NAPLES – Where in the world – literally – will affordable, developable land be found to house and service the stunning population growth of world cities, now estimated to rise from 3.6 billion souls today to a projected 6.3 billion by 2050?
Will cities move aggressively enough to gain clear control of outlying land, so they can plan for roads and infrastructure and stop rampant land speculation?
The issue bubbled to the top at the recent World Urban Forum of some 8,000 public officials and other urbanists convened in Naples under the sponsorship of UN-Habitat.
As Joan Clos, Habitat’s executive director, put it: “If city expansion is not planned, well, it’s going to happen anyway. Cities need planned extensions – otherwise you’ll have people living in slums. And to correct that will be very expensive, and it will be a mess.”
But how can cities cope – smartly? Shlomo “Solly” Angel of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy brought unique research on that topic to Naples. He noted that most people assume that cities, which are growing especially rapidly in Africa and Asia, are getting more densely packed with people. Pictures of frightfully crowded slums only confirm the impression
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