth on Gombe Metropolis markets activities over the period of study. The findings of the study indicate emergence of new markets in the study area over the years of study as a result of urban expansion that occur in Gombe Metropolis. It also indicated that the new established markets were located in areas where urban growth take place in study area and these new markets are patronized by people within the environment or vicinity of the markets. Most of the newly emerged markets are located at the periphery of the town where urban expansions occur rapidly.


Rodriguésia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 961-972 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Michel Onana

Abstract Biodiverse Cameroon has been highlighted as the top country in tropical Africa for plant species diversity per degree square, with a higher diversity than all other West African countries added together, and including two of the top documented centres of plant diversity in Tropical Africa. Despite its reduced taxonomic capacity, with only six active taxonomists a high level of botanical activity in the country has resulted in accomplishments such as the databasing of the YA Herbarium (over 60,000 records), which has an in-country collection coverage of almost 95% of the known plant species that are recorded for Cameroon. Other accomplishments are the Red Data Book of the Flowering Plants of Cameroon, several local checklists and published volumes of the Flore du Cameroun which covers 37% of the country's species. Currently the checklist of Cameroon records 7,850 taxa at species and infraspecific level. Resources are needed to support and heighten the profile of this small botanical community. Already thanks to strong collaboration between Cameroon and renowned botanical institutes of others countries, in particular France and United Kingdom, one hundred and thirteen plant families have been published and would help this country to complete the recording of its biodiversity towards contributing to the World Flora Online 2020 project.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document