Increasing urbanisation is not just all about greater opportunities for people,
more economic productivity, etc. It also results in many problems. The growing
urban population has to be housed. It needs water supply, sewage and other waste
disposal, transportation and many other things. All these result in environmental
stress. As vehicle use increases, urban air pollution increases, causing health
problems and localised climatic change. Improper sewage disposal can also lead to
greater threat of infectious diseases.
One of the impacts of increased urbanisation is the use of materials that
either do not degrade or take a long time to do so. This produces waste that has
to be disposed off. Where do we put such waste? As urban areas expand, the
waste is increasingly pushed to rural areas where they are either just dumped or
taken to waste treatment plants.
A new kind of settlement is happening in many countries, including India.
These settlements are centered around large airports. Hence, the name
aerotropolis or airport city.
In an aerotropolis, the airport functions as a city in its own right. Many
facilities like hotels, shopping, entertainment, food, business conferencing
etc, are provided right there. People can fly in, conduct their business with
their counterparts right there and fly out with all the comforts of a city,
without the traffic and other problems.
Some form of aerotropolises are emerging in these places in India: Kempegouda
International Airport (Bengaluru),Indira Gandhi Inter-national Airport(Delhi),
and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (Hyderabad).
Elsewhere, examples of emerging aerotropolises include: Suvarna bhoomi
International Airport (Bangkok, Thailand), Dubai International Airport (Dubai,
UAE), Cairo International Airport (Cairo,Egypt), and London Heathrow Airport
(London, UK).
In India, the history and geographical features are a reason for
expansion of a settlement and migration of people is another reason.