Pacific Rim 161: Megacities in Asia

Singapore is the second most densely populated city in the world, beaten only by Monaco, with 5.3 million people crammed onto the island.

When the city gained independence in the 1960s, its government foresaw the need for strict planning, and today it has highly efficient systems in place to cope with almost everything.

Even the suburbs are high-rise, and there is practically no natural space left on the island - but do those things make it a model for other developing countries, or an exceptional case?

Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in China, and the National University of Singapore have tackled the issue of managing food waste and other urban problems