Sustainable Cities: A Contradiction in Terms?

Abstract

The size of modern cities, too, in terms of numbers as well as physical scale, is unprecedented: in 1800 there was only one city with a million people – London. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, urban growth was occurring mainly in the North as a result of the spread of industrialization and the associated rapid increase in the use of fossil fuels. Worldwide, urban growth is closely associated with increased resource consumption. In global environmental terms, too, increased resource use is becoming a pertinent issue. Asia is currently undergoing the most astonishing urban-industrial development. China alone, with 10 per cent economic growth per year, is planning to double the number of its cities, from just over 600 to over 1200 by 2010. Urban systems with millions of inhabitants are unique to the current age and they are the most complex products of collective human creativity. Demand for energy defines modern cities more than any other single factor.

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