Megacity#Air pollution

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Since, presently, urban data are based on arbitrary definitions that vary from country to country and from year or census to the next, making them difficult to compare, an Urban Metric System (UMS) has been conceived that could correct the problem,{{cite web |url=https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S1757-7802(24)00342-1|title=Estimating urban sprawl standards by means of the Urban Metric System |last1=Tellier |first1=Luc-Normand |last2=Quesnel |first2=Frédéric |last3=Bur |first3=Justin |publisher=Regional Science Policy and Planning |date=November 2024 }} since it allows computing the urban area limits and central points, and it can be applied in the same way to all past, present and future population and job distributions.

It is based on vector field calculations obtained by assuming that, in a given space, all inhabitants and jobs exert the same attractive force A and repulsive force R. The net force (A - R) exerted by each inhabitant or job is given by [1/(1 + d)] - [1/( β + d/2)], where d = distance and β is the only parameter.

UMS distinguishes the following types of urban areas(including "patropolises" that are tantamount to "megacities"), each type corresponding to a given value of β:

UMS has been applied to some Canadian cases since 2018, but the data presented in this article are still based on the various existing national definitions, which are disparate.

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The term "megacity" entered common use in the late 19th or early 20th centuries; one of the earliest documented uses of the term was by the University of Texas in 1904.{{cite journal |date=1994 |title=Perspectives on Political and Economic Trends in the Americas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1ALAAAAYAAJ&q=megacity |journal=Hemisfile |publisher=Institute of the Americas |volume=5-8 |page=12 |access-date=16 July 2015}} Initially the United Nations used the term to describe cities of 8 million or more inhabitants, but now uses the threshold of 10 million.{{cite journal |date=1981 |title=Special topics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pVxQAQAAIAAJ&q=Megacity+%228+million%22 |journal=Population Reports |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University |issue=15–19 |page=38}} In the mid 1970s the term was coined by urbanist Janice Perlman referring to the phenomenon of very large urban agglomerations.{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=9780415252256|pages=454}}

File:2020 1million cities.jpg

In 1800, only 3% of the world's population lived in cities, a figure that rose to 47% by the end of the twentieth century. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; by 2007, this number had risen to 468,{{cite web|url=http://www.citypopulation.de/World.html |title=Principal Agglomerations of the World |publisher=Citypopulation.de |access-date=2010-09-01}} with 153 of them located in Asia. Among the 27 megacities with populations over 10 million globally, 15 were situated in Asia.{{Cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Deren |last2=Ma |first2=Jun |last3=Cheng |first3=Tao |last4=van Genderen |first4=J. L. |last5=Shao |first5=Zhenfeng |date=2019-12-02 |title=Challenges and opportunities for the development of megacities |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17538947.2018.1512662 |journal=International Journal of Digital Earth |volume=12 |issue=12 |pages=1382–1395 |doi=10.1080/17538947.2018.1512662 |bibcode=2019IJDE...12.1382L |issn=1753-8947|url-access=subscription }}

In 2010, UN forecasted that urban population of 3.2 billion would rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030, when three out of five, or 60%, of people would live in cities.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.forbes.com/2007/06/11/megacities-population-urbanization-biz-cx_21cities_ml_0611megacities.html|title=Megacities Of The Future|magazine=Forbes.com|date=2007-06-11|access-date=2010-09-01}} This increase will be most dramatic on the least-urbanized continents, Asia and Africa. Surveys and projections indicate that all urban growth over the next 25 years will be in developing countries.{{cite web|url=http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=5307 |title=Nigeria: Lagos, the mega-city of slums and plums |publisher=Energypublisher.com |access-date=2010-09-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218170316/http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=5307 |archive-date=February 18, 2011 }} One billion people, almost one-seventh of the world's population, now live in shanty towns.{{cite news|last=Whitehouse |first=David |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4561183.stm |title=Half of humanity set to go urban |work=BBC News |date=2005-05-19 |access-date=2010-09-01}} In many poor countries, overcrowded slums exhibit high rates of disease due to unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, and lack of basic health care.{{cite web|url=http://www.blackcommentator.com/88/88_reprint_planet_slums.html |title=Planet of Slums – The Third World's Megacities |publisher=Blackcommentator.com |access-date=2010-09-01}} By 2030, over 2 billion people in the world will be living in slums.{{cite web|url=http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2007/english/chapter_2/slums.html |title=State of World Population 2007 |publisher=Unfpa.org |access-date=2010-09-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122105358/http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2007/english/chapter_2/slums.html |archive-date=2009-01-22 |df=ymd-all}} Over 90% of the urban population of Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda, three of the world's most rural countries, already live in slums.

By 2025, Asia alone will have at least 30 megacities, including Mumbai, India (2015 population of 20.75 million people), Shanghai, China (2015 population of 35.5 million people), Delhi, India (2015 population of 21.8 million people), Tokyo, Japan (2015 population of 38.8 million people) and Seoul, South Korea (2015 population of 25.6 million people). The top eight provincial capital cities in China with urban areas exceeding 400 km²—Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Xi'an—accounted for 54.8% of the total urban area of all provincial capital cities in the country in 2015.

In Africa, Lagos, Nigeria has grown from 300,000 in 1950 to an estimated 21 million today.

File:Détail de la maquette de Rome à lépoque de Constantin (5839479770).jpg's model of Rome in the time of Constantine]]

For almost five hundred years, during the period of the Republic and later of the Empire, Rome was the largest, wealthiest, and most politically important city of the ancient world, rulling over Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa.{{cite web|url=http://www.unrv.com/empire/roman-population.php |title=Roman Empire Population |publisher=Unrv.com |access-date=2010-09-01}}{{Cite web |title=Pax Romana: Rome's Golden Age |url=https://www.historyhit.com/pax-romana-romes-golden-age/ |access-date=2024-09-18 |website=History Hit |language=en-GB}} It is often stated that its population passed one million people by the end of the 1st century BC, however, it is debated about whether the population actually reached such a large size.{{cite web|url=http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/poprus.htm |title=Population crises and cycles in history |publisher=Home.vicnet.net.au |access-date=2010-09-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110405081151/http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/poprus.htm |archive-date=April 5, 2011 }}{{cite journal|last=Storey|first=Glenn R.|year=1997|title=The population of ancient Rome|journal=Antiquity|volume=71|issue=274|pages=966–978|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00085859|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/BACD7DF32B0B77609CD6713B8AF88882/S0003598X00085859a.pdf/div-class-title-the-population-of-ancient-rome-div.pdf|access-date=30 May 2024|archive-date=23 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723072210/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/BACD7DF32B0B77609CD6713B8AF88882/S0003598X00085859a.pdf/div-class-title-the-population-of-ancient-rome-div.pdf|url-status=bot: unknown}} Rome's population started declining in 402 AD when Flavius Honorius, Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423, moved the government to Ravenna and Rome's population declined to a mere 20,000 during the Early Middle Ages, reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings interspersed among large areas of ruins and vegetation.

Baghdad was likely the largest city in the world from shortly after its foundation in 762 AD until the 930s, with some estimates putting its population at over one million.{{cite web |url=http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm |title=Largest Cities Through History |publisher=Geography.about.com |date=2010-06-16 |access-date=2010-09-01 |archive-date=2005-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050527095609/http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm |url-status=dead }} Chinese capital cities Chang'an and Kaifeng also experienced huge population booms during prosperous empires. According to the census in the year 742 recorded in the New Book of Tang, 362,921 families with 1,960,188 persons were counted in Jingzhao Fu (京兆府), the metropolitan area including small cities in the vicinity of Chang'an.New Book of Tang, vol. 41 (Zhi vol. 27) Geography 1. The medieval settlement surrounding Angkor, the one-time capital of the Khmer Empire which flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, could have supported a population of up to one million people.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/metropolis-angkor-the-worlds-first-megacity-461623.html Metropolis: Angkor, the world's first mega-city], The Independent, August 15, 2007

File:Trafalgar Square by James Pollard.jpg was transformed into the world's largest city and capital of the British Empire.]]

From around 1825 to 1918 London was the largest city in the world, with the population growing rapidly; it was the first city to reach a population of over 5 million in 1900. In 1950, New York City was the only urban area with a population of over 10 million.{{cite web|url=http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201g.htm|title=Top 10 Cities of the Year 1950|work=Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census|author=Tertius Chandler, 1987, St. David's University Press|access-date=2007-03-24|archive-date=2016-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415044639/http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201g.htm|url-status=dead}} Geographers had identified 25 such areas as of October 2005,{{cite web|url=http://www.citypopulation.de/World.html |title=Population statistics |publisher=Citypopulation.de |access-date=2010-09-01}} as compared with 19 megacities in 2004 and only nine in 1985. This increase has happened as the world's population moves towards the high (75–85%) urbanization levels of North America and Western Europe.

Since the 2000s, the largest megacity has been the Greater Tokyo Area. The population of this urban agglomeration includes areas such as Yokohama and Kawasaki, and is estimated to be between 37 and 38 million. This variation in estimates can be accounted for by different definitions of what the area encompasses. While the prefectures of Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama are commonly included in statistical information, the Japan Statistics Bureau only includes the area within 50 kilometers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices in Shinjuku, thus arriving at a smaller population estimate.{{cite web|url=http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/handbook/c02cont.htm |title=Greater Tokyo population statistics |publisher=Stat.go.jp |date=2008-10-01 |access-date=2010-09-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411094023/http://www.stat.go.jp/English/data/handbook/c02cont.htm |archive-date=April 11, 2008 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.citypopulation.de/World.html |title=Tokyo metropolitan area population statistics |publisher=Citypopulation.de |access-date=2010-09-01}} A characteristic issue of megacities is the difficulty in defining their outer limits and accurately estimating the populations.

Another list defines megacities as urban agglomerations instead of metropolitan areas.{{Cite web |title=World Megacities - Urban Areas with More than 10,000,000 Population (2015) |url=http://www.demographia.com/db-megacity.pdf |website=Demographia}} As of 2021, there are 28 megacities by this definition, like Tokyo.{{Cite web |last=Society |first=National Geographic |date=2018-08-28 |title=The Age of Megacities |url=http://www.nationalgeographic.org/interactive/age-megacities/ |access-date=2022-04-19 |website=National Geographic Society |language=en}} Other sources list Nagoya and the Rhein-Ruhr{{cite web |url=http://www.espon.eu/export/sites/default/Documents/Projects/ESPON2006Projects/StudiesScientificSupportProjects/UrbanFunctions/fr-1.4.3_April2007-final.pdf |title=ESPON project 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions Final Report |access-date=2013-08-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924002318/http://www.espon.eu/export/sites/default/Documents/Projects/ESPON2006Projects/StudiesScientificSupportProjects/UrbanFunctions/fr-1.4.3_April2007-final.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-24 }} as megacities.

{{Cleanup|section|reason=A lot of vague statements without up-to-date / worldwide-applicable supporting examples or data. Can also be further expanded.|date=May 2014}}

File:Mumbai (5356346073).jpg's Dharavi slum is home to 1 million residents]]

According to the United Nations, the proportion of urban dwellers living in slums or informal settlements decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the developing world between 1990 and 2005.{{cite web|url=http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/mdg2007.pdf |title=p. 26 |access-date=2010-09-01}} However, due to rising population, the absolute number of slum dwellers is rising and passed 1 billion in 2018.{{cite web | url=https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-11/ | title=— SDG Indicators }} The increase in informal settlement population has been caused by massive migration, both internal and transnational, into cities, which has caused growth rates of urban populations and spatial concentrations not seen before in history.{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}} The majority of these are located in informal settlements which often lack sufficient quality housing, sanitation, drainage, water access, and officially recognized addresses. These issues raise problems in the political, social, and economic arenas.{{cite web | url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/08/informal-settlements-are-growing-heres-how-we-provide-everyone-a/ | title=Informal settlements are growing everywhere — here's what we do }} People who live in slums or informal settlements often have minimal or no access to education, healthcare, or the urban economy.

File:View over Complexo do Alemao (Favela) - From Igreja da Penha - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil - 03 (17556920491).jpg, Brazil are gang related and happen in the favelas]]

As with any large concentration of people, there is usually crime.{{cite journal |last1=Glaeser |first1=Edward L. |last2=Sacerdote |first2=Bruce |title=Why is There More Crime in Cities? |journal=Journal of Political Economy |date=1999 |volume=107 |issue=S6 |pages=S225–S258 |doi=10.1086/250109|s2cid=56443047 |url=http://papers.nber.org/papers/w5430.pdf }}{{cite journal |last1=Yang |first1=V. Chuqiao |last2=Papachristos |first2=Andrew V. |last3=Abrams |first3=Daniel M. |title=Modeling the origin of urban-output scaling laws |journal=Physical Review E |date=2019 |volume=100 |issue=3 |pages=032306 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevE.100.032306|pmid=31639910 |arxiv=1712.00476 |bibcode=2019PhRvE.100c2306Y |s2cid=201646296 }} High population densities often result in higher crime rates, as visibly seen in growing megacities such as Karachi, Delhi, Cairo, Rio de Janeiro, and Lagos.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F9mHmudq2scC |title=The Real Population Bomb: Megacities, Global Security & the Map of the Future |author1=P. H. Liotta |author2=James F. Miskel |publisher=Potomac Books |date= 2012-02-01|access-date=2014-05-03|isbn=9781597975513 }}

Megacities often have significant numbers of homeless people. The actual legal definition of homelessness varies from country to country, or among different entities or institutions in the same country or region.{{cite web|url=http://www.homeless.org.au/glossary.htm |title=Glossary defining homelessness |publisher=Homeless.org.au |access-date=2010-09-01}}

In 2002, research showed that children and families were the largest growing segment of the homeless population in the United States,FACS, "Homeless Children, Poverty, Faith and Community: Understanding and Reporting the Local Story", March 26, 2002

Akron, Ohio. {{cite web |url=http://www.facsnet.org/edu/progs/family_03-26-02.php3 |title=Homeless Children, Poverty, Faith and Community: Understanding and Reporting the Local Story |access-date=2006-10-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928072235/http://www.facsnet.org/edu/progs/family_03-26-02.php3 |archive-date=2007-09-28 }}National Coalition for the Homeless, "Homeless Youth" 2005 {{cite web|url=http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/youth.pdf|title=Homeless Youth|access-date=2013-04-15|archive-date=2018-08-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822050017/http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/youth.pdf|url-status=dead}} {{small|(164 KB)}} and this has presented new challenges, especially in services, to agencies. In the US, the government asked many major cities to come up with a ten-year plan to end homelessness. One of the results of this was a "Housing first" solution, rather than to have a homeless person remain in an emergency homeless shelter it was thought to be better to quickly get the person permanent housing of some sort and the necessary support services to sustain a new home. But there are many complications with this kind of program and these must be dealt with to make such an initiative work successfully in the middle to long term.Abel, David, [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/24/for_the_homeless_keys_to_a_home/ "For the homeless, keys to a home: Large-scale effort to keep many off street faces hurdles"], Boston Globe, February 24, 2008.PBS, [https://www.pbs.org/now/shows/305/index.html "Home at Last? – A radical new approach to helping the homeless"], NOW TV program, December 21, 2007.

File:Ratchadamri to Pratunam.jpg is notorious for its traffic congestion.]]

Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, increased pollution, and increased vehicular queueing. The Texas Transportation Institute estimated that, in 2000, the 75 largest metropolitan areas experienced 3.6 billion vehicle-hours of delay, resulting in 5.7 billion U.S. gallons (21.6 billion liters) in wasted fuel and $67.5 billion in lost productivity, or about 0.7% of the nation's GDP. It also estimated that the annual cost of congestion for each driver was approximately $1,000 in very large cities and $200 in small cities.{{Cite book |last=Sabry |first=Fouad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5r3-EAAAQBAJ&dq=congestion+$1,000++$200&pg=PT145 |title=Induced Demand: Unlocking the Mysteries of Induced Demand, Navigating the Roads to Sustainable Cities |date=2024-03-27 |publisher=One Billion Knowledgeable |language=en}} Traffic congestion is increasing in major cities and delays are becoming more frequent in smaller cities and rural areas. It also can result in various issues, including economic losses, energy waste, air and noise pollution, and more.

File:South-Los-Angeles-110-and-105-freeways-Aerial-view-from-north-August-2014.jpg in the U.S. state of California with houses, buildings, roads, and freeways. Areas constructed to capacity contribute to urban expansion.]]

Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density, auto-dependent development on rural land, with associated design features that encourage car dependency.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100105123334/http://www.sprawlcity.org/hbis/wis.html What is Sprawl?]}}. SprawlCity.org. Retrieved on 2008-02-07. As a result, some critics argue that sprawl has certain disadvantages including longer transport distances to work, high car dependence, inadequate facilities (e.g. health, cultural. etc.) and higher per-person infrastructure costs. Discussions and debates about sprawl are often obfuscated by the ambiguity associated with the phrase. For example, some commentators measure sprawl only with the average number of residential units per acre in a given area. But others associate it with decentralization (spread of population without a well-defined center), discontinuity (leapfrog development), segregation of uses, etc.{{Cite book |last=Jain |first=Shri V. K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRYsEAAAQBAJ&dq=sprawl+decentralization+discontinuity++segregation&pg=PA352 |title=Applied Ecology and Sustainable Environment |date=2021-04-30 |publisher=BFC Publications |isbn=978-93-90880-19-5 |language=en}}

Gentrification and urban gentrification are terms for the socio-cultural changes in an area as a result of wealthier people buying property in a less prosperous community.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/flagwars/special_gentrification.php|title=PBS Documentaries with a point of view: What is Gentrification?|author=Benjamin Grant|publisher=Public Broadcasting Service|date=June 17, 2003|access-date=September 4, 2017|archive-date=December 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151206002239/http://www.pbs.org/pov/flagwars/special_gentrification.php|url-status=dead}} As living costs rise, lower-income residents are forced to move out of the community leading to an increase in average income, which in turn makes the area more desirable to other wealthier property or business owners, further pushing the living costs up. This process also tends to lead to a decrease in average family size in the area. This type of population change reduces industrial land use when it is redeveloped for commerce and housing.

File:Shanghai Smog.JPG, China]]

Air pollution is the introduction into the atmosphere of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment.{{cite journal |last1=Decker |first1=Ethan H. |last2=Elliott |first2=Scott |last3=Smith |first3=Felisa A. |title=Megacities and the Environment |journal=The Scientific World Journal |date=2002 |volume=2 |pages=374–386 |doi=10.1100/tsw.2002.103|pmid=12806023 |pmc=6009397 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Folberth |first1=Gerd A. |last2=Butler |first2=Timothy M. |last3=Collins |first3=William J. |last4=Rumbold |first4=Steven T. |title=Megacities and climate change – A brief overview |journal=Environmental Pollution |date=2015 |volume=203 |pages=235–242 |doi=10.1016/j.envpol.2014.09.004 |pmid=25300966 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2015EPoll.203..235F }} This issue is particularly prevalent in developing nations. As part of the Global Environment Monitoring System, WHO and UNEP established an air pollution monitoring network that oversees 50 cities.{{Cite journal |last1=Mage |first1=David |last2=Ozolins |first2=Guntis |last3=Peterson |first3=Peter |last4=Webster |first4=Anthony |last5=Orthofer |first5=Rudi |last6=Vandeweerd |first6=Veerle |last7=Gwynne |first7=Michael |date=1996-03-01 |title=Urban air pollution in megacities of the world |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/1352231095002197 |journal=Atmospheric Environment |series=Supercities: Environment Quality and Sustainable Development |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=681–686 |doi=10.1016/1352-2310(95)00219-7 |bibcode=1996AtmEn..30..681M |issn=1352-2310|url-access=subscription }} Many urban areas have significant problems with smog, a type of air pollution derived from vehicle emissions from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog.

The sheer size and complexity of megacities gives rise to enormous social and environmental challenges. Whether megacities can develop sustainably depends to a large extent on how they obtain, share, and manage their energy and material resources. There are correlations between electricity consumption, heating and industrial fuel use, ground transportation energy use, water consumption, waste generation, and steel production in terms of level of consumption and how efficiently they use resources.{{cite journal |last1=Kennedy |first1=Christopher A. |last2=Stewart |first2=Iain |last3=Facchini |first3=Angelo |last4=Cersosimo |first4=Igor |last5=Mele |first5=Renata |last6=Chen |first6=Bin |last7=Uda |first7=Mariko |last8=Kansal |first8=Arun |last9=Chiu |first9=Anthony |last10=Kim |first10=Kwi-gon |last11=Dubeux |first11=Carolina |last12=Lebre La Rovere |first12=Emilio |last13=Cunha |first13=Bruno |last14=Pincetl |first14=Stephanie |last15=Keirstead |first15=James |last16=Barles |first16=Sabine |last17=Pusaka |first17=Semerdanta |last18=Gunawan |first18=Juniati |last19=Adegbile |first19=Michael |last20=Nazariha |first20=Mehrdad |last21=Hoque |first21=Shamsul |last22=Marcotullio |first22=Peter J. |last23=González Otharán |first23=Florencia |last24=Genena |first24=Tarek |last25=Ibrahim |first25=Nadine |last26=Farooqui |first26=Rizwan |last27=Cervantes |first27=Gemma |last28=Sahin |first28=Ahmet Duran |title=Energy and material flows of megacities |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=2015 |volume=112 |issue=19 |pages=5985–5990 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1504315112 |pmid=25918371 |pmc=4434724 |bibcode=2015PNAS..112.5985K |doi-access=free}}

Megacities are a common backdrop in dystopian science fiction, with examples such as the Sprawl in William Gibson's Neuromancer,{{cite book |title=Popular Contemporary Writers |last=Sharp |first=Michael D. |year=2005 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn= 978-0-7614-7601-6 }} and Mega-City One, a megalopolis of between 50 and 800 million people (fluctuations due to war and disaster) across the east coast of the United States, in the Judge Dredd comic.{{cite book |title=The Legal Companion |last=Powell |first=Vincent |year=2005 |publisher=Robson |isbn= 978-1-86105-838-6 |page=54 }} In Demolition Man a megacity called "San Angeles" was formed from the joining of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego and the surrounding metropolitan regions following a massive earthquake in 2010.{{cite book |title=Black space: imagining race in science fiction film |last=Namu |first= Adilifu |year=2008 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn= 978-0-292-71745-9 }} Fictional planet-wide megacities (ecumenopoleis) include Trantor in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of books and Coruscant (population two trillion) in the Star Wars universe.{{cite book |title=The Greenwood encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy: themes, works, and wonders, Volume 2 |last=Westfahl |first=Gary |year=2005 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn= 978-0-313-32952-4 }}

{{portal|border=no|Cities|World}}

• Economies of agglomeration
• Global city
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• List of largest cities throughout history
• Megalopolis
• Urban sprawl

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