Concept of Megacities, Global Cities and Edge Cities – Geography – UGC NET – Notes

Concept of Megacities

United Nations had observed as late as in 2007 that humanity will reach a significant demographic milestone, wherein for the first time in history more people will live in cities than the countryside and by 2030, over 60% of people will live in cities. The growth rate is particularly rapid in many of the so-called megacities, cities with more than 10 million inhabitants. The megacities listed by the UN already have a total population of around 280 million. They are increasingly the growth engines of their respective national economies.

Mega cities can be built in ecologically sensitive areas which are often the most beautiful and subsequently ruined by improper development and over use. The concrete base connecting these three structures were conceived to balance each other by turning static vertical loads and dynamic wind loads into tension (counteracted by post tensioning) by the parabola forms that connected them. In the “cup” created in the center of these structures, organized human activity would take place. Parking is below. On the outside of these parabola forms, landscaping is introduced. Other than this, the beach with its natural, shifting beach-building processes is left in a natural state. Access is kept to a level that the beach can self-repair and sustain. This way a substantial population can enjoy the amenity while not destroying it. Projects like these can be spaced some distance apart while matching the population density of the “peanut butter spread” strategy of traditional beach development which is destructive to the host environment and vulnerable to destruction by common weather occurrences which are misnamed as “tragedies” with equally misidentified “victims.” Of course, this requires an entirely new approach to real estate development and zoning.

Structures like these can be manufactured and built to withstand flooding and hurricane force winds. It is always interesting to me that my car can drive through rain and winds that would destroy my conventional built house and that we routinely fly airplanes through storms that routinely destroy cities. One wonders that sometime someone might start wondering about this.

These cities can be built of super modules. The helix form shown here is composed of three modules, linked together into super-modules with an assembly rule that can be applied in a right hand or left hand mode. This offers a beautiful “dna” helix form creating a high variety of exterior exposures to view, wind, sun and multiple different “interior atrium” volumes. The horizontal and vertical intersections create a great number of different kinds of spaces. Complexity generated from simplicity. This kind of structure can be built of prefabricated units of several scales of recursion “super bricks” for fast site assembly.

What cannot be shown with drawings and models of this scale is the landscaping and zoning algorithms. The model that people hold in their head is that of the massive monolithic concrete apartment building with long halls of artificial light. This is a poor model. Think of the super-structure as Armature and Infrastructure and think of this as a whole as a human built mountains where humans, animals and plants can live on and within. The open space default rule will be much like was employed in the Boulder Affordable housing design.

Wilderness megacity is designed to be built in extreemly remote areas. It is accessible only by walking of my mono-rail. the scale can be appreciated when you realize that the “stalagmite” structures hanging down from the bowl-like form are, themselves, 20 to 30 story buildings. It is also important to realize that you will never see the structure as it is drawn. Its entire skin is a metabolic strategy that changes from reflecting to translucent to transparent to open based on a complex “breathing” strategy that is “controlled” by both users and an algorithm for optimum heating and cooling.

The cities themselves can have a focus and draw an affinity population to them around a variety of principles: scientific, political, religious, economic, recreational, lifestyle, goods production, “experiences” and so on. This is how cities in the past were developed. Today, they just seem to grow with no rhyme or reason – most modern cities lack focus, they have no theme. They are simply the consequence of population expansion and economic exploitation with some planning and better development thrown in now and then. This is not how the great cities of the past were created. With the exception of a few core city areas, the US citizen has to go to Europe to discover what a city really can be.

Negative impacts on the Earth must be minimized at the building site, as well as, to the larger landscape that surrounds the development. The amount of open “natural” landscape in relationship to the scale and scope of the building – and the impact of its use must be “scaled “as is appropriate, by the capability of the landscape to sustain itself and the project.

What is Megacity?

Megacities have more than 10 million inhabitants. The terms Megapolis or Megalopolis are sometimes used synonymously with Megacity. As of 2015, there are 35 megacities in existence. The United Nations predicts that there would be 41 megacities by 2030. In India there are 4 megacities- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru.

Key Features of Megacities

The United Nations has outlined certain features which pertain to Megacities:

• Megacities prioritize economic competitiveness and employment.
• The environment matters, but may be sacrificed for growth.
• Transport overtakes all other infrastructure concerns.
• Better governance is a vital step towards better cities.
• Holistic solutions are desired but difficult to achieve.
• Cities will seek to improve services, but could do more to manage demand.
• Technology will help deliver transparency and efficiency.
• The private sector has a role to play in increasing efficiency.

Typical Challenges faced by Megacities

The key challenges faced by megacities are following:

Slums:

It is observed that due to rising population, the absolute number of slum dwellers is rising. There are legal and illegal settlements with insufficient housing and sanitation. This is largely due to massive migration, both internal and transnational, into cities, which has caused growth rates of urban populations and spatial concentrations not seen before in history. Slum dwellers often have minimal or no access to education, healthcare, or the urban economy.

Crime:

As there is lack of proper and sufficient infrastructure and public services which includes sanitation, housing, education and healthcare to support the growing population not only leads to the growth of slums, but also breeds discontent among urban dwellers, leading to high crime rates.

Homelessness:

Megacities have a significant number of homeless people.

Traffic congestion:

Looking within our own geographical boundaries, cities like Mumbai and Kolkata are facing huge traffic. Traffic congestion leads to increased pollution, slow speed of vehicles, etc.

Urban Sprawl:

Urban sprawl have the disadvantages of longer transport distances to work, high car dependence, inadequate facilities (e.g. health, cultural. etc.) and higher per-person infrastructure costs.

Air Pollution:

There are hazardous chemicals which are let out and are harmful to humans, other living organisms and are also damaging the natural environment. Smog is a typical form of air pollution which happens due to vehicle emissions and industrial fumes.