Challenges Posed by Megacities – Young Scientists Work on Solutions at the 2nd MRF Summer Academy

Two dozen young scientists from 15 countries met with internationally recognised experts at Schloss Hohenkammer near Munich at the end of July to discuss issues relating to the topic “Megacities: social vulnerability and measures to build social resilience”.

The second Summer Academy held by the United Nations University in conjunction with the Munich Re Foundation focused initially on the research methods employed and results obtained by the doctoral candidates, who come from a wide variety of fields such as geography, psychology, anthropology, engineering and planning. Often, it is necessary to bring together people from a variety of disciplines in order to come up with new solutions to known problems. In the case of megacities, the problems generally revolve around poverty and the poor quality of life.

The debates proved to be just as diverse and multifaceted as the participants’ backgrounds. The objective was to develop a precisely tailored “social vulnerability and resilience” framework by analysing the levels that are of essential significance to megacities: the balancing of local and global interests, of the formal and informal sectors and of social and ecological interests. The discussions were based both on concepts already existing in research and on the experience and collective knowledge of the participants from around the world. The highlight of this year’s Summer Academy was the visit by the Honourable Mayor of Colcata (Calcutta), Mr. Bhattacharyya, who came to Germany especially in order to participate. He enriched the discussions with his experience and described how the influences tugging poverty-stricken quarters in different directions have an impact on decisions.

A simulated stakeholder process made transparent the practical constraints governing all stakeholder groups. This was suggested by a topical example from the real world: the impending resettlement of Asia's biggest slum, Dharavi in Mumbai, with its more than one million inhabitants. The participants slipped into the roles of prime minister, minister for urban development or mayor and debated with slum inhabitants, activists and international investors. Comparing and contrasting academic models, multidisciplinary planning and simple reality led again and again to deep insights and realisations. The example of resettlement highlights the discrepancy between planning and reality. What seems from a drawing-board perspective to be an obvious option for saving space, i.e. to move people into multi-storey houses, is in reality unrealisable. Many such projects fail because the people involved, who are accustomed to living “horizontally” in close quarters with a great many other people, are unwilling to change to “vertical” residences that make them anonymous. They leave their new apartments and move back to their old environment, thereby undermining the processes for bringing about change.

The participants also underlined: Despite the grievous problems existing in megacities, it should not be forgotten that the living conditions in rural areas are often substantially worse than those in major cities. The poorest segments of the rural population are usually unable to read and so have hardly any prospect of crossing the poverty threshold to a better life. Megacities, on the other hand, offer millions of people opportunities to earn money and thus the chance to improve their living conditions and their social network. The result is a general migration from rural areas to cities. According to the United Nations, the world has therefore reached a turning point. The distribution of the world’s population has shifted so that there are already more people living in cities than in rural areas.

Megachance – megacity – megarisk. Knowledge of the interactions between people, resources and urbanisation will be a factor that decides the future of many of the earth’s countries.

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