Challenges to Urban Cities Policing - Essay Example

Lecturer Challenges to Urban Cities Policing Rising and Sinking Threats More people are increasingly shifting residence to the urban cities. The drastic increase in the cities’ population results in several challenges. The paper discusses these challenges, with more focus towards police work challenges. Urban areas have several environmental problems and also crisis. Half of the world population presently resides in the cities. The cities environments are characterized by the steel, glass and concrete features. The cities continuously expand, and thus replace the wild lands. The growth and development of the cities are influenced through the fossil energy fuels. The cities become bigger around the Anthropocene, as the world population engages in the biggest ever urban migration. The geological timescale, however, illustrate that the cities are most probably temporary, just like any other human constructs. Majority of the cities will not withstand the disastrous humanity effect, which is combined with the natural upheavals (Michael 401). Historically, the urban environments were developed within fertile river valleys, and strategically at the river mouths. The rich agricultural sediments, nutrients and moisture available in coastal deltas greatly enhanced the food production. The favorable maritime environment and also effective river connections supported the trade and transportation activities. Thus, people found this environment very ideal to reside in. Further increase in the population led to the tapping and the diversion of the rivers for the purposes of irrigation, canal transportation and also industry applications. The rivers were also trapped for usage as reservoirs and dam, with the aim of energy generation and also water storage. But the diversion of the rivers leads to negative environmental consequences such as droughts. The sediments are not moving downstream in appropriate quantities because of river diversion and also tapping. The sediments are also inadequate to maintain the deltas that are required for erosion control at the ocean shores (Albert 78). Rapid industrialization during the last century enhanced these processes. This is the reason why presently, several urban centers experience threats of the storm surges, and thus a lot of the economically significant areas on the planet are likely to be lost. Major world cities like New York and Bangkok have been adversely affected by the flood conditions. The other cities that are at risk from flood disasters are; Mumbai, Shanghai, Miami, New Orleans, Calcutta and Alexandria. Approximately three billion individuals presently reside within the coastal areas. These coastal populations are likely to experience global warming threats like rising sea levels. The number of the global coastal population is projected to increase up to 6 billion by 2025. The rise in the sea level because of climate change has led to the doubling of the extreme floods risks within the coastal towns, in addition to the bigger Anthropecene cities (Herman 112). Research conducted after 2012 Hurricane Sandy, illustrated that approximately 100,000 additional individuals experienced flooding risks in New York, for every one foot increase in the level of water. An estimated half of the coastal cities population in America resides in areas that are below the high tide level. In Netherlands, around 50 million cubic metres of sediment was dredged, to maintain the present shorelines. Internationally, the cities construction activities are booming, and this result into erosion, flooding and reduction in the quality of soil and water. In several other places, sand mining and river dredging continuously increase to generate building materials for further expansion of the cities. The negative effects of flooding have resulted in unbearable life for individuals living in flood prone cities. Sandbags are usually not appropriate for controlling the floods because water mainly gets into the houses via the sewage network (Paul 276). Cities usually adopt various approaches of controlling the floods, depending on the levels of resources available. The approaches are; building sea walls, constructing dykes and polders, and also constructing high tide gates. These measures are aimed at holding the high waters. However, in many poor areas, residents just endure the flood challenges, and in extreme cases they abandon their houses. Insurance is a major challenge in several coastal cities. The United States government engaged in a costly exercise after the Hurricane Katrina to underwrite policies for affected New Orleans population. If the flood problem persists, the coastal cities will most likely be abandoned because expenses involved in repairing infrastructure and also saving lives become unaffordable. Economic significant coast cities such as New Orleans that lies along the banks of Mississippi will be inappropriate for residence if the global warming issue continues. The abandoned cities eventually will be covered by sedimentary layers, and thus subject to future historical discoveries like the mythical Atlantises. Coastal cities that have adequate preservation chances, are the cities developed on Earth crust parts like London. The cities that will be drowned in silty blankets and sediments will remain in petrified form. The subways and sewage networks will maybe resemble traces of a giant burrowing creature, and the high rises will be illustrated as layers of future cliffs. Destruction will also be experienced in the cities located in Deserts like Las Vegas and Lima, those located at altitude like La Paz, and the cities exposed to destruction through earthquakes and volcanoes like Kathmandu (Andrew 311). Urban Environmental Problems The urban environmental problems as illustrated in the paper include the local environmental health challenges like poor sanitation and air pollution. The challenges also involve city environmental challenges like poor waste management, and water resource pollution. The extra-urban challenges involve urban issues; for instance, greenhouse gases, resource degradation and also ecological disruptions. The challenges are also analyzed in terms of regional and environmental challenges, which directly affect the city residents. One problem relates to the poor responsibilities over environmental issues. Environmental matters are in some cases handled by agencies that are not competent to handle urban development assistance. These agencies mainly consider environmental and natural resource issues as primarily rural concerns. These agencies can thus not effectively address urban environmental matters. The second problem is that environmental issues are broadly defined. This provides the impression that initiatives aimed at the environment affect broader environmental concerns (Safa 247). Operationally, differences are illustrated through two environmental approaches. These approaches are; stand alone and mainstream. Stand alone approach focuses on the individual environmental projects; for instance, preventing urban air pollution. Mainstreaming on the other hand, integrates environmental issues in all development programs; for instance, having an environmental curriculum in the education system, or adopting environmentally sound infrastructure development processes. As capacity to address environmental issues improved, new environmental approaches are continuously emerging. Most world cities are presently experimenting through citywide approaches to understand environmental challenges. Bilateral and multilateral donors have supported these initiatives. The Growing Threat The globe is presently facing increasing historical shift in the human settlements. Half of humanity presently lives in cities. By 2050, the urban areas population will increase to 75%. The developing countries are mainly responsible for this drastic increase in urban population. The high rate of urbanization puts a lot of strains on agencies that strive to provide sustainable livelihoods, develop superior infrastructure, and enhance basic security. Urbanization statistics can be presently considered as staggering. The urban centers in the developing nations are obtaining five million residents every month. This is approximately equal to introducing on an annual basis, an urban center the size of the United Kingdom. By 2050, the urban population will triple in Africa, and also double in Asia. Majority of the urban population are poor. Presently, around 828 million individuals reside in slums; for instance, 60% of the sub-Saharan cities residents. By 2040, the slum dwellers internationally are projected to be two billion (Fuller 41). The rapid growing cities are prone to increased cases of natural disasters such as; landslides, tidal waves, catastrophic infernos, and great floods. The population of people who were affected through natural disasters continuously increased. Presently, this population comprises 300 million people. The increasing number of individuals affected by the natural calamities, is as a result of increasing global population, and also enhanced reporting outlets like mass media. Cases of tropical storms have increased from ten to fifteen annually in the United States. Occurrences of global tsunamis have also greatly increased. Financial costs of the natural disasters have increased tremendously. During the past four decades, the losses due to natural disasters are illustrated at eight times more. The insured expenses have increased by up to fourteen times (Grant 135). The international business community currently understands the susceptibility involved due to rapidly expanding cities. Intense concentration of the human, financial, technology, physical and material resources in the urban areas, makes them more susceptible to devastation and reduction in the effectiveness of key infrastructures, after major natural disasters. The poorly planned and ineffectively managed urbanization process, in the urban areas continuously occurs around peripheral areas of the marginal habitation. Thus, millions of individuals are left at mercy of the natural calamities. Vulnerability is majorly experienced within coastal; regions, due to high levels of population growth and risky land location. Internationally, around one hundred million individuals reside in areas that are lower than one meter above the level of the sea; for example, in cities such as Tokyo, Dhaka, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro and Lagos. These urban areas are very vulnerable to the natural factors that enhance sea level. Improving Urban Security and Safety There are several effective approaches of addressing the crime and violence levels in the urban areas. The addressing measures will be studied in terms of five issues. These issues are; using policies to address crime and violence practices, understanding emerging policy trends, studying the presently formulated policies, studying the Safer Cities program spearheaded by the UN Habitat, and addressing general propositions. Urban safety and security can be appropriately enhanced by good design, planning and governance in the urban areas. Manipulation involving physical environment has the possibilities of minimizing or alternatively enhancing crime levels in the urban areas. Manipulating the physical environment so as to minimize crime opportunities within the design processes, are very effective factors in minimizing crime and violence levels (Nowak 239). The crime prevention strategies should adequately be integrated within the existing environments. This is done through two approaches; enhancing crime prevention factors in the design processes for new developments or projects, and also revising challenging built environments so as to minimize crime issues. Designing should be done with adequate thoughts on crime prevention. Design process from the outset must illustrate the potential criminal usages of the spaces or buildings being created. Design should encompass how individuals will occupy and safely use facilities in the building. The planning process should be done with adequate focus on crime prevention. Planning must aim at enhancing the urban living quality, and also coping with pressures emanating from the scale. Planning is very effective in minimizing crime and also safety, in the residential neighborhoods. Crime prevention should also be adequately integrated with the planning practices and policies. In majority of the planning systems, the significant step within the effective action chain entails developing planning policy techniques that can be utilized by the planners. Thus, the basic form for developing the appropriate techniques necessary for crime prevention entails the illustration in development plans and related documentations. Urban safety should also integrate the planning processes and also the service delivery within the urban areas. This approach is commonly used in the Habitat Safer Cities project. Introducing the new practices are usually aimed at long-term results, and thus illustrates significant issues such as; resources and staff development. People places should be enhanced by the crime prevention systems. Urban planning systems form significant processes for environmental leadership, through the chances of strategically enhancing people spaces. If effective, these processes can significantly contribute towards the crime prevention terms (Eckert 19). The community based programs in the areas of safety and security are very effective in ensuring the welfare of residents of the urban areas. The community should be involved in all development projects, so that they ensure appropriate safety measures. Formal responsibilities usually exist to adequately engage the public in the process of public policy implementation. The changing community approaches illustrate critical elements in regard to safety and security. The role of community approaches changes towards the direction of the project in question. For instance, the long-term strategies for handling crime and enhancing safety in urban areas are unique in individual projects in smaller localities. The community interests and diversity is another critical issue that must be taken into consideration during security or safety issues. Communities that are diverse should adopt several measures that can adequately address security and safety issues. Urban Regeneration Policies The section discusses the development of the urban regeneration frameworks, policies and procedures, in relation to the policy environment. Several issues affect the policy environment and also categories of the regeneration programs. But, three factors are very significant in influencing societal change. These factors are; social, political and economic. Importantly, the political environment and related ideologies play significant roles in understanding significant directions of determining the urban policy. The urban policies directly influence the categories of programs and support that should be funded. The 1950,s duration was illustrated through post war reconstruction, especially in the British urban areas. The reconstruction task was adequately prioritized by the Labor Government, because of the growing interest in the new family houses. This period also marked the suburban growth for the council housing estates. But, the suburban relocation process and industry relocation measures, led to drastic decline in the inner city environments (Bora 67). The major players of the urban reconstruction programs during this duration were the National and Local Governments, in addition to minor projects by the private developers. Due to the welfare state ideology, the concept of urban policy was greatly entrenched in the state control and service provision to influence desired urban changes. Housing and population expansion continued to present challenges, despite interventions by the Conservative and Labor Governments. Expansion continued in the peripheral and suburban locations, with minimal rehabilitation attempts in the core. Despite the isolated policies for inner cities, there was decline in the social, economic and political areas. This formed the urban revitalization policy in the 1960s. The renewal policy in the 1970s involved exploration of the inner city. This resulted in development of the initial urban policy. The policy aimed at combining the policies in the three areas of physical, economic and social. The policy strived to address; urban unemployment, urban poverty, increasing racial minorities population, and causes of declining trends. Redevelopment took place in the 1980s. The aim was to implement government policies within the inner cities, and improving economic establishments. The 1990s regeneration policies introduced new concepts through managerial, corporate and competitive techniques of regeneration, and funding allocation. Thus, the policies drifted towards the coordination of economic, physical and social change approaches. The partnership strategies thus became major and dominant, and the alliance involving significant stakeholders was improved by fund allocation (Varshney 227). This needed appropriate partnership involving private sector, local agencies, national agencies, and community stakeholders. In the economic aspects, the financing due to voluntary and public sectors realized a similar level equal to that in the private sector that is was formerly the main source of the capital investments. Works Cited Albert, Allen. “Arithmetic, Population, and Energy.” The Forgotten Fundamentals of the Energy Crisis.2008. Print. Andrew, Mason. Population change and economic development in East Asia: Challenges met, opportunities seized. London: MacMillian. 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