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On February 2010, in a conference on the future of cities in London, United Nation‟s head of housing agency Anna Tibaijuka proclaimed that "After HIV and Aids, the biggest threat to sustainable development in Africa is rapid and chaotic urbanisation, because it is a recipe for disaster for increased tensions and pressure" (MacLellan, 2010). It is truly unfortunate that a word like urbanization that for centuries has represented better living standards and growth is now viewed as a threat to sustainable growth and likened to an incurable disease. When people move to urban cities in search of a better life, they deserve to find something better than what they left behind and that is what justifies this research. The purpose of this paper is to find ways on how best to direct rapid urbanization in Ethiopia towards becoming a resource rather than a source of chaos. A comprehensive literature review complemented by a questionnaire survey distributed to real estate developers in Ethiopia was conducted as part of the qualitative research method adapted. The finding of the research show that Ethiopia has one of the highest proportions of urban population living in slums and housing deficit is at an all-time high. The government has introduced a number of policies and is trying to provide housing for low-income people while the private sector in the real estate industry is mainly meeting the needs of high-income people. The study found that this division in task will eventually lead to the segregation of the city into rich and poor neighborhoods that will ultimately make matters worse. The study also showed that with the adaption of policies that allow for the integration and collaboration of the government, the private sector and the people; opportunities of creating a conducive living environment for all income groups exist.

As one travels the streets of Metro Manila, there's that sensorial assault so familiar in the crowded and impoverished districts of large urban areas around the world: smells from cooking and rot, noise from perilous vehicles wending their ways through choked and chaotic streets, and structures cobbled together so haphazardly it is difficult to believe that anyone lives within them. The movement of, quite literally, masses of people from rural areas to urban ones is hardly an unnoticed phenomenon in the past decade, but what has changed markedly is the rise in political violence targeting urban centers. Despite the rapid growth in other cities in Asia, most notably in China and India, Metro Manila remains a unique example of a mega-city in the Asia-Pacific region. When one thinks of Manila, it is more useful to think not of one well-defined urban core, but rather a series of ill-defined areas spanning twelve cities and five municipalities--a combined area of about 636 square kilometers. Poverty reigns for a majority of Metro Manila's residents, casting the pallor of despair over the entire city. A family of six residing in Metro Manila should earn about $350 per month--the current poverty threshold--but instead about 60 percent of the residents earn less. Through the lens of Metro Manila and its contemporary experiences, this study explores the security implications of rapid urbanization as an enabler of political violence. Is there a definitive link between urban growth and the level of violence, particularly political violence? It appears that cities tend to have materially higher crime rates than rural areas. By examining the realm of ungoverned spaces within emergent mega-cities, violent actors, especially terrorists, and the impact from and to political liberalization, the author hopes to provide some insights into whether rapid urbanization enables all forms of extra-legal behavior--particularly political violence and terrorism.

The growing threats that face nowadays society lead us to look at safety also by its environmental point of view. To the new threats, we connect new risk s, fears and anguishes. It's upon this context that, after enquiring a Braga County population sample, one has aimed to evaluate the risk assessment level, and particularly the natural risk perception level of these people. For most of the people enquired, the Lamaçães case, has resulted in a fairly good example in as the definitions of development strategies for Braga county should also take into consideration the natural risk assessment issue., As ameaças com que nos deparamos na sociedade actual levam-nos a equacionar a segurança, também em termos ambientais. A novas ameaças associam-se novos riscos, novas inquietações e medos e é neste contexto que, através da realização de um inquérito a alguns habitantes do concelho de Braga, se pretendeu avaliar o nível de conhecimento que as populações têm do risco e, em particular, qual a sua percepção acerca dos riscos naturais. Para a maioria dos inquiridos, o caso de Lamaçães, que consideraram paradigmático em termos de desordenamento urbano, resultou num bom exemplo de que a definição de estratégias de desenvolvimento para o concelho de Braga deve contemplar a temática dos riscos naturais.