Urbanism is the new way of life. Our world is turning into a big urban realm. The first urban settlements are thought to have started around 3500 BC in lower Mesopotamia  around the Tigris and Euphrates. First was Ur, which from 2300 BC to 2180 BC was the capital city of the Sumerian Kingdom, extending north along the Fertile Crescent, possibly as far as the Mediterranean. Diversification of economy led to growth of cities.

Since then cities continue to grow because people believe that the benefits of urban life outweigh the liabilities associated with living in a densely populated place. Cities grow so fast because they are efficient. They grow layer by layer. Clearly, the primary benefit of clustering populations is the efficiencies gained by serving a large economic market concentrated in a relatively small area. When businesses serve large numbers of people clustered in a relatively small area, they are able to achieve advantageous economies of scale. They also get benefit of agglomeration. In Contrast, when businesses must accommodate a much larger service area in order to achieve a minimum demand threshold, they incur greater operational transportation costs.

In addition to making it easier to achieve positive economies of scales, urban areas provide markets that are large enough to encourage and justify specialization. Generally, the level of specialization in an area is a function of the size of the market.

For cities to function, they must have internal and external linkages (streets, roads, docks, highways, telephone and internet service, and public transportation facilities) that allow for an efficient flow of goods, services, and information. Internal infrastructure of city and road design play an important role in safety in city. Normally larger cities accommodate larger complexes of specialized activities. Sometimes, cities grow at a rate that overwhelms their transportation/communication systems. In such circumstances, city officials must dedicate resources to improving connectivity and accessibility or accept the limits imposed by an obsolete circulation system. This is often a particularly vexing problem in older large urban centers such as London or Amsterdam where ancient transportation networks and infrastructure cannot efficiently handle the demands of growing populations and markets. Therefore, the more efficient the communication system, the more likely it is that an urban area will grow.

The layout of cities evolved development of transport. The land-use of the city change with changing layout.It changed with the changing mode of transport.

Despite the capability of cyber-space technology to reduce the importance of distance, it is still necessary for people to travel to urban centers for extremely specialized products and services. City layout is often a result of distribution of services and availability of goods as evident by city layout theories such as Concentric Zone Model of Burgess. Von Thunen based his model on transportation cost. The city can develop around many nuclei as shown in multiple nuclei model.Many who live in relatively isolated places are able to make on-line purchases that bring most of the necessities of life to their doorsteps, in order to undergo major surgery, they normally must travel to an urban medical center. Additionally, although airline tickets can now be purchased online, travelers must go to a central airport to catch a flight. Of course these are only two examples of the many essential functions of urban places. Therefore, distance still matters.

Furthermore, even though people can order much of what they need by telephone or by way of the internet, resources, labor, capital and management must come together in order to manufacture, package, and process consumer products.

One aspect is of city coming to villages by diversification, by sprawl or more naturally by urban expansion.Today the possibility of the migrant’s return to the old village should be whole heartedly discouraged . No one should be allowed to live a life that is an annual contribution to the national statistics on starvation, infant mortality, disease , and suicide. But the possibility of never leaving a village that is transforming into a new town raises the prospects of a better life. It is a task wholly imaginative and without the prescription of tested models. Cities designed explicitly for the rural areas is not just a good idea for the poor, but can act as a game changer for the self-centered ugliness created in the metros by the middle-class.

Source(s):

E Education 

Wikipedia