Why Mexico City?
With a population close to twenty million people Mexico City is one of the largest urban centres in the world. Like many other megacities in the South it faces challenges that are common to most areas experiencing rapid urbanisation. Such challenges include adressing the needs of a growing population without increasing the burden on natural resources, promoting institutional innovations to manage complex human settlements, or designing governance systems that encourage more sustainable lifestyles.
Over the past twenty years Mexico City has promoted a series of economic and political reforms that are transforming the City from a complex overpopulated megalopolis into an energetic and vibrant centre offering some of the highest living standards in Mexico. However, the City is also the area in Mexico where the greatest socio-economic differences exist.
Given these complex and dynamic development processes Mexico City is an ideal setting in which to explore the trends, and assess the challenges and opportunities that megacities have to address in order to achieve sustainable futures.