Trends in urban climate changes in Sri Lanka: the case of the Colombo metropolitan region: final report

Abstract

It is well recognized that global urbanization has rapidly intensified in recent years. By next year, global urban population is expected to outnumber the rural population (Oke, 1991). This trend is both new and unprecedented in human history. It is new because only in the recent past that global urbanization has intensified. Earlier episodes of urbanization confined only to certain areas of the world (for example, Europe and the North America after the industrial revolution). During the last 150 years, the global urban population has increased from a mere 3% in the 1850s (Detwyler & Marcus, 1972) to more than 45% in 1995 (World Resources, 1997). While the global population has increased six times during the last two hundred years, urban population has grown 128 times (cf. Schell, et al1993). Even though the global population growth rates seem to abate somewhat, global urbanization shows no sign of retreat (cf. World Urbanization Prospects, 1991). The changes caused by urbanization are unprecedented because humankind has no previous experience with such rapid transformation.