2.1 Introduction


Urban growth and urbanization processes have accelerated globally, especially in the last 45 years (United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA] 2007; United Nations 2019a). This has improved the quality of life of many people. Urban life provides some groups with access to better jobs, better services like drinking water and sanitation, better education, housing and health care, resulting in longer life expectancies (Vardoulakis and Kinney 2019). For others, however, urban life is characterized by the challenges of poverty and inequality, congestion, poor health and feelings of isolation or dislocation. Significant portions of the urban population still struggle to access the basic services required for a dignified human life (Satterthwaite et al. 2020) and feel trapped within harsh living conditions. At the same time, urbanization, along with biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and pollution, are central drivers of environmental change (United Nations 2019b and see chapter 3). As highlighted in the GEO-6 report, urban inequality and environmental sustainability are deeply intertwined. This report argues, so are their solutions.


This chapter, along with chapter 3, sets out the context through which deep urban transformation objectives and pathways can be understood. It outlines the deeply rooted and persistent challenges of inequality, pollution, environmental degradation, resource depletion and biodiversity loss faced by the majority of cities. All these problems have intensified in recent decades, despite global, national and local efforts to facilitate sustainable urban transitions. Rising to the challenge of necessary urban transformations first requires us to identify and understand these persistent challenges, referred to here as “lock-ins”. For the purposes of this chapter this term is defined as complex, structural barriers that are deeply rooted in the political economy and the governance web particular to each city and that, combined, contribute to ”business-as-usual” urban planning visions and practices. Effectively, lock-ins refer to sociopolitical and behavioral processes that lead to physical lock-ins of energy use and carbon emissions in built infrastructure and urban form, biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and pollution. This interconnected set of lock-ins is ultimately slowing down the pace of urban transformation.


This account of the systemic failures to deliver transformation – or at the very least to slow the pace of change in most cities (section 2.3) – is developed after a description of larger global urbanization trends (section 2.2). These trends include the diversity of cities and urban areas in terms of population, size, urbanization, their relationship to the environment and ecosystems, and their varying capacities to respond to the growing and interconnected challenges of urbanization in the twenty-first century. In particular, many of the rapidly urbanizing cities of the Global South are poorly equipped to deal with these challenges. They are also the most affected by deepening inequality, the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation. Most cities are currently on unsustainable trajectories. This contributes to multiple dimensions of ecological, social and economic damage, although this can take different forms, with different impacts and in ways that are yet to be fully grasped.


22 GEO for Cities


Finally, the chapter explores ways in which a growing number of cities are already experimenting with transformative actions to overcome intersecting socio- political, behavioural and physical lock-ins, positioning them as drivers of environmentally sustainable, low-carbon, resilient, healthy and inclusive futures (section 2.4). This section shows that disruption to “business as usual” can occur on different scales, can come from multiple sources and agents, and is often pioneered by singular, even small catalytic actions, as is explained in more detail in chapter 5. However, for the large-scale systemic change that is urgently called for and described in chapter 4 to happen, local authorities and urban communities will need support and must share risks beyond their boundaries. Setting and maintaining cities on transformative pathways will mean reinforcing networks of learning and support, from the level of key communities all the way to national governments.


2.2 The state of cities


There is great diversity within and between cities. Cultures, economies, environments, infrastructure and histories are in many ways unique to each urban setting. There are also key linkages between cities and ecosystems that have placed many cities on a shared trajectory of urban environmental and socioeconomic unsustainability. The relationship between cities and the environment works in both directions: on the one hand, cities, their people and their infrastructure affect natural environments within, around and outside their boundaries; on the other, cities are vulnerable to environmental degradation. This two-sided relationship between cities and the environment is analysed in the following chapter (chapter 3). This chapter focuses on the human systems and built environments that shape cities and serve as potential entry points for transforming them in ways that prioritize justice and environmental sustainability.


2.2.1 Rapid but varied urban growth


The period between 1975 and 2015 saw tremendous growth in global urban population: the global rural population increased by 488 million, while the global urban population grew by almost 2.4 billion. This meant that the urban share of the world’s population grew from 38 per cent to 54 per cent. By 2050, this urban share is forecast to reach nearly 70 per cent (United Nations 2019b).1


The staggering pace of global


urban population growth over the past decades is now well understood. However, there are sharp regional variations within these broad trends and future projections. Many parts of Europe and North America are already almost fully urbanized. Going forward, 90 per cent of urban growth is expected to take place in low-income and middle-income countries (United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP] 2019a), with more than half of the growth (approximately two billion people) expected to take place in Africa. Asia’s urban population is expected to grow by 650 million and Latin America’s by 180 million. In contrast, Europe’s population is expected to decline over the next 30 years (United Nations 2019a).


1 Global urban share of total population is nationally defined and often includes suburban and exurban areas (low-density, segregated, car-centric) that form part of a statistical metropolitan area.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146