Johannesburg - Johannesburg has been ranked as the second top city in the inaugural MasterCard Worldwide Insights Report
- Urbanisation and Environmental Challenges in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa.
Melbourne took the top honours, with Singapore in third place.
Meanwhile the bottom three places were taken by the cities of Jakarta, New Delhi and Mumbai.
The report features data drawn from the 21 key centres of commerce in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region as identified in last year's MasterCard Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index and reviews these cities' relative vulnerability and degrees of protection from key environmental challenges such as air pollution, infectious disease and natural disasters.
The report's observations make clear what impact environmental factors are already having on a city and what challenges further urbanisation might present in this context.
This makes the report an invaluable tool for any city leader planning for their city's future.
Economic advisor to MasterCard Worldwide, and author of the report, Dr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong said: "The environmental dimension of urban development looms large as a central policy issue to be addressed by governments and businesses."
Growth
"Centres of commerce are critical nodes of economic growth and connectivity in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region; and the sustainability of their growth momentum is closely linked to the sustainability of their environments and quality of life."
"Our research findings constitute an objective perspective in assessing the performance of centres of commerce in this regard; and in so doing provide a new road map for governments and business leaders to address the challenge."
"Johannesburg's overall ranking of second place reflects the city's geographic location which is well protected from most adverse environmental factors that are either outside of the government's control or highly
unpredictable, with one notable exception - drought," he continued.
When ranked solely by environmental factors that are amenable to policy actions and control Johannesburg ranks slightly lower, coming in at sixth place after Dubai. This due in the main to low levels of incidences of infectious diseases and air pollution.
"The overall picture for Johannesburg is that by and large the city has done exceptionally well in creating a high quality environment within its urban setting, managing increasing population growth and a degree of unpredictable environmental impacts to ensure a good quality of life for residents."
However, as this report also shows, that unpredictability means there is still no room for complacency."
An analysis of the report's environmental rankings indicates that historically, the higher-income cities have been able to provide improvements in environmental quality (such as Singapore, Tokyo, Melbourne and Sydney.)
Poor vs rich cities
Meanwhile poorer cities at a lower level of development usually suffer from a lack of basic infrastructure services such as clean drinking water and sanitation. As they industrialise and income levels increase, basic services are usually improved, but new environmental problems emerge, such as traffic congestion, air pollution and toxic wastes.
This diversity of performance across cities is perhaps best illustrated in the report by the stark contrast between Melbourne (1st) and Mumbai (21st).
The differential between these two cities can at least in part be explained due to Melbourne's low population and city growth rates, positive wealth and income levels and a generally healthy economic condition. As a result Melbourne experiences a low incidence of infectious diseases, good air quality and limited risk from climate change and extreme natural disasters.
Conversely Mumbai shows the signs of a city challenged with keeping up with the rapid growth of its population and city size. The strain on natural resources, goods and services and general infrastructure is apparent through the prevalence of such negative features as frequent outbreaks of endemic
diseases, partial coverage and frequent malfunctions of sewage systems, and poor air quality from traffic and industry.
Similarly in China, Chengdu (12th) Shanghai (13th) and Shenzhen (15th) and Beijing (17th) are growing (or urbanising) rapidly, but as the report shows all four cities perform poorly with regards to air pollution, water potability and waste removal. This combined with the high risk of natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes in these cities leads to their
low rankings in the report.
- I-Net Bridge