People in the Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 487

and a few on ridge tops (Fig. 10.4). Examples include Innsbruck, Austria; Chamonix-
Mt. Blanc/Sallanches, Grenoble, France; Trento and Bozen/Bolzano, Italy; the Martigny-
Brig-Visp conurbation, Switzerland; Kullu-Manali, Shimla, and Darjeeling, India; Liji-
ang, China; Huaraz and surroundings, Peru; Aspen, Colorado; and Canmore-Banff,
Canada. While some of these settlements have retained aspects of their original agri-
cultural, mining, manufacturing, or transportation functions, many now have a multi-
functional orientation and a poly centric spatial dimension (Dematteis 2009). Important
driving forces in the urbanization process include: expanding tourism, recreation, and
amenity migration; revitalization of resource extractive and processing industries; ad-
ministrative functions; and the growth of service needs with population increase and
socioeconomic change. Whereas traditional agriculturally based mountain settlements
were relatively self-sufficient, the resource demands resulting from contemporary urban
growth far exceed the resources of the immediate area, creating a large external de-
pendence and ecological footprint.
Common to all urban areas, whether in the mountains or on their margins, are
rapid population growth and densification, physical expansion, growth of infrastructure,
and diversification of functions. The cities are powerful attractions for migrants: Many,
though not all, come from the mountains in search of employment, security, education,
and other services and opportunities. This has been especially the case in developing
countries, leading to the growth of large, densely populated squatter or informal settle-
ments on city margins and in deteriorating core areas. While the growth of the mega-
cities is impressive, the proportional growth of secondary cities has often been great-
er, presenting a more attractive alternative to migrants and better options for sustain-
able urban living. Mountain and mountain-margin cities also serve as financial and labor
feeders for resource exploitation and as sources of large numbers of recreation-ists,
tourists, and semipermanent residents in the mountains.
Permanent Residents
Among the permanent residents are people who gain much of their family livelihood
from activities in the mountain setting and have generational familial connections with
a particular mountain area. As in any environment, some people are born, raised, live,
and die in the same village or valley. Others have been forced to move for a variety reas-
ons, but remain in a mountain setting. Examples include the hundreds or thousands of
indigenous people in the Andes who were forced into resettlement schemes during the
Inca and early part of the Spanish colonial periods (Rhoades 2006); large numbers of
Kikuyu who were resettled on the western slopes of Mount Kenya during the British co-
lonial period in East Africa (Elkins 2005); over 200,000 people forced from their homes
in Garhwal Himalaya during the Gurkha invasion from Nepal in the early nineteenth
century (Rangan 2000); and people displaced by large-scale hydroelectric schemes in
mountain areas of northern India and southwestern China.