**3. Urbanization and its effects on the global south cities**

The global population reached the 7 billion mark in 2011 and is expected to get to the 9 billion mark by 2050. Urbanization, which is the influx of people from rural to urban areas, is a global concern. Globally, urban population reached the 50% mark in 2007 and has continued to increase ever since then with a projected 70% by 2050. Urbanization is a process predominant in the global North in the nineteenth century and has currently shifted to the global South [7]. It is predicted that 80% of the expected 70% urban population by 2050 would be resident in Asian and African cities [8]. The urbanization of the global North was accompanied by many positive effects such as new employment opportunities and poverty reduction. However,

*Sustainability in Urban Planning and Design*

eras before the contemporary period.

new dimensions. Consequently, this chapter briefly discusses the trend of planning at different epochs in history; examined urbanization, and its major consequence in global South cities, which is informal economy. It further explores the Neo-liberal thinking and trends, which underpins and sustains the perpetration of informal economy, and details and interrogates the predominance of informal economy in global South cities. The Chapter specifically devotes sections to discuss the relationship between urban planning and informal economy; the need for adjustment in global south urban planning standards to meet current realities, with lessons drawn from successful story of Singapore, a global South city that has become a model for other global South cities, showing that being an *informal-economy-city* is not a permanent status but can be transformed when necessary actions are taken by all stakeholders*.* Finally, the chapter proposes innovative and inclusive urban planning

The discussion on the trend of urban planning will be incomprehensive without retrospection on the trends of human settlements/development. In fact, each stage of urban planning can only be effectively discussed within the context of the prevailing development era and so a better chronological order is to discuss the type and level of planning that prevailed in each human development era. The focus of this section though on planning in global South cities, needs to first discuss planning globally since most global south planning systems are bequeathed by their colonial masters especially in African cities and their contemporary planning practices still have its foundation on the inherited system. The following section therefore focuses on planning during the six major historical human development

The human settlement is an organized grouping of human habitation. The first stage of prehistoric human era known as the *Paleolithic era* was characterized by trial and error of the stone age-man. The Stone Age man at the experimental period had no definite settlement and moved from one place to another, it was a period of experimentation in virtually every facet of life [2]. At this point, planning was non-existent and actually irrelevant since man lived a nomadic life and the only moment of temporary abode was during very harsh weather and security threats in caves and cliffs. The next human development era was the *Neolithic era* which started around 6000 BC and was characterized by initial settlements first as temporary and gradually to permanent settlements. In this era, the first attempts at planning were identified where the people settled at different locations based on some criteria and definite situational l advantages. Planning at this point was informal but was obvious as the location of settlements was based on clearly defined advantages that such locations provided for the settlers. Some of the choice locations for settlements in the Neolithic era included near water bodies and cultivable lands. The next stage is called *Bronze Age* also known as Urban Revolution was an era when agriculture was the major source of income and so most planning attempts were to organize the available land for effective agriculture as well as set standards for the few towns that had come into existence then. The Bronze Age was a remarkable period and can actually be described as the real starting point of planning. The fourth epoch was called *Classical Age.* It comprises mainly Greek city-States and Classical Romans. It was at this stage that saw the laying of the many foundations for urban planning especially by Hippodamus regarded as the father of urban planning. The *Medieval Age* was a time of regression both for the planning and other aspects of life then and as such

design as the path to economic growth in global South cities.

**2. Traditional planning system in the global south cities**

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global South urbanization is fraught with many challenges in virtually every facet of the society due to its rapid rate and the governments' unpreparedness for the challenges. The urbanization challenge focus of this work is on the urban economy and its effect on the urban environment. Urbanization in the global South has had a great toll on the economy. The influx of people to urban areas in the South has led to constant increase in the level of unemployment. As the population increase has not been matched with commensurate growth in gross national product (GDP) and employment provisions both by the government and the private sector resulting in high level of unemployment with many urban residents resorting to the informal economy. The urban informal economy characterized by unregistered and unregulated businesses, has become the sole resort for many urban residents. This informal economy has been traced to some government policies and international economic policies which have affected the global South nations more than the developed global North nations. One of the major policies that have influenced and sustained the informal economy is neo-liberalism. Going through history, one can glean insights on how humankind and their groups have identified and reacted to threats and openings which were embedded in their natural settings. Urbanization, in this case, is seen as one of three fundamental approaches in history employed by humans towards problem solving. This particular approach involves movement of people from areas of scarcity and lack to areas of available resources. As for the actual timing of when urbanization started, it is believed to date back as far as the pre-historic period of 2350–1800 B.C.

Urbanization is not restricted to any particular region of the world; however, the rate at which urbanization is taking place is seen to be fastest in global south cities of Africa, Latin-America, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean. The United Nations (UN) projection is that higher than 4 billion or 77% of urban residents of the world will be in less developed regions in 2025. This figure will translate to a total increase of 186% or an equivalent of 2.61 billion new urbanities in Latin America, Asia and Africa starting from 1990. The State of World Population indicates that in year 2009, urbanization level in less developed countries stood at 45 and 29% in least developed countries. The growth rate of urban population in the same report indicates 2.6% for less developed countries and 4.1% for least developed countries annually.

A greater percentage of people who move from rural to urban areas find themselves living in harsh or extreme conditions, more often than not, in the worst areas of cities. Such areas are often characterized by slums and squatter settlements. Houses in these areas are mostly shacks and cheap self-made apartments of mud, wood and zinc, corrugated iron sheets, etc. The most unfortunate ones are completely homeless or just manage to put up anywhere possible in global South cities like in Nigeria.

## **3.1 Effects of urbanization**

Urbanization has both negative and positive effects on global South cities, though, discussions in this respect often tilt towards the negative effects. The negative effects will be addressed along two broad areas of environment and economy.

#### *3.1.1 Environment*

Urbanization effects on the environment of global South cities come in two major ways: air and water pollution. The hallmark of cities and towns is the existence of automobiles and factories. As more people move into cities, larger quantities of dangerous gases such as carbon-dioxide, carbon-monoxide and

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*Future Planning of Global South Cities with Inclusive Informal Economic Growth in Perspective*

nitrogen oxides, and smoke are emitted into the atmosphere. These gases present severe threats to our health and are known to cause serious respiratory challenges. What is more it is generally responsible for depleting the ozone layer with the many adverse consequences. The next immediate environmental challenge is water pollution. Increase in the population of the cities makes it difficult to manage water generated for use. Most times, waste generated find its way into streams and rivers or onto the streets. Sometimes, solid and other waste from factories is dumped into water bodies. As this happens, the water sources become polluted and dangerous for use. In consequence, city dwellers are presented with more difficulty in assess-

It has already been pointed out that slums and squatter settlements are unavoidable fallouts of urbanization, management of waste and sewage is a major problem in these areas. One of the reasons is that official health and sanitation arrangements do not adequately cater for these areas. In as much as the city dwellers are not directly involved, any outbreak of diseases or epidemics will definitely not spare city dwellers. Most of the residents of these settlements indulge in open defecation

There are a number of other types of pollution which urbanization brings in its wake. They include traffic congestion which comes with the inevitable increase in various kinds of automobiles such as pedicabs; noise pollution which result from extra noise from small production units established by the migrants; inconvenience to pedestrians as they struggle with hawkers and street vendors; and a host of other types of environmental pollution. Another ancillary urbanization issues is the emergence of urban sprawls. This requires special mention as a form of environmental adverse effect of urbanization. The reason is that urban sprawls are not part of the original urban planning policy of any city. A sprawl indicates an increase in space or adjoining area of a city. Sprawls provide a haven for a plethora of informal economic activities which put pressure on the facilities meant for formally planned

The economy of global South cities are affected by urbanization in several ways:

Generally urbanization comes with it a spillover effect of hands that are not engaged in productive activities. The unemployment among developing countries of the global south cities have been a thing of worry. For instance, the official figure of Nigerian unemployment is put at 23%, while youth unemployment figure is put to about 52% as at 2018 [9]. The immediate side effect of this high level of unemployment is unrestrained increase level of poverty. As at 2017, Nigeria with a population estimated at about 200 million people had about 86 million in extreme poverty. This made her exceed India as the highest destination of poor people globally. On the wheels of this growing incidence of poverty is increased spate of criminal activities such as banditry, kidnapping, bribery and corruption among many other crimes. The basic explanation is that man is self-preservative, and in the

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89145*

*3.1.2 Management of waste and sewage (sanitation issues)*

with the attendant health hazards associated with it.

ing clean water.

*3.1.3 Other types of pollution*

segments of the cityscape.

*3.1.4 Economic*

*3.1.5 Unemployment*

#### *Future Planning of Global South Cities with Inclusive Informal Economic Growth in Perspective DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89145*

nitrogen oxides, and smoke are emitted into the atmosphere. These gases present severe threats to our health and are known to cause serious respiratory challenges. What is more it is generally responsible for depleting the ozone layer with the many adverse consequences. The next immediate environmental challenge is water pollution. Increase in the population of the cities makes it difficult to manage water generated for use. Most times, waste generated find its way into streams and rivers or onto the streets. Sometimes, solid and other waste from factories is dumped into water bodies. As this happens, the water sources become polluted and dangerous for use. In consequence, city dwellers are presented with more difficulty in assessing clean water.
