Population growth, climate change drive need for urban rethink

"As urbanisation races ahead and climate change brings worsening pressures, many cities are realising the importance of making the needed investments," said Micheal Replogle, policy director at the Washington-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. Alertnet reports that one of the key messages of the recent Rio+20 UN conference on sustainable development in Rio was that if the majority of the world's urban population remains poor and do not benefit from the development processes, stresses will multiply.

Colombo is tackling its climate change induced flood problem by moving illegal settlements from the river banks and investing in a new drainage management scheme.