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Birmingham - Lagos - facts about urbanisation

What is Birmingham?

Birmingham is the uk’s 2nd largest city

It is located in the West Midlands region of England.

Other nearby urban areas include Coventry, Wolverhampton and Sutton Coldfield.

What is Birmingham’s importance?

During the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham was at the forefront of worldwide advances in science, technology, and economic development.

It generated lots of jobs for the region because of this and proved the uk’s importance worldwide.

It has the second largest economy in the uk with a GDP of US $121.1 billion.

It has six universities meaning lots of go to the city for education from uk or worldwide.

It has many cultural institutions like the City of Birmingham Symphony orchestra, The library of Birmingham and the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Attracts lots of tourists.

Several famous brands are based in Birmingham like birds and cadburys

What are the patterns of national and international migration in Birmingham?

In the 1950s/60s many migrants moved to Birmingham from South Asia and the West Indies.

Since 2000, more people have moved from Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

This has led to Birmingham becoming the UK’s most diverse city outside of London. In 2021 43% of the city were white British.

Birmingham has also got a high youth population. This is due to the national and international migration for education at the universities and for work.

How is migration changing the growth and character of the city?

Birmingham’s population has changed over time. It peaked in 1950 at 1.1 million but declined after this due to the decline of manufacturing.

Birmingham’s population now is growing again due to international migration and natural increase.

Migrants bring with them their own culture, language, shops, food etc which means the character of the city is changing.

There are distinct areas of the city which are now dominated by different ethnic groups eg the Baltic triangle.

What are examples of leisure and culture for ways of life in Birmingham?

Lots of activities and experiences for everyone in Birmingham to enjoy.

Attractions include the sea life centre and national indoor arena.

Home to lots of live music events, festivals, and concerts.

It is home to the biggest Asian music festival in the UK.

Hosted the commonwealth games in 2022.

Birmingham is the UK’s 3rd best shopping destination.

What are examples of ethnicity as ways of life in Birmingham?

The population is one of the most diverse in the Uk outside of London.

Areas such as Sparkbrook are very diverse -62% Asian in 2011.

What are examples of housing as ways of life in Birmingham?

Variations in housing size, quality and price across the city.

Areas like Sutton Foure Oaks- 4 bed house , £525,000, garden, drive.

Sparkbrook- 2 bed house, £99,950, needs renovation, no drive.

Strong correlation with house price and ethnic diversity eg Sparkbrook: low prices and high ethnic diversity. 60%+ from ethnic minorities.

Sutton Four Oaks has high prices and low ethnic diversity. 86% white British.

What are examples of consumption as ways of life in Birmingham?

Birmingham’s consumption of resources is generally in line with the rest of the UK.

For example, energy consumption is 6.2% of total energy consumption- average.

Weekly spending on food and drinks is £51. England average is £53.

People in Birmingham spend around 4.4% of household income on clothing/ footwear. Close to the average of England.

What are contemporary challenges facing Birmingham?

Inequality.

Some areas enjoy greater wealth and a good quality of life, others suffer deprivation and a poor quality of life.

Inequality is often linked to levels of unemployment.

In the ward of Sparkbrook 24.5% of people are unemployed.

In Sutton Four oaks, unemployment is just 3.1%.

How is unemployment linked to indicators of deprivation?

Indicators. Sparkbrook. Sutton Four Oaks

Economically active or at work 48%. 81%

Children living in poverty 49%. 7%

Average household income. £21000. £40000

Household with income over £35000. 12%. 47%

How is access to healthcare and education a challenge?

Pupils with 5 GCSEs 9-4. Sparkbrook- 51% Sutton Four Oaks-74%

working age population with no qualifications SP-49.7% SFO- 20.9%

Long term health problems or disability. SP-8.95%. SFO- 7.47%

Bad or very bad health. SP-6.96% SFO-4.47%

How is housing availability keeping inequality going?

Only wealthy people with high incomes can afford the highest house prices, so they move to the least deprived areas.

Poorer people including the unemployed, are forced to live in more deprived areas, so the pattern continues.

There are major differences in shore prices across the city

What is transport provision like in Birmingham?

Birmingham is known as Britains motor city.

The city is well known for its spaghetti junction road network and has been chosen as the location for Britain’s first toll road.

Drivers are spending on average 34 hours a year stuck in jams.

Direct and indirect costs of hold ups reaches £31 billion last year, at an average of £968 per driver.

How are they planning to improve their rail network?

High speed 2 is a high speed railways planned to run between London and Birmingham from 2029.

A second phase, with 2 branches from Birmingham to Manchester, and to Leeds is planned to open after.

This will take pressure of the existing rail network and reduce journey times between cities.

What is Birmingham library?

It was built in 2013 and is the largest public library in the Uk.

It cost £189 million to build.

It was built on a brownfield site which was previously a car park.

The design aims to reflect the cities past and future.

past- the metal framework on the outside aims to represent the cities industrial past.

Future- the function of the building as a library aims to reflect the future the city are aiming for as having a knowledge based economy.

How is the library sustainable?

They recycled 95% of waste material during construction.

Employed over 250 people during construction to reduce local unemployment.

Minimises carbon emission by using energy- efficient systems.

Reduces energy consumption by making use of natural daylight and ventilation.

Uses less water by harvesting rainwater and recycling water.

Has a roof garden to attract wildlife and improve biodiversity.

Promotes sustainable transport use and provides cycle storage space.

Attracts about 2.5 million visitors a year, helping to raise educational achievement.

What is Lagos?

In Nigeria, west Africa.

It is on the coast next to the Gulf of Guinea.

It is South West to the capital Abuja.

Two major rivers run through Nigeria and the country is bordered by Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

What is Lagos’ importance?

Biggest city in Africa.

Main financial centre for whole of West Africa.

Under British rule it was the capital city until 1991

International port and airport

Important for trade- within Africa and across the world.

80% of Nigeria’s industry

Lots of global companies located there.

What are the patterns of national and international migration in Lagos?

96% of people arriving in Lagos come from within Nigeria- there is very little international migration.

Lagos is the smallest city in terms of land area in Nigeria but the largest city in the country- over 20 million.

It has a growth rate of 500,000 per year and it grew by 3.4 million between 2000-2010.

Nationally people move to Lagos from all over Nigeria but mainly come from rural areas in search of a higher standard of living and job opportunities.

Internationally, people move to Lagos from other counties:

29% Benin

22% Ghana

16% Mali

Some immigrants come from the Uk, USA or china.

How is migration changing the growth and character of the city?

Incomes from jobs in Lagos are 4x higher than this in rural areas.

Lagos is built on the coast so there is little room to expand and population densities are high.

Lagos has become overcrowded, congested and polluted.

About 2/3 of the population live in slums.

Very rich people live in gated communities like banana island.

There are 250 different ethnic groups within Lagos.

Life expectancy has dropped to below 50 years.

There aren’t enough healthcare facilities.

Stagnant water provides breeding ground for mosquitos so malaria increase.

what is leisure and culture like in Lagos?

It has a thriving music scene - Afro beat and hip hop

Shopping is a popular leisure activity with many street vendors, markets and rows of shops.

Lagos has a fashion week each year. Western fashion is becoming more common within the rich.

There are many carnivals and festivals celebrating music, food and culture.

Lagos has a big film industry with the production of popular ‘Nollywood’ film.

What is ethnicity like in Lagos?

There are 250 different ethnic groups in Lagos.

67% speak Yoruba.

Other inhabitants are non-Yoruba speaking Nigerians, other Africans plus international immigrants.

What is housing like in Lagos?

Lagos has around 9,000 millionaires.

Variety of housing for the wealthy- old colonial style, mansion, and modern gated communities on banana island.

These houses are large, all have electricity and water supplies and furnished to high standard.

However, 66% residents live in ‘squatter settlements’ - Lagos is the mega city of slums.

The largest squatter settlement is Makoko

What is consumption like in Lagos?

Consumption of all resources is rising as people gain wealth.

Lagos residents consume (£6.4 million) worth of food items daily.

Nigerians love of champagne- consumption in the west African country will reach 1.1 million litres by 2017.

What is an example of a contemporary challenge facing Lagos? (Environment)

Squatter settlements.

Over 60% of Lagos live in informal housing.

Often the land is poor quality and not suitable for housing eg floods regularly.

Makoko is Lagos’ largest slum with a population of somewhere between 40,000 and 300,000

Houses in Makoko are flimsy, wooden huts built in stilts in the lagoon which are illegally built.

There is only 1 primary school in Makoko and many families are unable to afford to send their children to school.

Communal toilets are shared by 15 households and most waste goes straight into the lagoon.

High levels of crime in Makoko.

What is another example of contemporary challenges facing Lagos? (Economic)

Informal sector jobs.

These include a wide variety of work that is not regulated by the government.

Many migrants cannot find a formal job so they find work doing whatever they can - selling food, fishing.

Accounts for 60-80% jobs

Worth $125 billion- 2/3 of lagos’ GDP

Long hours, low pay, no protection

What is another example of contemporary challenges facing Lagos? (Social)

Health.

Most of the city doesn’t have access to proper sewers or clean water. This cause health problems eg cholera.

Malaria is also a problem- the stagnant water provides a breeding ground for mosquitos.

There aren’t enough healthcare facilities and many people can’t afford to pay for treatment.

Many rural migrants distrust western medicine and prefer to seek help form traditional healers.

There is a lack of antenatal treatment and childbirth is a major challenge

What is another contemporary challenge facing Lagos? (Environment)

Waste disposal.

The huge population produces lots of waste- approximately 9000 tonnes per day.

Only about 40% of waste is collected officially and there’s large rubbish dumps eg olusosun, which contains toxic waste.

Waste disposal and emissions from factories are not controlled, leading to air and water pollution.

What are the two main aims of the Lagos state integrated waste management project?

Reduce amount of waste going to landfill sites.

Reduce air pollution

Whats are the strategies for this project?

The world bank is financing a project to collect waste from food markets to turn into compost. This stops the waste from going to landfill sites. Instead it is useful as it can be used as fertiliser to increase food supply.

Where waste still ends up in rubbish dumps, the government aims to generate electricity from it by burning the methane released. This happens at the Ikosi Fruit market, where electricity generated from rotting fruit is used to provide lighting for the market.

What are the advantages to this project?

Waste being turned into compost reduces the amount of methane being released from the landfill and therefore reduces the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. (Environment)

The compost can be used to fertilise farmland, increasing food supplies. (Social)

Electricity can be generated from waste/ fruit (economic)

It changes actions in the long term. Pipes that collects the waste methane power the whole city.

What are the disadvantages to this project?

Although the world bank fund this now, this might not happen forever and it costs money to recycle the waste in this way (economic)

For the workers, the waste will be smelly and could lead to health issues.

The Olusosun landfill site is still the largest in Africa so is it working to reduce Lagos’ waste?