Asian cities possess a charm with the vitality and vibrancy they possess. There is an inherent order in chaos, expression of identity in tangible and intangible elements of the place and variety they exhibit making them a cultural mosaic.
Cities are often compared to living organisms and are in a cyclic process of evolution-decay and retrofit. We now stand at a crossroad with an estimated increase of 55% in the Asian urban population in the next 25 years (As per the UNDP- Human development report -2005), an exponential growth rate of urbanization. This is a critical time frame, where our actions now would determine the fate of future generations.
How far would this change be accommodating and sensitive to the local context and identity of the place is a question of the hour.
The Part A of article series explores the concern with the following themes.
· Rapid urbanization and its challenges on Asian cities
· City futures-existing theory and challenges in practice
· Learning from case studies- Singapore, Cambodia and Taiwan
· Strategies for Sustainable Urban future
I. Rapid urbanization and its challenges on Asian cities:
The unprecedented urbanization presents a need for a novel way to facilitate the futuristic demands of cities on short notice. As the essay tries to explore the existing challenges of Asian cities and rethinks its future, here the term city is used in the broadest sense, encompassing settlements with large population, economic function, institutional and social sectors, because, by 2030,60% of the world would be an urban area!!!!
“The cities of the 21st Century are where human destiny will be played out, and where the future of the biosphere will be determined. There will be no sustainable world without sustainable cities.” (Herbert Girardet)
We have been observing cities at present been evolving with urbanization, population increase, climate change and globalization as major determinants. Challenges presented at times leads to sustainable solutions while in other cases leaves the city at stages of obsolescence with trapped unused ghost zones and emerging new growth centers, or haphazard development with lost identity.
Developed countries have already been urbanized to their peak. Now globally developing countries are facing the crisis and boon of ‘change’, Asian cities being foremost among them (World Resources Institute, 1996). The reason discussing the future of Asia is also with regard to this fact. Among 4945 million people living in the cities by 2030, the aggregate total population is dominated by two Countries-India (15%) and China (19%). The increment in demand with rapid urbanization would strain the ecology, economy, land availability, infrastructure and affordable housing which have already reached their threshold levels. It would directly impact the rural areas and green zones of cities resulting in conversion of agricultural land to build, hugely impacting ecology and disrupting the urban-rural balance.
In the population projections, wide variation is seen among countries and within countries in cases of most populated ones like India, Indonesia and China. The evidence on the population growth of urban centers suggests that medium-sized cities in the order of 500,000 to 2 million will experience the highest urbanization rates in the future. The emergence of peri-urban cities their land availability and flexibility in planning might lead to restricted inner-city development. The inner city is where mostly the historic cores of cities lies, precincts with unique identities and are high vulnerability zones. Some examples in Indian context for old historic cores are Pettah-Bangalore, Chandni Chowk-Delhi, Chala-Trivandrum ,Valyangadi-Calicut ,Pol houses of Ahmedabad ,etc.
Monotony and identical character experienced in of most of the new commercial centers(CBD) of metro cities now is a serious concern. With this being our current model ,how would we be addressing shaping the future cities to meet rapid urbanization?
Will embracing the identity be understood as a tool to build a resilient future? Or does it really matter, that’s a point to ponder.
A drastic shift in cultural, environmental and spatial condition of cities is predicted. The concern observing current patterns of urbanization is, certain cities might stick strictly to cultural values and overlook functional needs or the polar opposite. The act of coping with requirements in an ambush resulting in global identical models, lacking context sensitivity/ecological concerns. A holistic outlook and action is essential from society to best serve in shaping the city futures. Challenges in resource management in city scale also need to be seriously taken into consideration. Energy requirements, WASH facilities, waste management being some among the infrastructure concerns.
Asian cities have unique identities with the vernacular responses in built fabric, settlement patterns as reflection of beliefs and rituals of community, with cuisine, exotic landscapes, festivals, art styles and performing art making them distinct. With the ‘change' new modes of economy generators, housing typologies, recreation choices are anticipated to occur in community and regional scale. Here urbanization would also be influenced by socio-cultural, political and environmental variables, which plays a huge role in direction of redevelopment in Asia.
According to Brian, R & Trevor, K (2006) in their urbanization and sustainability in Asian cities (Asian Development Bank report) “There is a sense that the magnitude of the problem is too great and that inevitably some cities will experience crises and collapse/evolve”. London and Detroit are international examples of this cyclic pattern.
It is also a time for professionals to pause and reflect, co-create the future and direct the capacity building of citizens and society. The global concern should be addressed by city planners, urban designers, architects, engineers, ecologists, geologist’s ,sociologists, partner government bodies etc. collectively.
Now the challenge is , how to successfully guide this change.
/please share your thoughts on city-futures in comments section, lets continue the dialogue.
With most of the challenges faced by Asian cities generic to an extent, the article series looks at the regional context of Indian cities in part B, with a focus on Kochi city for a solution-based approach and narrating how best practices derived from case studies can be interpreted to context.
TO BE CONTINUED
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Reference:
Mou, W & Junyan ,L .(). Theoretical Analysis of the Concept of a Sustainable City, Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (VOL. 04, NO. 04). https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2345748116500299
Valeria ,S(2017). The Three Pitfalls of Sustainable City: A Conceptual Framework for Evaluating the Theory-Practice Gap Sustainability 2017, 9, 2311; doi:10.3390/su9122311.
Erik, M (2001).The Sustainable City: Conceptualization, Planning and Technology, Retrieved May 12, 2021, from The Sustainable City (core.ac.UK)
Brian ,R & Trevor,K (Editors) (2006) .Urbanization and Sustainability in Asia- Case Studies of Good Practice, Asian Development Bank, Retrieved May 11, 2021, from Urbanization and Sustainability in Asia (adb.org)
Sarga(2017).Tourism as a tool to reimagine blighted historical precinct-Thalassery, NCTT Conference-2017.
Lin, Weii (2012)Place Identity for City Sustainability in a Traditional Settlement of Taiwan, Retrieved May 13, 2021, from Place Identity for City Sustainability in a Traditional Settlement of Taiwan | IntechOpen
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