High Density, Landscape, Airflow and Health in Mega-cities - Essay Example

In this scenario, globalization as a concept, as a policy and as a process describes, reflects and turns into reality the greater interdependence of countries. Thus, flows of goods and services across borders, the reductions tariffs and transport barriers to trade, international capital flows, multinational activity, foreign direct investment, outsourcing, increased exposure to exchange rate volatility, and immigration form part of the attributions of globalization. Furthermore, these movements of goods, services, capital, firms, and people contribute to the spread of technology, knowledge, culture, and information across borders (Fischer, 2003; Soros, 2002; Balakrishnan, 2003).

Accordingly, through globalization, the world has become smaller and smaller. Thereby, it thrusts all economic actors to the challenge of transcending limitations posed by human interactions via the expansion of human economic activities from the national level to multinational even global one (Supporting the Internalisation of SMEs, 2007).  In this regard, there is one contemporary change that is both old and new – the megacities. Why old and new? The concept or the idea of megacities as urban centers goes way back to the ancient period and some examples of which are Athens and Rome, while there is Venice for the Scholastic period and London and Paris during the 17th and 18th century(Alonso-Vilar, 2001).

However, these megacities are perceived as an isolated phenomenon during those periods (Alonso-Vilar, 2001), while on the other hand, the megacities of the contemporary period have become a global phenomenon (Alonso-Vilar, 2001; Gibson & Kong 2005). Since, from 8 megacities during the 1950s to 41 megacities in 2000, it is now projected that by the year 2015 there will be 59 megacities all over the world (DeAngelo, 2008).