The Technology Context

This assignment is going to evaluate the coursework that has been researched from the IEEE Spectrum Magazine Special Report. This coursework shall analyze some of the articles that are in the magazine report. In this article, I shall try to analyze the accuracy of the information, authority and qualification fostered by the author, the main objective and the target audience and the credibility of the article. This coursework shall centralize on the articles megacities by the numbers, how to blackout-proof a city, how not to make a megacity and how to measure a city’s metabolism.

Article: Megacities by the Numbers

Executive Summary

The article Megacities by the numbers is compiled by two authors namely Samuel K. Moore and Alan Gardner on 2007 in the month of June. Moore and Gardner articulate that statistically through the year 2008 half the billion of the world population would be habiting in the urban areas. According to Moore and Gardner (2007) the research documented from the United Nation data report on urban settlement they enlist that the world GDP from the megacities accumulate to 9% of the world $59.4 trillion, this figure is bound to escalate as the data shows that urbanization is mounting up and that by the year 2030, urbanization is set to claim the 60% of the world population.

The reports showed that among the ten richest megacities are within urban settlements; this includes Mexico City, Los Angles, New York City, Osaka-Kobe and Tokyo. The amount of GDP that is accumulated from this megacities uses Purchasing Power Parity scheme, unlike rural areas. The GPD accumulative from these ten megacities accounts for $10 trillion from the world GDP and is expected to rise twice as the statistics shows urbanization escalating at a rate that is deafening (Ginsburg, 1997).

Moore and Gardner confirms that when there is enormous growth in urbanization there is also growth in the slum swelling for those that cannot afford decent homes, or due to the poverty line in the society. Estimates from this factor concluded by the two authors articulate that the population in the slum was 998 million and is estimated that by 2020 this will have escalated to a whooping 1.4 billion. However, this is estimated from the fact if the government of the respective nation does not combat this development. This is because slum dwellers makeup majority of the urban population and in all major megacities except Iran which has controlled development plan that curbs and also develops cheap houses and offers mortgage loans to facilitate these challenges (Moore & Gardner, 2007). The other issue is air pollution in major megacities leading to most cardiovascular problems and premature death among the habitant of these urban regions. Another problem is waste management which eventually leads to development of new health hazards, other include provision of water system, electricity and sewer lines.

Article analysis

Accuracy: based on estimation from the United Nation statistics the articles is accurate in my won merit. The sources that the data is gathered are clearly indicated; from the other sources that I have obtained knowledge from this information is accurate based on the World Urbanization Prospects from the year 2005 and city data collected from PriceWaterHouseCoopers. The information, however, are backdated and not up to date, this is because the articles are from the year 2005 and this will clash from the data that can be estimated at the moment due to development of urbanization. However, the article is grammatically correct and written in an educative manner.

Authority: Samuel Moore is the senior editor and Allen Gardner is the editorial researcher and both are members of IEEE Spectrum Magazine Special Report. They are qualified for this topic as they are qualified researchers on industrialization. The author’s contacts are on the site contact segment for those who have queries about this article.

Objectivity: The material is easy to digest making them for the general population acknowledgement. The primary objective of the article is to elucidate the pursuant how urbanization development affects GDP and how it generates slum dwelling. Some of the information is fact but others are biased as they are estimation that would not be correct with time. There is no emotional language in the article as it is all industrial and technical fact does not hold emotions.

Credibility: The information provided is accurate with the standard of the source it is acquired from, so it is genuinely correct to accept it. The evidence is in the given references from organizations that performs statistical analysis. All sources are quoted with their respective references even with the graphs. The authors are members by the news providers and have no affiliation with the organization mention in the material.

Article: How to Blackout-Proof a City

This article how to blackout proof a city is compiled by Harry Goldstein on June 2007, the article is about how Mumbai city which was formerly known as Bombay has sustained it population with electricity even in the recent development of urbanization. According to Goldstein (2007), Mumbai is the city that stands out from the crowd and is the revenue engine for India as it is slowly gaining momentum on reaching the scale of one of the most developed nations making India to rise in the stardom of world power literary. Although Mumbai has the biggest slum in the whole of Asia recent development of high rise building and accessibility of electricity has made this city to be compared with the likes of New York and another developed country (Marken, 2009).

The population of this city enjoys continuous electricity without blackout interruption since the invention of hydroelectric stations by Mumbai-based Tata Power Co.’s. This city because it is supplied with electricity by Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co as echoed by Marken (2009). which falls on the western grid and it is connected to Mumbai as it is the capital cannot have blackout as it supplies power to all major industrial and transportation activities in this region. Being the metropolitan city this means that other rural cities actually receive only 10 hours of electricity as the demand has gone up, this means that other operatives that supply electricity to rural areas have to undergo load shedding for cities like Mumbai (Goldstein, 2007).

The massive development and demand for electricity have always led Tata to acquire assistance from Reliance. However, this usually cost Tata a whopping 54 billion from other operators though this was just recently amended Electricity Act of 2003 put into law because the government did not allow trade of power, this made operators have excess power and no demand for it making them to shut down like 2184â”MW Dabhol power plant and others (Marken, 2009). The 1997 blackout which was triggered by lack of coordination from the Reliance and Tata, generators from Reliance triggered the automated shedding logical program shutting off the system leaving nearly 1.4 subscribers without electricity for nearly 4 hours. This brought abut independence of Tata and the recent development of load shedding was exchanged with tariffs introduced to curd precarious use of power by the residences and industries. This is aimed at restricting misuse of electricity before the city that has not been experiencing blackout is exposed to matchsticks and candles (Goldstein, 2007).

Articles analysis

Accuracy: The author clearly references their sources and quotes key players in the electricity industry in Mumbai. The information is valid in my own merit from the doctrines and websites of Mumbai-based Tata Power Co.’s, Reliance Power Co and Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co. the information is not up to date and recent development are not included in these scripts. The author has perfected the art of narrative writing there is no error and neither grammatical spelling in the print.

Authority: The author is the senior editor in IEEE Spectrum Magazine Special Report and the qualifications are that he has industrial qualification required for writing this print literary. The author email address is in the contact area of this site and the author is mostly online for queries.

Objectivity: The target audience for this material is the general public however it has technical terminology on the approximation of the electric current that may confuse a layman. The elementary purpose for this purpose is to elucidate how Mumbai economic development in both industrial and housing sector is threatening the power grid. The information are facts and there are no propaganda and bias information as it requires solid facts to streamline this topic and cannot be based on estimations, due to this facts the author has not incorporated any emotional language.

Credibility: The information in the article is well researched and therefore offers the pursuant reason of doubt that it is credible and valid. The article is well referenced with quotations from the management of the associated organizations. From the assessment derived at the author has no relationship with the organizations in the article, this makes the news providers be independent without having commercial association with the organization being discussed.

Article: How Not to Make a Megacity

This article how not to make a Megacity authored by Harry Goldstein is a narration of the occurrences in Lagos, Nigeria. In this article the author tries to portray the picture that is conveyed through the streets of Lagos. The scenes of dead corpse and animal carcasses not given a decent burial or proper disposal are rampant and also the heaps of garbage along major highways from the high way linking major metropolitan cities in this oil-rich nation are also the picture that one has to endure to during the visit to Lagos (Goldstein, 2007).

According to Goldstein (2007) the scenery are disturbing based on the fact that they are in the capital city of Nigeria and this is where all government transactions are concluded, however the level of corruption here is rampant from the cheeky salesmen to the police patrol who will not even direct a stranger without supplementing baksheesh, the traffic jam is terrible and all around is the traffic cacophony as motorist are stuck at junctions trying to reach their destination. The traffic lights are either out of service and others are just flouted as motorist scrum their way forward forging to get to their destination. The intersection is manned by ferocious patrol police force that would not attend if there is no bribe in hand (Eaton, 1997).

The drainage system are in a terrible state that when the heaven opens up the roads are impassable and they flood like rivers making it hard for the drivers to wade their way to driving as the water bails the floor of the motor vehicle. According to Eaton (1997) notes that after the downpour due to lack drainage the streets are lake with stagnant water creating a habitat for mosquito to breed and the levels of malaria have escalated claiming more lives than anything else. The infrastructures here have collapse and their functioning is in ruins the few that exist. The oil-rich city however does not enjoy electricity power but generated power from generator that produces loads of diesel fumes that pollute the air; this has been major concern with major environment conservatives.

Among the spectacular features of this region is the sprawling rusted corrugated slum dwelling that makes up half of the capital. The residence of this area live within the margin of a dollar a day, the health care system here is frail and the sanitation is news to the locals. The living conditions are another case as there is less dependency on the government because of the high level corruption in this city (Goldstein, 2007).

Article Analysis

Accuracy: This article although it a bit exaggerated on the corpse along the major highways shed light at the desperate the city of Lagos need infrastructure to facilitate the dwellers of this oil-rich capital. The sources of information are not identified, though three quarter of the information is correct. Some of the information mostly concerning infrastructure, corruption and electricity are widely covered in majority of industrial articles as examples of a fail governance system. The information can be articulated to be up to date as Nigeria has recently been hit with religion clashes that left many massacred in cold blood. The information is excellently formatted with no error grammatically and all the spelling is well checked and placed.

Authority: The author is the senior editor in IEEE Spectrum Magazine Special Report and the qualifications are that he has industrial qualification for this information. The author email address is in the contact area of this site and some of the authors are mostly online for queries.

Objectivity: The article is designed for both the public and the expert audience that may have interest in investing in Nigeria capital Lagos. The elementary purpose is to clearly illustrate how megacities are not formed. The opinion are diverse they inject marketing, propaganda and little facts as the sources are not well referenced. The author is trying to elaborate how lack of infrastructure and good system governance can run even resources rich cities downs leaving a stinking trail. The article description of the slum environment and the health condition has some element of emotional language though it does not come too strong.

Credibility: The information in this article contains facts on the development in Lagos that one should believe if they have any industrial prospectus in this region, this is in the areas of collapse infrastructure and corruption. There is little evidence that support this literary work but it surely is correct on the areas of corruption and failure of the infrastructures. There are little quotes in this literary work and the author is an editor with the organization that has provided this article.

Article: How to Measure a City’s Metabolism

This article how to measure a city metabolism is authored by Moore Samuel and printed by IEEE Spectrum Magazine Special Report. This article analyzes the metropolitan areas of greater London consumptions power. The author uses the ecological footprint analysis patented by William Rees who is a University of British Columbia professor and this invention was coined by his student Mathis Wackernagel, this system analyzes the amount of resources that a megacity needs to sustain it consumption and the allocation of the estate that can commandeer this resources to feed the city and the disposal for the excrete generated (Moore, 2007).

This invention breaks this to a simpler term which allows the pursuant to be able to analyze megacity metabolism by injecting another analytical tool known as the global hectare as a leverage that indicate the amount of acres that are needed to produces resources for a given region and the acres required to process the excretion from this region as echoed by Moore (2007). The analysis indicate that a regular person per the population of the world is supposed to consumed 2.2 of consumable resources within the global hectares, however, the only available consumable resources are 1.8 as we are escalating in population. These are in accordance to the 2006 reports derived from the Living Planet Report, however, this data are only estimated as to calculate this from of data from every city in the world is a very expensive and hard task. This analysis evolves around national footprint and integrates them with the infrastructure, wealth, population and facets that concern the city to establish these reports (Baccini, 1997).

According to Baccini (1997) notes that from this reports city like Tokyo cannot support it population in resources consumption supply which makes it to be dependant on other nation’s ecologies. This is because of the 60% of production land that is mandatory for resources generation is not available in the whole of Japan. However, this city has patterned a system that overrides on cheap energy, good transportation and secure system of communication; this is also fostered by other major cities. The only credible report was achieved from London through ecological footprint, the concluded result showed that they are at par with the Swiss and more frugal than the American and are very veracious than the average population, but London did not qualify as a megacity (Moore, 2007).

Article Analysis

Accuracy: The information is sources are well referenced in accordance to the sources; this makes it easier to verify the information because the sources are cited. The information is not up to date as the analysis was compiled in 2006 and there has been major development and movement in major megacities. The punctuation of the article has errors and is slightly has spelling errors which makes some of the paragraphs make no sense. However, it is a well structured article and the author knows what they are writing about.

Authority: The author is the senior editor in IEEE Spectrum Magazine Special Report news section, and is a competent industrialist who has the proper knowledge on the areas of urbanization and analysis of major megacities. The author can be easily contacted for references as the site offers the author personal email and contacts.

Objectivity: This article is design to suit the needs for both the general public and expert audience pursuant to this subject. The elementary objective of this article is elucidating how to measure the metabolism of major megacities. The author shows how the analysis are conducted and data collected to establish the resources needed by a city to sustain the consumption and also the land needed to generate this resources and hold the waste that are generated from this cities. This article has no emotional language in it text.

Credibility: The information in this article are based on reports compiled by different international bodies that have access to accurate data collection center and therefore makes it logically beneficial and should be believed. There are evidence and citation that support this article; this is further complimented by the quotes in the articles from the sources. The author is an employee of this organization and thus has a relationship with them through employment.