Sustainable Urban Planning and Climate Change Adaptation: Disaster Protection Strategies for Global Urban Development

Urban and rural differentiation emerged since the start of industrial development of human societies. With the need of large amount of human capital to adapt to mass production, rapid urbanization, as a natural course, changed the nature of human lifestyle permanently. Unintended consequences appear along this process of significant economic growth and prosperity, with climate change, which is due to carbon emission, as one of the most prominent problems. Climate change brings various disasters, with typhoons, floods, and wildfires as to name a few. Transition to urban lifestyles, without the realization of sustainability, is one of the primary issues nowadays. This paper discusses the process of urbanization and the usage of crude oils as an automatic method to fuel the cities, and their relations with climate change. It then proposes important criteria to follow for sustainable urban constructions and strategies for disaster prevention.