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Megacities as a Global Center of Sustainability Issues: Overview of the Book

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Living in the Megacity: Towards Sustainable Urban Environments

Part of the book series: Global Environmental Studies ((GENVST))

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Abstract

To begin with, cities are treated as the symbol of civilization and the producer of environmental burdens. The controversy over the views on cities has been a problem for a long time: Are cities a symbol of civilization or a burden on the global environment? Before we start to investigate this, we need to clarify what a city is. However, there are many definitions of a city in different academic fields such as remote sensing science, sociology, and economics. Next, it is also a crucial issue how we should define and capture cities and their spatial boundaries. One of the methods of specifying the boundaries of cities is provided, and 18 megacities in the world are specified. Finally, it is significant to consider that cities cannot become independent of other areas. Cities are essentially unsustainable. Considering the impact of human activities in megacities on the global environment, we need to consider three issues: our tendency to put too much weight on socioeconomic prosperity, lack of long-term vision, and externality and resilience. Relevant holistic views need to be appropriately developed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Shin Muramatsu

  2. Faculty of Economics, Shiga University, Hikone, Shiga, Japan

    Koichiro Mori

Authors
  1. Shin Muramatsu
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  2. Koichiro Mori
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Correspondence to Koichiro Mori .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Kyoto, Japan

    Shin Muramatsu

  2. Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Terry G. McGee

  3. Faculty of Economics, Shiga University, Hikone, Shiga, Japan

    Koichiro Mori

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Muramatsu, S., Mori, K. (2021). Megacities as a Global Center of Sustainability Issues: Overview of the Book. In: Muramatsu, S., McGee, T.G., Mori, K. (eds) Living in the Megacity: Towards Sustainable Urban Environments. Global Environmental Studies. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56901-5_1

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