Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyGCSE urban issues and challenges30 min★★★ difficulty

Urbanisation and a major city in a lower-income country

More than half the world lives in cities, and almost all future growth is in lower and middle-income countries. This lesson explains why, and what it means on the ground.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Explain global urbanisation, opportunities and challenges in a major city, and sustainable urban living.

Key learning points

  • • Why cities grow
  • • Opportunities
  • • Challenges
  • • Urban planning that works

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 16 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

globalurbanisationopportunitieschallengessustainable

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 16 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 16

Watch first

Urbanisation and a major city in a lower-income country

An English teaching video on this topic from Global Mustard Network. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Explain global urbanisation, opportunities and challenges in a major city, and sustainable urban living.

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 16

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Why cities grow

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 16

Learn

Why cities grow

Two mechanisms: rural-urban migration, driven by push factors such as mechanisation, land pressure and rural poverty and pull factors such as jobs, services and perceived opportunity; and natural increase, because migrants are typically young adults, so birth rates in cities stay high.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 16

Learn

Opportunities

Cities concentrate work, healthcare, education, electricity, water and transport. Even informal settlements often offer better access to services than the countryside — which is precisely why people stay.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 16

Quick check

Which is a push factor for rural-urban migration?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 16

Quick check

Why does natural increase raise urban populations?

7

Reset break

Part 7 of 16

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 16

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Challenges

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 16

Learn

Challenges

Squatter settlements built without services, informal employment without protection, traffic congestion, air and water pollution, and waste disposal beyond the capacity of the authorities. Explain each as a consequence of growth outpacing planning, not as a moral failing.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 16

Learn

Urban planning that works

Site-and-service schemes, self-help housing with materials and secure tenure, and improvements led by residents tend to succeed because they build on what people are already doing. Wholesale clearance and rehousing schemes frequently fail because they remove people from their work.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 16

Quick check

Why do site-and-service schemes often succeed?

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Quick check

Part 12 of 16

Quick check

Informal settlements persist mainly because…

13

Explore the idea

Part 13 of 16

Worked example

Model answer: 'Explain why cities in lower-income countries are growing rapidly' (6 marks)

Rural-urban migration supplies much of the growth, as mechanisation of agriculture and pressure on farmland reduce rural incomes while cities appear to offer waged employment, healthcare and schooling. Because migrants are predominantly young adults of childbearing age, natural increase then compounds the effect: the urban birth rate stays high while improved access to clinics lowers infant mortality. Growth therefore accelerates from two directions at once, and because it outpaces the authorities' ability to provide housing and services, much of it takes the form of unplanned settlement.

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 16

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

15

Mastery quiz

Part 15 of 16

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Urbanisation and a major city in a lower-income country

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Which is a push factor for rural-urban migration?

  2. 2. Why does natural increase raise urban populations?

  3. 3. Why do site-and-service schemes often succeed?

  4. 4. Informal settlements persist mainly because…

16

Lesson round-up

Part 16 of 16

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
  2. Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
  3. Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

  • Case study notes

    Writing

    Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.

    Half a page

  • Explain answer

    Writing

    Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.

    8–10 sentences

  • Map or sketch

    Diagram

    Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.

    1 map with a key

  • Data work

    Working out

    Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.

    1 graph + 1 sentence

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 16 · Watch & discover

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