ABSTRACT
Less developed countries have experienced an unprecedented growth of urbanisation: by 1990, 61 percent of the world urban population lived in these developing nations and it is projected that by 2025 this will rise to about 75 percent. A better criterion is that the different parts of such vast and complex urban regions is a functional one: that they have common linkages with the nearest city, in terms of commuting to work, education, shopping, entertainment and culture, and services. The study of major world urban regions by David Barkin, Garry Hack and Roger Simmonds showed that all had decentralised radially under the influence of rising car ownership, most strikingly in Taipei where automobiles increased from 11,000 in 1960 to over one million in 1990. Urban Mega-projects are especially common in the Pacific Rim because of rapid urban growth and the increasing importance of cities in this region, coupled with rapid economic restructuring.
