Urbanization and City Planning Considerations:

Urbanization and City Planning Considerations: A Prioritization

City planning in an urban environment is not without its challenges. However, as technology moves forward and people realize that sustainability and the environment are two very important considerations in urban planning and urban living, the horizon for change becomes ever closer. This fact could not be more evident in developed nations, as access to sustainable products and processes is far greater than in less developed places. However, these less developed urban environments allow for a greater scale of change and positive impact, since much of the growth is yet to take place and is there fore fairly malleable and easily influenced to become more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

The first priority of any future urban development, planning, or growth should be sustainability. Since the population of the planet is set to double in the next 30 years, it will become increasingly important that people wishing to live in urban environments, those environs with the highest environmental impact and largest human footprint, be willing and able to do so in a sustainable way (Rees and Wackernagel, 550). In a developed nation, this could be a challenge since much of the urbanization has already occurred, leaving little room for retrofitting or modification. However, with green room technologies and traffic flow and gas consumption optimization, developed nations could take the lead in sustainable urban planning and living (Termorshuizen, Opdam, and van den Brink, 381). In less developed nations, where sustainability is not often on the list of top priorities in urban planning, cities can be planned and built to help minimize environmental impact and maximize utility and use of space.

The second priority of urban planning and design is pollution mitigation. Problems with water and air pollution are just the beginning as often soil pollutants are introduced when cities grow and expand (Rees and Wackernagel, 539). This is also part of the sustainability issue, but since urban environments are often the biggest culprits in pollution, since they have the highest human densities, considerations to reduce pollution should be a high priority. In developed nations this is easier because technologies and materials, often expensive and hard to come by, can help to mitigate pollution. In less developed nations, pollution is often somewhat of an afterthought as a product of production or prosperity (Termorshuizen, Opdam, and van den Brink, 380). By creating cheaper, more fuel efficient technologies and by making them available to all nations, pollution in the third world and developing nations' urban environments can be reduced as well.