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7456082 
Book/Book Chapter 
Urbanization 
Chaolin, GU 
2020 
Elsevier 
Oxford 
International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition) 
141-153 
Urbanization refers to the increasing number of people that live in urban areas. The United Nations has estimated that more than half of the world's population live in urban areas since the end of 2008. By 2050 it is predicted that 64.1% and 85.9% of the developing and developed world respectively will be urbanized. Urbanization refers to the population shift from rural to urban residency and the gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas. Urbanization is often associated with modernization, industrialization, globalization, and the sociological process of rationalization. Due to the complexity and seeming irreversibility of urbanization, the process has both positive and negative effects. Using the positive effects of urbanization and avoiding negative effects can promote the continuous evolution and progress of human settlements; otherwise, the urban problems and regional development problems brought about by urbanization can become difficult to solve for human society in the future, especially in rapidly urbanizing developing countries. 
Capital-led urbanization; Effects of urbanization; Hyperurbanization; Levels of urbanization; Overurbanization; Polycentric urbanization; Pre-urbanization; Synchrourbanization; The “push-pull” theory; The “surplus product” theory; The classic Davis curve; The industrial urbanization; The pre-industrial urbanization; The produce-services-led urbanization; Urbanism 
Kobayashi, Audrey