Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mrs. Grey, and I'm so excited that you've decided to join me to learn geography today.

Today's lesson is in our unit of cities, what are they like to live in? And the title of today's lesson is Challenges of Living in Cities.

By the end of the lesson today, you will be able to explain the challenges that people living in cities face.

There are some key words that we'll come across in today's lesson.

They are overcrowding, pollution, infrastructure, and informal settlement.

Overcrowding is too many people living in a small space.

Pollution is harmful substances in air, water, or sound.

Infrastructure, all the basic systems in a country, such as transport, networks and power supply and informal settlement is a district or urban area, created without official planning or support.

Often homes are self-built and infrastructure may not work well.

Today's lesson on challenges of living in cities is split into two learning cycles.

The first, why can living in cities be difficult for people? And the second, how does rapid urban growth create challenges? Let's take a look at that first learning cycle.

Why can living in cities be difficult for people? People living in cities face a number of challenges.

Those challenges are overcrowding, pollution, and a strain on infrastructure.

And we're gonna look at each one of those in turn.

Let's take a look at overcrowding.

Overcrowding means too many people living in a small space.

Look at that image there and how cramped and crowded all of those houses are together.

Overcrowding happens when land is expensive and limited.

People build homes together, often without planning.

Dharavi in Mumbai is a very overcrowded, informal district.

London is the most overcrowded UK city.

Overcrowding happens all over the world.

Quick check for us now, then.

Overcrowding happens when A, land is expensive and limited? B, land is expensive and plentiful? C, land is cheap and limited? So pause the video, write down your answer and then come back and let's see how you've got on.

Okay, how did you get on? Overcrowding happens when A, land is expensive and limited.

Did you get that? Well done.

Overcrowding has a real impact on quality of life.

Let's have a look at that.

Causes little privacy, little space, poor ventilation, a higher risk of disease, limited access to water, and increased fire risk.

So each of those different things can really impact quality of life.

If you are overcrowded, there's not gonna be very much privacy because there's so many people there.

Also, overcrowding is gonna mean that there's little space for each person because everyone's cramped together.

Poor ventilation, so not very much airflow through an area because of overcrowding.

A higher risk of disease.

So if somebody gets pooey, that's gonna spread to other people a lot quicker because of overcrowding.

Limited access to water.

So there's a lot more people needing that water, there's gonna be less access to it.

And increased fire risks.

Everything cramped together is gonna increase that risk of fire, and if a fire does start, it'll spread really quickly.

So some real problems that overcrowding can cause there.

Now we've looked at overcrowding.

Now we're gonna go on to pollution, which is another challenge of living in cities.

There are different types of pollution in cities.

We've got air pollution, water pollution, and noise pollution.

Now air pollution can be caused by traffic, factories and burning waste.

For example, Delhi, India readily ranks amongst the most polluted cities for air quality, due to car emissions and industrial activity.

What cause water pollution? Sewage, industrial waste dumped into rivers cause water pollution.

For example, Lagos in Nigeria.

So lack of proper sanitation, which means waste, is often released into open drains and lagoons.

Noise pollution is caused by constant traffic, construction, overcrowding.

For example, Jakarta in Indonesia.

Heavy traffic and high density living creates ongoing noise pollution all throughout the day.

Pollution in cities can lead to a range of health problems. Air pollution leads to a difficulty in breathing, which can cause asthma and lung disease.

Water pollution can lead to people drinking dirty water, which means that diseases, such as cholera, are spread.

Noise pollution can lead to poor sleep, which then can also need to increased stress.

So lots of health problems caused by pollution there.

Quick check for us now then.

What causes air pollution? Is it A, untreated sewage, industrial waste jumped into rivers? Is it B, constant traffic, construction, noisy neighbours? Or is it C, traffic, industrial processes and burning waste? We'll pause the video, write down your answer and then come back and let's see how you got on.

How did you get on? What causes air pollution? And the answer is, C, traffic, industrial processes and burning waste.

Did you get that right? Well done.

But what causes water pollution? Is it A, untreated sewage, industrial waste dumped into rivers? B, constant traffic, construction, noisy neighbours? Or C, traffic, industrial processes, burning waste? What causes water pollution? Pause the video, write down your answer and then come back and let's see how you got on.

What causes water pollution? How did you get on? It's A, untreated sewage, industrial waste dumped into rivers.

Did you get that right? Well done.

So we've looked at overcrowding and pollution.

Now let's take a look at strain on infrastructure.

Infrastructure can refer to all the basic systems in a country, such as transport networks and power supply.

When the population of a city grows rapidly, often the growth of services, such as electricity supply, is slower.

Alex says, "I would find it hard to live without electricity," and I can imagine that's the same for a lot of people.

Now a lack of infrastructure can cause problems. Not enough electricity can lead to frequent power cuts and limited access to power.

Overloaded power supply can lead to damage cables, fire risk and unreliable service.

Unsafe informal connections can lead to electric shocks, higher danger in poor areas.

So all of those different problems, a lack of those infrastructure can cause lots and lots of different problems, among those different issues with electricity and power supply can lead to some really serious problems. There's a check for us now then.

True or false, services grow at the same pace as population in cities.

Is that true or false? So pause the video, write down your answer and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, true or false? Services grow at the same pace as population in cities.

That's false.

When the population of a city grows rapidly, often the growth of services is slower.

In the 21st century, this is particularly the case in rapidly developing countries, where lots of people arrive into cities each year.

Did you get that right? Well done.

Okay, onto our first task of the lesson now then.

Look at the rows of key terms below.

In each row, which is the odd one out? Explain your choice to your partner.

So in row A, cities, overcrowding, housing, village.

In row B, pollution, recycling, water, air.

In row C, schools, hospitals, transport, museums. And row D, silence, roads, noise, construction.

So there's an odd one out in each of those rows.

You've got to figure out which one it is.

So pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? So in row A, the odd one out is village.

A village is usually quiet and spread out, unlike the crowded conditions described in cities.

In row B, the odd one out is recycling.

Recycling is a solution to environmental problems, not a type of pollution like air and water.

In row C, the odd one out is museums. Museums are cultural facilities, not essential public services under pressure from population growth.

And in row D, the odd one out is silence.

Silence is the opposite of the noise caused by busy roads and building work in cities.

How did you get on with that task? Did you get all of those right? Well done.

So we've had a look at our first learning cycle of why can living in cities be difficult for people? Now we're gonna go on to look at how does rapid urban growth create challenges? Rapid, unplanned urban growth leads to problems. More people in an area leads to more vehicles.

Old roads and weak public transport networks can't cope, which leads to traffic jams, delayed getting to work and school and increased air pollution.

So traffic can be a really, really big problem if urban growth happens really, really quick and it's unplanned.

Which of these are transport problems in cities? A, traffic jams? B, getting to school on time? C, air pollution? Pause the video, write down your answer and then come back and let's see how you got on.

How did you get on then? Which of these are transport problems in cities? It's traffic jams and air pollution.

Did you get that right? Well done.

Traffic congestion can have a big impact on daily life.

Let's have a look at what some of those impacts are.

Missed work, missed school, air pollution, increased stress, increased accidents and time lost in traffic delays.

Lots and lots of impacts there on people because of traffic congestion.

All of those negative things, people missing work and missing school, increased air pollution, increasing people's stress, those accidents and times lost in traffic delays, all having a really big impact on daily life of people.

The rapid growth of some cities in developing countries forces people to live in risky places.

Look at the image there of those houses next to that really dirty water.

Rapid in-migration means cities run out of space.

The poorest are left to the riskiest locations.

People build homes on steep slopes or flood zones.

Often, these settlements are informal with poor structure.

So the poorest of people there are forced to live in those really risky locations.

Really, really dangerous locations.

In Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, many people live in formal settlements called favelas.

These areas are overcrowded, poorly built and hard to reach.

You can see the image there of a favela in Rio.

Risks to the people living there include landslides during heavy rain.

So heavy rain can cause landslides or risk to the people who are living there.

Danger of poorly built homes collapsing.

Those homes might collapse.

Difficult for emergency services to access.

So some real problems there of living in some overcrowded areas that aren't built very well and are really difficult to reach.

Landslides and flooding are environmental hazards faced by the poorest people in overcrowded cities.

Landslides are caused by heavy rain, unstable steep slopes.

For example, we often get landslides into the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Flooding is another hazard that's caused by poor drainage and building on wetlands.

An example's often flooding in the UK in London.

A check for us now then.

What causes landslides? A, heavy rain? B, building on wetlands? C, poor drainage? D, unstable, steep slopes? So pause the video, write down your answer and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? What causes landslides? Heavy rain and unstable, steep slopes.

Did you get that right? Well done.

So onto our final task of the lesson now then.

How does rapid urban growth make life difficult for people who live there? Write a short paragraph to answer this question.

Use the words overcrowding, pollution, and infrastructure in your answer.

So how does rapid urban growth, an urban area, growing really quickly? How does that make life difficult for people that live there? So you need to write a short paragraph to answer that question.

Why a city in an urban area, growing quickly, makes life difficult for people living there? Make sure you include the words, overcrowding, pollution, and infrastructure.

And they're the things that we focused on and we've looked at in detail in today's lesson.

So if you include each of those and structure your answer by looking at each one of those in turn, then that's gonna help you create a really good answer.

So pause the video, read the question again.

Have a really good think and write down an answer to this question.

Okay, how did you get on with your paragraph? How does rapid urban growth make life difficult for people who live there? And this is what you may have written.

If cities expand rapidly, there may not be enough time, space and money for the government to create enough new housing.

This forces many of the poorest to build homes in unsafe places, such as steep slopes in Rio de Janeiro.

Overcrowding is a problem, and these areas are at risk of the landslides, especially during heavy rain.

At the same time, the increase in people and vehicles causes traffic congestion, which leads to longer journey times and air pollution that can make people ill.

Many cities in developing countries cannot build infrastructure, like power stations and networks fast enough to keep up with their expansion.

For residents, this means that power supply may be intermittent, affecting their businesses.

How did you get on with that task? Did you write in your paragraph? How much of that did you manage to include? Were you able to include the key words, overcrowding, pollution, and infrastructure? Well done.

So we're at the end of today's lesson on challenges of living in cities.

Let's have a look at what we've learned today.

The high cost of land can lead to overcrowding.

Pollution, air, water, noise is a major urban issue.

The growth of cities may be faster than the growth of services and the development of infrastructure.

Rapid, unplanned urban growth and traffic congestion, hampers life in many cities in lower income countries.

The poorest people may be vulnerable to environmental risks, due to the location of informal housing.

Thank you for joining me for today's geography lesson.

I've really enjoyed it and I hope you have too.

I look forward to seeing you next time.