Research from the World Resources Institute and Yale University suggests that urban areas are expected to grow by 80 percent by the end of the next decade - and unless they grow up rather than out, they could be in trouble. When cities grow according to plans of developers rather than guided by policy, the result is development at the periphery, resulting in encroachment on agricultural or forest lands, and expansion into areas that are far from jobs and largely unconnected to municipal services. “We talk about flooding in Jakarta and Indian cities, but people don’t tie any of this back to land use. But now there’s enough evidence that all of this is occurring because of overdevelopment where services aren’t available,” said Mahendra, director of research at the institute’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. The results show that among developing countries, vertical growth is almost completely confined to Chinese cities, while urban areas in Africa and South Asia are seeing very little of it. That is a concern because almost 90 percent of urbanisation through 2030 is expected to take place in Africa and Asia, according to the report.

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