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from the current 400 million, and Asia will see
a 61 percent rise.
THE OTHER SIDE OF URBANIZATION
A large proportion of the global urban
population will reside in informal cities or
settlements like the favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
Bettencourt says cities address this problem
by improving streets, accesses, buildings
and infrastructure in these neighborhoods
or relocating people. ”France and UK are
typical examples of often unsuccessful public
housing; it created several vertical slums on
the outskirts of Paris and parts of London
that over time caused many socioeconomic
problems – it is crucial not only to build
housing, but also understand how it ’runs’
socioeconomically – this has been done
better in places such as Hong Kong or
Singapore,” explains Bettencourt.
A 2014 report titled “Human Development
in South Asia, Urbanization: Challenges
and Opportunities” makes some key
observations. In the past three decades,
Bangladesh witnessed the highest rate of
urbanization (4.19%) in South Asia, leaving
behind populous countries like India
(2.87%), and Pakistan (3.41%), but 60% of
its population resides in slums and 21% of
its urban populace lives below poverty line.
The report blames “unplanned” urbanization
for inadequacies in infrastructure, public
transportation, housing, water and
sanitation, energy, solid waste management,
and health and education among others.
”Issues that require less physical intervention
are easier to resolve than those that need
extensive physical planning and construction,”
points out Bettencourt. Take Mumbai for
instance, he says. ”The state is licensing an
increasing number of tall buildings, but many
of them don’t have integrated sewage and
regular water supply because that requires a
lot of physical work – digging, laying pipes,
etc. – but other things like electricity or
telecommunications are much easier, so you
find them even in poor neighborhoods,” he
adds, highlighting the contrast.
CROSSING BOUNDARIES
As cities expand across boundaries and
spill over multiple jurisdictions, Bettencourt
says they gather more complex political,
municipal and bureaucratic undertones,
which means it takes concerted efforts from
various stakeholders to design a spatially
integrated city with appropriate linkages. He
cites the example of Medellín in Colombia,
a city in a mountainous valley, which links
its varied neighborhoods using public
transportation like cable cars and metros.
“It’s a system where the thinking is to
improve and create a city that is more
socially connected,” he notes. European
cities, such as Frankfurt and Rotterdam, and
some American cities, such as Boston or
Portland, have made their mark in building
efficient systems. Southeast Asia’s island
country Singapore is another case in point. Its
ambient living environment with parks and
gardens around concentrated mini townships,
its wastewater treatment initiatives (which
meet 30 percent of the city’s water needs)
feature
feature
and excellent connections via metro and
bus systems make the modern city-state
sustainable.
To establish an integrated view of
development, some cities are also exploring
participatory design, which extends to
involve local communities. ”People who live
in cities they can feel proud of feel greater
ownership of it, identify with it, become more
interested in the outcome and work toward
improving their own living environments,”
says Woo. ”Adopting participatory design is a
step toward improved urban development,”
she points out.
THE SMARTER WAY OUT?
Emerging economies in Asia Pacific and Africa
are taking it a step forward and making huge
investments in creating integrated cities often
dubbed as “smart” cities.
”It’s primarily an engineering concept
about how to use data to run a better and
more integrated operation, and I think it can
be an enabler of better city government in
terms of service delivery,” says Bettencourt.
A recent report by Navigant Research notes
that the cumulative investment in smart city
technology in Asia Pacific will total $63.4
billion during the period from 2014 to 2023.
While Songdo in South Korea, Fujisawa
in Japan, and Iskandar in Malaysia are
prominent examples, India’s upcoming 100
smart cities, South Africa’s $7.4 billion smart
city Modderfontein, and Kigamboni, outside
Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, are all gaining
popularity.
Since cities, by nature, are constantly
changing, developing countries that build
cities swiftly have to be cautious. China,
says Bettencourt, is rapidly building cities,
highways, high rises, affordable homes and
industrial zones. ”It’s like big cities that come
out of a machine, which in the long run,
may not do very well – at least it didn’t in the
West,” he warns. The Chinese government is
taking steps to adopt a new mechanism. Last
year, it announced a renewed urbanization
plan (2014–2020), which aims to be more
people-centric and embraces sustainable city
management.
SUSTAINABLY YOURS!
After all, it is a matter of choice. ”There are
different ways of making cities livable, and
several of those ways are sustainable and
others are not,” adds Woo. The onus then
is on every country to understand its urban
environments, find sustainable solutions
within its own contexts and build cities that
will stand the test of time. Clearly, boarding
a local train in Mumbai seems easier in
comparison. /
“Issues that
require less
physical
intervention are
easier to resolve
than those that
need physical
planning.”
Traffic on the roads
of Mumbai, India.
7.5 million
commuters in
Mumbai use rail
services every day.
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