Urbanization in North-Western Regions of Bangladesh

Abstract

Urbanization is one of the great discussion matters of the world in recent times. Bangladesh is considered to be in the primary stage of urbanization, The characteristic of Urbanization in Bangladesh is still low in terms of level, development and facilities or amenities are available in the country. But nature of overall growth is problematic and deserves much attention in all sectors of development authorities. Urbanization and development bring benefits to the urban society, it is an indicator of development and modernization, but when the urbanization becomes over, not uniform or uneven, uncontrolled and unpredictable, it creates various threats to the planners, development authorities and urban habitat for future development. Therefore, the study on "Urbanization in North-Western Regions of Bangladesh" is very much significant. Basically, the main thirst of this study is to examine & provide the level of urbanization, spatial (inter districts) patterns and changing patterns in the level of urbanization, urban development and urban facilities or amenities are available in the country by and large focusing on the North­Western Regions of Bangladesh based on secondary data using Davidorich Model (Z-Score) to generate an understanding as its real urban characteristics of the study area. 16-variables have been chosen for the study. The main findings of the study are that urbanization of the study area is still low in respect of level and no remarkable changes have been found between 1991 to 2001. Though Bangladesh is a very small country m the world Map but at present, the trend of urbanization is not least, i.e., more than 23% of the people are living in the urban areas by creating both paralytic and parasitic effect on the other places and on the national economy of Bangladesh. But the urbanization of Bangladesh is still low in terms of level among the developed countries & developing countries of the world. The characteristic features of urbanization in Bangladesh are excess increase in urban population, largely due to natural growth, rural-urban migration and growing importance of local resources. In the recent times, increase of urban population, problems of urban planning & development, changing & attitudes of the peoples, urbanization and development has become a national issue of Bangladesh and has gained wide attention of scholars among a number of disciplines. Urbanization and development are interrelated matter and as a developing country, much research is required on urbanization and development of Bangladesh. ·So, an in-depth study on "Urbanization in North-Western Regions of Bangladesh" will contributes much to find out the actual problems and solutions for the national development planning and also urban scholars, planners, researcher for further study.