Urban Ecology - The human side

I've been meaning to write on Balicassiao about urban ecology. I have never seen a place where it is so appropriate to examine this topic than in Manila, a city built on a swamp. Manila proper is also the most densely populated city in the world with 111,000 people per square mile. Several cities in India as well as Dakha, Bangladesh, and Jakarta, Indonesia are now in similar situations. In these cities, it's nearly impossible to get an accurate measure of the population density. As an outsider, it is astonishing to me to think about how Manila came to be what it is today. Especially given the frequency of natural disasters in the Philippines.

I've posted this BBC video as an introduction to this topic. It's definitely taking a distinctly western approach to the slums in Manila, but it also interesting to see how differently outsiders view the situation from the people that have lived in slums for decades. To them, it's just the way they live, and it's better than being in a rural area with no access to daily income. Despite this, the Philippine government wants to clear the slums and force people to live in rural housing developments.

What has struck me most about the slums in Manila is that although they are widespread, they are so patchily distributed. Slums in Manila tend to exist along corridors, margins, thoroughfares, and dark, underswept corners of the city. They are not the expansive slums we think of in Mumbai or Nairobi. There is just no space in Manila for anything expansive. The city is surrounded on all sides by open water, permanent swamps, or mountains. The only way to build is up. Slum structures are often four or five stories tall and look like Tim Burton creations, haphazardly piled on top of one another and stained with the soot of decades of diesel emissions. They exist right next to fancy housing developments and condominiums. They exist in parks, along creeks and railroads, and propped up against skyscrapers.

I will be examining this topic more and more as I make more observations about urban ecology, including the other animals and plants that make Manila home. In Manila, I really see something every day that amazes me. It's a city of extremely sharp contrast. It's fascinating to see people embrace the ultimate sense of togetherness and community to be able to live literally on top of one another. It's something that is totally inconceivable in the Western mind. Privacy is only a state of mind in this situation.

I've been able to live in one of the least densely populated places in the world in Northwestern Zambia, and one of the most densely populated cities in the world in Manila, Philippines within the span of a year. I am really interested to focus on what effects the highly urbanized ecosystem has on its inhabitants.  How do they benefit from this situation and what are the negative effects? I also want to examine the few greenspaces in Metro Manila. What role do greenspaces serve in this city?