World Cities
largest cities. Rather they are the
How urban grow in different aspects?
- migration
Urban growth:
- Towns and cities grow in a number of ways:
o Rural-urban migration is a key process
o Rural-urban migrants tend to be young
and have high fertility; this boosts rates
of natural increase in cities
o Rural-urban migration in the developing
world is currently responsible for much
urban growth
o Natural increase, especially in the
developing world.
o In the developed world, counter-
urbanization tends to balance the influx
of migrants to towns and natural
increase is low due to low fertility rates.
o The more developed the megacity, the
slower the rate of growth.
Urbanization today and tomorrow:
- By 2030, the urban population will have risen to
5 billion or 60% of the global population
- 50% of the urban population today is aged
under 25.
- Asia’s urban population is set to rise from 1.4
billion now to 2.6 billion in 2030 (equivalent to
the world’s total population in 1955).
- Africa’s urban population will rise from 300 to
750 million and that of Latin America and the
Caribbean from 400 to 600 million.
Imperialism and Peripheral Urbanization
Colonial cities are those that were deliberately
established or developed as administrative or
commercial centers by colonial or imperial powers.
Indian Peninsular Terminus in Mumbai (Bombay) shows
the influence of Victorian British architecture.
Types of City:
- Urban areas with a population of over 10
million people are termed “megacities”.
- There were around 20 of these in 2007; 75% are
in the developing world and most continue to
grow rapidly.
- Strictly speaking, London is not a megacity, but
if the population of the wider metropolitan area
is taken into account, it comes very close to
being one.
- There are around 200 “million cities” with
populations of over 1 million.
- World cities are those cities that wield huge
economic and political power such as New York,
Tokyo and London.
o World cities are not simply the world’s
control centers for the global economy,
places where critical decision making
and interaction take place with regard
to global economic, cultural and
political issues.
 Top-tier world city
 2nd-tier world city
 3rd-tier world city
o Brussels qualifies as a world city
because it is the admin. Center of the
European Union and because it has
attracted a large number of NGO that
are transnational in scope.
o Milan has global status in terms of
cultural influence especially fashion and
design and is an important regional
financial center but it is relatively
dependent in terms of corporate
control and information processing
activities
World cities provide an interface between the global
and the local. They are also sites of:
- Most of the leading global markets
- Clusters of specialized, advanced business
services
- Concentrations of corporate headquarters
- Concentrations of national and international
headquarters of trade and professional
organizations
- Most of the leading NGOs and IGOs that are
international in scope
- The most powerful and internationally
influential media organizations.
The spheres of influence of world cities, based on an
analysis of the regional headquarter function of the
world’s largest advanced business services firms.
Urban Terrorism – the wreckage of a public train near
Atocha train station in Madrid, Spain, March 11, 2004.
13 bombs on four packed commuter trains killed 191
people and wounded more than 1500. The attack was
attributed to the Islamic militant group al-Qaeda.
Megacities’ most important common attribute is their
sheer size – most of which have 10 million or more
population. Other examples include Bangkok, Lagos,
Manila, Dhaka, New Delhi, Jakarta, Silo Paulo and
Teheran.
Megacities are very diverse.
Some are at the early or immature stage in the cycle of
urbanization, whereas in other the rates of growth is
slowing (consolidating).
Developed world megacities (mature) tend to have very
slow growth rates are dominated by suburban sprawl.
They are increasingly feeling the effects of counter- - Water supply problems
urbanization. - Deep eco-footprints
- Declining centres/centers
Mature, slow growing – Europe and North America,
- Sprawling suburbs and exurbs
Population 70%+ urban (No slums)
Globalization and Splintering Urbanism
- Osaka – Kobe
- Tokyo - Enclaves of internet and digital multimedia
- Moscow technology development, modify in core-
- Los Angeles country world cities
- New York - Technopoles and clusters of high-tech industrial
innovation
Consolidating, growing – South America and Southeast
- Places configured for foreign direct investment
Asia, Population 40-50% urban (Under 20% slums)
in manufacturing, with customized
- Beijing infrastructure, expedited development approval
- Rio de Janeiro processes, tax concessions and in some cases
- Shanghai exceptions to labor and environmental
- Buenos Aires regulations.
- Sao Paulo - Enclaves of modernization in the megacities and
- Mexico City major regional centers of peripheral countries
- Enclaves of back-office spaces, data processing,
Immature, rapidly growing – South/Southeast Asia and e-commerce and call centers.
Africa, Population under 30% urban (20%+ slums) - Spaces customized as logistic zones.
- Jakarta
- Dhaka
- Karachi
- Lagos
- Mumbai
- Kolkata
- Cairo
- Delhi
- Manila

Future trends

- There will be a significant shifts in the

distribution and ranking of megacities, with
major cities in the poorer parts of Asia entering
the top 10 list.
- New cities will also gain megacity status. By
2020, there could be close to 30 megacities
including: Istanbul, Guangzhou, Kinshasa, Lima,
Tianjin, Lahore and Bogota
- Other rapidly growing cities likely to exceed the
10 million mark by 2020 are: Bangalore, Wuhan,
Chennai (Madras), Tehran, Riyadh, Hyderabad,
Baghdad and Hong Kong.

Megacity problems (Developing world – Developed

World)

- Sprawling slums
- Explosive population growth
- Poverty and prevalence of informal economy
- Lack of clean water and sanitation
- Disease epidemics
- Transport gridlock
- Urban funding crises
- Overcrowding
- Lack of green space
- Pollution of air and water
- Visual and noise pollution