Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
a struggle among economic competitiveness and employment, environment
and quality of life.
Megacities prioritise economic competitiveness and employment. In a study
of which issues drive decision making in 25 megacities around the world,
81% of stakeholders involved in city management cited the importance of
the economy and employment. There is a strong focus on creating jobs, with
unemployment emerging as the top economic challenge for survey respon-
dents from emerging and transitional cities. Competitiveness in the global
economy is another important consideration. Six in ten stakeholders think
that their cities place a high importance on making themselves competitive to
attract private investment when deciding infrastructure issues [8].
Despite this inclination towards economic competitiveness, development
decisions often involve difficult trade-offs between growth and greenness
or growth and quality of life. There are obvious interdependencies among
the three concerns. Competitive cities are more likely to have the wealth and
resources to invest in high-quality infrastructure and services and to create
economic and social opportunities for large numbers of the urban popula-
tion. All things being equal, environmentally clean, modern cities are more
attractive locations for a broad spectrum of business activities than those
with heavy pollution. Equally, cities with a healthy, well-educated urban
population are better positioned to attract investment than those where
deprivation and inequality block a large portion of the population from par-
ticipating in economic growth. This suggests that, in the long run, focusing
on one of these concerns to the detriment of the others will be a recipe for
failure (as shown in Figure 2.2) [8].
Therefore, cities need modern, efficient infrastructures, especially trans-
portation networks. Abundant (and preferably skilled) labour together with
modern information and communications technologies are also hugely
important, as evidenced by the offshoring trend that has itself fuelled
the growth of cities such as Bangalore in India. Another crucial factor is the
Competitiveness
Governance
Quality of life
Environment
FIGURE 2.2
Striking a balance among quality of life, competitiveness and environment should be the main
concern of megacities' governance.
