MEGACITIES

This episode examines the Mumbai Traffic Improvement Mega-Project, which is one of the largest public works project in the history of the world. The initiative is implementing integrated railroad and water transport systems into the city's infrastructure in order to support its increasing population. The 50 Flyovers Project is using the latest technology to reconfigure traffic flow in and around the city, the Golden Quadrilateral Project is connecting Mumbai to other major cities of India and spectacular bridges will soon span previously inaccessible waterways, creating an entire transportation transformation in India.

It's the world's biggest city. It sprawls across more than 1,400 square kilometers. But for the 18 million people who live here, it's not just another metropolis. Mexico City is ground zero. This Mega-city violates the first rule of real estate: location. On one side: one of the world's most earthquake-prone hotspots. On the other: one of the world's most active volcanoes. And beneath their feet - a shaky foundation of landfill. To Mother Nature, Mexico City is one big target. And any moment, the Big One could hit. But against the most destructive force of nature, the city is tapping the power of science. From subways to freeways, Mexico City is harnessing cutting-edge technology to build in safety. Towering over the city is Latin America's tallest skyscraper - built to ride out an earthquake on giant shock absorbers. Most of all, the city is now armed with a slender line of defense: an earthquake detection system, built to give the city a one-minute warning before a quake arrives. Because today, the question isn't if another earthquake will hit - but when.

Constructed in the nineteenth century, the sewers of Paris extend 2300 kilometres-the distance from Paris to Istanbul. This episode takes a look inside these vaulted tunnels where a million cubic metres of waste flows through the Parisian sewage system every day. The sewers are the digestive system of this mega city, bringing in life-giving fluids and carrying out waste. It examines the dangers of what it takes to keep the system running smoothly. The episode follows Phillipe Bussignies, who has been working on the sewers for the past 25 year as he and his team lay out thousands of miles of fibre-optic cables through the sewer tunnels using a Cable Laying Robot. Megacities explores this system beneath the Paris streets, where the inky blackness is broken only by the glow of fibre optic light. Paris plans to become the world's first fully connected wireless city.

It's the second largest city on earth - and the most important city in Brazil. More than 10 million people live in Sao Paulo. But fitting people isn't a problem. The challenge is the city's trash. Every day, Sao Paulo generates 14,000 tons of garbage -- the weight of the leaning Tower of Pisa. Sao Paulo has embarked on a green revolution by harnessing hectares of trash to produce energy. Aluminum cans are the most recycled object on earth, and Brazil leads the way when it comes not only to recycling them, but the speed at which it's done. This episode follow one aluminum can from the time it is picked by one of the catadores - the trash-pickers of São Paulo who make their living from collecting recyclables - through pressing, melting, and re-melting, to the moment it is ready to become a new can. State of the art technology combined with typical Brazilian ingenuity contributes not only to a clean environment, but to help poor citizens earn their living.

A peninsula bounded by more than 200 islands - only a handful of them inhabited, Hong Kong is the most densely populated urban region on the planet. In the recent past it has been rocked by economic and financial upheaval. Yet it has come through with some of the most high-tech, counterfeit-proof currency in the world, as well as some of the most complex bank building structures. Hong Kong has more billionaires per capita than anyplace on earth. This episode shows how such a small city accomplished such immense technological feats. The journey begins inside the printing facilities of Hong Kong Printing Limited and follows the currency to the Big 3 banks in Hong Kong, before it is then circulated through the economy.

George Orwell once warned of a future where "Big Brother is watching." Today in London, he is. But his is not an evil eye. Instead, its an eye toward averting disaster. Not one but three great rivers flow through London - by air, water, and land. They are the keys to keeping this MegaCity alive and running: (1) London has the world's busiest international airspace; (2) The Thames is the world's busiest urban river; and (3) The streets of London are so jammed, you have to pay to drive on them. One major accident anywhere can cripple this MegaCity, where keeping people and goods moving is the key to its survival. Yet every minute -- in three dimensions -- millions of people and vehicles are on a collision course. To head off disaster, London deploys high-tech eyes everywhere, constantly scanning the skies, the river, and the ground. This is a view of London like nothing ever seen before: going behind the scenes to watch the watchers and their incredible technologies, in all three dimensions: from the hurtling and congested heights of air traffic control, to the murky and dangerous depths beneath the Thames. As it hurtles toward a collision course with the future, London cant take its eyes off the prize.

As Indonesias economic, cultural and political center, Jakarta has been the gateway to Asia for 2,000 years. In the early 1500s, the Dutch created the port city of Batavia, now North Jakarta, to transport spices to Europe. Ever since, the city has blended Asian and European influences into a fusion of traditional and modern culture. The greater metro area now contains over 23 million people, stressing the infrastructure and increasing pollution and flooding from clogged sewer pipes and waterways. But Jakarta is taking these issues on one-by-one while continuing to grow as one of Southeast Asias shining cities.