Webwise – Coastal cities
Coastal
metropolis
Megacities of the world (10 million+
inhabitants), have soared from two (Tokyo,
New York) in 1950, to 20 in 2005 (UN
Population Division, 2005). And of those
10 largest megacities in the world, seven are
coastal (see Table 1). City coastal living has
never been so popular.
The benefits to settlers of a coastal location
are immense: transport trading routes,
plentiful food and water resources,
Table 1: World’s top 10 largest megacities
City Country
1 Tokyo Japan
2 Mexico City Mexico
3 New York USA
4 Sáo Paulo Brazil
5 Mumbai India
6 Delhi India
7 Shanghai China
8 Kolkata (Calcutta) India
9 Jakarta Indonesia
10 Buenos Aires Argentina
Source: UN Population newsletter, June 2006
Today, however, coastal cities face a hugely
complex task of balancing all those
socioeconomic goals (quality of life,
tourism, ports, transport, housing etc) with
the need to offset the effects of such
development and preserve and conserve
that which has made the coast unique and
desirable in the first place. Pollution,
human health, water management, species
and habitat conservation, planning,
mitigation and adaptation to climate
change are just a few of those challenges. In
this issue of The edge we have looked at four
projects that are grappling with the coastal
city phenomenon.
Assessing public attitudes
towards challenges for
coastal cities
Amy Jaffe reports on the sociologically-
based Coastal Cities Project, currently
working with various research institutions
in China and the US to understand current
public attitudes towards the challenges
facing major coastal cities in both countries
– Page 7
6 The edge Autumn 2007
Worldwide
City mayors and city flooding
www.citymayors.com/environment/flooded_citi
es.html
Cities and oceans
Good general resource
www.thew2o.net/events/cities_oceans
Europe
New Epoc port cities network
international trading, natural
www.new-epoc.net/project-cities
resources to name a few. Add to that
Information, expertise and guidelines related to
the fact that our coastal cities
the regeneration process of port cities.
represent some of the most
culturally-rich and diverse
MEDOCC SPACE Network
settlements in the world and are
www.eukn.org Search ‘MEDOCC space network’
centres, not only of communication,
Promotes a network of coastal cities,
finance and government but also
universities and agencies in Italy, Greece, Spain
creative and artistic magnets, it’s not
and Portugal.
difficult to understand the urban
coastal appeal.
Croatia Coastal Cities Pollution Control Project
www.web.worldbank.org Search under ‘Projects
and operations’
Improving the quality of Croatia’s Adriatic
Coastal/Inland Population, millions coastal waters to meet EU environmental
Coastal 35.2 requirements.
Inland 19.4
Coastal 18.7
Inland 18.3
USA
Coastal 18.2 Urban Coasts Theme Team
Identifying research needs related to urban
Inland 15.0
coasts along US marine and Great Lake waters.
Coastal 14.5
www.usc.edu/org/seagrant/UrbanCoasts/
Coastal 14.3
Coastal 13.2 Coastal Cities Project (see page 7)
Coastal 12.6 www.ruf.rice.edu/~soci/corrul/coastalcities.html
Asia
Climate change
Reducing megacity impacts on the coastal
Gordon McGranahan reports on
environment.
research that for the first time, maps the
Final report from the Unesco project re waste
location of low-lying, coastal urban
management in Jakarta and the Seribu Islands
centres around the world, clearly
www.unesco.or.id/images/pub/publications/20_
highlighting how many of our most
paper6_reducingmegacity.pdf
densely populated cities will be
increasingly threatened by climate
change due to their positioning in the
coastal zone – Page 10.
Australia
Cities project Perth
www.ga.gov.au/urban/projects/nrap/perth_repor
Species diversity
t.jsp
Gee Chapman, reports on research at
Report on completed natural hazard risk
Sydney Harbour which is looking at
assessment project based in metropolitan Perth.
ways to minimise the impacts of
shoreline development on other species
diversity – Page 12.
Urban Stormwater Initiative (USI)
www.environment.gov.au/coasts/pollution/usi/
index.html
Coastal management in Reports from the Initiative tackling water quality
Tokyo Bay in the waterways of major coastal cities by
Steve Fletcher explores some coastal improving stormwater management.
management tensions present in the
largest megacity in the world, Tokyo – Centre for research on ecological impacts of
Page 14. coastal cities (see page 12)
www.eicc.bio.usyd.edu.au/projects/