The most pressing research issue on cities for the next decade: The sustainable surviving means for informal settlements in developing countries There are various research issues that would warrant deep study in the urban centers and cities in the next decade due to various problems that face the developing world. In this study, I chose to select informal settlements and the problems they face in the cities. Informal settlements have posed a major problem in the recent past, and the trend does not look to be going down anytime soon. This is as due to instances of rapidly growing populations in these countries as well as the mass movement of many individuals from rural areas to the cities so as to seek better lives or employment. Where the populations of the city increase, and the rates of employment and housing plans are not adjusted to embrace the new arrivals, informal settlements come up really fast besides other negative developments as seen in the rates of crime (Mehrotra 50).