Category Archives: Rasha Sukkarieh

More than half of the human population is living in urban areas. It is clear that urbanization is inevitable, and countries need to improve their urban infrastructure to enhance productivity and create jobs. Some planners suggest that the concentration of population in large urban fabrics will increase in future, leading to dreadful problems of service delivery. Restricting city growth is suggested as one of the approaches to manage this problem. I oppose this on the following grounds: urbanization provides opportunities for innovation and reducing costs; it requires a notion of coordination between different services. Economic activities stimulate development and the link with public transport is the key for sustainable development. Above all, urbanization promotes economies, thus reducing the costs of production and services. Even if some European cities (such as London or Paris) have been able to preserve green belts around them, there is a limit to controlling urban development, and controls could lead illegal development and security issues. Read More »