THE URBANIZATION IN SEMARANG CITY

Abstract

Thepurpose thispaper is to provide a broad overview of the recent patterns
and trends of urban growth, and to discuss the relationship between urbanization,
economic and population growth and environment in Semarang City. Over the last
20 years many urban areas have experienced dramatic growth, as a result of rapid
population growth and as the world's economy have been transformed by a
combination of rapid technological and political change. Centralistic type of
development from New Era Government gives consequences in the formation of
mega urbanization. As a geographic phenomenon, urbanization is seen as a
continuumfrom community level until global level. In the cases of Semarang, there
is much more than a doubling. Net migration in many cases contributes as much
as two thirds of the population growth in these zones, whereas in the city cores, net
migration contributes little to growth. The main factor which is influencing
urbanization process in Semarang is the growth of service sector, especially
informal activities. A comprehensive model suggests that urbanization in Semarang
is influenced by structural and social demographic factors. So, the balance
between managing urban discharges to environment and enhancing environmental
resource capacity is key determinant of the sustainability of the development in
Semarang and livabilitY in general