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Impossible cities?
22 Dec 2005
The world is currently experiencing urban growth on a scale that has never been seen before.
Towns and cities are home to 48% of us now, whereas in 1970 the urban share of world population was less than one-third.
In 1950 only eight world cities had a population in excess of five million, whereas by 2015 there will be 58.
What challenges does this rapid growth bring for city planners in the world’s fastest developing urban areas many of them in Asia, such as
And as the economic power of these new cities grows, how are MEDC cities responding to growing global competition for employment and investment?
What kind of “post-industrial” activities and societies are increasingly associated with Europe’s major cities, and how are changes being managed?
What are the challenges for cities?
Worldwide, cities are gaining a million people a week.
The items included with this case study examine some of the many challenges that different societies face as a result of processes of urban change
For instance, one source suggests that 100 million rural migrants arrived in Chinese cities during the last decade (The Daily Telegraph,
In some places, managing the unchecked expansion of shanty towns and spontaneous settlements remains a key policy, leaving poor and vulnerable people in perpetual fear of the bulldozer.
In other cases, such as
In contrast, the post-industrial cities of
Instead, it is the management of functional changes, as old industries die and new land uses emerge, that occupies the attention of policy makers and planners.
Additionally, environmental concerns are high on the urban policy agenda for MEDCs, alongside a desire to improve levels of integration between different social groups.
Related Geography in the News articles:
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