Jakarta, Indonesia is the world's sixth most populated metropolitan area, and it's on track to move up in ranks within the next decade. Some planners are trying to figure out how to guide this developing megacity onto a sustainable path.
"Like so many other cities in the developing world, it's a place struggling to adjust to the forces of modernity and rural migration. The city is increasingly known for its explosive population growth, seemingly endless traffic jams, polluted air and water, disappearing open spaces, urban poverty, and its vulnerability to frequent floods. Traffic jams in the city are expected to reach total gridlock by 2014. Air pollution reached unhealthy levels nearly 365 days a year causing widespread respiratory problems. One quarter of the capital city's population lives in kampungs, or slum neighborhoods spread around the city. In many cases these neighborhoods were rural villages simply engulfed by the march of urbanization. Another 5% of the population live in illegal settlements tucked under and next to public infrastructure as well as along river banks. Experts sum up Jakarta's unsustainable trajectory as 'catastrophic' and call it an 'urban planner's nightmare.'"
Read the full story: Towards a More Sustainable Jakarta
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