ABSTRACT
Cities and towns in most countries around the world have been gaining considerable attention due to the large number of households migrating to cities and its consequent effects. It has also been due to the centrality of goods and services that cities offer. Over the last few decades, they have emerged as the major form of settlement. At the beginning of this century more people lived in and around cities than in rural areas. In 1800, only 50 million people lived in towns and cities worldwide. During 1975, there were 1.5 billion, and in 2000 there were three billion - more than the entire population of the world in 1960. (Megacities 2000, 1996: codex.html) Proximity to decisionmakers and financial markets, large pools of skilled and unskilled workers, and other advantages have made such urban areas the engines of growth for the countries and regions where they are situated. For example, despite the environmental and social problems that it is facing, Bangkok's contribution to the national GDP has been estimated to be more than the combined output of all other cities in Thailand (ESCAP, 1991).
