In southwest China, one municipality is trying to usher in a new modern age by encouraging rural residents to move into urban areas. The flood may create one of the most populous cities in the world, but many rural migrants are hesitant to move.
"According to official figures, about 45% of Chongqing's people live in urban areas (nearly half in the would-be-Manhattan of Chongqing proper). But Chongqing's leaders, determined to make their vast municipality an oasis of modernity in China's backward west, say that by 2020 the municipality must be 70% 'urbanised'."
"Statistics like these make China's property developers drool. The municipality's official population is more than 30m, which if it were a single city would make it one of the largest in the world. To achieve the 2020 target, country-dwellers must move into urban areas at a rate of more than 500,000 a year. Large numbers of farmers will also seek their fortunes in other parts of China. Thanks to the lure of the wealthy coast, many have already done so. Chongqing's resident population - official population minus migrants to other provinces - fell by 500,000 between 2000 and 2005. But around half of those who migrate to urban areas remain in Chongqing municipality."
"Much of China's migration to the cities is therefore temporary - many city dwellers will one day return to their farms-and some scholars reckon Chongqing's real urbanisation rate is far lower than the official figures suggest."
Read the full story: China's Chicago
Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
Judges permit Denver to divert 77,000 acre feet from the Colorado River for reservoir expansion
Overuse and climate change have caused the Colorado River’s water levels to plummet.
Nation's most wind-powered state turns to coal as data centers increase energy demand
For the first time in decades, Iowa has increased its generation of coal power.
Boston has spent millions making the Green Line more accessible — and there’s no end in sight
While the city has invested millions into expanding and adding platforms to the Green Line to make it more accessible, new train cars set to arrive next year will be too tall for disabled passengers to board without raising the current platforms.
Idaho may see an 18% drop in federal surface transit funding — the largest estimated cut in the US
Transit systems in rural communities are much more reliant on federal funding to provide their services.
How ‘post-disaster gentrification’ alters neighborhoods after natural calamities
After hurricanes, fires or other calamities, the original residents of a community are often replaced by younger, wealthier residents.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello