# Dhaka, the new Hyper-megacity of the mid-21th-century?



## tanzirian (Jul 13, 2005)

India101 said:


> I think Chrissib means that with population and density rising in areas and towns around Dhaka that eventually it will join it one giant-mega-hyper city and keep growing and maybe engulf most of Bangladesh. Might even spill over into India and connect with Kolkata (Already a mega city) and the already dense Indian state of West Bengal.
> 
> If that does happen in the future if would be a city of 250m. And if joined with the Indian states of Bihar & Uttar Pradesh (which I doubt it will) all the way up to Delhi, it would be gigantic city of 450-500 million.


Time will tell, but a lot a lot depends how you define city. If you go just by density then maybe you could say the delta as a whole has as much as some cities in less populated places. However, today at least, as you drive out of Dhaka it is still fairly easy to tell where the city has ended where the rural countryside has begun...the latter being mostly fields, with clusters of little hamlets here and there. Those hamlets having perhaps large numbers of a family living together might contribute to overall density, but the countryside as a whole does not feel either urban or crowded.


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## The Cebuano Exultor (Aug 1, 2005)

*@ India101*

OMG! If this happens, this would be the first medium-sized country to be totally urbanized.


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## antovador (Jun 19, 2007)

tanzirian said:


> Time will tell, *but a lot a lot depends how you define city*. If you go just by density then maybe you could say the delta as a whole has as much as some cities in less populated places. However, today at least, as you drive out of Dhaka it is still fairly easy to tell where the city has ended where the rural countryside has begun...the latter being mostly fields, with clusters of little hamlets here and there. Those hamlets having perhaps large numbers of a family living together might contribute to overall density, but the countryside as a whole does not feel either urban or crowded.


Agree, in China, Chongquing Municipality have over 32 millions people but the city itself is about 6 or 7 millions. Taking the chinese definition of municipality, Bangladesh could be a municipality of nearly 160 millions people . However the big challenge is to feed this population with small agricultural land areas.


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## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

Yes, but the Chinese have a very weird definition of 'Municipality', because the 'Municipalities' are in reality little provinces with wide, open land.


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## Skyline_FFM (May 25, 2008)

The Cebuano Exultor said:


> ^^ That is very well interesting, Chris. But the problem with assigning "the world's largest city" tag to any particular urban area is sketchy at best. There are just too many standards for size when it comes to measuring city-size. If one takes the word "city" to the loosest possible version. Then, one might argue that the whole of Bangladesh is one big city given that the averge density in the coutry is already similar to American suburbs. However, some would argue that much of the populous is rural, or rather, that there is a lack of transportation and other infrastructures to link the "country-city" as a unified seamless whole.
> On the whole, Bangladesh is certainly in a unique place when it comes to human settlement density. Nowhere else comes close over such a wide area, not even the Yangzte River Delta region in eastern China.


:yes: :yes: Right!


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## Skyline_FFM (May 25, 2008)

Chrissib said:


> And that's why Bangladeshi cities will grow to very large sizes when Bangladesh is finally developed, because there is only one megacity at the moment and two additional cities of a million.


Bangladesh is a region that should be anything but happy about metropolization. The denser the accumulate in a smal region, the more people are vulnerable to natural desasters that accur frequently in that region. That means it would only increase the number of dead, homeless and injured in the monsoon season. Is that something good for you? :nuts:


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## Febo (Dec 9, 2005)

I only hope population growth declines a little...remember that great part of this population will be poor, and this country had had one of th most terrible disasters caused by floodings.
May the population doesn't grow that much, for their good.


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## earthJoker (Dec 15, 2004)

Chrissib said:


> The development of regional cities is very unlikely because Bangladesh is very small, and small countries tend to centralize.


I don't see how a small country implies centralization. It's just that the chances that you end up with one big city rise when you take a smaller area.


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## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

earthJoker said:


> I don't see how a small country implies centralization. It's just that the chances that you end up with one big city rise when you take a smaller area.


Bangladesh is already centralized. A third of GDP is created in the capital and those urbanisatiuon-patterns are impossible to change, even if you use force, like the Chinese did. They still ended up with three dominant cores. The possibility is veeery low that most of the regional cities in Bangladesh will develop faster than the capital.


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## earthJoker (Dec 15, 2004)

Chrissib said:


> Bangladesh is already centralized. A third of GDP is created in the capital and those urbanisatiuon-patterns are impossible to change, even if you use force, like the Chinese did. They still ended up with three dominant cores. The possibility is veeery low that most of the regional cities in Bangladesh will develop faster than the capital.


That might be true, I actually just don't agree with the last part of your statement.


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## [email protected] (Jan 17, 2004)

Chrissib said:


> I just thougt about the massive growth-potential of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a rather small country, has one of the highest population densities in the world and a capital that is much bigger than the second city, Chittagong. Now imagine a developed Bangladesh with 250 million inhabitants. If Dhaka reaches the importance of Seoul in South Korea, which is likely, because Bangladesh is not very much bigger than South Korea, then we would get a massive metro area with a population of 100 million people! It would be a whole new category of city, triple the size of Tokyo!
> 
> What do you think about that?


Not going to happen. A city like Dhaka would be completely unsustainable with a population of 100 million.

Furthermore I doubt we will see Bangladesh become developed anytime soon, if ever. It's one of the poorest countries on the planet, development is extremely slow and the problems are actually getting worse for them every year. A large part of the country is flooded every year, they have no ressources with which they can make money, etc.


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## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> Not going to happen. A city like Dhaka would be completely unsustainable with a population of 100 million.
> 
> Furthermore I doubt we will see Bangladesh become developed anytime soon, if ever. It's one of the poorest countries on the planet, development is extremely slow and the problems are actually getting worse for them every year. A large part of the country is flooded every year, they have no ressources with which they can make money, etc.


Since independence in 1971, development has speeded up all the time. In the 80s, GDP growth was 4%, and it has gradually increased to 6% in recent times. When manufacturing even in western China will get too expensive, companies will move to cheaper areas, most probable to Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Growth in Bangladesh will increase in the future, 8% are possible when all the Chinese want cheap products.


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## Skyline_FFM (May 25, 2008)

8% of nothing is still nothing, you know that, do you? Other countries of same poverty lavel reach almost twice that!


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## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

Skyline_FFM said:


> 8% of nothing is still nothing, you know that, do you? Other countries of same poverty lavel reach almost twice that!


Yeah, when they find oil and gas. Equatorial-Guinea had rates of growth in excess of 30% for several following years.


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## Skyline_FFM (May 25, 2008)

Chrissib said:


> Yeah, when they find oil and gas. Equatorial-Guinea had rates of growth in excess of 30% for several following years.


Angola doesn't have either of the two. I think Bangladesh is on the way to become a horrible place! Dhaka consists of over 60% slummed population according to UNHabitat! They are growing about twice the speed of the rest of the city. So what would that mean for, let's say 2050? A 50-60 million city, where 80% of the people live in slums? I wonder if anyone would find such a development desireable and sustainable.


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