urban stress example essay, Essays (high school) of Geography

Download urban stress example essay and more Essays (high school) Geography in PDF only on Docsity! Examine the patterns of urban stress that have developed within one named city as a result of contested land use changes (10) Urban stress refers to the bodily or mental tension developed through city living resulted from physical, emotional, and chemical factors. I will choose Addis Ababa as an example to examine the urban stress cause by three interconnected parts: urban redevelopment, slum clearance, and the depletion of green space. All these processes are brought by the contestations over the land use from many different stakeholders in the city. With an annual growth rate of more than 5%, Ethiopia is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in the world. Addis Ababa, the capital city, is hosting nearly 30 percent of the urban population of the Ethiopia, and the number is expected to double to more than 8 million over the next decade. This unprecedented growth has placed massive strain on established political, economic and social systems in this country. The fast development made Addis Ababa runing out of spaces in the city. It has to expand to neighouring areas for constructing houses for its new inhabitants. The number of houses needed to meet supply is estimated to be as many as half a million, but nearly a million people languish on the waiting list for a condominium. To make it worse, those who are lucky to move in to these newly constructed housing, often encourters lots of problems. In Bole Dimtu, a newly developed neighbourhood, Water has not been running for months and mountains of rubbish pile up in public areas designed to be parks. Merchants sell water cartons from horse-drawn carts. The city expanded so fast that the services are not keeping up because lack of coordination among different stakeholders. Not everyone were able to benefit from the urbanization process. Many feit marginalized because they were forced to leave from those land they used to live. Those lands are now seized for development purpose or constructing the condominium. Take the village of Weregenu for example. This is cluster of flimsy homes like many others around, and within, Addis Ababa. As the city expands, it needs housing, rubbish dumps, and space for factories. Demolitions of these slums which owned the government became out of question. The government has developed a slum clearance programme in Addis Ababa’s inner city. In 2016, the pace of demolition has quickened, with 360 hectares and more than 3,000 homes slated to be cleared over the next three years. A revived city centre and business district comprising high-rises of at least nine storeys will replace the old neighbourhoods. Whereas the pople living in these slums were not aware of the development plans, nor they were entiled to become part of the plan. They were so angry that prests and demonstrations have led to the declaration of a nine-month state of emergency. Studies shows that a rapid and unplanned expansion and commercial development has exerted tremendous negative impacts on green space in the City of Addis Ababa. The unprecedented growth has shrunken forestland areas by 62.1% from 1986 to 2015. The city is no longer fit for the forest city standard. As a result, the city is heating due to the urban heat island effects in many neighbourhoods. Lack of public awareness, low level of community participation, poor implementation of government policies, lack of budget, lack of skilled manpower, shortage of land, illegal settlement, problem of regular follow-up, problem of pollution from different sources and lack of cooperation among different stakeholders have contributed to the shrinking of green spaces in the city. The problem is expected to worsen in the coming years due to the massive construction of houses, buildings and roads and the less attention given to green spaces. Urban redevelopment of the inner city replaced the low income groups with their homes cleared. These housing constructed in the newly expanded areas are lack of basic neccesities. With more green spaces convered to conceret buildings, the citie of Addis Ababa has become a hot and violent