As China continues to boom in the coming decades, it would be well advised to think big. Big cities, that is.

BEIJING: The fear of failing to grow enough corn, wheat or rice to feed its people has spurred China into action this year, but Beijing may be doing too little, too late to overcome the powerful forces of urbanization. Just as global grain markets grapple with ultralow stocks and record-high prices, China is battling to stem the destruction of its arable land due to urban sprawl, the growing scarcity of water and the exodus of labor to its booming cities by directing tens of billions of dollars to rural areas.

Dhaka to rank 4th among largest cities by 2025 New Age Desk Dhaka, now ranking 15th with 11.9 million people, will be the fourth largest city in the world by 2025 when the population would reach 22 million, predicted Forbes.com. The number of urban dwellers is expected to hit 5 billion globally by 2025

As of last year, Delhi may have overtaken Mumbai as the country's largest city in terms of population, as per a recent study. For over two decades now, the Census reports have pegged Mumbai as the country's biggest metropolitan area. But two demographers from the Washington DC-based Population Reference Bureau (PRB) have found that if the same definition for measuring the populations of Mumbai and Kolkata is applied to Delhi, then the national capital's estimated population for 2007 is much more.

If all goes well, an ambitious proposal to increase Floor Space Index (FSI) within the 250-metre radius of the BRTS corridor to encourage development along the route, is being planned by the state urban development department. It is proposed that all developers along the 120.5 km of the corridor can get an extra FSI over the existing 1.8 FSI. This increases the FSI to 2.8. The proposal has been forwarded to the Central ministry of urban development for approval and is being simultaneously discussed in the state urban development department over its feasibility.

New research finds fresh evidence that urbanization in the United States threatens the populations of some species of migratory birds. But the six-year study also refutes one of the most widely accepted explanations of why urban areas are so hostile to some kinds of birds.