The rapid pace of industrialization, especially of developing countries, over the last two decades continues to promote urban development, and it can also, under the right circumstances, allow for increasingly sustainable development. Urban development can be described as the process of human expansion into natural and unsettled areas, especially as the result of an increase in local population density. In more industrialized countries, urban development rates are constant, if not declining, due to consistent settlement and housing patterns, as well as their relatively stable populations and already high levels of infrastructural development. For developed economies, urban and sustainable development issues have been on the agenda since at least the 1990’s. In contrast, developing countries are only now in the process of industrializing and urbanizing, so they are just beginning to face the additional challenge of making their development sustainable for the long-term. Moreover, since most developing countries are now entrenched in the voracious global capitalist system, it is important that they identify the international incentives and costs associated with promoting urban and sustainable development.
Sustainable development is generally described as the process by which present generations develop so as to better meet their needs without reducing the capacity of future generations to do the same. To allow for this, four general conditions must be met: 1) Fuel and mineral resources should not be extracted faster than they can be naturally replenished. 2) Long-lasting, harmful products and by- products (for example, plastics and carbon emissions) should not be produced faster
Consilience Kiamba: Urban Development
than they can be broken down and assimilated by the environment. 3) Over- consumption and over-harvesting should be restricted to prevent a decline in the productive capacity of affected ecosystems. 4) Basic needs should be met using efficient electronic and energy technologies. [1] Under these conditions, developing countries will likely be able to sustain their developmental progress over the long run, even if their development includes substantial urbanization. However, if the conditions are not met, development will inevitably encounter various stumbling blocks in the form of environmental problems and exhaustion of natural resources. To illustrate how this may occur, then, the following scenarios describe potential sets of circumstances in which urban development in developing countries can occur and, in so doing, provide grounds upon which viable urban and sustainable development policy recommendations can be made.