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The Asia‐Pacific Co‐operation (APEC) region, which comprises 21 developed and developing economies, is expected to become predominantly urban by 2020 with at least 15 cities exceeding 10 million inhabitants. Whether such megacities will be “healthy” in the sense of physical, mental and social wellbeing is critical to the future of the region. A modified scenario creation technique has been used in this study of APEC megacities to 2020. Fifteen key issues have been identified and these can be grouped using the concept of cities as living organisms. A healthy megacity is one which reduces its resource inputs and waste outputs, whilst simultaneously improving the quality of life for its inhabitants. The study concludes that healthy megacities are possible if appropriate policy actions are taken.

This paper aims to explore the disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by megacities. Three dimensions were considered. First, what communication channels are used by world megacities to disclose their emissions reduction target (ERT) and emissions reduction actions (ERA)? Second, the consistency of disclosed ERT and ERA across different channels. Third, the quality of the disclosed ERA in different channels.

Ten megacities selected for review were in Australia, Europe, the USA, the UK and South Africa. First, ERT and ERA information was searched in different disclosure media to identify the common communication channels used by the megacities. Second, the documentary analysis was undertaken to assess the consistency of reported ERT and ERA information across the identified channels. Third, a scoring system was developed and applied to evaluate the quality of the disclosed ERA information, based on the extent to which megacities provided descriptions of emission reduction actions and reported the impact of the actions and the cost to implement them.

Megacities primarily used third-party channels and their channels to disclose ERT- and ERA-related information. Social media use to provide climate change information is also growing. The study also finds that ERT information is consistent between third-party channels and megacities’ channels. However, around half of the disclosed ERA between third-party and megacities’ channels are not consistent. Quality assessment for the disclosed ERA in different channels shows that megacities have provided limited information regarding the impacts and the cost of their ERA, which raises a question about the usefulness of disclosure.

The findings are important for policymakers and city officials designing cities’ GHG reporting standards and developing policies for programs to reduce emissions. Also, for stakeholders’ understanding of cities’ commitment and actions to reduce emissions, as well as the impact of their actions, and for managers responsible for measuring, reporting and mitigating emissions from current and future actions.

Prior studies primarily focused on corporate greenhouse emissions disclosure to the carbon disclosure project, whereas this paper examines emissions disclosure at the geographic level. Moreover, prior studies of the public sector focused on the scope of climate change disclosure but did not evaluate the consistency and quality of the disclosure. However, this study explores three different disclosure channels and assesses consistency and quality. A further novel aspect of the study is its focus on the disclosure of emissions reduction targets and actions.

The BRICS states are based on multi-level government’s architecture whose megacities have an outstanding role in their respective states – not only in terms of population and in terms of economic power, but also in terms of local own-tax revenue collection, which, in turn, implies a very strong administration. At the same time, megacities are facing increasing public expenditures because of infrastructure needs, housing shortage, growth of social inequality, and environmental degradation. In order to outweigh the urban advantages associated with urbanization, reconsidering the fiscal framework is of urgent need. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Most similar case design is applied.

Megacities are at the forefront of national economic growth, that they have an above average tax base, an excellent administration, and therefore, face above average yields of property tax revenues. Rethinking the fiscal framework could considerably improve local finances.

Due to limitations on public finance statistics, the sample draws on four megacities in BRICS, in reference to all megacities, only.

In context of Habitat III, New Urban Agenda, the practical implications are manyfold: the paper focuses on megacities, its finances (financing for development), and social implications involved.

Local public finance, especially property taxation, has many implications on social level.

The paper is one in a kind.

The purpose of this study is to create a methodological approach for identifying priority areas for science and technology (S&T) development and its empirical application within the city of Moscow. This research uncovers a wide range of multicultural and multidisciplinary global trends that will affect the development of major cities in an era of complexity and uncertainty, including the inherent complexity of urban contexts, demographic and socioeconomic trends, as well as scientific and ecological factors.

The methodological approach is based on classic foresight instruments. Its novelty lays in the blending of qualitative and quantitative methods specially selected as the most appropriate for the identification of S&T areas in an era of complexity and uncertainty, including horizon scanning, bibliometric analysis, expert surveys and the construction of composite indexes with respect to the scope and resources of the research and the selected object for empirical application – Moscow, which is one of the world’s largest megacities. The analysis was performed for the period of 2009–2018 and expert procedures took place in 2019.

As a result, 25 global trends were identified, evaluated and discussed over the course of an expert survey and subsequent expert events. Ten priority areas of S&T development were determined, including 62 technological sub-areas within them and the most important market niches for all identified technological sub-areas, which could be useful for the world’s megacities. The results of this study are illustrated using the construction sector. Based on the conducted research and results, a list of recommendations on S&T policy measures and instruments were suggested, including the creation of the Moscow Innovation Cluster, which by the end of 2023 contained more than 6,000 projects and initiatives, selected using the findings of this investigation.

This research contributes to the existing literature and research agenda of setting priorities for S&T development and shows how it can be done for a megacity. The blended foresight methodology that was created within the study satisfies the criteria of scientific originality, is repeatable for any interested researcher, is applicable to any other city in the world and demonstrates its high efficiency in empirical application. It could be used for creating new agenda items in S&T policy, setting S&T priorities for a megacity and integrating the results into decision-making processes. This study provides recommendations on the further implementation of the designed methodology and results into a policymaking system. Moreover, the example of the Moscow Innovation Cluster, which was created based on the results of our research, demonstrates these recommendations’ practical significance in real life, which is quite valuable. The limitation of this study is that it is not devoted to urban planning issues directly or the promotion of R&D areas; it is about setting promising S&T priorities in an era of complexity and uncertainty for megacities.

During the last few decades social resilience and social vulnerability have been two crucial sociological concepts for everyone involved in crisis and disaster management. The fundamental purpose in the present analysis is based on the consideration of resilience from a sociological perspective and the notion of social capital, its proper features, dynamics and processes within different groups of people involved in a disaster process.

All these social components could be evaluated as social indicators of vulnerability and resilience according to the sociological approach and its main theories about social capital and resilience, social and methodological implications. The operative context of this theoretical reflection has been constituted by megacities, considered as the “new” social space where, nowadays, major social relations and risk reduction actions take place through a collaborative pattern not based on a top down organizational model.

Attention is focused on the sociological findings as the importance of social cohesion, strengthening social relationships with particular consideration for the crucial role of social capital during all stages of the disaster process: prevention and preparedness, planning, warning communication, physical and psychological impacts, emergency and disaster response, recovery and reconstruction with the specific aim of enhancing social resilience and attempting to diminish social vulnerability.

The originality of this proposal in the field of disaster resilience is its use of the sociological approach and its theoretical characteristics and instruments, such as, for example, the definitions of social capital. The consideration for this topic will be future challenges to improve urban disaster risk reduction according to social relationship and its characteristics of interconnection and multidimensionality.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to project the global emergence of megacities through the 21st century using population scenarios consistent with the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Methodology – A dynamic urban growth model is developed based on a scale-independent theory of growing networks taking into consideration the geographical and climatic suitability of the location of cities. The model is able to generate a series of megacity projections consistent with an experimental city size distribution based on a national urban population scenario consistent with Zipf's law. The model is applied to population projections for 45,316 cities around the world using three population scenarios from SRES.

Findings – All of the projections indicate that a large number of megacities will be generated in developing regions towards 2100, although the range is wide and depends on the population assumed in the scenarios. Some results indicate an extreme population concentration in megacities; this might be undesirable for national security, quality of life, and sustainable development. Transport policies affect urban growth and national land development through changes in mobility and accessibility across the nation.

Implications – The results presented in this chapter could serve to stimulate discussions on urban and national transport policies and planning, particularly in China.

Many megacities in the Global South have developed without any systematically regularized modernization processes. Therefore, urbanization is accompanied by the inappropriate level of economic and social opportunities. This macro-structural constraint of urbanization contributes to frame the patterns and features of many location-based poverty and inequality.

Dhaka followed the similar trajectory of development without creating substantial opportunities for its underclass, poor, and marginalized citizens. This unequal pattern of development influences the disproportionate environmental burdens of the marginalized people, who have little or no voice in the urban decision-making process. People experience unequal environmental inequality through their differential exposures to poor housing and/or living conditions, along with a lack of access to safe drinking water, sewage, adequate waste disposal systems, and so on.

In this context of urban injustice, this environmental justice movement (EJM) is an evidence of demanding basic rights among the unprivileged citizens. To some extent, this is a response to the state’s structural failure to provide urban environmental services (and social justice) to majority of its poor citizens.

Evidence suggests that in context of fragile democracy, an EJM can generate opportunities for progressive urban politics as well as contribute to redistributive development opportunities for its poor and marginalized citizens. Most megacities in the Global South inherit urban governance from their colonial heritages, which were often criticized for its citizen-detached and top-down nature.

Dhaka is not an exception in this context. In the present socio-political condition, even though the environmental movement is not very welcomed by the government – more particularly from the ruling political party – it can have tremendous implications on redistributive urban politics. This chapter focuses on Dhaka, which is currently one of the world’s largest megacities in the Global South.

This chapter highlights the local patterns and process of the unequal environmental burdens and the subsequent mobilization, demanding environmental justice in that process, as well as how that movement contributes to redistributive urban politics. The discussions of this chapter also have the implications on public policy discourse focusing on environmental rights, movements, and citizens-centered politics in the megacities of the Global South, with renewed relationships between the state and its citizens.

Increasing urbanization in the Asia and Pacific region is leading to a rapid increase in the number of megacities. A major concern is the issue of sustainable transport. This article describes the procedures used and results of a multi‐economy foresight study of sustainable transport in megacities of the Asia‐Pacific region. Key issues and policy actions needed are identified.

This study aims to empirically investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable management of wastes and effluents (SMWE) in Lagos Megacity.

The paper adopts a quantitative research method, specifically the use of a Web-survey technique for eliciting responses from a cross-section of companies affiliated to the Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI). From a target population of 2,300 companies, a sample of 92 companies was drawn using the sample determination formula of Parten (1950). The 92 sampled companies were randomly administered Web-based questionnaires through their official emails. Finally, the 56 responses received from the participating companies (corresponding to 61 per cent response rate) were analysed electronically and the results presented using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results show strong positive relationships between CSR and advocacy on waste and effluents (0.7), environmental impact response (0.7), environmental sustainability policy (0.6) and preventive negative impact (0.6) with P < 0.05. However, weak positive relationships exist between CSR and monitoring mechanisms (0.3) and adequacy of infrastructure for wastes and pollutants management (0.4). Overall, there is a significant positive relationship between CSR and sustainable management of solid wastes and effluents in the sampled companies in Lagos.

The research is limited to Lagos Megacity because it is the industrial and commercial hub of Nigeria. Besides, there are several industrial associations in Lagos, but the selected association was the LCCI with 56 sampled companies.

The research supports and validates the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), which explicates that performance behaviour of organisations is influenced by the behavioural intention and behavioural control. However, behavioural intention of organisations may be carried out, abandoned or revised based on ever changing circumstances or contexts.

The study bridges the gap between theory and practice of environmental CSR by enriching the understanding of academics and practitioners on CSR and environmental sustainability relationships in Lagos Megacity.