What are the factors behind the rise of Mega Cities, and to what extent are these urban areas sustainable?
Megacities, defined by population, have at least 10 million inhabitants. In recent years, megacities in the developing world have grown rapidly with little or no planning. As a result, they face cries of infrastructure, poverty and unemployment. The driving force for the rise of megacities is mass urbanisation between rural – urban areas, as well as rates of natural increase that are higher in urban than rural areas. An example of a megacity is Mexico City, population estimates range between 16-30 million depending on where the boundaries are drawn. Either way, Mexico City is now considered the world’s 3rd largest city and still
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Many projects have been created to make sure that the mega cities remain sustainable. For example in Dhaka, the Bangladesh Environmental Network works on reducing the high levels of arsenic in Bangladesh’s water supply and combats the countries severe flooding problem. Another example of how megacities are environmentally sustainable is the Blue Skies Project in Jakarta, Indonesia. This project is pushing towards a completely natural gas conversion and is working towards the installation of dedicated filling stations, establishing a fleet of natural gas-fuelled passenger busses, supplying conversion kits for gasoline fuelled cars, and creating suitable inspection and maintenance facilities. Economically, megacities thrive. Most of the time mega cities are also world cities, which mean they are resource and learning centres. This strongly suggests that business and global trade is strong between other countries (that they have high levels of synergy). Regarding how socially sustainable megacities are, lots is being done to make sure that they are socially sustainable. For example, in Jakarta there are traffic problems but they are being faced to rid the city of pollution and congestion. The city has launched a ‘three to one’ policy, demanding that every car on major thruways carry at least three passengers when passing through special zones between 4:30pm to 7:30pm. The city has also undertaken the construction of a nearly 17-mile
From 1890 to 1920, cities in the United States experienced a rapid growth that was unprecedented in years previous. This growth was caused by a number of factors and resulted in both positive and negative consequences. Such factors included, industrialization, technological advances, migration and immigration. Although American cities greatly improved by the expeditious urbanization, these factors also developed numerous challenges including pollution, sanitation problems, a need for environmental reform, political corruption, overcrowding, high crime rates and segregation.
Sustainable cities are an ecosystem with not many environmental issues. Some of the issues that are not present within a sustainable city are air pollution, mass population and excessive water and energy usage. A sustainable city does not have a negative impact on the environment. It has a small ecological footprint, which is the impact of a person or community on the environment. It would also have a lot of greenery, meaning a lot of vegetation and use renewable energy, solar panels and wind energy.
The nature of World cities is one of dominance and influence rather than just size. They are powerful centres of economic and cultural authority within their region and on the global stage. They are
Task #1 : Analyse the impacts of at least two urban dynamics operating in a large city of the developed world.
Bigio, G and Dahiya, B, (2004) “Urban Environment and Infrastructure towards Livable Cities.” The World Bank, USA.
Urbanization and Industrialization brought millions of people to growing cities, these growing cities were ill equipped to deal with growing population rate. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of a surplus of job opportunities, faster production, and more amenities, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrialization’s negative effects were angersome working conditions, poor quality of life, and child labor.
Planning and management needs to happen in all countries over the world because no matter how different the level of development between countries the problems will be same in urban areas. These problems that need to be planned and managed in the urban areas of the city are becoming increasingly significant due to the fact that there has been a hug increase in the number of people living in cities worldwide, just over fifty percent of the world are now living in urban areas. The main reason for this is the huge increase in urbanisation which is defined as an increase in the proportion of
Looking back in the past century in the history of the United States, the nation has experienced a tremendous amount of urban growth with the creation of numerous large mecca cities, interconnected highways and a boom with the ever-changing technology that becomes more available to society. While technology has simplified and helped our nation tremendously, this is just one aspect of the issue of urban sprawl in big cities across America.
What is the impact of unsustainable practices in the development of new cities like Canberra on Global Systems? (Draw on any experiences from your own background)
Each month, in developing countries, five million people have access to the cities. The trend towards concentration in some developed countries like the US is clamorous: 243 million Americans are concentrated in urban 3% of the country.
With the advent of globalization and industrialization, urban migration and expansion of cities have become a global trend. South American nations are amongst being most rapid urbanized countries. As more people migrate to urban areas in search of better work opportunities, the cities here are growing in size and number (Ferguson & Navarrete, 2003). This problem is native to not just Latin American countries but is a major concern for most of the developing world. As estimated by the UN (United Nations, 2016), 3 billion people or about 40% of the world population would be living in substandard housing as a result of urban expansions and population growth. This is perceived to be a direct impact of rapid urbanization and excessive strain on
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
Cities in the United States have begun the process of de-urbanization, the transition from urban to suburban living. This has caused an increased demand for suburban housing, these houses take up more land expanding the city boundaries, this is the concept of urban sprawl. According to Britannica, Urban Sprawl is defined as “the rapid expansion of the geographic extent of cities and towns, often characterized by low-density residential housing, single-use zoning, and increased reliance on the private automobile for transportation” (“Urban Sprawl”). There are many effects of urban sprawl, both positive and negative; though the negative outweigh the positive in quantity, but not necessarily in importance. Whether or not urban sprawl is a good
Urbanization is likely to be one of the defining phenomena of the 21st Century for Latin America as well as the rest of the developing world. The world as a whole became more urban than rural sometime in 2007, a demographic change that was driven by rapid urbanization in the developing countries. For the Latin American region, this
Cities are places which have huge amount of gathering of people, collection of economic activities and complex infrastructure for people which all together are supported by transport systems.