Abstract
Of the many changes to our world wrought during the twentieth century, one of the most profound was the transformation of human settlement systems. A century ago the vast majority of the world’s population was rural, embedded in social and economic systems tied to agricultural production and living in dispersed, small-scale settlements. Now, for the first time in human history, more than half the world’s population is urban, after a century of massive migrations from rural hinterlands to burgeoning cities. In this urban transformation of the globe, one of the most dramatic and momentous developments has been the emergence of giant cities, often referred to as “megacities.”
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Sorensen, A., Okata, J. (2011). Introduction: Megacities, Urban Form, and Sustainability. In: Sorensen, A., Okata, J. (eds) Megacities. Library for Sustainable Urban Regeneration, vol 10. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-99267-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-99267-7_1
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