Chapter 26. Chapter 26: Urbanization and Sustainable Communities
What is the pattern of global urbanization...?
Guiding Question 26.1
What is the pattern of global urbanization and megacity growth in recent decades?
Why You Should Care
Cities are big nowadays, and they’re getting bigger. This isn’t surprising, considering how we’ve learned that the human population is growing. It also makes sense, then, that the fastest-growing cities are in less-developed countries. For the past few decades, the promise of higher wages and a better standard of living are enticing people to move from rural areas to cities. Ironically, this rapid immigration into cities often leads to the development of slums and ghettoes with substandard levels of safety and sanitation. In developed countries, especially the United States, the trend has been for people to leave the cities and move to suburbs or even exurbs. Indeed the "American Dream" is centered on suburban living. However, suburban living is usually neither environmentally friendly nor sustainable, as it entails larger homes with larger carbon footprints as well as a dependence on cars. The good news is that city life doesn’t have to be bad environmentally or in terms of living standards. In the United States, there is a counter-movement growing: People are returning to cities and revitalizing old neighborhoods. Some cities—like Portland, Oregon—have put deliberate restrictions on suburban sprawl. In some parts of Asia, where the majority of megacities are arising, there are concrete plans for controlling development and making sure that cities are built to be more sustainable.
1.
Urban areas contain all of the following EXCEPT:
| A. |
| B. |
| C. |
| D. |
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