Sustainable Development Policies Can Reduce Urbanization Problems Essay

Cities all over the world are developing. This urbanization process is causing a number of problems and can be met by sustainable development policies. In the beginning, it is important to know what is the reason for urbanization. Most people move to the city because they want to get a better life. Another important term is a sustainable development. There are some definitions for sustainable development, but simply they say that sustainable development is a development which using resources now and preserving them for future generations (Adams, 1999, p.137). This concept has been agreed internationally at a Rio Conference in 1992 to be implemented by all government policies which mostly known as â€Å"Agenda 21† principles (Adams, 1999, p.141). This paper will show that traffic jams and housing problems caused by urbanization can be met by sustainable development policies. The structure of this paper will first explain the situation that leads to traffic jams and housing prob lems. Next, it will elaborate the sustainable development solutions, implications for the solutions, and evaluations how effective the sustainable development solutions solved the problems. A general situation of urbanization trend in developing countries and developed countries is increasing. In 18th Century only 3% of the world total population lived in urban areas but as projected in 2000 this number will increase at above 50% (UN as cited in Elliot, 1999, p. 144). According to UN (as cited in Elliot, 1999, p.144), it is figured that the total urban population in developing countries has increased from around 400 millions people in 1950 to around 2000 millions people in 2000. At the same time, total urban population in developed countries is double from ... ... high rise public housing, and control population growth, being implemented together should be sufficient enough to solve the housing problem brought by urbanization. In conclusion, increasing urbanization trend in the world has given rise to traffic jams and housing problems. These problems can be solved by sustainable development policies such as public transport investment, traffic management system, car control, develop new towns, build high rise public housing, and population growth control. As a result, most of the problems are solved, manageable or minimized. Although some solutions are considered better than others, having integrated solutions may have a more effective way to solve the problems. Future generations will suffer if the government did not implement the policies. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to implement them as soon as possible.