Why do megacities attract migrants

Despite the hope and opportunities that come with investment in infrastructure, climate change poses increasing risks from extreme weather and rising sea levels.

Cities are currently in an infrastructure deficit that is worsening. If infrastructure doesn't keep up with the pace of growth, shortages will be exacerbated. Megacities themselves pose a threat to the planet through the tentacles of the cities to the natural environment and all they consume from around them, said Khanna.

He also pointed to the bottlenecks of social housing and connectivity. Investments in connectivity lead to a stronger system by reducing blockages of energy, oil, water and other necessities from one megacity to another through alternative pathways.

A world connected by a web is more resilient than one connected by a single thread that can be vulnerable to political or natural interference. With higher investment in infrastructure, comes the need for a greater focus on resilience in the face of climate change and political unrest. Innovation in data applications allow for better mapping of demographic trends, better predictions of the effects of climate change and the impact of technology shifts on our built environment.

Identifying high risk areas for flooding can trigger greater investment in flood defences and increased elevation of buildings and cooling systems. Having access to data and using data forecasting can quantify the value of resilience features and reinforce the value of ESG investing. As megacities cluster and continue to grow, comes the need to reduce and reuse materials to shorten the tentacles that reach from megacities into their surrounding regions.

We'll do this by retrofitting cities to anticipate the need for sustainability and lower costs, stressed Khanna.

You are here: WBEF Megatrends Urbanisation The spread of megacity clusters requires infrastructure connections Urbanisation The spread of megacity clusters requires infrastructure connections Rural populations have been trickling into cities for decades as rural industries become more reliant on technology and require fewer workers.

Arwen Armbrecht , Writer and social media producer, Freelance. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum. I accept. Arwen Armbrecht Writer and social media producer, Freelance. Take action on UpLink. Image: People walk across a street in Tokyo. The population of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has doubled roughly every 5 years since The population is outpacing almost all support structures in the city where the threat of food shortages, traffic congestion, and insufficient education facilities have become a stark reality.

A large urban population may seem environmentally troublesome with cities viewed as a disruption to the natural world. But environmentalism and urbanization are not incompatible. Dense urban areas have a much smaller ecological footprint — many people live in apartments or smaller connected houses rather than ranch-style homes in sprawling neighborhoods.

Multifamily dwellings have the added benefit of being more energy efficient and they require less resources per person. Cities are also walkable and have public transportation options that can make cars less of a necessity. And above all, densely populated areas make it possible to protect other open spaces to serve as wildlife habitat, farmland, conservation areas, or oxygen-producing forests.

But of course, there are ecological downsides to cities as well. Concentrations of people mean concentrations of pollutants and trash. Cities produce up to 70 percent of global CO2 emissions and smog is becoming a common feature in many urban landscapes. Some countries are experiencing population decline, for example Japan, Russia and Ukraine. The number of cities with over 10 million people is increasing. These are called megacities. There are now 34 megacities in the world.