Current Events Blog: Land Use, Urbanization, and Urban Sprawl

Article Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-chaotic-urbanization-puts-cities-in-harms-way-un-2016-5

Topic: Land Use, Urbanization, and Urban Sprawl

Big cities have a higher risk of being hit by man-made or natural disasters. This article argues that national governments need to take more steps and precautions in order to protect their citizens. With exponentially increasing urbanization, governments must plan in order to manage their populations and protect people who move to urban centers unplanned. The national government must takes steps to aid the local authorities and reduce the chances of a huge disaster killing many people through urban planning. Many countries have already taken actions and are making plans to protect urban centers. I think more countries should follow suit and make efforts to make cities safer to benefit the residents of these cities. However, this article lacks enough evidence and facts to back up its claim that big cities are dangerous because they have a higher risk of being devastated by disasters and that the way to solve this problem is through urban planning. Perhaps an example of a populated city that was struck by disaster due to a lack of urban planning would be helpful in adding to the author’s claim that urban planning needs to be done to protect citizens of large cities. While common sense tells me that big cities are more inclined to disasters, as I read the article I wondered if urban planning was the best way to approach the problem and attempt to solve it. Would urban planning prevent natural and man-made disasters? And with the massive quantity of people moving to urban centers unplanned, is it possible to plan for all of them to take residence in cities? What exactly is it about big cities that makes them more inclined to disasters? I think that having the answers to some of these questions would be beneficial in finding a solution to make cities safer for people who live in them. I think the article would have benefited from more evidence in the form of real life examples. I believe that had the author used more examples and added more facts to back up their claim that their argument would have been more effective and that their message would have been clearer.