EVOLUTION

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrier_Reef

Mumbai, while facing numerous problems, is expected to be the biggest overpopulated global city in the near future. But, what was the starting problem with Mumbai and with all the other cities that suffer from overpopulation and poverty?

Looking back to history before British came to Mumbai, there were undeveloped fishing villages. Due to the important geographical position of Mumbai, British decided to develop economically the city. The biggest artificial project that they did was to connect the original seven islands of Mumbai into one big region. The project (Hornby Vellard Project) started on 1782 and it continued for a century. They connect the islands with landfill (land reclamation) and they razed 22 hilltops that existed in order to use their debris in the creation of this new land as result they stop the natural flow of the water, which lead nowadays in the numerous floods.

 Moreover after British abandoned Mumbai on the beginning of 20^th century, they left behind the most develop city of the country. As a result after the WWII the population begun to grow, this raised the real estate prices. People from suburbs moved to Mumbai in order to live a better life, but they end up living in the slums. As years pass by the density in the slums increased dramatically, consequently government is not able to deal with the population.

If Mumbai continues to extend as expected future of people will be questionable. The need for a change is obvious. The overpopulation in parallel with the destruction of natural environment has lead in many problems. They treated nature with hardness and now nature is paying back. This is one of the biggest reasons that nowadays cities have to deal with the natural environment. They used to cover rivers and lakes, to extend the natural land artificially in the sea, to destroy mountains and to cut trees consequently nowadays they face numerous floods. The numerous diseases that they face are also a result of their violence in the environment. Nature is more powerful than human activities. For sure the future urban planning of the city should respect the physical conditions that exist. If they had left the seven islands as they were naturally, everything would be differently.

My research is going to reinvent the method that formulated Mumbai from the first place, as it is obvious that this was the starting problem. A question that is going to play an important role in my research is: if the city were going to grow physically, how Mumbai would be?