Introduction
Development and growth of the population number of cities intensify the speed of urbanization.
The regulation of socioeconomic and demographic development of large cities, efficient land
use in core and surrounding areas, the distribution of cities as separate functional zones,
protection of the ecological balance, solutions to problems of employment and housing
conditions, improvement of socio-cultural services are typical issues targeted in most large
cities. However, it is increasingly difficult to solve these problems in the context of high
population growth rate, strengthening the socio-economic base and with the enlargement of the
cities’ territory. In the same time, more and more countries and regions in the world are facing
such situation. Therefore, many studies globally deal with the large cities, looking at the scien-
tific and theoretical foundations of their development management as well as at the
corresponding practical measures.
The second half of the twentieth century is a period of high population growth rate. Since
gaining independence, most of the Asian, African and Latin American countries have had
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Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis,
vol. VI, 2, 2014, p. 203 - 218
Abstract: Globally, the responsible factors for the ongoing development of urbaniza-
tion are the high speed of population growth, and the mass migration of humans to cities
and large urban areas. In most countries, this process resulted in the emergence of
‘pseudo-urbanization’ which is difficult to be regulated. The purpose of the carried
researches to determine the development priorities in the territory of Greater Baku – the
capital city of the Republic of Azerbaijan; to define the problems that take place in this
connection; and to develop ways of elimination of these problems. The reason of taking
Baku as a research area is connected with some of the factors. Firstly, studies on Baku
have been conducted based on the Soviet geographical and urban planning school and
their methods for a long period. In this regard, it is necessary to carry out research in this
field based on the principles adopted in most countries. Secondly, since 1992, the
intensive accumulation of population in the territory of the capital city and the surrounding
areas is being observed because of socio-economic problems. As a result, the process of
pseudo-urbanization intensified, entailing a densely-populated area. Thirdly, low-rise
buildings still continue to exist in the large areas within the territory of Baku, and they are
not associated with the functional structure of the city. This situation creates many
challenges, particularly in terms of density growth and effective use of the city’s territory.
Finally, numerous new buildings have been constructed in the residential areas of Baku in
recent years, and this may entail serious problems in water supply, energy provision, and
utilities. The study is carried out referring to previous works of researchers, statistic data,
and the results of the population census conducted in 1959-2009.The practical significance
of the scientific work is that positive and negative factors affecting the further development
of Greater Baku are defined together with showing the optimal ways of development.
Key Words: city, settlement, district, urbanization, agglomeration of Baku,
Greater Baku.
ECONOMIC AND GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS
AFFECTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BAKU
Vusat AFANDIYEV
1
, Zakir EMINOV
2
, Saleh NAGIYEV
1
1
Baku State University, Azerbaijan
2
Institute of Geography, National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan
success in reaching socio-economic stability, and improvement of health care and social
services compared to previous years. This positively affected the demographic conditions in
these countries. High natural increase in the rural population has been taking place besides
with socioeconomic problems faced by the villagers. As a result, mass migration of the
population from rural areas to cities has been observed, and the urban population has grown
rapidly in these countries. In the middle of the twentieth century, the yearly growth of the
population has arrived to 40-50 million people (United Nations 1985), whereas it is of 85-90
million today (Demographic indicators 2013). The high population growth was followed by wide
studies carried out by researchers since the middle of the 20
th
century, on cities from the United
States (Vance 1971, Berry and Gillard 1977, Palm 1981), France (Bozhe-Garnye and Shabo
1967), Great Britain (Dickinson 1962, Kholl 1993, Taylor 1993) and other countries. These
studies were devoted to the regulation of the urban population distribution, to urban planning,
and to the demographic overloading of capital cities (Chatel 2011). Providing social security is
increasingly becoming a serious problem in most of the European large cities (Stilwell 2010).
These problems are characteristic also for the U.S. (Yang et al. 2012), and Canada (Xu 2011,
Fong and Shen 2011).
In most cities of the developing countries, the high natural increase of the population leads to
an increase in number of the urban population. The world's population, including the urban
population of the planet, is growing mainly due to these countries. In this connection, the
geographical expansion of cities, and the demographic development regulation are among the
chiefly studied topics (Ferreira and Marques 2006, Müller-Mahn and Abdelghani 2006, Tallet
and Valette 2010).
The shown urbanization problems were typical also for Eastern Europe and the CIS countries
during the transition period. Important research on cities, the management of urbanization, the
development problems in the transition period etc. were conducted in Russia (Khorev 1975,
Maergoyz 1987, Pivovarov 1994, Lappo 1997, Pertsik 2009) and Poland (Flaga 2010,
Grabkowska 2011).
The management of the urbanization development has its specific problems in the United
States, Western Europe and Australia, and these issues are still of research interest
(Wilczynski and Wilczynski 2011, Pacione 2009). The studied problems include the regulation
of the relations between cities and their surroundings, population ageing, intensification of
external migrations, increase of ethnic diversity, adaptation of migrants to place of destination,
and the relations between the immigrants and the indigenous population (Catney and Simpson
2010, Xu 2011, Fong and Shen 2011), social conditions and job supply, keeping the ecological
balance. Some studies are devoted to the territorial enlargement of cities and its impact on the
growth of economy efficiency (Gardiner et al. 2011).
As many regions and countries are at different stages of socioeconomic and demographic
development, the problems of cities are regionally different. On the other hand, there are many
common ways to solve the problems that may be practiced by most of them. Therefore, the
results as well as the theoretical and methodological bases of the carried studies can be
practically applied in many countries along with the needed measures to solve the cities’
problems. In this regard, these studies can be taken into consideration and used to solve the
problems of Greater Baku.
In the cities of the U.S., Canada, Western Europe and other developed regions, the population
growth rate is lower. From this point of view, the management of urbanization and the
measures of urban planning are essential to be taken into consideration. It is necessary to
displace many financial centres, enterprises and facilities as well as buildings of secondary and
tertiary sectors with large territories out to the suburb areas in order to benefit more effectively
from the inner areas of the cities, and to prevent the unnecessary territorial enlargement of
Vusat AFANDIYEV, Zakir EMINOV, Saleh NAGIYEV
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