Author: Gogu Madalina-Cristina

1. Urbanisation and Megacities - The challenge of the 21st century

In the 21st century, in Europe 76% of the population live in cities.Urbanisation will occur predominantly in the cities of Africa and Asia which will be half urban by 2025. Population has expanded as never before due to progress in agriculture, science of nutrition and medicine, also a high birthrate and migration which was reinforced by the so called “push-factors” and “pull-factors” lead to the very dynamic growth process. Unfortunatelly most of the growth is taking place in the poor quarters of the city.Two third of megacities are situated in developing countries, especially in South-East-Asia. According to the estimation of the UN concerning the number of megacities in 2015,Bombay, Dhaka, Sao Paulo, Dehli and Mexico City will be five of the worldwide six biggest megacities each with much more than 20 million inhabitants. Different problems and risks of ecological, economical and social nature occur due to the rapid growth of urbanisation and the increasing number of megacities. Agglomerations, metropolitan areas and megacities have a serious impact on the global environment which is whay they come into the international focus of policy; which is wahy there is a high need for development strategies, long term land policy and forceful urban management.

2. Effects and Impacts of Urbanisation and Megacities

Megacities have characteristics that imply serious risks, but also potentials and opportunities for the regional and global development. These characteristics are:Density: Megacities because of their large number of inhabitants, industrial assets and production, social and technical infrastructure are the centres of global economy. Moreover, these centres are attractive for investors due to their concentration of capital stock and highly qualified and “inexpensive” skilled labour is available. Urban Agglomerations and megacities have a flourishing economy which has a huge impact on their rural surroundings. Dynamic: Megacities are characterised by highest dynamic in the fields of spatial anddemographic growth and on formal and informal urban economic sectors, change of land use and consumption of land for settlement purposes, that mostly take place in absence of urban planning and on foreign plots. Megacities have the economic potentials and power to initiate economic growth in the regions around the urban areas this is because of the local, regional and global markets and the connection with the international economic circulation which induces various increasing economic activities,.Settlement, infrastructure and land tenure: The growth of cities is always preceding urban development work and the provision of public facilities.Outside the “proper city”, there are quarters and districts of the agglomeration and megacities which are ill illegally built and do not have the benefits of urban planning. Especially the houses built by the migrants have great problems like a total lack of amenities. About 1.5 billion people live in slums and squatters, these housing system has serious consequences on the environment and public health..Socio-economic disparities: In megacities we can recognise a wide range of social standards and social fragmentation, social-cultural conflicts because of the different background of the immigrants and a great number of urban poor, which are bad provided with public facilities and infrastructure and their housing areas are often edged out by stronger economic purposes and land use. Around a quarter of the population in the developing countries are living in situations of absolute poverty. The most serious problem within the megacities is the growing socio-economic disparity and the lack of social cohesion.

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Risks and vulnerability: On account of the high rate of consumption of natural resources, megacities face serious pollution of the air, water and soil, this exceeds the environmental standards considerable. Mostly the location of new squatters of rapid growing cities and agglomerations is not suitable according to a proper and safe urban development. Cities and their surrounding areas undergo an ecological transformation due to accelerated and uncontrolled growth. Lowering or rising water table, rising sea level, earthquakes, storms and landslides are other factors that depend on the local circumstances which contribute to the urban vulnerability. Although the lack of options the continue urbanisation forces more and more populations to settle in disaster prone areas.Governance: Governability is the biggest challenge of agglomerations and megacities. The experiences show that the possibilities of traditional forms of centralised governance with top down strategies are restricted. In the case of spatial planning, decentralisation and innovative planning processes with intensive participation are necessary.Further analysis of agglomerations and megacities show that they are not only risk areas of the global change, they are also the precursors of the urbanisation and provide opportunities.

3. Approaches and Principles for the development of Agglomerations and Megacities

3.1 Models of Sustainable Development

It’s seems that megacities’ development and sustainability cannot go together hand in hand. The fact that high rates of land and energy consumption, severe pollution of air, water and soil at present and the ongoing social fragmentation are not in complying with the goals of a stainable development. With view on megacities and agglomerations a regional settlement structure has to be designed which set up on the elements density, mixing of different land uses, polycentrality and capacity of public mass transport systems and public facilities. These are the prerequisites for achieving the ecological, social and economic targets of sustainability.The living conditions and the economy in the rural areas must be strengthened so to make the population stay in the rural area so that the urban growth to slow.Between village, between cities and between cities and villages must be promoted cooperation at the regional level.

3.2 Strategies of Urban Development

To achieve a proper development of agglomerations and megacities a comprehensive plan has to be developed to provide the basis for construction immediate plans for economic and social development, area plans, district plans, detailed plans etc. The main principle in accordance with the sustainability should be the integration and coordination of urban and rural areas with the central city. This requires a “multi-centre”, “multi-axis” and “multi-level” urban spatial structure. At the 2nd United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, held in June 1996 in Istanbul, was proclaimed the “right to adequate shelter for all”, as one of the key themes of the conference, through which the millions of people how suffer from a lack of a decent home or are completely homeless should have access to housing. The housing system is recognised as being central to social cohesion and a key factor for development.

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3.3 Long-term Land Use and Land Management Strategies

For a long-term land use and land management there need to be developed reliabale strategies, reliable economic conditions and authoritative legal regulations. To prevent the fragmentation of land and social fragmentation is required a sustainable urban development.Taking into account the rapid growth and the urbanisation that are out of control, a comprehensive urban planning has to be developed and monitoring system must be established. At first the issues of land management and land use have to be resolved so that the housing situation can be improved for the long time. Legal instruments have to be established so that a more secure access to land and planning techniques for urban development and facilities can be made. In practice the greatest challenge is providing sufficient urban land for housing and other purposes at a reasonable price and also the indispensable technical infrastructure. Urban land manager must be capable of evolving a coherent vision of the city’s future and also mobilising private investment both for housing and for urban facilities and services.

3.4 Cost and Energy Saving Facilities and Innovative Transport Systems

Infrastructure contributes to the economic development, makes the territorial areas more competitive and attractive so to promote regional economic integration and social cohesion. But the developing countries cannot contribute to the infrastructure because they have to cope with severe, long-term budgetary problems. In megacities, due to the widening gap between the growing demand and the current provision of water and sanitation, the only option of the authorities to make is a public-private partnership.To influence city-dwe11ers' living conditions and economic development the public authorities have to be involved in producing and managing technical urban infrastructure facilities and services and also social facilities and services in education and health which in megacities and agglomerations of the developing world it will take a long time to achieve this.To slow down the migration from the rural areas is necessary and needed a systematic extension of public transport system into the surrounding areas of the megacities and agglomerations of the developing world. But in many of these countries such a efficient public mass transport system are inevitable.

3.5 Good Governance

One of the main problems in governing megacities and agglomerations is their big extension and high population. These cities have to co-ordinate their activities through local units. It will be necessary to divide and to decentralise megacities and agglomerations in manageable territorial areas. Between all urban territorial areas and the rural surroundings and the central government at all times it is important to ensure and to organise solidarity. City –wide tasks have to still be made by the city or regional bodies.The goal of decentralisation is to improve urban living conditions by addressing needs as directly as possible and to enable city-dwellers to participate in city matters. Decentralisation involves reorganising the political authorities and administration responsibilities between the central and the local authorities.Decentralization requires also capacity building for an efficient local urban management. A major obstacle for managers in performing their tasks is the inadequate mobilization of local resources. Taxation are not methods which encourage taxpayers to comply, they are often discretionary. This strategy is largely determined by the objectives and requirements of city-

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economic and budgetary balances. No foreign model of decentralisation is transferable to different countries; they have to develop their own appropriate model.

4. Conclusions

Megacities and urban agglomerations are complex and dynamic systems, at a local and global scale they reproduce the interactions between socio-economic and environmental processes.Urban areas have an important role in economic growth, social well-being and sustainability of present and future generations, they still do not receive the attention they require regarding global environmental change. Global environmental change covers a diverse and broad range of issues. Megacities and urban agglomerations are major users of energy, natural resources and food, but they offer a unique set of opportunities to advance the creation of new conceptual framework for research.

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