BIG CITIES ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

Cool interactive map by the Financial Times today, showing how overpopulation in some megacities is reaching critical levels. Central Paris‘ population today has 2 million, having lost 1 million since the 1920s, however its metropolitan area comprises around 11 million, many of these inhabitants outside the central core have not even been born in France. This imbalance -which is also economic- between the center and the periphery, is a time bomb.

Lagos, in Nigeria (photo), is a city suffering overpopulation. Mexico DF is home to more than 24 million souls. LA‘s almost 16 million are mostly dependent on cars for mobility. The world’s largest conurbation is still greater Tokyo (photo), a city that sits on one of the most active seismic faults on the planet is also very vulnerable to tsunamis. Cities continue to evolve and some of them continue to grow out of control, making them very difficult to manage and causing an almost unbearable strain.