Inquiry Statement: To what extent do decisions made by individuals, governments, and institutions change communities and impact the sustainability of systems.
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A megacity is an urban area that contains more than 10 million residents. There are currently 33 megacities in the world. The top five megacities are all located in Asia. Asia is the continent with the most overall megacities with 19 (or 20 if you count Turkey as part of Asia). Europe has five megacities (including Istanbul, Turkey). Africa, North America, and South America each have three megacities. China is the country with the most megacities with five: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Tianjin.
Tokyo, Japan is the largest megacity by population with 37,800,000. Delhi, India, is second with 25,700,000 followed closely by Seoul with 25,620,000. Shaghai, China is the fourth most populated city in the world with 24,750,000. The fifth most populated city is Mumbai, India with 23,140,000 people. |
The following websites and resources should help you in each area of your research. You will need to research specific answers for your chosen cities but the below resources will give you some general information and thoughts.
General Resources about Megacities
http://www.theguardian.com/cities (this is a good general resource)
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/interactive/2012/oct/04/rise-of-megacities-interactive (this is another good general resources
Introduction
- Location: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
- Demographic (age of people, ratio of men to women, wealth / poverty, religion etc) http://www.newgeography.com/content/002808-world-urban-areas-population-and-density-a-2012-update (you also need to search for demographic information of your chosen city).
- Geographical Features/Description (landforms and how they impact life) (you will need to research about any unique landforms of your chosen city)
- Explanation of why the city has grown http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/unit/text.php?unit=5&secNum=6 (read paragraph 1 and 2 in particular)
- What are the positive aspects of urbanisation (Social/Environmental/Economic) http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/unit/text.php?unit=5&secNum=6 (read paragraph 5)
- What are the negative aspects of urbanisation (Social/Environmental/Economic) http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/unit/text.php?unit=5&secNum=6 (read paragraph 6, 7, 8)
- http://www.themoscowtimes.com/special/environment/eng/megacities-face-mega-problems.html (read from paragraph 8)
Management Strategies
In this section you will need to research and write about 1 or 2 management strategies for your chosen megacity. To guide your research think about how your city is trying to deal with one of the following: pollution, traffic, waste, crime, slums etc.
- What strategies have been put into place to sustain the city? http://www.citymayors.com/development/megacities.html (information about how some cities is managing traffic) http://www.treehugger.com/travel/new-york-city-sustainable-city.html
- How do the strategies impact on people and the environment?
- How effective is the management strategies?
The future of the city
- Will the city continue to grow? http://www.theguardian.com/what-future-urban-living (this website provides a good resource about the future of cities, which you can apply to your own city) http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/ng-interactive/2014/mar/london-skyline-changing-now-future-pictures (this resource is useful for those studying London).
- What will be the impact on the people and the environment if the city continues to grow?