Developing urban indicators for managing mega cities
Kotter, Theo & Frank Friesecke
Managing urban growth has become one of the most important challenges of the 21st century (cf. Cohen 2006, p. 78). As a result of the uncontrolled and unplanned sprawling of the cities, the rapid process causes a lot of different ecological, economic, social and infrastructural problems and risks. Considering the high density and the large number of inhabitants com-bined with the accelerated urban development, particularly megacities run highest risk in cases of natural and man-made disasters. On the one hand, this paper identifies the risks of the ongoing form of urbanization, on the other hand, it intends to point out significant opportunities and chances, which cities offer to address urgent issues. In combination with this, the article discusses the importance of Spatial Information Systems which can be used as tools for megacities to communicate different en-vironmental risks, and promote strategies and measures of sustainable urban development and disaster risk management. These systems base on different urban indicators, which will be described in the following. Finally, the article examines the ways in which land use and urban planning is responding to the impacts of urbanization.
Event: Conference on Land Governance in Support of the MDG's : Responding to New Challenges
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