The South American Megacity New York And The Asian Megacity Of Beijing

Closely associated with the process of globalisation is the notion of ‘World cities’. World cities are those such as London, New York and Tokyo where urban function has moved beyond the national scale to become a part of the international and global system. They are centres of culture, economics, employment, tourism, transport and communications and have been referred to as the command centres of the World’s borderless economy.

A world city is a large city that has been outstripped its natural urban network and become part of an international global system. World cities have become the central connecting point for the multiplicity of linkages and interconnections that sustain the contemporary world economy, and its social and political systems. According to the 2004 GaWC studies world cities can be ranked based on their provision of ‘advanced producer services’ such as accountancy, advertising, finance and law. In 2008 the rankings according to the GaWC determined that London and New York were Alpha ++ cities whilst Sydney, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore were Alpha

Task #1 : Analyse the impacts of at least two urban dynamics operating in a large city of the developed world.

It is estimated that over 50% of the world’s population now lives in urban areas and that this will rise to 70% by 2050. Such a change will

As urban development progressively changes people’s living behaviors, gentrification has created new urban movements for everyone to follow. It refers to the special migration in population who is seeking either a better living space and/or a better employment environment through an intra-city moving. As many studies have discovered, the future global population growth will only take place in the urban area. It is projected to be a 70% of the 9 billion future populations to live in cities in 2050. (Maarten Hajer 61) As the observable trend along with the major bus routes in San Francisco and Oakland, it makes people believe that gentrification will become an unpreventable force to

In this ted talk by Parag Khanna, How Megacities are changing the map of the world. The main theme of the talk is about how global networking civilizations in which the cities are now been compete more than the borders. This means that we are now moving into the a world where technologies has taken place in most of our cities, for example the way the infrastructural development and hyper-connected cities are rising to the top more than the state(page 12.10) due to the rapid growing of the people moving to the cities.

Asian cities have been tended to grow more quickly than Western cities, so what makes their growth so phenomenal? The accelerated rate may be attributed to population dynamics, economic markets and or/socio-political conditions, poor planning and disregarding environmental hazards like flood plains have held them back. Many primate cities in Asia have grown to become megacities, and some more are rapidly increasing in size to assume such a status by the end of the century. This is a remarkable phenomenon fraught with various implications, favorable or unfavorable. In 1960 there were only two megacities in the region, which were, Tokyo and Shanghai. In 1970 Beijing was added, and Asia had three of 10 megacities in the world, or two of five

The area that constitutes New York City today was originally populated by the Lenape people. These autonomous groups of Native Americans were “dozen-odd groups” who lived between today’s Eastern Connecticut and central New Jersey. They spoke an Algonquian language, lived in seasonal campsites, and dedicated their lives to fishing, farming, and hunting. The first European to enter the New York Harbor was the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verraza, who was at the time searching for a northwest passage to Asia. Despite the short visit, he named the area Nouvelle-Angoulême in honor of the principal state of the King of France (Burrows and Wallace).

Megacities have been becoming a reality to billions of people around the world. These are defined as cities home to more than 10 million residents and many megacities are even more than twice as large as this base population. These cities are home to a few very wealthy individuals with a much larger group of poor or underpaid citizens creating slums in and around these cities. For these few elites, it is not a question as to why they chose to live in a place like this. They are drawn to these cities because, large cities are home to more culture, more efficient transportation, luxury, and they are typically the centers of a country's economy. However, if you are not one of these people, there are still reasons as to why living in a city with such a large population would be beneficial for you. Megacities, more so than the country or small cities, have more efficient and cheaper

According to the data from United Nations urbanization prospects 2014, in the early 20th century the urbanized population only accounted 15 percent of the world’s total population. Half century later the pace of urbanization rate accelerated and the figure reached 30 percent in 1950. After nearly 60 years of development, in year 2008 it was the first time that urban population outstripped rural population. Now in 2014 there has been 54 percent of world’s population become urban dwellers. However due to historical geographical and economic reasons, the level of urbanization varies significantly across regions. Highly urbanized regions include Northern America and Caribbean and Latin America with over 80 percent of their total population urbanized.

It became “virtual” and turned the real architectural landscape of the city into the collection of spaces and ties between them. The city space started to exist in the global environment, where the distance between two continents can be overcome in shorter time than the distance between two neighbouring areas that have traffic jam. A modern city that preserves the features of its cultural identity and combines them with the progressive technologies of life organization has the biggest chances to become attractive for the citizens and compete for the best of them with other global

In the United States nowadays, many people live in big cities where the population is twenty-five to thirty thousand people. These cities may have every restaurant you can think of, but they aren’t always the safest place to be. This is why much of the populace enjoy living in a small town.

Global Warming is quickly becoming a growing issue for large urban cities in America. As we expand our urban areas with the growing population, cities use more energy for air conditioning, water, and lighting (). Although air conditioning is powered by electricity, many urban cities rely on the combustion of coal for energy (). Combustion of coal emits CO2 and deadly gases into the atmosphere which leads to Global Warming (). Buildings in urban areas use conventional roofs as their main aesthetics. Conventional roofs are generally comprised of tar and gravel. On hot summer days, conventional rooftops can be 27–50°C hotter than the surrounding air temperature. This happens because the albedo of tar and gravel is extremely low which allows for the sun’s energy to be absorbed instead of reflected (). The increased temperature leads to urban heat islands (). Increasing higher albedo surfaces on roofs will result in more reflection of solar energy away from the urban areas (). Rooftops covered in plants, also known as Green Roofs have grown popular tremendously in the last decade. These rooftops are covered in natural greenery like small trees, bushes, flowers, grass, etc. Green roofs are cost effective way to solve many problems with global warming in urban areas (). Environmentalists could use data from satellites and compare the number of green roofs and

A sustainable city is when harmony is reached between the environment, economy and society. Environmentally, sustainable cities are ecologically friendly by using alternative sources of energy such as solar or wind power. Economically, governments should share a similar decision-making process with institutions and with the public by having a common belief in what should be done by improving sustainability. Sorensen, Marcotullio, and Grant (2004), find that a good decision making process consists of planning and control at the municipal and national political levels which would allow local level functions to become reinforced. Socially, sustainable cities are classless, meaning that there are no social divisions which serve as limits; leading to a more equal society. One of the many ideas would be using mixed housing to remove the class divisions between people. Also, city streets would be walkable, with businesses and services located at close proximity to promote a healthier lifestyle and serve as an alternative to using cars for transportation. The writers differ in their analysis when examining the approaches to improving sustainability in cities. This section will analyze four important ideas on how cities can become more sustainable.

Urbanization, which is becoming a buzzword during the last few decades, is enlarging at a booming speed. It is predicted that 93 percents urban growth will occur to the year 2020, in the developing world (Elliot J.A, 1999). Generally speaking, more than half of the people around the world have been moved to cities, which led to a series of “matters” connected with people’s life that changed in a dramatical way. In this period, sustainable development, another buzzword during the past few years, came into people’s view and gradually became the mainstream of society development. Its definition is to make the development continue in a long term, which means allowing appropriate economic growth and industrialization without