Having discussed in the foregoing Chapter the conceptual basis for development cooperation in urban environmental planning and management (EPM), this Chapter aims to present empirical information needed to understand the main needs with regard to development cooperation in this field. The progression of the Chapter starts by first indicating in broad terms the pace and scale of urbanisation presently under way in the countries of the South: this is a major phenomenon underlying the growth in urban environmental problems. The next section discusses the various kinds of environmental problems to be found in the cities of the South, emphasising the large variety of such problems: over thirty problem areas are described in brief. This is followed by an overview of the varieties of urban environmental problems found in the different global regions.

In practice, all regions in the South suffer a large variety of urban environmental problems which they share with the other regions. On the other hand, serious problems in one city in one region, whilst possibly similar to the mix of problems in a city in another region, may be nevertheless be unknown in other cities of either regions: the mix of environmental problems in each city is quite specific to that city and is the result of causes which are, themselves, city specific. The main conclusion is that development cooperation in urban environment needs to focus on developing programmes for each city, preferably based on an overview of urbanisation processes by country and by region.

A further conclusion of the Chapter is that physical problems are almost always soluble by the application of appropriate planning and management measures and that there is therefore a requirement for a strong focus on institutional questions: at present countries and cities in the South usually have an inadequate or inappropriate institutional framework to confront urban environmental problems effectively and so development cooperation in this field needs to devote considerable attention not just to physical problems and technical responses but to the social, economic, cultural and, in the end, institutional factors; these are discussed at length towards the end of the Chapter, followed by a rather more specific description of the main institutions currently involved in development cooperation in urban EPM.

For the purposes of this report, we are interested particularly in the process of urbanisation, which is the ongoing formation of cities. It is this which in the first instance is seen to generate environmental problems and it is the guiding of this process that is of importance in finding ways to mitigate environmental problems and ultimately to create cities that are pleasant, convenient to live in, which are efficient and, in the longer run, sustainable.

Notwithstanding definitional problems, it is quite evident that we are currently witnessing rapid processes of urbanisation particularly in those countries which still possess a substantial proportion of the population living in rural areas and practising farming. Urbanisation, simply defined, is the process whereby the population of a country or region moves from an extensive occupation of the land where the bulk of the population is engaged in more or less self-reliant agriculture, into urban areas ranging from small and large towns to cities and, most recently ‘megacities' of several million inhabitants, in the process changing their primary means of livelihood. It should be noted, however, that cities in the countries of the South are growing not only through in-migration but also through reproduction of the already-urbanised population.

Whilst the industrialised countries started to urbanise already during the 19th century, over the past few

decades, urbanisation has reached the furthest corners of the earth: urban populations almost everywhere are growing faster than rural populations and in many areas there is a net reduction in rural population, a draining of the land in favour of cities and of metropolitan regions. Between 1990 and 1995 (World Resources Institute, 1996), while the rural population of Africa grew at 2.0%, the urban population grew at 4.4%. In Asia the equivalent figures were 0.8% and 3.3% and in South America -0.8% and 2.5%. From country to country the result of this urbanisation process varies greatly - from Burkina Faso with only 6% urban population in 1975 and 27% urban in 1995 to Venezuela with 75% urbanised in 1975 and 93% urbanised in 1995; overall the picture is indicated in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Percentage of Population living in urban areas

Source: World Resources Institute (1996), Table A1.

(2025 figures are WRI estimates)

These statistics indicate the strong urbanisation trends throughout the developing world but still fail to show the magnitude of the rate of growth of urban areas, taking into account also more or less rapid overall rates of population growth. Thus rates of urbanisation range currently from an African average of 4.4% per year to 3.3% in Asia and 2.5% in South America. In small countries this might not be a substantial growth in urban population per year, whilst in larger countries this amounts to an immense number of people to be accommodated in towns and cities each year; Table 2.2 provides a few examples.

It is above all the newness, suddenness, magnitude and complexity of urbanisation, and the inexperience of all actors - urban managers and the newly urbanising population - in dealing with the problems which this generates which lies at the heart of the ‘urban environmental crisis' with which this report is concerned.