Glossary
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URBAN GROWTH
The (relative or absolute) increase in the number of people who live in towns and cities. The pace of urban population growth depends on the natural increase of the urban population and the population gained by urban areas through both net rural-urban migration and the reclassification of rural settlements as cities and towns.
URBAN SPRAWL
The uncontrolled and disproportionate expansion of an urban area into the surrounding countryside, forming low-density and poorly-planned patterns of development. Common to both high-income and low-income countries, urban sprawl is characterized by a scattered population living in separate residential areas, with long blocks and poor access, often over dependent on motorized transport and missing well-defined hubs of commercial activity.
URBANIZATION
Urbanization is defined mostly in demographic terms as the increasing proportion of a population that is living in urban areas. This increase can be attributed in general to three factors: natural population growth, net ruralto-urban migration, and also the progressive extensions of urban boundaries and creation of new urban centres. Urbanization frequently refers to a broad rural-to-urban transition involving changes in population, land use, economic activity and culture.
VULNERABILITY
The diminished capacities of an individual or group to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural or man-made hazard.