1. Trends and Challenges: Global Urbanisation and Urban Mobility

Throughout the world, urban policymakers continue to struggle balancing the ever-increasing levels of activity in cities against the need for more-sustainable forms of urban development. City-making challenges are exacerbated by the global environmental crisis and concerns about climate change, resource depletion, increased levels of pollution, and the loss of biodiversity. These concerns are directly related to current unsustainable patterns of urbanisation. This chapter first focuses on the overall context of global urbanisation and its connections to the challenge of urban transport. With reference to the current growth of cities and the ongoing urbanisation evident in many parts of the world, it details three main components of this growth: people, urban land, and transport. The chapter moves on to highlight the problems, challenges and risks that cities are facing today by looking at the central environmental, economic and social concerns that have emerged in relation to the systemic, spatial component of cities and its linkages to urban transport and access to the city. The chapter concludes by highlighting the importance of working productively with the interrelatedness of urban systems, particularly with regard to land use and urban transport.