PARENT SESSION
Symposium 3: Complex Interactions Between Human Population and the Environment: Integrating Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Ecological Perspectives .
Organized by: Jianguo(Jack) Liu and RL Clark
Monday, August 2, 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, Oregon Ballroom 204.

Urbanization, population growth and environmental quality.

White, Michael^*,1, ¹ Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

ABSTRACT- Population growth and urbanization are repeatedly implicated in environmental change. Their impact is often represented as strongly negative. At the same time these demographic phenomena and their links to environmental outcomes are usually characterized in highly aggregated ways. Our objective is to more carefully examine these presumed links, with special attention to economic development and city growth in developing countries. The paper first characterizes the issue, drawing on a current comparison of a low and high income setting. The paper then invokes demographic modeling to examine the relationship between population dynamics and urbanization, particularly the interplay between migration and fertility. This analysis shows that current reports of high rates of urban growth are not surprising and are partially consistent with precedent. The paper then turns to demographic behavior at the level of the individual and the household. We use primary survey data collected from a stratified, clustered random sample of households in six coastal districts of the Central Region of Ghana, West Africa. Employing standard regression methods, we use these data to present evidence about urbanization in fertility reduction. In additional to the conventional effects of education and age on childbearing we find significant effects of migration and urbanization on fertility, with the urbanization effects differing by parity and time. We also explore the relationship between various personal traits and environmental awareness expressed in the survey. Results indicate that education, age, political engagement, and mass media exposure can be linked to awareness of and concern for environmental issues. The paper concludes with a policy-oriented discussion of the relationship between population, environment and economic development.

Key words: urbanization, human population, sociology