Introduction
The United Nations reports that globally, 54 percent of the world’s population reside in urban areas in 2014.
Furthermore, it predicts that by year 2050, 66 percent of the world’s population is projected to be urban (United
Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affair, Population Division, 2014). The Philippines is expected to achieve 49 percent urban population in 2011 and is projected to be 65 percent by 2030 (Naik Singru, 2014). The situation becomes even more critical when we consider that the Philippine will reach its demographic window in 2015.
Rural to urban migration is a world-wide phenomenon which will continue in the years to come.
Urban centers most affected are rapidly growing in metropolitan centers such as Metro Cebu. In a study made by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the population in Metro Cebu is expected to grow from 2.5M
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2 Joseph Michael Espina/ Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000 today to about 5.0M by 2050. Such rapid urbanization is common in secondary cities all over Asia, such as Cebu in the Philippines, Chiang Mai in Thailand, Bandung in Indonesia and Penang in Malaysia.
In rapidly urbanizing metropolitan areas, the lack of controls is causing urban sprawl in many cities. Cities are expanding rapidly toward the urban fringes in such low densities that it puts a considerable strain on urban infrastructure and