Author Description

What is being done in cities around the globe to solve the problems of poor housing and environmental degradation? Where are the worst cases of urban poverty found? At what rate (and in which directions) is the problem of urban poverty spreading? What can we expect from the fact that more than half of the world's population will soon live in urban centers?The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (a/k/a Habitat) commissioned thirty of the world's leading experts to write reports and essays addressing these questions. In collecting these papers, An Urbanizing World offers a comprehensive, up-to-date, and systematic review of conditions and trends in cities and towns worldwide. This book also assembles a large and varied amount of recent census data, highlighting the numbers behind those areas now experiencing urbanization.Rich in case studies and firsthand accounts, this weighty reference shows the positive and negative sides of cities. The need for good governance is emphasized, as is the potential shared by all human settlements to combine safe and healthy living conditions, cultural treasures, and environmental advantages.