ABSTRACT
The city represented in Figure 15.1 was originally built on a river floodplain close to agriculture, water supply, and transportation (a typical landscape position for urban areas). As the city grew, the air increasingly warmed
BOX 15.1 The Second Wave of Urbanization (from United Nations Population Fund 2007)
The huge increase in urban population in poorer countries is part of a “second wave” of demographic, economic, and urban transitions that is much bigger and much faster than the first. The first wave of modern transitions began in Europe and North America in the early eighteenth century. In the course of two centuries (1750-1950), these regions experienced the first demographic transition, the first industrialization, and the first wave of urbanization. This produced the new urban industrial societies that now dominate the world. The process was comparatively gradual and involved a few hundred million people.
