Megacity

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This article is about the term, describing megacities in general. For other uses of the word see Mega city.

A megacity is usually defined as a recognized metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people. [1] Some definitions also set a minimum level for population density (at least 2,000 persons/square km). A megacity can be a single metropolitan area or two or more metropolitan areas that converge upon one another. The terms conurbation and metroplex are also applied to the latter. The terms megapolis and megalopolis are sometimes used synonymously with megacity. The term metacity is also sometimes used to describe cities with more than 20 million people. When a country has 2 or more megacities, this is known as binary distribution[citation needed].

Megacities around the world

In 1950, New York was the only urban area with a population of over 10 million.[2] Geographers have identified 25 such areas as of October 2005. [3], as compared with 19 megacities in 2004 and only 9 in 1985. This increase has happened as the world's population moves towards the high (75-85%) urbanization levels of North America and Western Europe.

Today, the largest megacity is the Greater Tokyo Area. The population of this urban agglomeration includes areas such as Yokohama and Kawasaki, and is estimated to be between 30 and 34 million. The variation in estimates can be accounted for by different definitions of what the area encompasses. While the prefectures of Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama are commonly included in statistical information, the Japan Statistics Bureau only includes the area within 50 kilometers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices in Shinjuku, thus arriving at a smaller population estimate. [4][5]

The nine largest megacities, in addition to Tokyo, according to this criterion are, in decreasing order of population:

Source: Th. Brinkhoff: The Principal Agglomerations of the World, 2006-11-22

Others megacities currently (2006) include (in alphabetical order):

Another list defines megacities as urban agglomerations instead of metropolitan areas [1]. As of 2007, there are 22 megacities by this definition.

United Nations projections indicate a slow down of the emergence of new megacities after 2005. However, the expansion and merging of highly-urbanized zones may remain an important trend, as typified by the following:

Emerging megacities in China (in decreasing order of population)

Emerging megacities in India (in decreasing order of population)

Megacities defined as agglomerations

Another list also defines megacities as urban agglomerations (continuous urbanization). Currently (2007), the agglomerations of more than 10,000,000 area are as follows :

Rank Agglomeration name Country Population
1 Tokyo Japan 34,450,000
2 New York USA 20,420,000
3 Seoul Korea 20,090,000
4 São Paulo Brazil 19,500,000
5 Mumbai India 19,380,000
6 Jakarta (Jabotabek) Indonesia 19,300,000
7 Delhi India 18,560,000
8 Mexico City Mexico 18,410,000
9 Manila Philippines 17,320,000
10 Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Japan 17,280,000
11 Cairo Egypt 16,000,000
12 Los Angeles USA 15,350,000
13 Kolkata India 14,580,000
14 Shanghai China 14,530,000
15 Moscow Russia 14,100,000
16 Buenos Aires Argentina 13,460,000
17 Beijing China 12,160,000
18 Shenzhen China 11,820,000
19 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 11,080,000
20 Istanbul Turkey 11,000,000
21 Paris France 10,570,000

(The above information is modeled for 2007 from population growth rates and is from [2] and [3]. The Manila figure is considerably higher than most lists, which limit their data to the administrative boundaries of Metro Manila. However, the continous urbanization extends into Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Bulacan provinces and is reflected in the higher figure in this list.)

Canadian usage of Megacity

In Canada, the 1990s saw the forced amalgamation of several municipal entities in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec into a larger new municipalities. The process created what was labelled a megacity by the media.

Examples of megacities in Canada include:

  • Toronto - the municipalities that constituted the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto were merged into a new City of Toronto in 1998.
  • Kawartha Lakes, Ontario - the primarily rural Victoria County had its townships, towns and villages merged into a "megacity" in 2000. The area has a population of only 70,000 (several thousand less than nearby city Peterborough) yet takes up an area of 3,059.22 km² giving it a density of only a mere 22.6 persons per km².
  • Ottawa - the municipalities that constituted the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton were merged into a new City of Ottawa in 2001.
  • Gatineau - five municipalities in southwestern Quebec (Gatineau, Hull, Aylmer, Buckingham, and Masson-Angers) were merged into a new City of Gatineau in 2002.
  • Montreal - all of the municipalities on the island of Montreal were merged into a new City of Montreal for a short period of time until January 1st, 2006, when a partial demerger occurred.

For more information on Ontario "megacities," see the article on the Common Sense Revolution.

Megacities in fiction

Fictional megacities feature in much dystopian science fiction, with examples such as the Sprawl, featured in William Gibson's Neuromancer, and Mega-City One, a megalopolis of over 400 million people across the east coast of the United States, features in the Judge Dredd comic, serialised in 2000 AD.

Demolition Man (1993) features a megacity called "San Angeles", formed from the joining of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and the surrounding metropolitan regions following a massive earthquake.

Planet-wide megacities (ecumenopoleis) have been depicted, including Trantor in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of books, Coruscant in the Star Wars universe, 'City Europe' in David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series of books, Holy Terra and the hive cities of Necromunda in Warhammer 40,000, and Ravnica in Magic: the Gathering expansion.

Many of these fictional depictions were inspired by Fritz Lang's 1927 film, Metropolis. Ridley Scott's 1982 film, Blade Runner, features an influential depiction of Los Angeles in 2019.

Naming scheme for megalopoleis

A number of megalopoleis use portmanteau words as their names (e.g. ChiPitts, BosWash, and SanSan).

References

  1. ^ "How Big Can Cities Get?" New Scientist Magazine, 17 June 2006, page 41
  2. ^ Tertius Chandler, 1987, St. David's University Press. "Top 10 Cities of the Year 1950". Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census. Retrieved 2007-03-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Population statistics
  4. ^ Greater Tokyo population statistics
  5. ^ Tokyo metropolitan area population statistics

6. Hamilton Tolosa, “The Rio/Sao Paulo Extended Metropolitan Region; A Quest for Global Integration”, The Annals of Regional Science 37:2 (September 2003), pp.480, 485

See also

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