Urbanization And Regional Sustainability In South Asia

This book examines urbanization and migration processes in South Asia. By analyzing the socio-economic impacts and infrastructural, environmental and institutional aspects of different conurbations, it highlights conflicts over agricultural land as well as the effects on health, education, poverty and the welfare of children, women and old people. The authors also explore issues of mobility; connectivity and accessibility of public services, and discuss the effective use of new urban-management tools, such as the concept of smart cities and urban spatial monitoring.

Urbanization occurs in tandem with development. Countries in Southeast Asia need to build - individually and collectively - the capacity of their cities and towns to promote economic growth and development, to make urban development more sustainable, to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and to ensure that all groups in society share in the development. This book is a result of a series of regional discussions by experts and practitioners involved in the urban and planning of their countries. It highlights urbanization issues that have implications for regional - including ASEAN - cooperation, and provides practical recommendations for policymakers. It is a first step towards assisting governments in the region to take advantage of existing collaborative partnerships to address the urban transformation that Southeast Asia is experiencing today.

This book considers urbanization in Asia and presents case studies of sustainable development "best practice" from 12 Asian countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, People's Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

Conceptions of 'sustainable cities' in the pluralistic and multireligious urban settlements of developing nations need to develop out of local cultural, religious and historical contexts to be inclusive and accurately respond to the needs of the poor, ethnic and religious minorities, and women. Religion and Urbanism contributes to an expanded understanding of 'sustainable cities' in South Asia by demonstrating the multiple, and often conflicting ways in which religion enables or challenges socially equitable and ecologically sustainable urbanisation in the region. In particular, this collection focuses on two aspects that must inform the sustainable cities discourse in South Asia: the intersections of religion and urban heritage, and religion and various aspects of informality. This book makes a much-needed contribution to the nexus between religion and urban planning for researchers, postgraduate students and policy makers in Sustainable Development, Development Studies, Urban Studies, Religious Studies, Asian Studies, Heritage Studies and Urban and Religious Geography.

This book provides a pioneering study of the historical interaction between the city and the natural environment from the colonial to the contemporary era in South Asia. The book provides a multidisciplinary analysis examining the environmental history of the city and bringing together contributions from environmental experts and practitioners as well as academics. Focusing on case studies stretching from the Maldives and Sri Lanka to the Indian subcontinent, the chapters trace linkages between the contemporary and earlier patterns of urban expansion and their environmental effects and consider lessons that can be drawn with respect to preventing future environmental degradation and mitigating the effects of climate change. An important contribution to the field, this book studies the contemporary environmental issues arising from rapid South Asian urbanization. It will be of interest to researchers in the field of South Asian studies, world history, and environmental history.

This book, through a bunch of systematic and analytical notes and scientific commentaries, acquaints the readers with the innovative methods of regional development, measurement of the development in regional scale, regional development models, and policy prescriptions. Conceptualizing development as a regional process is a geographer's brainchild, and the sense of region has long been rooted deeply in the fundamental research practices that geographers are accustomed to. The geographical perspective of regions entails conceptualizing them nested horizontally as the formal region and hierarchical relationships in space with spatial flows or interactions as the functional region. In geographical research, the region works as a tool by serving as a statistical unit of analysis. More importantly, however, regions serve as the fundamental spatial units of management and planning by specifying a territory or a part of it for which a certain spatial development or regulatory plan is sought. This book addresses the complex processes in different regions of the world, particularly South Asia, to perceive the regional development planning involved and the sustainable management practiced there. The book is a useful resource for socio-economic planners, policymakers, and policy researchers.

With Asia’s cities undergoing unprecedented growth in the 21st century, lauded the ‘urban century’ by many, Sustainable Cities in Asia provides a timely examination of the challenges facing cities across the continent including some of the projects, approaches and solutions that are currently being tested. This book uses numerous case studies, analysing topical issues ranging from city cycling in India, to green spaces in China, to the use of community-led energy generation projects in post-Fukushima Japan. Containing contributions from an international team of scholars, it also takes a multi-disciplinary approach and draws on examples from a wide range of countries, including China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Ultimately, by providing a comprehensive discussion of the broader debates around the shape of sustainable urbanism, it demonstrates that Asia is one of the most active regions in terms of the development of sustainable city strategies. Tackling the contemporary issues of key importance for sustainability, such as property markets, migration and transport, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Urban Geography, Sustainability, Environmental Studies and Asian studies.