GAW Report No. 205 - IGAC Project

CHAPTER 3 - ASIACoordinating Author: Tong Zhu (1)Contributing Authors: Mylene G. Cayetano (2) , Changhong Chen (3) , Sarath Guttikunda (4) , Min Hu (1) , Young J. Kim (2) ,Yataka Kondo (5) , Peter K.K. Louie (1) , Luisa Molina (6) , Yu Morino (7) , Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh (8) , Eduardo P. Olaguer (9) ,Didin Agustian Permadi (8) , Prapat Pongkiatkul (8) , Abdus Salam (10) , Min Shao (1) , Xuesong Sun (1) ,Shinji Wakamatsu (11) , Hongli Wang (3) and Peyman Zawar-Reza (12)(1)College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China(2)School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju,Korea(3)Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences, Shanghai, China(4)Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, USA(5)Department of Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan(6)Molina Center for Energy and the Environment, California and Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Massachusetts. USA(7)National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan(8)Environmental Engineering and Management, School of Environment, Resources and Development, AsianInstitute of Technology, Thailand(9)Houston Advanced Research Center, Texas, USA(10)Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Dhaka - 1000, Bangladesh(11)Ehime University, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan(12)Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand3.1 ASIAN MEGACITIES: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICSPopulation and geographyWith more than 50% of the world population, Asia is the most intensely populated continenton the earth. Based on the World Urbanization Prospects of the United Nations (2009 Revision), in2010, 10 of the 21 world megacities and 15 of the worlds 30 largest cities are in Asia (Table 1).Table 1 - The 15 of the 30 world largest cities in Asia in 2010.Source: the World Urbanization Prospects of the United Nations (2009 Revision)RankorderCountry Megacity Population (Million)1 Japan Tokyo 36.672 India Delhi 22.164 India Mumbai (Bombay) 20.047 China Shanghai 16.588 India Kolkata (Calcutta) 15.559 Bangladesh Dhaka 14.6510 Pakistan Karachi 13.1213 China Beijing 12.3915 Philippines Manila 11.6316 Japan Osaka-Kobe 11.3422 Republic of Korea Seoul 9.7723 China Chongqing 9.4024 Indonesia Jakarta 9.2126 China Shenzhen 9.0128 China Guangzhou, Guangdong 8.8859