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Continuing growth of urban population in the world and, especially in Developing countries, is one of the most frightening problems of today. Megacities - cities with more than ten million inhabitants, are growing fastest in Developing countries and their problems are to be put on top of all well-known environmental problems of the world. Two basically different philosophies with different ways of approaching increasing environmental problems of the world are distinguished. Both of them claim an ability to solve the problems. The first approach, a traditional one, is a continuation of present line of development and a wider implementation of technology known and used in Developed countries. The other approach states that basic changes on all levels of the societies, as well as different novel technologies are needed in order to bring progress leading to conservation of resources and sustainability. The book concludes that there is no real contradiction between these two approaches. Simply, both of them are simultaneously valid, and both of them will be applied in the future. The real challenge is to find the way how to gain environmental and social benefits of using a well-balanced mix of them that is adequate at a given location with a given culture, climate and socio-economical conditions.
