Regional Planning

Answer : Vital statistics include aspects like age structure of a population, literacy level, life expectancy, health indicators, birth rate, and maternal mortality rate, total fertility rate, sex ratio, etc. These statistics can be clubbed broadly as

• Economic statistics
• Population statistics
• Health statistics
• Social statistics and so on.

These are necessary in development planning. For example, Age structure of the population directly affects the distribution of resources available for development activities in a country.

If a country has a greater population of young ....

• Regional synthesis attempts integration of human and physical geography within a region. It is not a new concept in geography. During the ancient period, it was calledchorology.
• Professor Vidal de La Blache gave it the name ‘Pays’.
• The real definition of regional synthesis was given by ‘Hartshorne’ in his book ‘The nature of geography’ published in 1939.
• According to him, geography deals with providing an accurate and rationaldiscretion and interpretation of changing face of the earth.
• There is superimposition of topography, climate, natural vegetation, ....

Answer : The concept of development is changing over the years. from growth that only focused on economic growth, planning is moving towards development which has component of sustainability also. It includes following components—

• sustainable use of resources
• ecological footprint
• health, longetivity, literacy along with income as described in Human development Index.
• Environmental protection and its role in development etc.

Thus, developmental planning takes into consideration the needs of society and the natural environment when developing an area.

This includes the process of ....

Answer : Nelson removed the shortcomings of the classifications of Harris and others by using a standard procedure that could be objectively checked by other workers too. He decided to base his method of classification on major industry groups as listed in the 1950 Census of Population for standard metropolitan areas, urbanized areas and urban places of 10,000 or more population. He omitted the little significance groups like agriculture and construction, and finally, arrived at nine activity ....

Answer : Regional imbalance is a universal phenomena. Most of the countries face this problem. The problem however is more serious in the developing countries like India where it has assumed a magnitude that its political and economic stability is threatened.

The reasons for regional disparities are not only historical, political, socio—economical but also geographical.Some regions of the country are endowed with more natural resources in terms of soil, water, forests, minerals etc. while some are not.

The variations ....

Answer : There are four methods for delimitating sphere of urban influence: empirical analysis, gravity model, breaking-point model and field model. Comparatively, the results of empirical analysis are more accurate and credible; but data collection is more complicated. Also, there is a lack of detailed commuting data between cities. Therefore, empirical analysis is often used as testing and complementary method (Du, 2001).

The gravity model, which is built upon the partitions of urban hierarchy levels, mainly focuses ....

Answer : Urban and rural areas are interdependent economically, socially and environmentally. At the turn of the century, a substantial proportion of the world’s population will continue to live in rural settlements, particularly in developing countries.

In order to achieve a more sustainable future for the Earth, these rural settlements need to be valued and supported. Insufficient infrastructure and services, lack of environmentally sound technology and pollution resulting from the adverse impacts of unsustainable industrialization and urbanization contribute ....

Answer : Counter urbanization is a demographic and social process whereby people move from urban areas to rural areas. It first took place as a reaction to inner-city deprivation and overcrowding. Initial studies of counter urbanization were carried out by human geographer Brian Berry.

More recent research has documented the social and political drivers of counter urbanization and its impacts in developing countries such as China, which are currently undergoing processes of mass urbanization. It is one of ....

Answer : Urban geography is the study of areas which have a high concentration of buildings and infrastructure. Predominantly towns and cities, these are areas with a high population density and with the majority of economic activities in the secondary sector and tertiary sectors. Urban geographers are primarily concerned with the ways in which cities and towns are constructed, governed and experienced.

There are essentially two approaches to urban geography. One approach involves the study of problems relating ....

Answer : Solid-waste management is a major challenge in urban areas throughout the world. Without an effective and efficient solid-waste management program, the waste generated from various human activities, both industrial and domestic, can result in health hazards and have a negative impact on the environment. Understanding the waste generated, the availability of resources, and the environmental conditions of a particular society are important for developing an appropriate waste-management system.

The overall goal of urban solid waste management ....

Answer : The transformation of rural to urban areas is common among the fringe villages. According to Mishra, the villages in the rural-urban interface can be put under three main phases of transformation:

• Pre-transition stage: where the village is close to urban extension areas and gradually starts changing character.
• Transition stage: where the village comes under the urban extension area and is characterised by very high sub-division outside lal dora (the legal line dividing built-up and agricultural lane ....

Answer : Primate city refers to the city whose size is more than double of the second most populous city. There are many reasons for large size of primate cities such as multiple options of skilled jobs which attracts energetic youth from nearby country side.

South East Asian countries do have small regional expanse of population (Singapore), relatively high density and low per capita income, more dependency on agricultural export, high population growth rate etc to a large ....

Answer : Increased Industrial production has brought more progress, higher income levels and economic prosperity. However, at the same time it has also led to serious threats to ecological balance and has resulted in pollution and environmental degradation. The advanced industrialized countries of the world are trapped in a vicious circle. They are under pressure to produce more and more so as to prevent mass unemployment and economic depression, despite being aware of the fact that rising ....

Answer : Demographic transition occurs in societies that transition from high birth rates and high death rates to low birth rates and low death rates as part of the economic development of a country from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economy. Usually it is described through the “Demographic Transition Model” (DTM) that describes the population changes over time.

There have been many theories to understand the complex mechanism of population growth over a long period of time. Out ....

Answer : For a geographer a region consists of contiguous or non-contigious spatial units which are similar to each other in terms of one or more chosen criteria. The concept of region dates back to the nineteenth century when Vidal de la Blache emphasised the significance of studying small homogeneous areas called ‘pays’ in France.

Though claims have been made that the unity of pays was destroyed by the Industrial Revolution, a renewed recognition of the purpoted character ....

Answer : A Primate city emerges when a city becomes larger than any other city in country’s initial stage of urban development and thus develops an impetus for self sustaining growth. It emerges as the centre of economic opportunity and attracts the most energetic individuals and active minds from other parts of the country. Usually it becomes an expression of the national identity of the state in relation to other states and for this reason tends to ....

Answer : Development is a process about improving the well-being of people and sustainable Development sustains this process. Sustainable Development aims at efficient utilisation of resources without depleting it irreversibly.

The concept of sustainable development is very broad which incorporates in its fold all the ingredients of public welfare. The general principle of sustainable development adopted by the World commission on Environment and Development is as follows: “Current generations should meet their needs without compromising the ability of ....

Answer : Real world is characterised by diversity and this diversity is produced by major environmental contrasts, the uneven distribution of natural resources, and regional differences in the history of human development. Economic development is thus not evenly spread within countries, because environmental factors and the operation of economic and social processes produce spatial concentration and specialisation. In consequence there are usually widely differing levels of economic and social well-being across the regions.

Faced with spatial differences in ....

Answer : A city is not an isolated feature on the urban landscape. It has intricate relationship with its surrounding area to operate as a unified functional region. A city influences its surrounding area and simultaneously it is affected by its surrounding region. Economy of the city influences the activities of the surrounding region to a great extend while many of the needs of the cities are fulfilled by the countrysides.

Thus, cities and their surroundings are interdependent ....

Answer : Within a limited natural resources availability, different models and theories have been developed for faster and balanced economic development. Among them, the concepts of growth pole and growth centre are most important. In the last few years, for regional development these concepts have been commonly used. This theory is based on the concept of “hierarchicalintegrated regional develop­ment”. Persons like Perox and Bodmila have contributed a lot in this direction.

The process of economic growth produces marked ....

Answer : Optimum population may be defined as the size of population enabling maximum per capita output and the highest possible living standards under given economic and technological conditions. In any region, the pressure of population on its available natural resources depends upon the level of technological advancement. The technological advancement determines that the particular region is over populated or optimum populated or under populated. The ability of a country to absorb a large increase in population ....

Answer : It is very difficult to define a region because the concept had been used by different people to mean different things. The very Vastness and the amorphous quality of the relationship between man and environment has landed the Geographer in a maze. The concept is generally linked with space and has spatial dimensions. The followers of this subjective approach treat region only as an idea by excepting the nation as a one point economy and ....