It is a peculiar quirk of modern life that even as the 21st century shapes up as the era of the vast, gleaming mega-city, many millions of new urban dwellers will end up living in the sort of squalor associated with the early 1900s.

Urbanization is one of the defining phenomena of our age, and is happening at astonishing speed - almost 180,000 people arrive in towns or cities around the globe every single day, according to the United Nations settlement agency, UN Habitat.

While in 1950 only 30% of the world's population was urbanized, the proportion will pass 50% within the next year or so, and then hit 60 percent by 2030.

The vast bulk of this explosive growth will happen in less developed countries, where the urban population is expected to rocket from 1.9 billion in 2000 to 3.9 billion in 2030.

Even now, UN Habitat estimates, more than 750 million people live in urban areas without adequate shelter or basic services.

Some of the most dramatic urbanization has been seen in China. While people around the globe know the names of mega-cities such as Beijing and Shanghai - home to around 15 million and 17 million people respectively - there are dozens of other conurbations unfamiliar even to many Chinese.

In 1950, the country had 13 cities with populations of a million or more. It now has 109, a figure increasing all the time. India's million-plus club has grown from five to 40 over the same period.

Urbanization is by no means always a problem, according to experts.

"Cities fundamentally have the potential of being inclusive, democratic and providing opportunities for all," says Professor Ricky Burdett of the Cities Program at the London School of Economics.

"If you look back at cities which have gone through similar periods of expansion, like New York in the 1920s and 30s, in many ways they provided a sort of melting pot of opportunities, where people came in at the bottom of the system and were able to make their way up.

"But the great risk of this sort of rapid urbanization is that cities remain social environments in which those at the bottom of the ladder remain there."

Cities need a mix of public intervention and "enough flexibility to allow the private market to do what it needs to do at that point in time," Burdett believes.

The United States, which unlike most rich nations still has a fast-expanding population, faces its own difficulties.

Millions are flocking to already over-populated coastal areas, causing cities to spread ever wider, says Richard Rosan, president of the Washington DC-based Urban Land Institute, a research organization for land use and city planning.

The United States has "our head in the sand" when it comes to urbanization, Rosan says.

"We are not thinking out what the consequences of this are. At some point, just to take care of the natural growth of cars, Los Angeles is going to need 25 lanes of traffic going each way or something," he says.

"It's the American tradition - land is something we've always had vast amounts of and we believe people are entitled to their homeowner rights and can decide where they want to live. Our state and county governments are designed around that premise.

"For Americans to cede authority is a hard thing. But land use planning, while it requires a lot of input from the locals, needs a bigger picture, too."

Is urbanization becoming a menace? What should be done?

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I honestly think that you cannot go ahead with any urbanization project until the society is fair to those who are not favored economically. For instead in most of the world biggest cities you often see rich and luxurious neighborhoods surrounded by families that are living in the streets. It is only after giving access to education resources, paying people a fair salary and all that social security involves you can really start talking about urbanization projects. Otherwise you will have urbanized cities where nobody will live.

The rate at which unemployment is growing is so fast and the number of people now living on the streets has become alarming. Meager jobs can be created, such as road sweeping, drainage cleaning that would keep street dwellers busy and get a pay at the end of the week or month.

Isn't it a fact that socialist leaders never venture out of state capitals and these cities develop slums? The Soviet Union collapsed because these leaders never moved out of Kremlin or saw what was really going on in their country. Watch out for Mexico City and Buenos Aires. Improve the quality of enforcement and decentralize development efforts.

I think a lack of initiative on the part of government to provide basic facilities like health and education in rural areas is one of the driving forces for urbanization and its associated evils.

Even big multinationals want to build skyscrapers in the congested city centers. One example is where the government of Andhra Pradesh state sold out hospitals in the heart of Visakhapatnam to multinational corporations.

Big industries should try and invest in rural economies. For example, somebody could start a chain of private health centers in rural and semi urban areas, not necessarily big hospitals like Apollo Indraprastha.

I think more people suffer from malaria, TB and gastroenteritis than heart attacks and strokes. And I tell you, these investors need not do this as charity, as most of the private hospitals in cities survive on rural patients.

In short, if we try to modernize our villages with better transport, communication , health and education it would restore the balance.

We have good thinkers, good planners, but poor executors to solve the day to day problems of the common man. Sill, countries like India have no checks or controls on the population explosion.

In any developing country we can see that the public transportation is always overflowing. Control the population, educate the masses, and make sure the necessary amenities are introduced.

My city is a growing mega one as well. It is really difficult at this stage to stop its growing, for throughout the whole city, construction work can be seen everywhere -- it looks like the golden age of the city has not arrived yet.

This really is terrifying when one comes to think about all the problems that will and have already accompanied this prosperity. Guess only when we suffer severely from this growing tumor one day , will we begin to do something serious... will that be too late???

Adequate provision should be made for more infrastructure to accommodate the teeming populaces.

Urbanization is not a problem, but a part of modernization challenging societies and world society as a whole. But today, we have a wide range of infrastructure, techniques, knowledge and institutions that help us meet the challenges that come as a result of urbanization. We might need to use them more systematically and effectively.

Urbanization is not a problem if we can save more money to make our world peaceful and comfortable instead of making bombs.

What are people in Lagos, Nigeria doing to prevent problems due to rapid population growth?

Somehow I'm amused by all the utopian schemes and apocalyptic hand-wringing alike. My solution is simply to live a quiet life in the midst of the urban chaos. I don't use a car as I telecommute. My tendency is just say "no" to a lot of aimless activity and to sit and meditate or take a walk instead... to be friendly with my neighbors and the people I encounter, to live simply and to simply breathe.

I am not so familiar with urbanization topics in detail but reading this article, I had some ideas which i would like to put here. In my opinion, urbanization is necessary. But in different urbanized cities there are many problems such as over-population, transportation problems, land problems, etc.

I think one way to solve these problems will be attracting people to live outside the city .In other words, "city for business and social activities; non- city for home." We can do this by constructing infrastructures such as city halls, public parks, sports centers, shopping malls in the city and good residential areas at cheaper prices in the areas outside a city. To succeed this idea, transportation plays a vital role. Of course there should be a very good transportation services linking the city and the outer parts but along with the transportation, fares should also be very much cheaper than the current rates -- for instance 10 times lower.

Building loving communities within our urban centers is possible, with a handful of ordinary people, prepared to lead. Almighty Administration Building offers training and development to people who want to create circumstances for a positive future. Everyone is welcome to participate. Let's get started! United we stand, divided we fall.

Urbanization is in itself a good solution to housing people in a smaller area and avoiding destroying larger areas. Unfortunately, such areas require huge resources to maintain them,and tend to suck the lifeblood out of the surrounding areas to sustain themselves.

Our state government is determined to build the shallowest and most inefficient dam in the world, to supply Brisbane with water, so they will not have to curb their profligate use (average usage 300 liters or 66 gallons per person per day).

It will destroy 900 properties, displace 2,500 men, women and children and cover 20,000 acres of prime agricultural land to an average depth of six meters.

Government will never solve our problems, only the dead hand of the state could enforce this.

Right now, too much of our land is being used for houses, lawns, and agriculture as it is. If everyone moved out of cities and lived "in the country", the ecological impact would be damaging in the extreme.

We need cities, and we need them to be transformed to consume less energy. People should grow more vegetables and fruits in their back yards, reducing the need for food transportation and mega-farms. Cities are good, as long as they are properly planned.

We have a lot of problems with the urbanization in the world. One percent of Chinese people have a car, but the traffic and climate change are bad for the globe. I think, that we must lead another life.

It's a real menace. People are treated like animals.There is no individual approach, it can be understood, but the situation has gone too far, mortality is growing fast, heavy traffic, dangerous subways.

The day before yesterday I saw a man lying on the ground with people around. He had a heart attack. He needed immediate help, but because of heavy traffic and big distance the ambulance couldn't go as fast as was needed.

The urbanization of Dubai, U.A.E. is amazing but they are denying the telecommunications from their citizens and expats. This alone will take away from their progress.

The only way to attract people to non-urban areas is to make the big corporations to open new branches in the less populated areas. And to do that, we have to improve infrastructure and other basic utility services in those areas. This is the only way we can save ourselves from the urban onslaught.

Urbanization is an important aspect of development. However, if it is not utilized properly, there will be costs to society.

The challenge for us is to maximize its benefits while at the same time reduce its externalities. Urbanization can increase opportunities for many citizens. It can provide jobs, increase productivity, strengthen the human and knowledge base of a country. But these and many other benefits can only be realized if there is co-operation among social actors.

It requires responsibility on the part of the government. It requires participation from the people. It requires genuine care and concern for societal development.

Within the USA we certainly need to begin to get people moving to the interior of the country. Piling them up on the coasts at this point makes absolutely no sense.

It is supremely evident that telecommuting would cut back the number of personal vehicles in use everyday.

What is upsetting is that no one has thought how many jobs can be done from the house, nor how to get the telecommunications facilities in the state to do just that.

Fiber optics backbones with Wimax wireless could get that underway quickly. Companies should be forced to encourage telecommuting where possible. When they figure out what they save, it would be a landslide.

The more the big nations misuse the cheap labor of poorer nations, the more people move into urban areas.

The unfair practice of lowering the price of agricultural produce in order to increase profits gives more reasons for farmers in poorer nations to move into cities looking for better lives. Fair trade is the answer!

Urbanization is becoming a menace -- with all the people moving into the cites every day they grow faster and faster.

I lived in Japan and when I was there I was impressed at how the Japanese deal with their urbanization.

They always seem to be building a new 30-storey apartment building or a new store with apartments on top of it. Old houses are torn down for bigger and taller apartment buildings so the usage of the ground space is increased exponentially.

Tthe size of Japan is about the same as California, but it is also four times the size in population, and not all of Japan is easily inhabitable.

Urbanization is a process that cannot be stopped without major political, social and economic repercussions.

It should not be a problem if managed effectively. The major problem of urbanization is the refusal of planners and local authorities to work from first principles.

Evidence of this is cities that largely cater for the well-heeled minority of their residents and leave the rest to wallow in the ensuing spatial quagmire.

Pedestrians existed long before the horse, the train and the car. As such they should have priority over other forms of transport. Cities should also be planned carefully to maintain the delicate balance between built and natural environments in order to be sustainable in the long run.

Unfortunately some Latin American cities, including Chihuahua, copy the way the USA plans their own cities.

But the problem is that countries like Mexico don't have the resources and urban infrastructure that first world countries have developed. This issue creates unsustainability and in a certain way provokes the migration of people seeking a better way of life.

Urbanization is here to stay! It is how we address the problem that counts.

Australia, compared to the wider world, doesn't have a problem as yet. However, some good technology is available to assist us. Recently I was looking to carpool to a rail terminal to make better use of the Park and Ride facility.

I stumbled upon www.carpool-it.com when searching for an Internet carpooling service so I could find someone going my way. Much to my delight, this service instantly generates matches by searching the database.

The matches are door to door, and it also calculates emissions saved through the actual trip registered. My question: is there anything available in the U.S. that can make such a match? Take a look -- I was quite impressed.

Urbanization is a major challenge in every part of world. This problem is more in developing countries like India.

The number of engineers and scientists produced every year by India is much more than other developed countries but because of corrupt politicians and poor management in government departments India is in a worse position today.

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