The introduction of essay---Eddie

Topic: To what extent can the problems of urbanisation be met a policy of sustainable development?
Subtitle: To compare [A comparison of] sustainable development policies of Vietnam and UK

At the present time, it is interesting that there are more and more people try [gr] to move to urban areas which then expand extremely quickly. It can be seen that this migration trend has taken place all over the world and the size and the number of the world’s largest cities have reached the highest level ever. (Cohen, 2006) Following this trend, academics have coined a new word – urbanisation, which is widely defined as a trend that people migrate from rural areas to urban areas.

It is an undeniable fact that people move to cities for a lot of factors, such as getting high salaries, better life conditions, and more opportunities. In addition, local governments welcome people moving to urban areas, since these additional labours can stimulate economic growth and local competitiveness. However, along with urbanisation development, not only have advantages, but also disadvantages been brought to the cities simultaneously. For instance, urbanisation might result in more serious pollution, traffic congestion, increased crime rates, energy deficiency, soaring housing price, and fierce competition in job hunting. All of these problems result in the decline of city competitiveness.

Encountering these serious problems, the UN and governments have paid attention to this issue. They try to solve this problem and commence implementing a variety of programmes, schemes and policies. These agendas are becoming the most urgent one to be implemented in many countries, especially Asian countries. Currently, most Asian countries are developing countries or undeveloped countries and suffer from serious urbanisation problems. In the recent twenty years, the UN and the governments have adopted sustainable development policies which are deemed as solution of urbanisation problems. Most governments have dedicated [^] to tailoring sustainability programmes or policies to reduce urbanisation problem and retain the original and potential benefits of urbanisation trend.

At the present time, there is still no specific definition of sustainable development. People with different backgrounds interpret this term in various ways (Van Pelt, 1994). On the other hand, sustainable development “has become widely used to stress the need for the simultaneous achievement of development and environment goals” (Pugh, 1996, P 23). Also, sustainable development is called eco-logical sustainability which can be divided five parts: economic sustainability, community sustainability, cultural sustainability and social sustainability. As a matter of fact, sustainable development is a long-termed programme which can improve environment, reduce the volume of resource used, and reduce waste (Mega, 1996a).

[It can be found that] Asian and Western countries have different cultures which may result in a variety of sustainable development patterns. Therefore, the essay will first describe urbanisation in Asian and Western countries, then examine sustainable developments of Vietnam and England before comparison. Finally, the extent to different sustainable development should be applied to cities with different cultures and situations

Reference:
Pugh, C. (1996) Earthscan Publications Limited, Sustainability the Environment and Urbanization, P23, Available from: http://www.google.com/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=959YxxBRMpgC&oi=fnd&pg=PA23&dq=sustainable+development%3B+city%3B+urbanisation&ots=Ruqa4cf3gw&sig=MEZAakUO75Rq0Ra0rNrNsovrFEs#v=onepage&q&f=false [accessed 07. 08.10]

Van Pelt, M. Kuyvenhoven, A. and Nijkamp, P. (1995) Defining and measuring sustainability. Institutional Journal of Pollution 5 (2/3), p.p.204-223

Cohen, B. (2006) Urbanization in developing countries: Current trends, future projections, and key challenges for sustainability, Technology in Society 28 (2006) 63-80

Mega, V. (1996a) Our city, our future: Towards sustainable development in European cities, Environment and Urbanization, 8 (1), p.p. 133-154