URBANIZATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does urbanization mean? 

• URBANIZATION (noun)
  The noun URBANIZATION has 2 senses:

1. the condition of being urbanized

2. the social process whereby cities grow and societies become more urban

  Familiarity information: URBANIZATION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• URBANIZATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The condition of being urbanized

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

urbanisation; urbanization

Hypernyms ("urbanization" is a kind of...):

condition; status (a state at a particular time)

Derivation:

urbanize (impart urban habits, ways of life, or responsibilities upon)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The social process whereby cities grow and societies become more urban

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

urbanisation; urbanization

Hypernyms ("urbanization" is a kind of...):

social process (a process involved in the formation of groups of persons)

Derivation:

urbanize (make more industrial or city-like)

 Context examples 

But a new study shows that urbanization shifts this seasonal cue in nuanced ways, with cities in cold climates triggering earlier spring plant growth and cities in warm climates delaying it.

(Urbanization delays spring plant growth in warm regions, National Science Foundation)

Salt marshes play key roles in reducing the effects of urbanization and climate change.

(Changing salt marsh conditions send resident microbes into dormancy, NSF)

In seeking to understand factors that affect global biodiversity patterns, scientists have focused much of their research on present-day climate, such as patterns of temperature or rainfall, or recent human impacts, such as urbanization and the destruction of wild lands.

(Connecting the prehistoric past to the global future, National Science Foundation)

The study also found that the urban heat island effect, the phenomenon in which cities are warmer than their surroundings, is not the only culprit behind the shift, suggesting that other aspects of urbanization, such as pollution, changes in humidity and fertilizer runoff, may also influence plants' seasonal patterns.

(Urbanization delays spring plant growth in warm regions, National Science Foundation)

Understanding the complex impacts of urbanization on biotic systems requires computational approaches that can integrate multiple sources of data on human activity, ecology and biodiversity, said Peter McCartney, a program director in NSF's Division of Biological Infrastructure.

(Urbanization delays spring plant growth in warm regions, National Science Foundation)