Mega cities

Mega cities are cities that have a population of over 10 million people. They are called “meta cities” by the U.N They grow as a result of economic growth, rural-urban migration and high

rates of natural income. As the cities grow, they swallow up rural areas, nearby towns and cities. They become multi-nuclei centres. The world has never had so many large settlements. Some of these cities have populations that are bigger than the populations of

entire countries.o i.e. Mumbai has more people than Norway and Sweden combined.

Mega cities account for 4-7% of the world’s total population and grow at slow rates, 1.5%/year.

Tokyo was the first mega city and now has a population of 35 million people. By 2017, other mega cities will include:

o Mumbaio Delhio Mexico Cityo Sao Paulo

o New Yorko Dhakao Jakartao Lagos

Lagos has been growing very quickly – 5%/year, and is expected to continue increasing at this rate through 2020.

Usually, very large cities grow more slowly than medium-sized cities. By 2020, all but 4 of the world’s mega cities will be in developing countries,

12 of them in Asia alone. The impact of mega cities on the region is huge will require new forms of

planning and management to cope with such large sizes. The scale of environmental impacts is likely to be great. Rapid economic growth and urbanization in China has had a negative impact

on the environment. China contains 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, and is the

second largest producer of GHG’s (Greenhouse gases) after the USA. Mega cities are important for the generation of wealth. In MEDCs, urban areas generate over 80% of national economic output; in

LEDCs the figure is over 40%. On the other hand, there are some aspects of mega cities, such as crime and

environmental issues, where they appear less attractive.

Communication Economieso The benefits that people and businessmen reap as a result of being

close together, such as easy face-to-face contact, low transport costs, sharing modern infrastructure and specialist services costs.

Cumulative causationo By capitalising on some initial advantage, the successful city becomes

even more successful — a multiplier effect kicks in. Development

o The scaling up of urban growth is only possible if supported by economic development and advances in technology.

Population growtho Population growth: the basic input that comes from two sources —

high rates of natural increase and positive net migration. Status-symbol syndrome

o Status-symbol syndrome: the ‘buzz’ felt by people and businesses because they perceive that, by being part of a large city, they are somehow close to the ‘cool’ centre of things — there is kudos and ‘street cred’.

Mass-gravityo The momentum that causes large objects to become even larger.

Questions:

1. Describe the rise and global spread of 5-million cities between 1950 and 2000, as shown in Figure 6.

The rise and global spread from 1950 to 2000 have changed as time has gone by. At start, many of the urban agglomerations started as small cities. As cities increased during the years, these cities have taken other small cities as part of them.

At first, the numbers of cities were only of 8 since 1950, and the majority of these were located in countries in Europe and Asia. 50 years later, the amount of 5-million cities have increased by number almost tripled. The number of cities has increased in Europe and Asia and now, more 5-million cities began to appear in South and North America, and also started to appear in Africa.

The projected number of people is also increased from the values that are shown since 2000. More 5-million cities are to appear in South-East Asia, almost doubling the number of cities that are already present in that area.

2. Suggest reasons for this global spread.

The main reason for this global spread is the increase in population. Big cities start to expand due to housing in its peripheries or other buildings to suit the population’s demands. As the population

increases and the city starts to expand, it starts to suck up smaller towns and rural urbanizations around it.

Another reason for this global spread is the increase in industries and companies. Factories tend to build their main factories in the peripheries of cities, as land tends to be cheaper. As time goes by, the cities tend to increase in size as the amounts of factories tend to increase.

Rural to urban migration also contributes to an increase in population inside urban cities. The people that migrate to the urban area make the urban area increase in size, as more space is needed for people to be able to live there. This increase then makes these urban cities to expand outwards, taking smaller towns in the process, and eventually turning into 5-million cities.

3. What distinguishes a global city from a mega city?

A megacity is known to be a city with a big number of habitants. Most of these cities contain a population greater than 10 million people.

Global cities are cities which are recognised worldwide and are unchallenged as seats of prestige, status, power and influence. These different fields are what separate global cities from mega cities. The picture bellow explains this idea:

4. Read the following newspaper extract and identify the main ways in which mega-cities are changing today.

The article talks about the changes in population inside several mega-cities in the world and describes different megacities around the world and how their population is changing. It also briefly discusses how mega-cities grow, based on the injection of new ideas and labour that come with the arrival of new people, which migrate to these cities.

This article shows that mega-cities are changing as they are increasing in size, but not in many of these is the amount of people increasing as well. For example, it states that sometimes megacities become so congested, that people decide to move out and live in a calmer place.