Welcome to your deck on Urban Issues and Challenges. This is a key topic in human geography. We'll explore one of the biggest changes happening in the world today: the shift of people into cities. You'll learn what urbanisation is, why it's happening, and where it's happening fastest. We'll also look at the rise of giant cities known as megacities.

Let's start with the most important term: urbanisation. In geography, urbanisation means the increase in the proportion, or percentage, of a country's population living in urban areas. It's not just about cities getting bigger, but about the country as a whole becoming more city-focused.

It's important not to confuse urbanisation with urban growth. Urban growth is simply the increase in the number of people living in a city. A city can grow without the country's overall proportion of urban dwellers changing much. Urbanisation is the bigger, national-level shift.

Now, let's look at the global pattern of urbanisation. For your exam, it's useful to know three acronyms: HICs, LICs, and NEEs. HIC stands for High Income Country, like the UK or Japan. LIC is a Low Income Country, like Ethiopia. And NEE is a Newly Emerging Economy, like Nigeria or Brazil.