The New Geography of Contemporary Urbanization and the Environment

Abstract

Contemporary urbanization differs from historical patterns of urban growth in terms of scale, rate, location, form, and function. This review discusses the characteristics of contemporary urbanization and the roles of urban planning, governance, agglomeration, and globalization forces in driving and shaping the relationship between urbanization and the environment. We highlight recent research on urbanization and global change in the context of sustainability as well as opportunities for bundling urban development efforts, climate mitigation, and adaptation strategies to create synergies to transition to sustainability. We conclude with an analysis of global greenhouse gas emissions under different scenarios of future urbanization growth and discuss their implications.

A Synthesis of Global Urbanization Projections

“…It is estimated that 30 % of national GDP in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, and France is accounted for by London, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Paris, respectively (Seto et al 2010 ). Globally, metro areas drive their national economies, but there are signifi cant disparities in the GDP per capita between and within the world's urban areas (Seto et al 2010 ). There is even a bigger disparity between the wealthy and the poor in cities, and this disparity is exacerbated by the scale and rapidity of change.…”

Detecting change in urban areas at continental scales with MODIS data

“…A meta-analysis of urban expansion indicates that localto regional-scale studies are geographically biased, leaving even many large cities unstudied (Seto et al, 2011). Detailed maps on regional-to global-scale changes in urban land do not exist; previous efforts have been sample-based (Angel et al, 2005;Schneider & Woodcock, 2008), focused on one country (Homer et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2012), or drawn conclusions from datasets with substantial temporal and spatial mismatch and variability in how cities are defined (Seto et al, 2010). Routine monitoring of urban expansion across large areas could therefore provide the spatial information on patterns of urban growth that are essential for understanding differences in socioeconomic and political factors that spur different forms of development, as well the social and environmental impacts that result (Deuskar et al, 2014).…”

O papel das tecnologias de comunicação e informação (TIC) no urbano do século XXI e na emergência dos novos movimentos sociais:

“…As grandes cidades, aqui entendidas como construções humanas e produtos histórico-sociais resultantes das relações da sociedade com a natureza (LEFEBVRE, 1999;CARLOS, 2007), agora são maiores em extensão e mais complexas, devido a diversidades existentes, conexões e fluxos globais (LEITE, 2010;SETO;SÁNCHEZ-RODRIGUES;FRAGKIAS, 2010), frutos do processo de capitalismo (HARVEY, 2008;, globalização e revolução tecnológica (DI FELICE, 2009). É exatamente nessas megacidades 2 que os principais desafios urbanos emergem e necessitam de processos eficazes de governança.…”