Megacities

Misunderstanding Metros
The vernacular notion of "metro area" or "urban region" may not match up with standard political designations, like municipality, county, state, or city-state. Too bad. Ambiguity and complexity are hallmarks of today's mega-cities.

Population Limits Push Residents Out of Beijing and Shanghai
In top-tier Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing, new population caps have spurred the relocation of residents, many of them low-income, to smaller cities and the outskirts.

Putting a Dollar Value on Urban Trees
According to this study, existing "leafy infrastructure" in ten of the world's largest cities confers an estimated $505 million in benefits. Planting more could magnify the effect.
How to Manage the Sprawl in Growing Megacities
Around the world, people continue to move toward urbanized areas in search of opportunity. Developing megacities and megaregions must plan ahead for the continued growth, according to Bloomberg.

Beijing Heads Towards Population 130 Million
China's capital city is already one of the largest in the world, but it's about to get a whole lot bigger. As the Chinese population continues to migrate from rural to urban areas, the Chinese government is planning for megacity of 130 million.

Global Cities Allying with Each Other, Not with Nations
With nation-states often wracked by internal political divides and often unable to cooperate with each other, cities have begun to forge their own international relationships. A new, urban approach to foreign policy is emerging.

China's Megacities May Soon Rely on Urban Farming
While widespread urban farming remains pipe dream in the United States, dwindling arable land and a mass shift to cities might make it a necessity in China.

What a Megacity with 107 Million People Looks Like—via SimCity
Writing for Motherboard, Derek Mead details what it took for a particularly ambitious SimCity player to build a city of 100 million people.

Friday Eye Candy: A Photo Critique of Asia's Megacities
Michael Wolf is a 60-year-old German photojournalist living in Hong Kong. In a recent interview, he describes his various projects in capturing the lives of the millions who call Asian megacities home.

Our Fragile Emerging Megacities: A Focus on Resilience
The number of megacities is expected to double over the next decade, and many of these growing cities are far from resilient. The solution: frugal engineering and local knowledge.
Mayors’ Conference Crystal Ball: More Megacities, Moderate Economic Growth
The United State Conference of Mayors recently released a report projecting moderate growth for almost all of the country’s metropolitan areas. A survey of coverage on the report reveals multiple readings of the state of the economy.
The Rise of the Megacity
Through the lens of Chengdu and Delhi, Paul Webster and Jason Burke explore how the rise of the megacity is changing the way we live.
The Extreme Future of Megacities
Megacities are the future of our planet. Author James Canton offers several visions and strategies to begin planning for them.
As Cities Grow, Their Definitions Get Murky
As the world continues to urbanize and megacities continue to grow, cities are increasingly "unrecognizable," no longer necessarily, say, places of political power. David Pillings repots on this and other issues challenging the traditional city.
Livability Grows in China's Emerging Megacities
A new breed of developers in China are increasingly trying to make the country's new cities into pleasant, walkable and even environmentally sustainable.
South Korea Rises
South Korea is emerging as a new center of Asian mega development. With a variety of large-scale and small-scale projects, the country is taking a specific interest in sustainable development.
How Chinese Megacities Avoid Problems
Megacities are quickly on the rise in China. But as this post from New Geography argues, they've managed to avoid problems currently faced by other megacities in developing nations.
Slum Appreciation Misguided
The slums of the world's megacities have been the subject of much admiration among urban thinkers recently. Joel Kotkin argues that adulation is misguided.
World's Biggest Mall A Ghost Town
A huge mall in China -- the largest in the world -- has just a 1% occupancy rate.
Megacity to Install 500,000 Security Cameras
The Chinese megacity of Chongqing has announced plans to install a half a million surveillance cameras by 2012.
Pagination
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