Urban Growth And Spatial Transition In Nepal

This book carries out an initial assessment of Nepal s urban growth and spatial transformation, with a focus on spatial demographic and economic trends, economic growth drivers and infrastructure requirements of Nepal s urban regions.

Nepal: Urban Growth and Spatial Transition carries out an initial assessment of Nepal's urban growth and spatial transformation, with a focus on spatial demographic and economic trends, economic growth drivers and infrastructure requirements of Nepal's urban regions. The book notes that Nepal is the fastest urbanizing country in South Asia. The spatial transformation is characterized by fast growing population density in the Kathmandu Valley - Nepal's largest urban conurbation -, along the main highways and close to the border with India, and clustering of economic production in the Kathmandu Valley and in the Eastern and Western Tarai. Yet, urbanization has been less correlated with economic growth in Nepal than in other countries in South Asia. In spite of its remarkable progress in alleviating poverty, Nepal is caught up in a cycle of political instability and economic stagnation, with economic growth below 4 percent per annum over the last decade. Urban areas have distinct comparative advantage in cultural tourism services, crafts, and agro-processing, but they have not been able to turn them into competitive advantages. Lack of effective planning, and inadequate infrastructure are a major constraint for urban growth and competitiveness. Nepal needs to foster the sustainable growth of its urban regions, promote the development and regeneration of the Kathmandu Valley Metropolitan Region and enhance the competitiveness of strategic urban clusters - first and foremost tourism, agro-processing and handicraft - to unlock urban-based growth and ensure the sustainability of the spatial transformation.The study aims to stimulate evidence-based policy dialogue on Nepal's urban transition, and assist those working in the critical area for Nepal's economic development – the Government, the private sector, civil society and the development partners - in framing policies and interventions for addressing the challenges, and seizing the benefits of rapid urbanization.

This report, based on the Africapolis geo-spatial database (www.africapolis.org) covering 7 600 urban agglomerations in 50 African countries, provides detailed analyses of major African urbanisation dynamics placed within historical, environmental and political contexts.

How do we include and represent all people in cities? As the world rapidly urbanizes, and climate change creates global winners and losers, understanding how to design cities that provide for all their citizens is of the utmost importance. Inclusive Urbanization attempts to not only provide meaningful, practical guidance to urban designers, managers, and local actors, but also create a definition of inclusion that incorporates strategies bigger than the welfare state, and tactics that bring local actors and the state into meaningful dialogue. Written by a team of experienced academics, designers, and NGO professionals, Inclusive Urbanization shows how urbanization policy and management can be used to make more inclusive, climate resilient cities, through a series of 18 case studies in South Asia. By creating a model of urban life and processes that takes into account social, spatial, cultural, regulatory and economic dimensions, the book finds a way to make both the processes and outcomes of urban design representative of all of the city’s inhabitants.

This book offers essential insights into potential catastrophic events that might befall upon the emerging urban landscape in South Asia, and which are due to hazards, risks and vulnerabilities inherent in the region’s geophysical location, as well as due to climate change and unplanned urbanization. It highlights major physio-graphic, demographic, geological and geophysical indicators that are responsible for changing the pattern and trend of urbanization in South Asia – a crucial issue in view of emerging threats of climate change, and changes in the demographic profile. The book addresses the disaster management scenario in South Asia, manifestations of climate change in the region and various urban setups under climate-change-induced risks. Further, it elaborates on the challenges of urbanization-based neo-risks and vulnerabilities, which manifest in the form of slum area growth, piling and littering of waste and filth, new health risks, groundwater contamination, air pollution, highly energy-dependent lifestyles, poverty, socio-economic tensions, etc. It also critically examines the institutional mechanisms for disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate change adaptation (CCA) and urban governance, and suggests appropriate changes in the governing structure to mitigate these risks. The book draws the attention of urban planners and policymakers to current shortcomings in the administrative and financial structures of local urban bodies. While outlining climate-associated risks and adaptation strategies in South Asia, it also suggests measures for integrating climate change and urban adaption with state's planning processes, and puts forward a risk alleviation platform to bring the risk managers working in different fields together, so that they make concerted efforts to achieve sustainable development. It offers valuable takeaways for researchers, urban planners, those working in industry, consultants, and policymakers.

The book provides an overview of the economic, political, and social environment in Nepal and the challenges confronting the country in eliciting its economic growth potential. The book provides an insightful framework of an inclusive development strategy in the context of symbiotic relationships between urban and rural areas as well as among the three eco-belts, i.e.,tarai, hills, and mountain areas. Against this backdrop, the strategy calls for prioritized and focused investments on the region's growth potential to induce maximum economic growth impact.

The structuring of Urban Space is as topical as ever in this era of climate change, hyper-urbanisation, post-digital labour markets, and geo-political power shifts. Scholarship of the contemporary urban condition is dominated by studies and examples drawn from the global north. Yet, cities of the global south are distinctive from those of the global north. Socio-political conditions structure patterns and practices of urban reproduction and, in turn, Urban Space reflects conditions in the Global South. Th­e result is different space related outcomes. Th­is is the central topic of this collection. In this book, a unique collection of case study-based accounts posits both English and Spanish academic literature to interpret and reinterpret the appropriation, negotiation and reconfiguration of Urban Space in cities, from Colombia to Namibia. ­This collection will be of particular interest to urban scholars and others interested in contemporary urban change, especially those with an interest in the Global South. Readers will encounter new perspectives on the State’s enduring influence in urban land and territory reconfiguration and the contrasting wider rhetoric that affords and legitimises a key role for the private sector. Th­e case studies also illuminate opportunities and possibilities for grassroots organising to challenge prevailing city actor hierarchies. ­They also highlight the political-economic consequences of particular cases of bus rapid transport projects for spatial and social segregation. Across these and other topics, recurring themes of inequality, governance, and environment are investigated in contested urban terrains. Th­e result is a unique collection of viewpoints, with a common, critical narrative on the present and future challenges facing cities of the Global South.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Urban Land Systems: An Ecosystems Perspective" that was published in Land