Megacities Flashcards
What influences do world cities have?
Political influence - eg. New York is home to the UN.
Transport and communications - eg. Heathrow airport has the most international passengers.
Economic power - stock exchanges and TNCs for example.
Case study: Chongqing.
Urban economy grows by £7 million per day.
Population grows by 500,000 a year.
Average income rose by 66% between 2000 and 2005.
Why can growing cities in poorer countries be unsustainable?
Lack of adequate housing due to rapid growth and poverty.
Poor health which is linked to lack of water and sanitation.
Poor government - lack of will and resources make it hard.
Poverty - resulting from low wages and underemployment.
Case study: water supply in Dhaka.
90% of slum dwellers have no official water connection.
DSK has persuaded DWASA to connect water to the poor.
Between 1996 and 1999, 6000 households benefitted from the construction of basic water pumps.
New Urbanization
World’s 25 fastest growing cities of over 2 million people are in a belt
stretching from Indonesia and China to the west coast of Africa. On average, the Asian
cities are larger and growing slightly more slowly than their African counterparts.
Contrasting Megacities
Level of development: many of Asia’s cities are centres of wealth
and many of Africa’s are extremely poor.
Type of migrant: some may be young and skilled, others may be older and poorer.
Growth characteristics
Some cities may be growing largely because of migration, others
by internal growth.
Improving health and environment
Improving water water supply and sanitation are
crucial if the cycle of poverty and deprivation is to be broken. Often external aid is required
as the scale of the problems is over whelming. Eg. Greater Cairo waste water project -
since 1983 cost £2 billion and much of the funding has come from the UK.
Transport and environment
Many mega cities has air pollution issues. Some initiates are aimed to reduce this… In Mexico City private cars are banned from driving in the city one
day a week.
In Delhi all busses and rickshaws were converted to cleaner compressed gas in 2002.
Eco cities?
Meets the social and economic needs of its inhabitants at the same time as minimising
pollution. Eg. Curitiba in Brazil.
Rural-Urban Migration
Poorest areas have the fastest urban growth rates - migration tends to dominate internal growth. Much of the growth of these cities leads to slums. By 2020 - 1.3-1.4 billion people will live in slums.
Who are the rural - urban migrants? (Mexico City)
The majority of rural - urban migrants come from poor farming states close to and south of Mexico City, many of which are young women escaping rural poverty and seeking low skilled domestic work.
There is large out-migration from Mexico City, but this is migration to other sprawling fringes of the city.
Urban Growth
Refers to the growth in the physical size of a city and is different from urbanisation.
Urban Sprawl
Occurs when urban areas grow outwards, usually in an uncontrolled way, in the developing world this often results in illegal slums.
Suburbanisation
Occurs when the wealthy choose to live on the city edge to escape the poverty, crime, congestion and pollution of the city centre.
