By Roni Repp

URBANIZATION AT FULL SPEED

The ever growing Los Angeles metropolitan area is an example of uncontrolled

urbanization.

The world's urban population now surpasses the world's rural population. What does this mean for the condition and state of our cities? Considering the strain this worldwide demographic transfer is placing on today’s urban framework.

Hong Kong

United Nations Human Settlements Programme

In 2003, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme(UN-HABITAT) published a historic report about the predominance of slums called “The Challenge of Slums”. It’s an examination about urban poverty where more than a hundred researches incorporate three different sources of analysis and data.

1. Case-studies of poverty, slum conditions and housing policies in 34 metropolises

2. Utilizing a comparable database for 237 cities worldwide

3. Gather global household survey data that breaks new ground

By 2050, over 6 billion people, two thirds of humanity, will be living in towns and cities.

Population in Urban Areas

Below is a chart showing urban info per UN-HABITAT

Tota

l Po

pu

lati

on

in %

Population in Urban Areas (% of Total Population)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Cameroon China Columbia Cyprus

2010

2020

Poverty and the Population

Mumbai Urban Slums

According to UN-HABITAT, the world’s highest percent of slum-dwellers are in Ethiopia (99.4% of urban population), Chad (99.4%), Afghanistan (98.5%), and Nepal (92% of urban population).

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report, 80 % of the global population will live in the developing world in 2030.

UNFPA reports that the slum population of sub-Saharan Africa nearly doubled in 15 years to nearly 200 million in 2005.

Slums in Mumbai, India have risen dramatically since 1950. Most of this is due to the fact that Mumbai's tripled since India's independence in 1947. Slum dwellers make up 60% of Mumbai's population, that is approximately 7 million people.

Slums: Often, slums. a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people.

Urban: of, pertaining to, or designating a city or town.

Squatters: a person who settles on land or occupies property without title, right, or payment of rent.

RESOURCES:Planet of Slums, by Mike Davishttp://www.unhabitat.org/http://en.wikipedia.orghttp://www.bing.com/images/search?q=urban+slums+pics&FORM=IGRE&qpvt=urban+slums+pics#http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72956