Characteristics of Urbanization Effects due to Recent Urban Population Changes in South Korea

During the past 30 years migration trends in most European countries have revealed some signs of deconcentration. The aim of this paper is to analyse the reasons of such deconcentration. For that purpose we will give an overview of literature on reasons of migration turnaround and provide a deeper case analysis of one country - Estonia. In Estonia internal migration ? rst turned in favour of rural areas in 1983. The trends of deconcentration continued and rural population increased at the expense of urban population at least until the end of the 1990s. The Retrospective Estonian Living Conditions Survey of 1999 is used to analyze the possible changes in reasons for migration turnaround. That survey provides a unique opportunity for comparing reasons of migration during periods of concentration and deconcentration. In the empirical part of this paper deconcentration will be de? ned as an out? ow of population from administrative town borders into rural areas. We will not distinguish between particular types of deconcentration for practical reasons of data limitation. We are particularly interested in migration because migration seems to be the most important factor contributing to quick population changes.

Download Full-text

Spatial differentiation of urban population change in Russia

Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series ◽

10.1515/bog-2017-0040 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (38) ◽

pp. 143-162

Author(s):

Rafał Wiśniewski

Keyword(s):

Catchment Area ◽

Urban Population ◽

Population Change ◽

Spatial Differentiation ◽

Population Changes ◽

The City ◽

Moscow Population

AbstractThe demographic transformations in Russia have led to changes in the country’s urban population (population of cities and urban-type settlements), which declined by 3.3% in the years 1989-2010. However, the population of cities as such increased over the same period by 1.5%, mainly as a result of the huge growth in the population of Moscow. Population changes in Russian cities vary depending on the size of the city. The greatest change was observed, above all, in small peripheral cities, which lost as much as half of their population. However, even more alarming are the trends observed in the smaller cities of the historical heart of Russia, which fall within the catchment area of Moscow (and its aglomeration) and cities of supraregional importance. Such cities have been depopulating as fast as Siberian cities.

Download Full-text

Facemasks: A Looming Microplastic Crisis

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18137068 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (13) ◽

pp. 7068

Author(s):

Janith Dissanayake ◽

Cecilia Torres-Quiroz ◽

Jyoti Mahato ◽

Junboum Park

Keyword(s):

South Korea ◽

Urban Population ◽

Preventive Measure ◽

Single Use ◽

Preliminary Study ◽

Agitation Time

Single-use disposable facemasks have been used as a preventive measure against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, many researchers have found evidence that these facemasks are being dumped into lakes, rivers, and open garbage dumps. Facemasks have the potential of releasing microplastic fibers into the environment; a phenomenon that has been poorly investigated. Moreover, microplastic fibers composed of plastics have the potential of affecting the flora and fauna of many ecosystems. In this preliminary study, we investigate how many microplastic fibers had been released to the water by KF-AD, KF94, surgical, and FFP1 standard facemasks, which are the most widely available facemask standards in South Korea. The waterbody in our research was mechanically agitated for 24, 48, and 72 h. Findings showed that most of the layers of facemasks are composed of polypropylene. The surgical and KF94 standard facemasks released the highest number of microplastic fibers. Furthermore, under our research conditions, a single facemask can release at least 47 microplastic fibers per day (e.g., KF-AD standard mask), which can lead to the release of at least 1381 million microplastic fibers per day in total in South Korea if 70% of the urban population uses a single mask every day. Moreover, the released microplastic fibers significantly increased when the agitation time extended from 24 to 48 h. This finding suggests that the number of released microplastic fibers is likely to increase drastically.

Download Full-text

CHANGES IN SEX RATIO AT BIRTH IN CHINA: A DECOMPOSITION BY BIRTH ORDER

Journal of Biosocial Science ◽

10.1017/s0021932016000547 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 49 (6) ◽

pp. 826-841 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Quanbao Jiang ◽

Qun Yu ◽

Shucai Yang ◽

Jesús J. Sánchez-Barricarte

Keyword(s):

Sex Ratio ◽

South Korea ◽

Birth Order ◽

Rural Population ◽

Urban Population ◽

Total Effect ◽

Sex Ratio At Birth ◽

Compositional Change ◽

Slight Rise

SummaryThe long-term high sex ratio at birth (SRB) is a serious issue in China. In this study, changes in SRB were decomposed into variations in SRB by birth order and compositional changes in female births by birth order. With SRB data from China’s surveys and censuses, and SRB data from South Korea’s vital registration and censuses from 1980–2015, the trend and decomposition results in SRB were compared between China and South Korea, and the decomposition results for urban and rural SRBs, and for provinces, are presented. In both China and South Korea the rise in the SRB was driven by a rise in the SRB at all birth orders, which was only partly counteracted by the change in the distribution of births by order. The overall rise in the SRB ended when there was a decline in the SRB at second birth or above in South Korea. In China the total effect of variations in SRB of all birth orders increased more for the rural population than for the urban population before 2000, resulting in a higher total SRB for rural than urban population. After 2000, the total effect of variations in SRB of all birth orders lowered the total SRB for the rural population, whereas the effect of compositional change increased the total SRB, leading to a very slight rise in the total SRB for the rural population. At the province level, there was no spatial autocorrelation for the changes in total SRB by province, the total effect of variations in SRB of all birth orders or the effect of compositional change. The effect of variations in SRB by birth order accounted for the majority of changes in total SRB in most provinces.

Download Full-text