The world is rapidly growing towards urbanization. It is generally believed that, urbanization is a result of industrialization. The history of cities may show periods of the expansion and decline but with the industrial revolution in the 19th century, urbanization rapidly accelerated. In short, since the down of the industrial revolution, man has migrated to cities in the western world to develop their economic condition.
Urbanization is a current issue throughout the world particularly in the developing countries. In fact, it is acclaimed as the instrument of economic development and socio-cultural changes. It is a fact that level Df urbanization is usually associated with the degree of modernization or process of industrialization, while industrialization can be to have been the strict great and continuing revolution in recent times, certainly urbanization in the next one. Further, he adds that urbanization seems invariably accompany the development of new countries.
Patterns of human settlements are complex, but they are heavily depending on initial conditions, level of economic development over different phases of modernization as well as growth of interaction with socio-economic traces. In contrast to western urbanization, the developing countries have a dramatic and rapid urban growth, coupled with high population growth and disproportionate scale of economics. Higher rates of population growth and declining availability of agricultural land at low levels of rural income have increased population pressures in urban centers and absolute population movement toward them. At the same time, widespread diffusion of modern transport and communications encourage population movement aided by the considerably cheap transportation faculties and costs. Changing pattern of urban change and appraisals in developing countries vary from region to region and country to country. Differences may arise due to historical factors like colonization, attainment of independence or emergence of a national socio-physical and socio-economic conditions.
Many cities are the result of externally oriented forces which led to economic development but few of them could be due to internally induced forces. However, there may have been, and may countries to be, factors which substantially affect not only the existing but also the potential rate of urbanization.
Patterns of human settlements are complex, but they are heavily depending on initial conditions, level of economic development over different phases of modernization as well as growth of interaction with socio-economic tcrces. In contrast to western urbanization, the developing countries have a dramatic and rapid urban growth, coupled with high population growth and disproportionate scale of economics. Higher rales of population growth and declining availability of agricultural land at low levels of rural income have increased population pressures in urban centers and absolute population movement toward them. At the same time, widespread diffusion of modern transport and communications encourage population movement aided by the considerably cheap transportation faculties and costs. Changing pattern of urban change and appraisals in developing countries vary from region to region and country to country. Differences may arise due to historical factors like colonization, attainment of independence or emergence of a national socio-physical and socio-economic conditions.
Many cities are the result of externally oriented forces which led to economic development but few of them could be due to internally induced forces. However, there may have been, and may countries to be, factors which substantially affect not only the existing but also the potential rate of urbanization.
In addition, urbanization in newly developing countries was affected by outside forces e.g. the impact of World War ! ~nd particularly World War. Urbanization of certain countries involved in the war, almost invariably reveals evidence of the conflicts which lead to floods of refugees moving towards the large cities and of the relationship of military staging and supply centers to the development of the cities themselves. The related impetus to manufacturing, commerce, and administrative development associated with the war was also, influential (Ibid: 1966 : 36).
Regarding the role and impact -_-f jrbanization on regional economic development, urbanization is a component of regional economic development as urban centers provide, inter-alia, variety of centralized services for the surrounding zone of influence e.g. marketing for agricultural surplus, products of cottage industries, including the supply of fertile engineering goods, pumping set, medicines and specialized skills etc in a wide variety of situations which are necessary for regional development.
It is quite logical that, developmental activities can not be dispersed horizontally throughout the region. So the location of development inputs and of services should be at specific places from which their benefits can filter down to the surrounding settlement. In each regional context the focal points are primarily centers of economic and social activities. Henceforth, through process of urbanization and government initiative, "the of rural service centers in both time and space, due to concentration of commercial, transpiration professional services, give rise to 'the of development of urban centers. The growth of urban centers also leads to changes in, which in turn further affect regional development, industrialization, transportation linkages linkers, population distribution and the rural urban continuum. At the same time, the t-:t!sry sector, and the continuation of these processed for longer period of time and over increasing dimensions of space of signs regional development. Thus urbanization is a polarization technique which has been adopted for regional developments" (ibid: 1982:2).
As such, the problems and prospects arising, from the resultant effect of urDanization are to be judged and considered thorough major policy issues. In this context Ramachandram (1987) advocates that, "At the out set, it is necessary to clarify the difference between urbanization policy, and urban policy. Urbanization policies relate to the problems of city size distribution, spacing of urban centers, and the problem generated by rural urban migration. Urban policy, on the other hand, focuses on the internal problems of cities and towns as well as the rural-urban fringe zone. They have to deal with urban problems, such as housing water supply and sewerage and the physical planning cf the city and its environments. Both urbanization aw well as urban policies ought to be based on the historical experience of each country and on universal approaches can be meaningfully outlined".
Development of small townships in ancient Bengal by the kings and their representatives at various places had once introduced a group of special types of houses constructed mostly within fort structures. These houses had residence of the owners at the centre and rooms for service and support personnel alongside the boundary wall. Archeological excavations discovered some of such houses in different parts of Bangladesh. Almost all of them were built with mud bricks.
Developments in housing in East Pakistan between 1947 and 1971 may be characterized by a fast growth of urban structures and modern houses in towns with amenities like electricity and running water supply. In spite of urbanization, the psychology of the people in general did not change much and most people continued to prefer living in individual houses rather than in flats in multistoried buildings. Apartment buildings were becoming a vogue in Dhaka city towards the middle of the 1970s and by 1985, the trend gained a momentum with large-scale acceptability of the concept of living in flat houses under acute shortage of land and in a situation of rapid increase in land prices and the cost of construction.
Urbanization in its proper sense started in Bengal with establishment of British centers (particularly, the district headquarters) and development of business centers on the bank of large rivers. The process, however, did net bring much change in house structures and their styles. Houses in these newly deception the ownerships almost the same materials as in the surrounding rural areas and yet, changes started showing up very soon. These houses were constructed usually in rows and blocks and many of them were built in European architectural design. A completely new phenomenon was growth of slums, especially around industry centers and for the people migrating from rural areas in search of jobs and earning opportunities. Buildings in some areas adopted the designs of Muslim architecture and in many places, the influence of typical Indian structures of the Mughal period could be seen in abundance.