Letter from the Executive Board
Distinguished Delegates,
Welcome to the United Civil Engineering Summit, hosted by VIT University,
Vellore. It is our honour and privilege to serve as your Executive Board for the
duration of the conference.
Keeping in mind your busy schedules, we have compiled this study guide to
help you with your research for council. Bear in mind that the study guide is in
no way exhaustive and is only to provide you with enough background
information to establish a platform for you to begin your research. We would
highly recommend that you do a good amount of research beyond what is
covered in the study guide. The agendas that we will be discussing during the
conference are “Risks and Opportunities Resulting from Rapid Urbanization of
Ancient Cities” and “Overpopulation Creating a Challenge to optimise the Use
of Urban and Agricultural Land”. We have chosen these agendas bearing in
mind how pertinent they are in today’s global scenario and how they offer
much scope for fierce and passionate debate. However, do remember that
when you step into the shoes of a delegate, you must leave behind your
personal opinions and represent your country to the fullest.
First timers and experienced delegates alike, please go through standard MUN
Rules of Procedure before coming to council. We will spend a part of the first
session explaining the same to you, but it’s always better to have a fair idea of
how council will function before you step in on Day One. We will be following
UNA-USA Rules of Procedure in council.
In case you have any doubts or queries, please feel free to contact any EB
member and we will get back to you as soon as possible. We look forward to
two days of cutthroat diplomacy, solid debate and great fun.
Chair person
Pradyumna Sarma
Vice Chair
Sameeksha Arogyaswamy
Director
Aakanksha Sinha
Agenda 1: Risks and Opportunities
Resulting from Rapid Urbanization of
Ancient Cities.
URBANIZATION:
Urbanization is a population shift from rural to urban areas, and the ways in which society adapts to
the change. It predominantly results in the physical growth of urban areas, be it horizontal or
vertical. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas
at the end of 2008. It is predicted that by 2050 about 64% of the developing world and 86% of the
developed world will be urbanized.
Urbanization is relevant to a range of disciplines, including geography, sociology, economics, urban
planning, and public health. The phenomenon has been closely linked to modernization,
industrialization, and the sociological process of rationalization. Urbanization can be seen as a
specific condition at a set time (e.g. the proportion of total population or area in cities or towns) or
as an increase in that condition over time. So urbanization can be quantified either in terms of, say,
the level of urban development relative to the overall population, or as the rate at which the urban
proportion of the population is increasing.
Urbanization is not merely a modern phenomenon, but a rapid and historic transformation of human
social roots on a global scale, whereby predominantly rural culture is being rapidly replaced by
predominantly urban culture. The first major change in settlement patterns was the accumulation of
hunter-gatherers into villages many thousand years ago. Village culture is characterized by common
bloodlines, intimate relationships, and communal behaviour whereas urban culture is characterized
by distant bloodlines, unfamiliar relations, and competitive behaviour. This unprecedented
movement of people is forecast to continue and intensify in the next few decades, mushrooming
cities to sizes unthinkable only a century ago.
CAUSES:
Urbanization occurs as individual, commercial,
social and governmental efforts reduce time
and expense in commuting and transportation
and improve opportunities for jobs,
education, housing, and transportation. Living
in cities permits the advantages of the
opportunities of proximity, diversity, and
marketplace competition. However, the
advantages of urbanization are weighed
against alienation issues, stress, increased
daily life costs, and negative social aspects
that result from mass marginalization.
Suburbanization, which is happening in the
cities of the largest developing countries, was
sold and seen as an attempt to balance these
negative aspects of urban life while still
allowing access to the large extent of shared
resources.
Cities are known to be places where money, services, wealth and opportunities are centralized.
Many rural inhabitants come to the city for reasons of seeking fortunes and social mobility.
Businesses, which provide jobs and exchange capital, are more concentrated in urban areas.
Whether the source is trade or tourism, it is also through the ports or banking systems that foreign
money flows into a country, commonly located in cities.
Economic opportunities are just one reason people move into cities, though they do not go to fully
explain why urbanization rates have exploded only recently in places like China and India. Rural flight
is a contributing factor to urbanization. In rural areas, often on small family farms or collective farms
in villages, it has traditionally been difficult to access manufactured goods, though overall quality of
life is very subjective, and may certainly surpass that of the city. Farm living has always been
susceptible to unpredictable environmental conditions, and in times of drought, flood or pestilence,
survival may become extremely problematic.
In Thailand, urbanization has also resulted in massive increases in problems, especially in modern
urban slums of the developing world, which are certainly hardly immune to pestilence or climatic
disturbances such as floods, and yet continue to strongly attract migrants. Examples of this were the
2011 Thailand floods and 2007 Jakarta flood. Urban areas are also far more prone to violence, drugs,
and other urban social problems. In the case of the United States, industrialization of agriculture has
negatively affected the economy of small and middle-sized farms and strongly reduced the size of
the rural labour market.
Particularly in the developing world, conflict over land rights due to the effects of globalization has
led to less politically powerful groups, such as farmers, losing or forfeiting their land, resulting in
obligatory migration into cities. In China, where land acquisition measures are forceful, there has
been far more extensive and rapid urbanization (51%) than in India (29%), where peasants form
militant groups (e.g. Naxalites) to oppose such efforts. Obligatory and unplanned migration often
results in rapid growth of slums. This is also similar to areas of violent conflict, where people are
driven off their land due to violence. Bogota, Colombia is one example of this.
Cities offer a larger variety of services, such as specialist services that aren't found in rural areas.
Supporting the provision of these services requires workers, resulting in more numerous and varied
job opportunities. Elderly individuals may be forced to move to cities where there are doctors and
hospitals that can cater for their health needs. Varied and high quality educational opportunities are
another factor in urban migration, as well as the opportunity to join, develop, and seek out social
communities.
People located in cities are more productive than those working outside dense agglomerations. An
important question for the policy makers as well as for clustering people deals with the causality of
this relationship, that is, whether people become more productive in cities due to certain
agglomeration effects or are cities simply attracting those who are more productive. Economists
have recently shown that there exists indeed a large productivity gain due to locating in dense
agglomerations. It is thus possible that agents locate in cities in order to benefit from these
agglomeration effects.
Now that we have seen what urbanisation is let us try and understand how it is
different from rapid urbanisation.
Rapid urbanisation:
Rapid urbanization is the process of people moving from rural areas to urban areas, which increases
the size of the cities to which they move. While this has a number of positive effects, such as more
jobs and other opportunities in a concentrated area, there is a host of problems with rapid
urbanization. This is especially true if the urbanization is unplanned and allowed to spread
unchecked.
Problems with rapid urbanisation:
Increased Traffic
Rapidly-urbanizing areas often have more people than the roads can handle. This is because it takes
much longer to plan and build an effective transportation system than it does to plan and build
houses and commercial buildings. So, a rapidly-urbanizing area will experience extremely heavy
traffic as bottlenecks form from more people using a road than the road was designed for.
Low Wages
A rapidly-urbanizing area will attract people from all over the surrounding countryside. The rapid
influx of people creates a system where wages are depressed. This in turn encourages foreign
companies to take advantage of these low wages by investing, which further-perpetuates the cycle
of low-wage, low-skilled jobs. This makes it difficult for rapidly-urbanized cities to develop higherlevel economies that generate more wealth.
Public Health
It is difficult for infrastructure like water and trash collection to keep up with a large influx of people.
This creates a situation where people are more likely to get sick, as they do not live in sanitary
conditions. Medical services are also few and far between for the same reason, which compounds
this problem. This combination of factors means that people who live in rapidly-urbanized areas
have a tendency toward ill health.
Outwards Sprawl
Rapid urbanization means that people move further from the city centre. This creates a situation
where people -- and resources -- are not evenly distributed. Schools, for example, can become
extremely crowded in the suburbs on the periphery but empty and falling to pieces in the city
centre. Sprawl also adds to traffic and other infrastructural problems when people live in the
suburbs but work in the city centre, as commutes are both long and crowded.
Disastrous results of urbanization on ancient cities:
The vision of promoting economic and social well-being while protecting the environment has not
been achieved due to rising inequality, gaps and shortfalls in development partnerships, rapid
population growth, climate change and environmental degradation.
“Rising inequalities, the food, fuel and financial crises, and the breaching of planetary boundaries
have made clear that a mere continuation of current strategies will not suffice to achieve sustainable
development after 2015,” according to a report, which also notes that current efforts are insufficient
to meet the eight anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their
2015 deadline.
The Survey, produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) reveals the
following to be the top ten ancient cities that have been totally lost without a trace in the process of
urbanization:
1. The Maya
The Maya are perhaps the classic example of a civilization that was completely lost, its great
monuments, cities and roads swallowed up by the Central American jungles, and its people scattered
to small villages. Though the languages and traditions of the Maya still survive up to the present day,
the civilization's peak was during the first millennium AD, when their greatest architectural feats and
massive agricultural projects covered a vast region in the Yucatán — today, an area stretching from
Mexico to Guatemala and Belize. One of the largest Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya made
extensive use of writing, math, an elaborate calendar, and sophisticated engineering to build their
pyramids and terraced farms.
2. Indus Valley Civilization
One of the great civilizations of the ancient world is the Indus or Harappan civilization. Thousands of
years ago, it may have boasted up to 5 million people, almost 10 percent of the world's population,
spread over a region that encompassed parts of today's India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. But its
grand walkways (with sophisticated roadside drainage), metallurgy shops, and massive, multi-storey
brick hives of houses were abandoned over 3,000 years ago. It's likely that this ancient civilization,
like the Maya, suffered from gradual changes in rainfall patterns that made it difficult for its people
to raise enough food for their massive population.
3. Easter Island
The people of Easter Island represent another classic "lost" civilization, famed in part for its
enigmatic, enormous stone statues of human heads (called Moai) lined up along the island's
coastline. How did this thriving Polynesian civilization disappear after centuries of monumentbuilding and navigating hundreds of miles of ocean waters to go from island to island? Jared
Diamond sums up what many scientists now believe, in his book Collapse, which is that the Easter
Islanders were incredibly sophisticated, but their methods weren't sustainable. During the time they
settled Easter Island, possibly between 700-1200 AD, they used up all the island's trees and
agricultural resources, and then had to move on.
4. Catalhöyük
Often called the world's oldest city, Catalhöyük was part of a large city-building and agricultural
civilization thriving between 9,000-7,000 years ago in what is today south-central Turkey. What's
interesting about Catalhöyük is its structure, which is quite unlike most other cities since. It
contained no roads as we know them, and was instead built sort of like a hive, with houses built next
to each other and entered through holes in the roofs. It's believed that people farmed everything
from wheat to almonds outside the city walls, and got to their homes via ladders and sidewalks that
traversed their roofs. Often, these people decorated the entrances to their homes with bull skulls,
and buried the bones of their honored dead beneath the packed dirt of their floors. The civilization
was pre-Iron Age and pre-literate, but they nevertheless left behind ample evidence of a
sophisticated society, full of art and and public ritual, that was possibly 10,000 strong at many points
in its 2,000 year existence. Why did people eventually abandon the city? It is unknown.
5. Cahokia
Long before Europeans made it to North America, the so-called Mississippians had build a great city
surrounded by huge earthen pyramids and a Stonehenge-like structure made of wood to track the
movements of the stars. Called Cahokia today, you can still see its remains in Illinois. At its height
between 600-1400 AD, the city sprawled across 6 square miles, and contained almost a hundred
earthen mounds as well as an enormous grand plaza at its centre. Its population might have been as
much as 40,000 people, some of whom would have lived in outlying villages. The people of this great
city, the biggest so far north in Mesoamerica, were brilliant artists, architects, and farmers, creating
incredible art with shells, copper, and stone. They even diverted a branch of the local Mississippi and
Illinois rivers to suit their needs for irrigation. It's not entirely certain what led people to abandon
the city starting in the 1200s, but some archaeologists say the city had always had problems with
disease and famine (it had no sanitary system to speak of), and that people left for greener (and
healthier) pastures elsewhere on the Mississippi River.
6. Göbekli Tepe
One of the most mysterious human structures ever discovered, Göbekli Tepe was probably built in
10,000 BCE, and is located in today's southern Turkey. A series of nested, circular walls and steles, or
monoliths, carved evocatively with animals, the place probably served as a temple for nomadic
tribes in the area. It was not a permanent residence, though it's possible a few priests lived there all
year. It is the first permanent human-built structure that we have ever found, and probably
represented the pinnacle of the local Mesopotamian civilization of its era.
7. Angkor
Most people have heard of the magnificent temple Angkor Wat in Cambodia. But it was only one
small part of a massive urban civilization during the Khmer Empire called Angkor. The city flourished
during the late Middle Ages, from 1000-1200 AD, and may have supported up to a million people.
There are a lot of good reasons why Angkor may have fallen, ranging from war to natural disaster.
Now most of it lies beneath the jungle. A marvel of architecture and Hindu culture, the city is
mysterious mostly because we still aren't certain how many people lived there. Given all the roads
and canals connecting its many regions, some archaeologists believe it may have been the biggest
urban site in the world at its height.
8. The Turquoise Mountain
Though not every crumbling monument represents a lost civilization, some of them do. Such is the
case with the Minaret of Jam, a gorgeous architectural feat built in the 1100s as part of a city in
Afghanistan, where archaeological remains suggest that it was a cosmopolitan area where many
religions, including Jews, Christians, and Muslims, lived together harmoniously for hundreds of
years. It's possible that the incredible minaret was part of the lost medieval capital of Afghanistan,
called Turquoise Mountain.
9. Niya
Now a desolate spot in the Taklamakan Desert of Xinjiang province in China, 1600 years ago Niya
was a thriving city in an oasis along the famous Silk Road. For the past two centuries, archaeologists
have uncovered countless treasures in the dusty, shattered remains of what was once a graceful
town full of wooden houses and temples. In a sense, Niya is a relic of the lost civilization of the early
Silk Road, a trade route that linked China with Central Asia, Africa, and Europe. Many groups
travelled the Silk Road, from wealthy merchants and religious pilgrims to scholars and scientists,
exchanging ideas and creating a complex, enlightened culture everywhere the 4,000 mile Silk Road
passed. The route underwent many changes, but its importance as a trade route waned as the
Mongol Empire collapsed in the 1300s. Traders afterwards preferred sea routes for trade with China.
10. Nabta Playa
From 7000 and 6500 BCE, an incredible urban community arose in what is today the Egyptian
Sahara. The people who lived there domesticated cattle, farmed, created elaborate ceramics, and
left behind stone circles that offer evidence that their civilization included astronomers as well.
Archaeologists believe the peoples of Nabta Playa were likely the precursor civilization for the great
Nile cities that arose in Egypt thousands of years later. Though the Nabta civilization is today located
in an arid region, it arose at a time when monsoon patterns had shifted, filling the playa with a lake
and making it possible for a large culture to bloom.
Urbanisation on the brighter side:
Urbanization is not all bad, it has its benefits.
Efficiency – Cities are often more efficient than rural areas. Less effort is needed to supply basic
amenities such as fresh water and electricity. Research and recycling programs are possible only in
cities. In most cities flats are prevalent. In flats many people can be accommodated within a small
land area.
Convenience – Access to education, health, social services and cultural activities is more readily
available to people in cities than in villages. Life in cities is much more comfortable, compared to life
in villages. Cities have more advanced communication and transport networks.
Concentration of resources – Since most major human settlements were established near
natural resources from ancient times, lot of resources are available in and around cities. Facilities to
exploit these resources optimally also exist only in cities.
Concentration of Educational facilities – More schools, colleges and universities are
established in cities to train and develop human resources. A Variety of educational choices are
available offering students a wide choice for their future careers.
Economic Improvement – High-tech industries earn valuable foreign exchange and lot of
money for the country.
CASE STUDY:
The rate of urbanisation in South Africa has been very rapid since the 1950s. By the year 2010, 73%
of the population was urban – 43.7 million people! Rapid urbanisation brings with it many problems
as it places huge demands on land, water, housing, transport and employment.
Not all people living in cities enjoy the same standard of living. Some live in grand houses with many
rooms and plenty of ground, others live in modest houses on very small pieces of ground. Many
urban people live in closely built shacks made of packing cases, sheets of plastic and corrugated iron.
Some urban people have a good supply of water and electricity and the waste from bathrooms and
toilets goes directly into the city's sewers. Squatters, however, lack these benefits and are forced to
use open drains and pit toilets. These can create health hazards.
SQUATTERS
With the lifting of racial restrictions on where people may live and work, many unemployed people
in the homelands migrated to the major South African cities in search of work, bringing their families
with them. The shortage of accommodation in cities has forced them to live in shack-towns or
squatter camps on open land.
As migrant workers do not own land they often settle or squat on vacant land owned by somebody
else. Although squatter settlements are seen to arise out of desperate need, the landowners are
often unhappy that squatters are living on their land. Quite often conflicts arise. The state will have
to make provision for future emergency housing for poor people.
SOUTH AFRICAN STATISTICS
Recent statistics illustrate the problem of rapid urbanisation facing South Africa. In the early 1980s
there was one formal house for every 3.5 white people in South Africa, and only 1 formal house for
every 43 black people. In 1989 Gauteng (the then PWV region) contained 412 000 formal houses in
black townships, with 422 000 shacks in their backyards and 635 000 shacks on vacant land. The
housing shortage for blacks outside of the homelands is at least 850 000. More than 7 million people
throughout the country live in shacks of one kind or another. Of those, 2.5 million are on the
Witwatersrand.
SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
* The slower the urbanisation occurs, the easier it is to deal with.
* Rapid urbanisation means rapid increases in the numbers of urban people who need land, housing,
water, electricity, health care, and schooling.
* Urban conflicts will be greatest where urbanisation is greatest.
If the problems of urbanisation are not solved social unrest and environmental pollution will get
worse.
Questions A Resolution Must Answer:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is the need of urbanisation?
How to cope up with the growing need of resource sharing
How is rapid urbanisation affecting the economy of the country?
Is there any way to achieve sustainable development keeping in mind various needs of the
urban population
5. How to monitor and control pollution from various industries in urban areas.
Bibliography:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
http://www.ehow.com/info_8561151_problems-resulted-rapid-urbanization.html.
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/88/4/10-010410/en/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization
http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/envfacts/facts/urbanisation.htm
http://rashidfaridi.com/2012/03/08/pros-and-cons-of-urbanization/
: Overpopulation creating a
challenge to optimise the use of urban
and agricultural land.
AGENDA 2
The raging monster upon the land is population growth. In its presence, sustainability is
but a fragile theoretical construct. To say, as many do, that the difficulties of nations are
not due to people but to poor ideology or land-use management, is sophistic.
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds
the carrying capacity of Earth. Overpopulation is caused by a number of factors. Reduced mortality
rate, better medical facilities, depletion of precious resources are few of the causes which results in
overpopulation. It is possible for a sparsely populated area to become densely populated if it is not
able to sustain life.
Growing advances in technology with each coming year has affected humanity in many ways. One of
these has been the ability to save lives and create better medical treatment for all. A direct result of
this has been increased lifespan and the growth of the population. In the past fifty or so years, the
growth of population has boomed and has turned into overpopulation. In the history of our species,
the birth and death rate have always been able to balance each and maintain a population growth
rate that is sustainable.
Since the time of the Bubonic Plague in the 1400’s, the growth of population has been on a constant
increase. Between the time of the plague and the 21st century, there was been hundreds and
thousands of wars, natural calamities and man-made hazards. However, none of these have made a
dent on the population. Developing nations face the problem of overpopulation more than
developed countries, but it affects most of the Earth as of now. When we are talking about
overpopulation, we should first understand the causes of it.
Causes of Overpopulation
Decline in the Death Rate: At the root of overpopulation is the difference between the
overall birth rate and death rate in populations. If the number of children born each year equals the
number of adults that die, then the population will stabilize. Talking about overpopulation shows
that while there are many factors that can increase the death rate for short periods of time, the ones
that increase the birth rate do so over a long period of time. The discovery of agriculture by our
ancestors was one factor that provided them with the ability to sustain their nutrition without
hunting. This created the first imbalance between the two rates.
Better Medical Facilities: Following this came the industrial revolution. Technological
advancement was perhaps the biggest reason why the balance has been permanently disturbed.
Science was able to produce better means of producing food, which allowed families to feed more
mouths. Medical science made many discoveries thanks to which they were able to defeat a whole
range of diseases. Illnesses that had claimed thousands of lives till now were cured because of the
invention of vaccines. Combining the increase in food supply with fewer means of mortality tipped
the balance and became the starting point of overpopulation.
More Hands to Overcome Poverty: However, when talking about overpopulation we
should understand that there is a psychological component as well. For thousands of years, a very
small part of the population had enough money to live in comfort. The rest faced poverty and would
give birth to large families to make up for the high infant mortality rate. Families that have been
through poverty, natural disasters or are simply in need of more hands to work are a major factor for
overpopulation. As compared to earlier times, most of these extra children survive and consume
resources that are not sufficient in nature.
Technological Advancement in Fertility Treatment: With latest technological
advancement and more discoveries in medical science, it has become possible for couples who are
unable to conceive, to undergo fertility treatment methods and have their own babies. Today there
are effective medicines which can increases the chance of conception and lead to rise in birth rate.
Moreover, due to modern techniques pregnancies today are far safer.
Immigration: Many people prefer to move to developed countries like US, UK, Canada and
Australia where best facilities are available in terms of medical, education, security and employment.
The end result is that those people settle over there and those places become overcrowded.
Difference between the number of people who are leaving the country and the number of people
who enter, narrows down, which leads to more demand for food, clothes, energy and homes. This
gives rise to shortage of resources. Though the overall population remains the same, it just affects
the density of population making that place simply overcrowded.
Lack of Family Planning: Most developing nations have large number of people who are
illiterate, live below the poverty line and have little or no knowledge about family planning. Getting
their children married at an early age increase the chances of producing more kids. Those people are
unable to understand the harmful effects of overpopulation and lack of ignorance prompts them to
avoid family planning measures.
A delegate must always question himself and try to target the world problem of
overpopulation. However, we must keep in mind that solving the problem of overpopulation
is a long term goal and in the mean while we must focus on providing better life to the
inhabitants of our countries.
OPTIMAL USE OF LAND RESOURCES:
Since late nineteenth century till date, major World cities have been growing in size and in height.
Tall buildings have become a prominent feature in any city of economic or political importance. This
has been in response to the ever pressing need for greater accommodations in vibrant economic
cities and for the acute scarcity of buildable land in major urban areas. USA pioneered the growth of
tall buildings more than one hundred years ago while the developing nations have taken the baton
from the USA since the reasons that gave birth to the development of tall buildings are becoming
more critical in the developing countries. Research therefore evaluates the challenges affecting the
development and optimal use of tall buildings. Statistical methods were used to analyse the data
collected and interesting results emerged from the research. A 100% absence of regulation for high
rise construction and maintenance, about 90% lack of domestic expertise for high rise buildings,
almost zero public supply of electricity and water were among the results obtained.
The global community now faces a “crisis in land use and agriculture that could undermine the
health, security, and sustainability of our civilization.” While climate change has received enormous
attention (rightfully), human population growth, and the corresponding rising global demand for
meat and dairy products, as well as the growing need for bio energy should be equal cause
for concern. “We are putting tremendous pressure on the world’s resources.” With 70 million new
people per year, “if we want any hope of keeping up with these demands, we’ll need to double,
perhaps triple, the agricultural production of the planet in the next 30 to 40 years.”
The most valuable resource of any country, let alone developing nations, is their human population.
They need to be accommodated and kept safe while fulfilling their needs. A current trend in modern
cities all over the world is the development of high-rise buildings mainly to overcome the challenges
of urban over population, for optimal use of scarce land resources, as status symbol, as tourist
attractions and for beautiful skylines. Regardless of these advantages, the development of high-rise
buildings has been experiencing several drawbacks. With the continuous increase in the population
leading to ever increasing surge in rural – urban drift, land scarcity and the consequent high cost of
available land can only be expected to be on the increase especially in Cosmopolitan Cities. Bearing
in mind that tall, thin buildings have smaller footprints than the equivalent number of low-rise
housing units, making them occupy less land area; it is a wonder that building high is not growing at
some significant rate compared to the galloping growth of the global population.
The top 10 cities with highest population density as released by a report of the WHO in 2014 show
that the denser a population gets, the needier it gets. There are several problems associated with
the creation of buildings in such a compromised manner. It not only deprives the world population
of the space and freedom expected but also puts an extensive pressure on the governments to
produce agricultural products and other necessary products to ensure the sound lives of their
country’s citizens.
01 – Tokyo, Japan (34.000.000)
The capital of Japan is by far the most
crowded city in the World. Tokyo consists
of 23 special wards, 26 cities, 5 towns,
and 8 villages each having a local
government. It includes outlying islands
in the Pacific Ocean as far as over 1,000
km south in the subtropics. With it’s
34.000.000 inhabitants, including the
population from Yokohama, Kawasaki
and Saitana, Tokyo is the most populated
city in the world. And the numbers do not
stop here.
02 – Seoul, South Korea (24.400.000)
The city has an incredible population density:
17.288 people / square km. Seoul is the
biggest
city
in South Korea
and
unquestionably, the economic, political and
cultural hub of the country.
03-Guangzhou (Canton) –
China(82.525.000)
Guangzhou reaches 40 degree Celsius in
summers. With its population on the rise,
there is a continual rise in the pollution of
the city.
04 – Mexico City, Mexico
(23.400.000)
In 1950, Mexico City only had around 3
million people. Nobody thought that in only
60 years the Capital of Mexico would
become of the biggest cities in the world.
Mexico City is the country’s largest city as
well as its most important political, cultural,
educational and financial centre.
05 – Delhi, India (23.200.000)
Delhi – Lotus Temple
Approximately 23.2 million people live in
Delhi, one of the most important cultural and
political centers in India. The city of Delhi
throughout India’s history has been the
epicenter of power struggle, with kingdoms
and empires created and ravaged by
successive waves of indigenous and foreign
rulers in India
06 – Mumbai, India (22.800.000)
Second Indian city on the list, Mumbai is also
the richest city in India. The high living level
of this city, much over the India general
average, annually attracts a lot of tourists
from all over the country, which makes
Mumbai to be one of the most cosmopolitan
cities of the world.
07 – New York, USA (22.200.000)
Over 22.200.000 population, New York is also
a symbol of American capitalism, of freedom
and democracy. The events of September 11
may have shaken up the city that never
sleeps, but throngs of visitors continue to
flock to the city famous for its architecture,
museums and nightlife.
08- São Paulo, Brazil
(20.900.000)
It remained a small town until the mid-19th
century, when it became a chief
commercial centre in Brazil’s coffee
industry.
09 – Manila, Philippine
(19.600.000)
The capital of the Philippines, this is a country
with a lot of tourist attractions, among which
are The Santiago medieval Fort, Rizal Park,
Malacanang Palace.
10 – Shanghai, China (20.000.000)
Shanghai is practically the biggest city in China
as far as size is concerned and one of the most
populated of the world, with more than
20.000.000 population. And that continues to
grow very fast year by year.
Traditionally, the principle drive to construct tall buildings has always been the desire to cope with
pressing demand of housing units and the need to expand national economies. Hong Kong, for
example is known to be one of the most significant financial capitals in Asia, and as a result has a
long history in the use of high-rises for offices and residential purposes. The embargo placed on
trading with China by the United Nations paved way for the emergence of the economic growth of
Hong Kong. Attractive tax policy spurred the influx of foreign investors thereby turning Hong Kong to
an economic hub. From Britain and Europe witnessed an intense housing deficiency as a result of
bomb damage from the World War II. Thus, large-scale housing projects mostly made of tall
buildings were considered to be a modern and effective way of meeting the demand. The Middle
East region has witnessed rapid development in terms of economic and infrastructural development
in recent years. As a result, many high-rises have been built. Based on the principal reason for the
huge development of the region was the recognition of the need to expand their economy so as to
make it less reliant on oil revenue.
Therefore, tourism, enhanced by the presence of world-class high-rises has been used as an
alternate source of revenue. Some of the most remarkable structures include: The Burj Dubai, Burj
Al Arab (built on a man-made island in 1999), Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) among
others. Without doubt, the high-rise building is viewed as a wealth-generating instrument for an
urban economy. In most cases, tall buildings are built largely because they can generate a lot of real
estate out of a relatively small piece of land. With the increasing rural-urban drift especially in the
developing nations leading to higher demand for real estate and the ever growing availability of new
technology, tall buildings are seen as the most suitable solution for any city faced with the challenge
of space and the need to comfortably accommodate its inhabitants. Thus, cities with limited amount
of space have employed the concept of building higher as a means of providing better living
conditions for the inhabitants.
The concept of construction science complies to analyse the subject’s pressure on the neighbouring
land and also the comfort offered to the inhabitants. Meeting the agricultural needs of a growing
global population is difficult enough, but, at the same time, countries must meet growing food
production needs while mitigating the effects of agricultural production on land-based ecosystems.
“Already, we have cleared or converted more than 35 percent of the earth’s ice-free land surface for
agriculture, whether for croplands, pastures or rangelands. In fact, the area used for agriculture is
nearly 60 times larger than the area of all of the world’s cities and suburbs. Since the last ice age,
nothing has been more disruptive to the planet’s ecosystems than agriculture.”
Agricultural puts pressure on lands, but also on water systems. “Across the globe, we already use a
staggering 4,000 cubic kilometers of water per year, withdrawn from our streams, rivers, lakes and
aquifers. Of this, 70 percent is used for irrigation, the single biggest use of water, by far, on the
globe. As a result, many large rivers have greatly reduced flows and some routinely dry up. And the
extraction of water from deep groundwater reserves is almost universally unsustainable, and has
resulted in rapidly declining water tables in many regions of the world. Future water demands from
increasing population and agricultural consumption will likely climb between 4,500 and 6,200 cubic
kilometers per year, hugely compounding the impacts of climate change, especially in arid regions.”
Not only are water and land resources put under stress, but current agricultural practices create
pollution. “Agriculture, particularly the use of industrial fertilizers and other chemicals, has
fundamentally upset the chemistry of the entire planet. Already, the use of fertilizers has more than
doubled the flows of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds in the environment, resulting in
widespread water pollution and the massive degradation of lakes and rivers. Excess nutrient
pollution is now so widespread, it is even contributing to the disruption of coastal oceans and fishing
grounds by creating hypoxic “dead zones,” including one in the Gulf of Mexico.” Another form of
pollution results from current agricultural and land use practices: C02 emissions. Current practices,
including clearing forests for agricultural land, contribute 30 percent of the currently
unsustainable C02 emission levels.
A few possible solutions to this growing problem are: invest in “revolutionary” agricultural practices,
a new “greener” agricultural revolution; and improve agricultural production while also mitigating
environmental impacts. “In recent years, for example, U.S. farmers — working with agricultural
experts — have dramatically improved practices in the corn and soybean belt, cutting down on
erosion, nutrient loss, and groundwater pollution, even as yields have continued to increase.”
Questions A Resolution Must Answer:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What are the problems arising due to overpopulation?
What are the economic impacts of overpopulation?
What is the threshold pressure that we can exert on the land around us?
How is the current problem affecting the environment?
Steps towards sustainable development.
Bibliography:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
http://www.theijes.com/papers/v3-i4/Version-2/B03402012020.pdf.
http://www.themost10.com/populated-cities-on-earth/.
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-of-overpopulation.php.
http://www.iitk.ac.in/3inetwork/html/reports/IIR2006/Planning_for_Urban.pdf.
http://www.thestructuralengineer.info/library/papers/Sustainability_Challenges_and_soluti
ons.pdf.
6. http://www.overpopulation.org/agriculture.html.
.