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Essay on The Problems and Solutions of Overcrowding in Modern Cities

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The Problems and Solutions of Overcrowding in Modern Cities

Now In the world there are many cities which are facing overcrowding, such as London, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Manila and Rio. But, few people know the exact meaning of the term “overcrowding”. There is a popular definition which is widely accepted by scholars: “an outgrowth of excessive size is overcrowding, meaning too many people occupying little space.” (Brunn et al, 1983, p37). Overcrowding causes huge problems such as housing, congestion, unemployment, air pollution, social problems and energy tension. The aim of this essay is to discuss the potential problems and solutions in overcrowded cities. Housing problem is the first important issue which …show more content…

Furthermore, the fact that the labor force from small town floods into big cities will decrease the average density per person in small town and thus it produces unbalanced society structure. Besides, in many modern overcrowded cities there are a lot of skyscrapers which need more energy to feed central air-conditioner in order to keep a comfortable status. However, the chiller system of air-conditioner produces huge heating during the working and the heating will be released directly to the air so that it causes the city temperature to increase again, and then, accordingly, the city needs more power capacity again to feed the air-conditioner. It is a vicious spiral! Virtually other issues such as unemployment, hospital, sewage & rubbish, security and air quality, are also urgent. Even so, air quality among these issues must be the most critical one. Take Chile as an example. During the rapid development from 1970s to 1990s Chile experienced misery in air quality. As Edward & John (2002) point out, “the Chilean standard for PM10 is an annual arithmetic mean of 50 ug/m3(micrograms per meter cubed)…..but, the data exceed the national standard every year between 1989-1992”, which is more than double the national standard. (Edward, John, 2002,p28,29). If people live in low-quality air for long-term, some

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