Latest comments posted about Preparing for an urban future on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/720-Preparing-for-an-urban-future http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/720-Preparing-for-an-urban-future China is going to end up spending the majority of its revenue on maintaining a livable presence in and around the big east coast cities to prevent a "black plague" type of social collapse. You can't have tens of millions of mostly poor people living in cramped conditions without nature getting rid of the weaker members of each megacity population. At the same time, China will have to spend considerable amounts of money getting water and food from an increasingly barren and polluted interior to its population or be forced to pay suppliers' prices for food and technology to produce clean water. nanheyangrouchuan Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:29:14 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/720#comment-1401 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/720#comment-1401 Questioner No. 1 poses an interesting query. In the Worldwatch report, I find no expressed preference for one size of city over another. The document notes that perhaps the most visible aspect of global urbanisation has been the rise of "megacities", agglomerations that are home to at least 10 million people. But, it adds, these cities account for only about 9% of the total urban population; over half of the world's city dwellers live in municipalities with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants. Beyond regional generalisations, Worldwatch says, "each city has a history and a population that will lead the city in its own direction." Sustainability is critical to any urban area's success, though, and a true understanding of the specific needs of individual cities is a key factor in the quest for that sustainability. Armed with accurate knowledge, governments and aid donors can more sensibly target the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to achieve (for example) the UN Millennium Project goal of improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers. Perhaps our friends in China, India, Brazil, Nigeria and elsewhere would like to comment further on this question of city size? -- Maryann Bird Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:00:30 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/720#comment-1125 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/720#comment-1125 The immense gap of poverty between countryside and city has been the main cause of urbanization in China. By the time the population and job opportunity in city has been saturated, poverty and environmental issues will be visualized. China should reduce the gap of poverty between countryside and city as to slow down urbanization indeed. I strongly agreed to the point of view in this article: we are required to create job opportunity in city in order to reduce poverty, thus, will improve the quality of society so as to protect our environment. To resolve these issues more effectively, there is a potential to create more job opportunities which related to environmental protection. Contribution of government and enterprise to protect the environment is essential, they should take action in overall planning and attempt to work out relevant investment at the beginning stage, create job opportunity which will benefit the environment, hence, this will be able to solve the problem. Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:54:36 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/720#comment-1111 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/720#comment-1111 On a macro-level of planning, countries like China have a choice: concentrate on making the most of their largest cities, or deliberately encourage development of smaller regional cities to distribute growth. How does this report address this question? Are huge urban agglomerations easier to plan for and manage, or should they be deliberately prevented--as the green belt restricts London's growth? Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:59:38 -0500 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/720#comment-1077 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/720#comment-1077