Cities, Urbanisation and Climate Change

摘要

This Special Issue draws out intersections between two of the most important socio-ecological issues of the 21st century. The first is the rise of the urban form as the dominant geographical context for life on Earth (World Watch Institute, 2007). The second is the emergence of climate change as a real and present threat to socio-ecological sustainability on the planet and a potent, if not dominant, force of urban change. Cities are the defining ecological phenomenon of the 21st century. The point has been reached where the majority of the world's population now lives in cities. As projected by the UN, between 2009 and 2050, the population of urban areas is expected to increase from 3.4 billion to 6.3 billion, absorbing most of the projected increase in the world population (UN, 2010).