Commission 3 at the 9th Congress of Metropolis
Trends in Megacities – Metropolis Congress 2008
Sydney, Australia, 22-25 October 2008
Background
FIG Commission 3 has set up a working group (WG3.2) to identify relevant
spatial tools that will support development and use of spatial data
infrastructure (SDI) by city authorities in the world’s largest cities.
The working group is currently pursuing two lines of inquiry to identify
problems facing Megacities and how SDI can be used to address these
problems:
- Questionnaires and visits to a selected number of Megacities;
- Review and assessment of existing publications and other sources.
The working group has published the results of questionnaires and visits
in its Stage 1 Report. Various members of the working group are currently
undertaking the review of existing published information and their findings
will be progressively reported as they become available. The working group
will use all this information to prepare its final report due in 2010.
This document summarises relevant information found at the Metropolis
Congress held in Sydney in October 2008 as part of the review of existing
information. Metropolis is an international NGO that has 106 member cities,
with a focus on “connecting cities” through knowledge networks. Some
conclusions are drawn about issues relevant to FIG Commission 3.
Current Situation
- This year for the first time in history, over half of the world’s
population now live in urban areas. This equates to 1.6 billion people.
- It is estimated that 500 million people will be urbanised in the
next five years and projections indicate that the percentage of the
world’s population that is urbanised will be 60% by 2030.
- Urbanisation is a major change that is taking place globally.
There are 19 Megacities (over 10 million population) now, expected to
be 27 by 2020.
Thirty percent of urban populations live in slums; providing
affordable housing is a major challenge in all cities.
Reported Trends
- Rising infrastructure costs means that investment is needed from all
sectors of the economy, driving the need for public/private partnerships
for infrastructure development and maintenance.
- Transport congestion is a major challenge, and growth in Megacities
is trending towards creation and growth of centres or sub-cities, rather
than just growth in the central business district.
- Over half the growth in Megacities will be in Asia: the world’s
“economic geography is now shifting to Asia”.
- The 20 largest cities consume 80% of the world’s energy use and 80%
of greenhouse gas emissions come from urban areas. Cities are where
climate change measures will either succeed or fail.
- Informal settlements are especially vulnerable to climate change
impacts as they are usually build on hazardous sites in high-risk
locations.
- A city “can be run on information” and cities will be differentiated
by their effective use of technology. For example, the Internet will be
a tool for city planning, where everything can be connected and there
will be increased use of sensor webs as input to city administration.
- Megacities exert significant economic, social and political
dominance over their hinterlands. Mega-urban regions are growing,
especially in China (Pearl River Delta) and the US (central east coast)
to create clusters of cities or “system of cities” and while not
Megacities in the traditional form of centre and suburbs, they will form
“multi-centre Megacities”. This form of urban area will exhibit both a
strong internal and international spatial-economic relationship. Is a
new science of international “spatial econometrics” needed to measure
social, economic, environmental and governance outcomes?
- There is a clear dichotomy between the terms “world or global
cities” that are based on interconnections and economic function and
Megacities, which is based on size. It is not just a developed versus
developing country paradigm, but rather the reason the city is growing.
For example, the growth in Chinese cities is based on an outward looking
global focus, while some cities (especially in Africa) are driven by
internal population changes. This means that analysis of needs of cities
will be differentiated not just on geography but also on economic
function and “connectiveness” with the global economy.
Observations
- Most presentations provided at the Congress contained some element
of spatial awareness or specific use of spatial information. It cut
across governance, planning, infrastructure, energy, food, environment,
financing, urban mobility and performance management issues. Spatial
technology was also covered in looking at trends in use of technology in
urban environments. However, there was no specific paper focussed on
spatial information.
- Managing performance of cities, including monitoring, evaluation and
reporting functions is a key challenge. This includes data collection
and analysis and a conclusion reached was that you couldn’t monitor
performance without relevant quality (spatial) information.
- The philosophy behind Metropolis is that “all cities have common
problems, Metropolis helps to share solutions”. There is a strong
alignment between the goals of FIG and Metropolis.
- Cities are increasingly being funded by use of private capital, a
long-term trend notwithstanding the current problems in credit markets.
- Training city administrators is a key task to improve their
knowledge about how SDI can be used to address problems. This training
should be undertaken with local training providers to build local
understanding and ongoing training capacity. Perhaps building relevant
training programs about spatial information use is needed, perhaps along
the lines of Metropolis, which has created a training institute based in
Montreal.
Conclusions
- Given the tipping point of population between urban and rural
environments has now been reached (where over half of the world’s people
live in urban environments), FIG Commission 3 appears correct in its
interest with urban issues and using Megacities as a “headline” issue.
Metropolis is a potential partner.
- Spatial information and technology is being recognised widely as one
of the tools needed to address the big urban problems, but there is
still a general lack of knowledge amongst communities of practice about
how spatial solutions can be used. Knowledge transfer, especially
through training is the key.
- “The climate change battle will be won or lost in the cities”. One
key issue is that the world’s climate change initiatives will either
succeed or fail based on their effectiveness in urban areas. Therefore,
there should be a strong urban focus in climate change policies and
projects. Potential partners for Commission 3 include UN Habitat Global
Urban Observatory and the C40 Group. The latter covers 40 cities
collaborating in CO2 reduction including joint procurement of solutions.
Read more:
Paul Kelly
Chair FIG Commission 3 Working Group 3.2 - Megacities
30 October 2008
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