Defining “Urban”

What is urban? What is a city? The terms “city” and “urban” are often used interchangeably, and there is no international agreement on their definition. Almost all national governments agree that settlements of 20,000 or more people are urban, but some consider smaller settlements to be urban as well, with various cut-off points. Few, however, would consider a small urban center of 1,000 to 2,000 inhabitants to be a city (44). Thus, while the term “urban” can refer to settlements of all population sizes, most people reserve the term “city” for urban centers with large populations, a practice that this issue of Population Reports follows.

Urbanization statistics depend to a certain extent on how countries define urban settlements, especially countries with large populations, such as China and India. For example, most of India’s rural population lives in villages with 500 to 5,000 inhabitants. If the government of India classified settlements of this size as urban, as some countries do, instead of using the cutoff of 5,000 or more inhabitants, India would have a predominantly urban population (105).

Most governments define urban settlements based on one or a combination of criteria, including population size, population density, and social and economic factors, such as the proportion of the labor force engaged in nonagricultural activities; the administrative or political status of a locality, such as national, provincial, or district capitals; or census designations (44). In the UN World Urbanization Prospects 1996 Revision, for example, 46% of the represented countries defined “urban” based on administrative criteria; 22% used population size and sometimes population density; 17% used other criteria; 10% had no definition; and 4% defined their country as either entirely urban or entirely rural (130). In the various revisions of World Urbanization Prospects, from which this issue of Population Reports draws data on urbanization trends, the UN’s estimates are based on how each country defines “urban” and “rural” (130

Profile: Singapore: The Planned City

Singapore is a city that leaves nothing to chance. As Michael Koh Soon Hwa, Director of Physical Planning in Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, puts it, “Since Singapore is land-short and resource-short, we had to develop an extensive planning culture. Our survival and growth depended on it” (54).

Don Hinrichsen Singapore’s urban planning preserves greenery, watersheds, and clean air.

“Singapore is an excellent example of how the combination of land use planning, urban planning, and transportation planning can help create a sustainable city for the 21st century,” says Loh Ah Tuan, director of the Environmental Policy and Management Division in the Singapore Ministry of the Environment (123). With four million people squeezed onto an island of just 647 square kilometers, Singapore’s urban planners have been able to control sprawl, and even expand parks and protected areas, by limiting highway construction, building public transportation networks, and enacting zoning laws that help people live and work in the same areas.

Singapore decided to build up rather than allow uncontrolled sprawl to overtake limited land area. The city also built satellite towns connected to central Singapore by a rapid transit rail network and bus lines. At the same time, each satellite town is planned to enable residents to work in the community where they live, without long commutes to the city center or to other parts of the island.

The Concept Plan. The city’s main planning tool is the Concept Plan, a strategic development framework that is updated every decade. The current plan, drawn up in 2001, sets broad-based development plans for the next half century. It allows for an eventual population of 5.5 million within 50 years. The Concept Plan specifies 55 detailed “development guide plans” that address land use needs, such as housing, commercial and industrial development, transportation, and recreational facilities. The planning process includes not only all government ministries but also citizens and communities and allows for local development planning by neighborhoods.

Housing. A feature that separates Singapore from virtually the rest of the developed world in urban planning is its housing policies. Fully 86% of all Singaporeans live in apartments (flats) built by the Ministry of National Development. Over 90% of Singapore residents own their own homes, a rate unmatched anywhere else. With such extensive home ownership comes more involvement in the city’s civic affairs and attention to quality-of-life issues.

Protected water. Singapore has 2,158 hectares (5,332 acres) of protected watershed in the middle of the island. The watershed provides half of the city’s freshwater needs. The island’s four large water reservoirs have been protected completely from any development since 1860. This central watershed contains perhaps the world’s only urban old-growth tropical rainforest. Singapore gets the rest of its water from next-door Malaysia through a long-term agreement with the state of Johor.

Waste disposal. Singapore’s Environment Ministry operates six large sewage treatment plants, enough to serve the entire population. Each plant has two stages of treatment, and effluents are then discharged through out-falls into deep offshore waters. An experimental sewage treatment plant at Bedok, with three stages of treatment, produces effluents so clean that the water is used by the semi-conductor industry to manufacture silicon wafers.

The city is just as meticulous about disposing of its solid wastes. Four large incinerators reduce 85% of the city’s solid wastes into fly ash that is then deposited in a monitored landfill located on an offshore island. A recently introduced recycling and re-use program expects to capture up to three-quarters of the paper, metals, and organic wastes generated by Singaporeans, transforming these wastes into useful products.

Controlling air pollution. Air pollution is not a problem in Singapore. In 2000, for example, the average level of nitrogen dioxide was just 30 micrograms per cubic meter of air, well below the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard of 100 micrograms per cubic meter of air. Similarly, the suspended particulate matter (mostly from industries, power plants, and incinerators) averaged only 10 micrograms per cubic meter. The EPA standard is 50 micrograms per cubic meter.

One reason for clean air is widespread use of public transportation. Only 1 Singaporean in every 10 owns a private vehicle, a fact attributed to the high tax on private vehicles. Another reason is the city’s large amount of greenery. Trees and shrubs not only produce oxygen, but they also clean and cool the air.

Abundant green space. Singapore nurtures its “garden city” image. Currently, the city has 2,340 hectares (5,800 acres) of parks and green areas and about 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of nature reserves. When Singapore began to develop rapidly in the early 1970s, city planners formed a “garden city action committee” in 1973, with members from each of the main ministries. This group helped ensure the city’s long-term commitment to setting aside and maintaining nearly one hectare (2.5 acres) of green space for every 1,000 people.

Singapore has recently embarked on a campaign to provide 245 hectares (600 acres) of “park connectors” by 2010—green corridors that will eventually connect every park and reserve on the island. The corridors will contain bike paths and hiking trails, affording residents more options for getting around the city.

This profile is based on interviews and reporting in Singapore by Don Hinrichsen in 2001. Sources: 115–117.

Mumbai Cleans Up

Mumbai is one of the most populous cities in the world. It is also one of the most polluted cities (61). For example, Mumbai reports average levels of total suspended particulate matter in the air at nearly 240 micrograms, far exceeding WHO’s standard of 60 to 90 micrograms per cubic meter (62). A number of innovative projects, however, show that individuals, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses all can play roles in cleaning up the urban environment.

Mahim Nature Park

The Mahim Nature Park project highlights the importance of green spaces to cleaning up Mumbai and decreasing pollution levels (77, 94). Twenty years ago the 37-acre Mahim Nature Park was a city garbage dump, with slums on one side and the polluted Mahim Creek on the other (94). Today it is an ecologically restored nature park maintained by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

In 1977 the World Wildlife Federation-India conceived and promoted the idea for a nature park (94). To develop and manage the park, the MMRDA appointed the Mahim Nature Park Society, which is responsible for day-to-day activities. The society’s board of governors includes several top state government officials and leaders in environmental protection to ensure cooperation between local government and the scientific community (77).

As well as providing residents a green and unpolluted area, the Mahim Nature Park serves as an educational resource, offering instruction in ecology and nature conservation, particularly for children. The park is home to about 80 species of birds and 200 species of trees and other plants (77). The MMRDA has designated the park an outdoor laboratory for the study of the area’s different habitats and the ecological functions of various species, including their role in traditional healing (94). The many visitors to the park range from children from local slums to naturalists from around the world (77).

Recyclers Organize

Mumbai’s Parisar Vikas (meaning Eco-Development) is an association of some 2,000 female “rag pickers” who collect and recycle urban waste (109). These women are mostly deserted or widowed and without any male financial support for them or their children. They are forced into their occupation because of their poverty, illiteracy, and lack of skills. The women’s organization Stree Mukti Sanghathana (Women’s Liberation Movement) started the association in 1995. With 25 years of experience in the women’s movement, Stree Mukti Sanghathana developed Parisar Vikas as a comprehensive approach to these problems (6).

The project, which is part of the Advanced Locality Management Programme of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, was first carried out in the Basera Housing Society, a housing complex in a northwest suburb. It has since been replicated in several other housing complexes around the city (109).

The rag pickers visit a number of housing complexes to collect garbage, sell nonbiodegradable waste to recycling centers, and convert biodegradable wastes into compost for planting. The women go from house to house, encouraging families to put their “wet” (biodegradable) household wastes into buckets and showing them how the waste can be turned into organic compost. The rag pickers also sell bio-composting buckets (109).

In addition, rag pickers work at municipal garbage dumps to convert wet waste from the city’s vegetable markets into compost. They produce an average of about 14 tons of compost every month, which they sell to farms and plant nurseries in and around Mumbai for about Rs.2,500 (US$52) per ton (109).

For their efforts the women earn a steady income of about Rs.75 (US$1.60) a day, which is above minimum wage. The work is difficult and often dangerous—involving the risks of handling sharp objects mixed in with the wet waste, breathing smoke from burning garbage dumps, working in the heat of Mumbai summers, and navigating pools of garbage during monsoons (109). Nonetheless, the work and its wages helped the rag pickers become organized and increased their bargaining power, while training in new skills has helped to increase their earnings (6).

This profile was prepared by Deepa Ramchandran based on the references cited.