Urbanization & Healthdepts.washington.edu/envir202/Lessons/Lesson05.pdf · Lesson 5: Urbanization &...

Lesson 5: Urbanization & Health January 13, 2006

ENVIR 202: Population & Health 1

ENVIR 202: Lesson 5 1

ENVIR 202: Lesson No. 5

Urbanization& Health

Gail SandlinGail SandlinUniversity of WashingtonUniversity of WashingtonProgram on the EnvironmentProgram on the Environment

January 13, 2006January 13, 2006


What is . . .

Urban?


Definitions

Countries differ in the way theyclassify population as "urban“

Density

Number of residents

Percent population not dependent onagriculture

Provision of public utilities and services




DefinitionsA listing of country definitions is publishedannually in the United NationsDemographic Yearbook.

Typically, a community or settlement with apopulation of 2,000 or more is consideredurban.

Urbanization:Growth in the proportion of a populationliving in urban areas.


Urbanization Trends

Industrialization

Global urbanization

Megacities

The Livable City


QualityBurdenEnvironmental

DiversityDeficitCultural

FreedomPersecutionPolitical

OpportunityHardshipEconomic

PullPush

Migration Factors




Early Pull Factor

“The air of cities makes you free”

17th Century German proverb

After one year and one day in the city

Legally released from feudal bonds andbecame freemen


Industrialization19th & 20th Centuries

In 1851, a boy born in inner Liverpool had a life expectancyof only 26 years, compared with a boy born in the smallmarket town…who could expect to live to 57.

London's 'Great Stink': The Sour Smell of Success By Professor Martin Daunton


Building Pattern –the Courtyard system

No means toremove sewageand refuse

So that the courts,alleys, and streetsserved as wastereceptacles




Fredrich Engels -1845

…In one of these courts there standsdirectly at the entrance a privywithout a door, so dirty thatinhabitants can pass into and out ofthat court only by passing throughfoul pools of urine and excrement.Below it on the river there areseveral tanneries which fill thewhole neighborhood with the stenchof animal putrefaction.


Urban DiseasesCholera and typhoid from pollutedwater

Typhus - spread by lice

'summer diarrhea' - flies feeding onhorse manure and human waste;contaminated food

Tuberculosis- leading cause of deathin 19th Century

Other respiratory diseases


Causes

Crowed and poor housing conditions

Poor sanitation infrastructure

Inadequate drinking water

Inadequate hygiene

Child labor

Undeserving poor




Miasmas to Germ Theory

A belief that diseases were the resultof “bad air” or directly related tofoul odor

The discovery that diseases may becaused by microorganisms


Early Sanitary Reforms

Launchesmodern publichealth

The field ofurban planning

Edwin Chadwick


“Typhoid Fever City”




Chicago1891, typhoid death at1,997

death rate 174 per100,000 persons

exceeded typhoid deathsof any other city

water polluted byhuman waste, tanneries,glue factories, animalcarcasses from the ChicagoStock Yard

Columbian ExpositionShould we drink thewater?


Chicago Sanitary DistrictOne of the firstregional authorities inthe country

1892

Sanitary & Ship Canal


Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893




Columbian ExpositionCourt of Honor, 1893


The City Beautiful MovementEarly 20th Century

To remove social ills of the city

The beautiful city would inspire civic loyaltyand moral rectitude of the impoverished

American cities brought at par withEuropean cities

Haussmann’s Paris

Nash’s London

A more inviting city would bring the upperclasses back to work and shop


Washington, D.C. 1901




The Garden CityEbenezer Howard

1850-1928

The UtopianVillage

Letchworth, 1903






Urban ParksFrederick Law Olmstead

1803-1922

father of landscapearchitecture

The Urban Park

The lungs of the city

“ to supply to the hundreds

of thousands of tiredworkers, who have noopportunity to spend their

summers in the country, aspecimen of God’shandiwork…”


The Zoning SystemThe use of public regulatory power (police power)to specify how private land may be developedand used

Nuisance control and public safety

Upheld by the Supreme Court in 1926 (Euclidean)


Donora Incident - 1948

Temperature inversion trappedfumes from smelter smokestacks atstreet level for 4 days

20 deaths; 6000 sick




Great London Smog - 1952Dr. H.A. des Vœux

1905- Meeting of thePublic Health Congress

“it required no

science to see thatthere was somethingproduced in great

cities which was notfound in the country,and that was smoky

fog, or …‘smog.’”


Bhopal, India -198436 metric tons of highlytoxic methyl isocyanategas released

>500,000 exposed;20,000 died

many of them squattersliving near the plant


Jilin, China- 2005

100 tons ofbenzene andnitrobenzenereleased into river

90% of 3.8 millionresidents ofHarbin rely onriver for drinkingwater




The 21st CenturyGlobal Urbanization


Megacities > 10 million


Population HealthScale of Impact

Global pandemics

Avian Flu

HIV

Urban air pollution

Urban slums

Water quality

Food Security




Air Quality


Urban SlumsIt is expected that by 2020, 85% of the poor in LatinAmerica, and about 40-45% of the poor in Africa and Asiawill be concentrated in towns and cities

Consequence of migration and rapid urbanization wherepeople need to find adequate ways to secure food andincome


The Livable City

Europe South America




Questions


Suggested Readings

Cities of Tomorrow, E. Howard 1902http://www.library.cornell.edu/Reps/DOCS/howard.htm

Land Use & Society, R. Platt, 1996

The Monster at Our Door: The GlobalThreat of Avian Flu, Mike Davis,2005


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