Abstract
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is the eleventh largest megacity city in the world, with a population of 18.2 million people living in an area of 1528 km2. This city profile traces the trajectories of its urban development to becoming a megacity and characterizes its emerging challenges due to informal urbanization and climate change impacts. Due to rapid population growth and uncontrolled urbanization, Dhaka currently faces various socio-economic and environmental challenges in aspects such as providing basic urban services; reliable transportation framework; constant water and energy supply; effective sanitation; sustainable waste management and affordable housing. Moreover, the urban setting has further deteriorated as Dhaka is already facing various adverse impacts of climate change. Studies predict that most of the urban sectors, public health and surrounding agriculture and fisheries in Dhaka will be severely impacted by climate change. Dhaka is trying to transform its existing “incremental development” model to an “integrated development” framework in order to effectively mitigate its extreme urban challenges. The future of Dhaka city significantly relies on the successful execution of integrated infrastructure and service planning, development, and management practices, operating under an accountable and good governance system.
Highlights
Megacities are defined as highly dynamic urban systems having over 10 million inhabitants [1].They are defined as the largest “urban agglomerations, attract[ing] considerable attention because of their population size, economic, socio-cultural, environmental and political influence, and geographical complexity” [2]
This paper aims to contribute to the growing literature reviewing the fastest-growing megacities of the developing world by investigating the informal urbanization process and its impacts on of the developing worldto byurban investigating the informal urbanization process and itsso, impacts on various various sectors related infrastructure and services of Dhaka
The present paper aims to explore emerging and interrelated urban challenges, taking Dhaka as a case study, to recommend a sustainable pathway for the growth of megacities
Summary
Megacities are defined as highly dynamic urban systems having over 10 million inhabitants [1].They are defined as the largest “urban agglomerations, attract[ing] considerable attention because of their population size, economic, socio-cultural, environmental and political influence, and geographical complexity” [2]. More than two thirds of the megacities are located in the developing world, mostly in Asia and Africa, and have become primary cities only in recent decades. This is relevant to South Asia, as it hosts five megacities with than 15 million inhabitants each, viz. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Dhaka and Karachi. These cities are expanding enormously, primarily on account of rural-to-urban migration, climatic migration, job opportunities, and reclassification of the metropolitan area [4,5]. Temporal and spatial patterns of urban challenges due to informal urbanization, Urban Sci. 2017, 1, 31; doi:10.3390/urbansci1040031 www.mdpi.com/journal/urbansci
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