Future Challenges of Cities in Asia

ASIAN CITIES Edited by Gregory Bracken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami, and Bing Zhang Future Challenges of Cities in Asia FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Future Challenges of Cities in Asia FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Publications The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a research and exchange platform based in Leiden, the Netherlands. Its objective is to encourage the interdisciplinary and comparative study of Asia and to promote (inter)national cooperation. IIAS focuses on the humanities and social sciences and on their interaction with other sciences. It stimulates scholarship on Asia and is instrumental in forging research networks among Asia Scholars. Its main research interests are reflected in the three book series published with Amsterdam University Press: Global Asia, Asian Heritages and Asian Cities. IIAS acts as an international mediator, bringing together various parties in Asia and other parts of the world. The Institute works as a clearinghouse of knowledge and information. This entails activities such as providing information services, the construction and support of international networks and cooperative projects, and the organization of seminars and conferences. In this way, IIAS functions as a window on Europe for non-European scholars and contributes to the cultural rapprochement between Europe and Asia. IIAS Publications Officer: Paul van der Velde IIAS Assistant Publications Officer: Mary Lynn van Dijk Asian Cities The Asian Cities Series explores urban cultures, societies and developments from the ancient to the contemporary city, from West Asia and the Near East to East Asia and the Pacific. The series focuses on three avenues of inquiry: evolving and competing ideas of the city across time and space; urban residents and their interactions in the production, shaping and contestation of the city; and urban challenges of the future as they relate to human well-being, the environment, heritage and public life. Series Editor Paul Rabé, Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) at International Institute for Asian Studies, the Netherlands Editorial Board Henco Bekkering, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands; Charles Goldblum, University of Paris 8, France; Xiaoxi Hui, Beijing University of Technology, China; Stephen Lau, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Rita Padawangi, University of Social Sciences, Singapore; R. Parthasarathy, Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Gujarat, India; Neha Sami, Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bangalore, India FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Future Challenges of Cities in Asia Edited by Gregory Bracken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami, and Bing Zhang Amsterdam University Press FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Publications Asian Cities 11 Cover illustration: Tiara property development at Longsheng Station in Shenzhen (25 November 2014) Source: Clément Musil Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn e-isbn doi nur 978 94 6372 881 2 978 90 4854 491 2 (pdf) 10.5117/9789463728812 740 © Gregory Bracken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami & Bing Zhang / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2020 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS UKNA was funded by a grant awarded by the Marie Curie Actions “International Research Staff Exchange Scheme” (IRSES) of the European Union (2012-2016). About the Three UKNA Volumes This book is part of a series of three edited volumes published in the Asian Cities series of Amsterdam University Press and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), and coordinated by editors from the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA): – Volume 1: Ideas of the City in Asian Settings; – Volume 2: Cities in Asia by and for the People; – Volume 3: Future Challenges of Cities in Asia. The UKNA was established in 2012 with a grant from the European Union’s Marie Curie Actions International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) mobility scheme to bring together scholars from thirteen universities and planning institutions in greater China, India, Europe and the United States around collaborative research on urbanization in Asia.1 Since then the network has expanded to include also other partners in Northeast Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, and today represents a broad coalition of scholars and practitioners united by a common objective of promoting “human flourishing and the creative production of urban space.” The focus is on cities across Asia, as well as cities beyond Asia in comparative perspective. UKNA seeks to influence scholarship on cities as well as on policy by contributing insights that put people at the center of urban governance and development strategies. The emphasis is on immediate problem solving as well as the identification of long-term, transformative processes that increase 1 The original UKNA partners that participated in the research staff exchanges covered by the IRSES grant comprised: Ambedkar University Delhi (India); College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Beijing University of Technology (China); China Academy of Urban Planning and Design (China); CEPT University (India); Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (China); Development Planning Unit, University College London (UK); École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville (France); Department of Architecture, Hong Kong University (Hong Kong SAR); International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden (the Netherlands); Indian Institute for Human Settlements (India); School of Architecture, Tianjin University (China); Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands); and the Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California (USA). FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS the scope for the active engagement of people in the creative production and shaping of their cities – particularly in the realm of knowledge. UKNA seeks to develop a new, multidisciplinary body of knowledge on cities, one that goes beyond the “scientific” approaches transmitted in the curricula of classic urban studies programs. It seeks to encompass alternative epistemologies of the city rooted in everyday urban life. These epistemologies seek to embrace non-Western knowledge and traditions and the contributions of a wide range of methods of investigation in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. These three edited volumes represent the output of urban scholars who participated in the UKNA mobility schemes from 2012 to 2016, as well as other scholars who were invited to contribute to the series through separate calls for papers. The diversity of essays in these volumes represents the diversity of the UKNA itself, which brings together young scholars, including PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers, as well as established contributors from over 20 countries and from a multiplicity of backgrounds and interests. The wide range of topics covered in these three volumes, reflecting cross-disciplinary perspectives and different kinds of expertise, embodies the “diversity of ways to read the city” that UKNA propagates. The three volumes would not have been possible without the generous support of the European Union in making possible the exchanges of scholars that were at the basis of the collaborative research that led to many of the book chapters. In addition, UKNA wishes to acknowledge the following institutions and UKNA partners for their financial support and initiatives in bringing together the chapter authors and editors: the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center; the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore; the Development Planning Unit of the University College London; and the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden. Paul Rabé, D.P.P.D. UKNA Coordinator and Editor, Asian Cities book series FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Table of Contents 1 Future Challenges of Cities in Asia 13 An Introduction Gregory Bracken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami, and Bing Zhang 2 Human Agency in the Asian City 23 Shiqiao Li 3 Toward Inclusive, Vital and Livable City Scenarios 39 The Transformation of Urban Villages in Shenzhen Lei Qu 4 Cultural Dilemma in Beijing’s Urban Regeneration 65 From Liulichang Cultural Street to Qianmen Street and Yangmeizhu Oblique Street Wan Liu 5 Housing as Heritage 99 The Great Urban Dilemma of the Global City of Shanghai Non Arkaraprasertkul 6 Not an Act of God 131 Lessons from a Disaster in the Settlements Planning of a River City Carmeli Marie C. Chaves 7 The Political Ecology of Climate Injustice in Bangkok 155 Danny Marks 8 Assessing Flood-Related Vulnerability of the Urban Poor 183 Hendricus Andy Simarmata, Anna-Katharina Hornidge, and Christoph Antweiler 9 The Ecological Future of Cities Evaluating the Role of Green Infrastructure in Promoting Sustainability/Resilience in India Ian Mell FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 209 10 Hong Kong’s “Rail-plus-Property” Development 243 A Model for Financing Public Transportation in Developing Cities in Southeast Asia? Clément Musil 11 Large Infrastructure Projects 277 The Emergence of Corridors in Asia Amogh Arakali and Jyothi Koduganti 299 Index List of Figures and Tables Figures Figure 3.1 Maps of (A) China, (B) Shenzhen, (C) Hubei Village, and (D) Qingshuihe District Maps drawn by Ariel Shepherd Figure 3.2 Locations of urban villages and planned industrial areas in Shenzhen Source: Shenzhen Comprehensive Planning on Industrial Distribution 2007-2020, Shenzhen Planning Bureau, redrawn by the author Figure 3.3 The formation process of urban villages in Shenzhen and the image of Hubei village Source: Drawings from Zhang, F., 2013: P.24, P.25 Photograph taken by the author Figure 3.4a, b, and c Urban vitality perceived in streets/alleys in Hubei Village Photographs by the author Figure 3.5 Collaboration of local government and urban villages in improving public spaces and public facilities in Dalang district Photograph taken by the author Figure 3.6 Spatial conditions in urban villages facilitating livability and urban vitality Photograph taken by the author Figure 4.1 (A) The old city in Beijing region (B) location of the three cases in the old city of Beijing Source: Wan Liu FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 41 42 45 47 56 60 74 Figure 4.2 Figure 4.3 Figure 4.4 Figure 4.5 Figure 4.6 Figure 4.7 Figure 4.8 Figure 4.9 Figure 4.10 Figure 4.11 Figure 5.1 Figure 5.2 Figure 5.3 The area of Liulichang Cultural Street Photograph by Wan Liu Homogeneous business lack of vitality, East Liulichang Street, 2012 Photograph by Wan Liu The antique-style façade, East Liulichang Street, 2014 Photograph by Wan Liu The area of Qianmen Street Photograph by Wan Liu Large scale construction at one time, Qianmen Street, 2008 Photograph by Wan Liu High quality but empty street, Qianmen Street, 2013 Photograph by Wan Liu The area of Yangmeizhu Oblique Street Photograph by Wan Liu Small-scale and micro-circular renovation in Hutong renewal, Yangmeizhu Oblique Street, 2018 Photograph by Wan Liu Resuming the Vigorous People’s Life, Yangmeizhu Oblique Street, 2018 Photograph by Wan Liu The “Unremarkable” Streetscape of Yangmeizhu Oblique Street after renovation, 2018 Photograph by Wan Liu A map of China showing the location of Shanghai (above) and a map of Shanghai showing the location of the city on the Yangtze River Delta (below) Maps drawn by Ariel Shepherd A scene in a branch lane similar to that of this 72-year-old retired cadre where senior residents have set up a table for others to join in and engage in conversations or communal activities Photograph by the author An aerial view of the International Settlement of Shanghai, circa 1934 Source: Virtual Shanghai Project (Image ID: 2024; Title: Bird’s-eye view of the Public Recreation Ground and surroundings; repository: Institut d’Asie Orientale) FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 75 76 76 80 81 81 85 86 86 87 101 103 108 Figure 5.4 Figure 5.5 Figure 5.6 Figure 5.7 Figure 5.8 Figure 6.1 Figure 6.2 Figure 7.1 Figure 8.1 An aerial photograph of a surviving traditional Shanghainese low-rise neighborhood known locally as the lilong. This photograph shows this centrallylocated neighborhood surrounded by high-rise buildings similar to those surrounding Tranquil Light Photograph by Sue Anne Tay of Shanghai Street Stories A computer-generated rendering of a cross-sectional view of a typical row house in Tranquil Light showing both the courtyard on the south-facing side frontage of the house and the space on each floor Rendering by Steven Y.N. Chen The lanes of Xintiandi where the stark contrast between the “old” lilong houses in the foreground and the new modern high-rises in the background can be visually experienced by all visitors Photograph by Kenneth Niemeyer Another scene in a branch lane similar to that of Mr. Hu where senior residents have set up a small grocery shop to sell household items as well as for others to join in and engage in conversations or communal activities Photograph by the author A construction blueprint showing one of the elevations of the Tranquil Light Source: Shanghai City Planning and Land Resources Department/Authority (The document number, architect, and other details are concealed to protect the anonymity of the neighborhood) Map of (A) The Philippines, and (B) Cagayan de Oro City Maps drawn by Ariel Shepherd Cagayan River Source: Elpidio Paras Map of (A) Bangkok, (B) Thailand, (C) Bang Khun Thian Maps drawn by Ariel Shepherd Maps of (A) Location of KKM and KMB in North Coastal Jakarta, (B) Indonesia, and (C) North Jakarta Administration Area (A) and (B) drawn by Ariel Shepherd (C) Source: Hendricus Andy Simarmata FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 110 111 113 116 117 135 136 165 190 Figure 8.2 Figure 8.3a Figure 8.3b Figure 8.4 Figure 9.1 Figure 9.2 Figure 9.3 Figure 9.4 Figure 9.5 Figure 9.6 Figure 9.7 Figure 9.8 Figure 9.9 Figure 9.10 Figure 9.11 Figure 10.1 Figure 10.2 Figure 10.3 Flood occurred in KMB Jakarta on 19 January 2013 Photo taken by Hendricus Andy Simarmata Elevated road and house floors Photo: Dimastanto, 2013 Man elevating road access to his house Photo: Dimastanto, 2013 Calculating the number of vulnerable people Location map of (A) India with key cities, map of (B) Sabarmati River and Ahmedabad, and (C) Yamuna River and New Delhi Maps drawn by Ariel Shepherd Sabarmati Riverfront Photograph by the author Riverfront Park Photograph by the author Street Trees on Ashram and SM Road Photograph by the author Kankaria Lake Photograph by the author Riverfront Park, Sabarmati River Photograph by the author Parimal Gardens Photograph by the author Promotion of street trees in New Delhi Photograph by the author Newspaper article criticizing street tree removal in New Delhi Photograph by the author Urban trees in India Gate, New Delhi Photograph by the author Lodi Gardens (central New Delhi) Photograph by the author Hong Kong location Map drawn by Ariel Shepherd Hong Kong Station integrated development Design by the author, adapted from Ho (2011) MTRC Hong Kong Network; MTRC operating network with future extensions and location of property development owned and managed by the corporation Design by the author, adapted from MTRC (2014) FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 192 197 198 201 219 220 220 223 225 226 226 230 230 233 233 247 247 248 Figure 10.4 Figure 10.5 Figure 10.6 Figure 11.1 Tables Table 7.1 Table 10.1 Table 10.2 Commercial estate areas produced with the development of urban rail, statement in 2006 Adapted from data presented by Cervero and Murakami, 2008:12 by the author Tsing Y station; in addition to the metro station, this podium links the residential towers and a large shopping center Photograph by the author, March 2014 MTRC project in Shenzhen (Mainland China); on an 8.9 hectare plot located on the train depot of Line 4 operated by the MTRC in Shenzhen, the “Tiara” will host a shopping mall and 1,700 flats; the project and the construction phase Source: http://www.tiarasz.com.cn Photograph by the author, September 2014 Corridors in (A) India, (B) Japan, and (C) Malaysia Maps drawn by Ariel Shepherd Emissions values and indicators of major global cities Source: Croci, Melandri, and Molteni, 2011 Contribution to MTRC profits by segment Sources: MTRC, 2012; MTRC, 2013b Cost and funding mechanisms of the current MTRC projects Sources: LegCo, 2008b; LegCo, 2014a; LegCo, 2014b; SCMP, 25 August 2014; SCMP, 11 August 2014 FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 252 254 267 278 168 255 259 1 Future Challenges of Cities in Asia An Introduction Gregory Bracken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami, and Bing Zhang Sometime in the next year or two, a woman will give birth in the Lagos slum of Ajegunle, a young man will flee his village in west Java for the bright lights of Jakarta, or a farmer will move his impoverished family into one of Lima’s innumerable pueblos jóvenes. The exact event is unimportant, and it will pass entirely unnoticed. Nonetheless it will constitute a watershed in human history, comparable to the Neolithic or Industrial revolutions. For the first time, the urban population of the world will outnumber the rural. – Mike Davis, Planet of Slums (2006) In his book Planet of Slums, Mike Davis forecasts a bleak, almost apocalyptic urban future – one where there is widespread inequality and deprivation, where a majority of the urban population lives in squalor with inadequate access to basic services and with precarious employment. Although this future has not yet come to pass, there are large sections of urban populations that are increasingly vulnerable due to growing inequality, poverty, and environmental risk. However, urban regions also offer opportunities to tackle these challenges. Cities have been called “engines of economic growth,” with the ability to foster equitable development, raise the standard of living and provide economic opportunities to a wider population (Anand et al. 2014; Glaeser 2011; Sankhe et al. 2010). Cities are also extremely vulnerable to disasters and where the impacts of climate change will be felt most acutely, but they are also where some of the greatest opportunities to address these environmental challenges are emerging (Revi and Rosenzweig 2013; Revi 2009; Stone 2012). Globally, we are at the cusp of an urban transition: 54 percent of the world’s population now lives in urban centers (UN Population Division Bracken, Gregory, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami & Bing Zhang (eds), Future Challenges of Cities in Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789463728812_ch01 FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 14 GreGory Br ACken, PAul r ABé, r. PArthAsAr Athy, nehA sAmi, And BinG ZhAnG 2014). As a UN Population Division report on world urbanization prospects shows, Africa and Asia are urbanizing faster than any other part of the world: 90 percent of the urban population growth will be concentrated in these regions (ibid.). Much of this increase will take place in India and China, especially in small and emerging towns in these regions. As cities expand and push their boundaries, urban peripheries are experiencing rapid growth and development opportunities, but also the challenges that come with largely unplanned growth. The distinction between what is urban and what remains rural, or “not urban” is blurring. There are increasingly fewer spaces that can be characterized as “not urban,” making it critical to understand and begin to cope with the challenges that such a global urban transition will bring. The future of the planet, therefore, is closely tied to the future of the urban. The bulk of urban studies literature has so far assumed that cities have represented a specific kind of territory or space that was “qualitatively specific” (Brenner and Schmid 2011, 11) and therefore different from nonurban spaces that existed beyond “urban” boundaries. These boundaries were recognized to shift, but the spaces themselves were expected to remain separate. In the last two to three decades however, there has been a radical change in the form, extent and nature of urbanization. This change has challenged the inherent assumptions that have been the foundation of urban theory (Brenner and Schmid 2011). It is increasingly diff icult to conceptualize the “urban” as a particular type of settlement. It is no longer possible to differentiate between high-density agglomerations and their less dense peripheries. The “urban” characterizes a global transition in the way we are beginning to think about settlements. Increasingly, academic and policy writing is focusing on urban regions rather than on discrete cities (Hamel and Keil 2015; Brenner 2014; Brenner 2004). Although governments and governance processes remain bounded by administrative and spatial boundaries, we are also beginning to see a shift toward metropolitan and regional governments in rapidly urbanizing regions. This volume begins to engage with some of these questions. Focusing specifically on Asian cities, the chapters that follow are essays on a range of questions that begin to examine some of the critical urban challenges of the near future. Our cities today are facing complex, wicked problems. These are wide ranging, from issues of social and economic equity to environmental concerns, from transportation and mobility to resource constraints, and from questions of governance and scale to those about economic and human development. The chapters in this book reflect these challenges in specific locations in Asia. This volume also emphasizes the potential that exists for FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Future ChAllenGes oF Cities in AsiA 15 urban regions across Asia as well as other parts of the world to learn from each other’s experiences. Several chapters in this book explicitly highlight both challenges and opportunities that emerge from the particular cases that they examine and that have wider applicability beyond the specifics of their research. This volume is therefore of use to not only researchers interested in comparative and interdisciplinary research, but also to urban practitioners more broadly, illustrating through concrete cases the challenges that urban regions in Asia are facing and the various opportunities that exist for dealing with these. The collected essays here mirror both existing challenges in particular cities, but also demonstrate the interconnectedness and complexity of these problems. While it is difficult to isolate any of these cases into specific categories, we focus on three large themes in this book: changing urban regions and the socioeconomic and cultural transitions they bring; environmental challenges, especially questions of climate change, natural disasters, and environmental justice; and, finally, urban infrastructure, built form, and new emerging types of urban settlements. These are not phenomena that are specific to any particular urban region, but rather have wide purchase across the Global South and North. We hope that the arguments in this volume will provoke increased scholarship and interest in interdisciplinary comparative research. The first section of this volume focuses on changing urban environments and the socioeconomic and cultural changes that they bring. Four essays focus on different aspects of this change in Asian cities more broadly, and Chinese cities in particular. Shiqiao Li begins by looking at the “Asian” city, raising questions about what makes a city particularly Asian, who shapes it, and who has agency. He makes two important sets of contributions to the understanding of cities in an Asian context. First, he proposes three broad differences in the Asian city in relation to the Western city, including a conception of inclusive land rights, a normative understanding of labor, and an aesthetics of contingency in cultural life. Second, he points out that the need for Asian cities that have typically been portrayed as “fantastical, exotic, informal, chaotic, and overcrowded” to recover their own speech in immanence and equality and “move away from orientalism and chinoiserie and toward a model of a more equitable existence in the world.” The next three essays build on these questions and explore them through specific lenses in three Chinese cities: Lei Qu discusses the changing nature of the urban villages of Shenzhen and their relationship with migration, industrial development and urban regeneration. These areas defy easy categorization: they function as “interim spaces” where modern urban identity FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 16 GreGory BrACken, PAul r ABé, r. PArthAsAr Athy, nehA sAmi, And BinG ZhAnG and traditional rural identity coexist (Liu et al. 2010). They remain “gray zones” where planning policies and regulations are not functioning effectively, due to complex land and property rights. In China’s dual land tenure system these villages do not qualify as “urban,” yet they cannot be defined as completely “rural” either. Lei Qu suggests that the challenge during current processes of urban redevelopment in Shenzhen is to allow urban villages to retain their role as arrival cities for young starters, including migrants, while addressing spatial fragmentation to enable interaction among various social groups. Wan Liu and Non Arkaraprasertkul both explore cases of contested urbanism. Focusing on urban regeneration in Beijing, Liu explores the impact of urban renewal and Beijing’s cultural strategy on historic preservation, especially in the spatial context. She also connects these with broader questions on economic development, participatory planning, and urban development. Liu’s essay also critically evaluates municipal policies toward urban heritage. In her analysis of the evolution of Beijing municipality’s approach to urban regeneration, she asks whom does regeneration serve? After an early history of regeneration characterized by a lack of consideration for residents and for social justice, current municipal approaches are improving and gradually incorporating more public participation, but social and economic sustainability of regeneration measures remain elusive. Arkaraprasertkul examines historic preservation in Shanghai through the lens of housing. Studying the spatial transformation of Shanghai, he attempts to understand the distinct nature of the urban fabric as a manifestation of the relationship between the older socialist approach to development and the more recent economic system that is increasingly capitalist in nature. While the Shanghai municipality officially strives to turn Shanghai into a global city, its actions are leading it in the opposite direction, by actively enabling the redevelopment and disappearance of its living heritage, and therefore, of the very soul of the global city. In the second section of the book, the four essays on environmental challenges all recognize the inherent fluidity of the urban, if for no other reason because cities exist as part of a wider ecology, and because disasters do not respect artificial boundaries or neat territorializations. The focus is particularly on issues of climate change, natural disasters, and environmental justice. Carmeli Marie C. Chaves looks at Cagayan de Oro in the Philippines, which was ravaged by Tropical Storm Washi and the impact it had on the natural, spatial, and physical nature of the city. She examines the postdisaster reconstruction of the city, outlining lessons learned for disaster risk reduction and urban planning for cities that are vulnerable to natural disasters. She finds that following the disaster, the FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Future ChAllenGes oF Cities in AsiA 17 city of Cagayan de Oro mainstreamed disaster risk reduction in land use planning, regulated the use of areas around the river, and rehabilitated the city’s drainage systems – natural and man-made. This is a story that repeats itself in other instances as well. Examining climate change and related impacts in Bangkok, Danny Marks highlights how poor urban governance frameworks leads to climate injustice, particularly in the wake of natural disasters – in Bangkok’s response to the 2011 floods, for instance, as well as in the city’s climate change plans. In doing so, he brings together questions of urban governance, climate justice and urban planning through three distinct but connected case studies: the public transportation sector in Bangkok, the city’s response to the 2011 floods, and the coastal erosion in the southern part of Bangkok. Marks argues that the governance of Bangkok’s land and water resources has been unjust due to a combination of negligence and calculated policies to protect the elite at the expense of the poor. Marks’ frameworks of climate justice and urban political ecology help to reveal distributional injustices and differentiated exposure to climate change. The third paper in this section focuses on vulnerability to floods through the case of Kampung Muara Baru in Jakarta. Hendricus Andy Simarmata, Anna-Katharina Hornidge, and Christoph Antweiler explore perceptions of kampung residents of their own flood-related vulnerability, aiming to understand risk, vulnerability and resilience not from a top-down “expert” perspective, but from the point of view of the concerned stakeholders themselves. Placing flood-affected populations at the center of their study, they examine the capacity to adapt and build resilience to such natural disasters. The results from the case study area of Kampung Muara Baru are perhaps surprising: the residents fully understand that their kampung will keep getting flooded. Their coping strategies are based on experience: this form of local wisdom, drawing on experience, is useful in contextualizing the meaning of flood-related vulnerability in flood management, and represents “experiential knowledge” that the authors argue can be the basis for policies toward more resilient cities. The final chapter in this section bridges the gap between environmental concerns and the built environment, looking particularly at the role of green infrastructure (GI) in building resilience in urban India. In this chapter, Ian Mell looks at the relationship between rapidly urbanizing regions in Asia, and India more specifically, and the role that green infrastructure could play in helping build resilience to social and climatic change. He proposes that green infrastructure planning can be used as a basis for more sustainable approaches to investment in cities in India, with Ahmedabad FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 18 GreGory Br ACken, PAul r ABé, r. PArthAsAr Athy, nehA sAmi, And BinG ZhAnG and the New Delhi National Capital Region as case studies. However, Mell concludes that the current limitations in green space planning, due among others to limited financial and political support in both cities, illustrate the difficulty of translating broader global discussions of GI into the specific geo-spatial contexts of India. The final section of this book looks at infrastructure, and new emerging forms of settlements. The cases in this section raise provocative questions about the transferability of urban infrastructure models and approaches across economic, political and cultural contexts in Asia and beyond. Urban contexts are highly heterogeneous, and institutions and governance contexts matter as much, if not more, than “technical” criteria when it comes to complex infrastructure systems. The two papers in this section focus particularly on questions of land, large-scale infrastructure and the impact this has for urban regions. Clément Musil studies Hong Kong’s “Rail-plus-Property” (R+P) development model as a blueprint for financing public transportation in cities across Southeast Asia. Hong Kong’s mass transit railway is famous all over the world for its successful mode of construction and operation (Tang and Lo 2008) and for being a system that generates profit without direct public subsidies (Cervero and Murakami 2009). Musil argues that the commercial success and efficiency of the urban rail system is the result of the strategic commitment of the Hong Kong government. He concludes that Hong Kong’s R+P model cannot be considered merely as a discrete technical project. Instead, it resembles more of a “learning process” that needs to incorporate long-term solutions as well as financially viable options necessary for the future of Chinese and Southeast Asian developing cities. Finally, Amogh Arakali and Jyothi Koduganti explore the phenomenon of urban infrastructure corridors emerging across Asia and examine what this means for urban regions, infrastructure development, and economic planning. They use the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor as an illustration, comparing it with other similar examples in Malaysia, China, and Japan. They note that these corridors are becoming ubiquitous across Asia, as they are an integral part of the plans of multilateral development banks, national governments, and regional trade groupings to link national and international regions. The corridors can overrule existing governance structures: they often operate under their own rules, independent of those of local governments, and they impose their own specific economic and business agendas – an example of global capitalist development, transcending boundaries, jurisdictions, and established governance forms, leading to what Arakali and Koduganti suggest is a “blurring of the boundaries FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Future ChAllenGes oF Cities in AsiA 19 which conventionally existed between economic and urban planning” and in some cases, scenarios of “splintered urbanisms.” They conclude that, in the current macroeconomic environment where an export-led strategy is unlikely to yield benefits as significant as those in earlier decades, it is far from clear that the corridor model still addresses the most important development priorities. Brenner and Schmid (2014) call for a “new vocabulary of urbanization” to adequately capture the changing nature of urbanization processes and their “intensely variegated expressions across the contemporary world.” While this volume on its own cannot provide a ready-made vocabulary, its chapters do present a set of cases in Asia that illustrate in poignant fashion the “unstable, rapidly changing geographies of early twenty-first century capitalism” (Brenner and Schmid 2014) that necessitate such a vocabulary. The chapters in this book use particular lenses and locations as ways to examine larger urban challenges in Asian cities and beyond. These challenges include “human flourishing” in cities of the future. This requires – among others – economic well-being, a clean and secure environment, and the right to the city in the areas of access to adequate housing, services, and “life spaces” in the form of culture, urban heritage, public spaces, and associational life. These are challenges that have resonance also beyond cities in Asia. Questions of economic development, resilience to environmental challenges and sociocultural change resonate across urban regions in the world irrespective of their developmental status. This book hopes to further a conversation about the future of the “urban” in all its diverse forms, not just in Asia, but in the larger global context. References Anand, Shriya, Jyothi Koduganti, and Aromar Revi. 2014. “Cities as Engines of Inclusive Development.” IIHS-Rockefeller Foundation Working Paper Series. IIHS and the Rockefeller Foundation. Brenner, Neil. 2004. New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brenner, Neil, ed. 2014. Implosions/Explosions: Toward a Study of Planetary Urbanization. Berlin: Jovis. Brenner, Neil and Christian Schmid. 2011. Planetary Urbanism. In: Gandy, M. (ed.) Urban Constellations. Berlin: Jovis. Brenner, Neil and Christian Schmid. 2014. The ‘urban age’ in question. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38(3), 731-755. FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 20 GreGory Br ACken, PAul r ABé, r. PArthAsAr Athy, nehA sAmi, And BinG ZhAnG Davis, Mike. 2006. Planet of Slums. London: Verso. Glaeser, Edward L. 2011. Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier. New York: Penguin. Hamel, Pierre, and Richard Keil, eds. 2015. Suburban Governance: A Global View. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Revi, Aromar. 2009. “Climate Change Risk: An Adaptation and Mitigation Agenda for Indian Cities.” In Adapting Cities to Climate Change: Understanding and Addressing the Development Challenges, ed. Jane Bicknell, David Dodman, and David Satterthwaite. London: Earthscan, 311-338. Revi, Aromar, and Cynthia Rosenzweig. 2013. “The Urban Opportunity: Enabling Transformative and Sustainable Development.” Background Research Paper. IIHS. Sankhe, Shirish, Ireena Vittal, Richaard Dobbs, Ajit Mohan, Ankur Gulati, Jonathan Ablett, Shishir Gupta, Alex Kim, Sudipta Paul, Aditya Sangvi, and Gurpreet Sethi. 2010. “India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities, Sustaining Economic Growth.” McKinsey Global Institute. Stone, Bryan, Jr. 2012. The City and the Coming Climate: Climate Change in the Places We Live. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. United Nations Population Division. 2014. “World Urbanization Prospects. The 2014 Revision. Highlights.” UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Biographies Gregory Bracken is an Assistant Professor of Spatial Planning and Strategy at TU Delft and one of the cofounders of Footprint, an e-journal dedicated to architecture theory. From 2009 to 2015 he was a research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) Leiden, where he set up (with Dr. Manon Osseweijer) the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) with a €1.2 million grant from Marie Curie Actions. His publications include Asian Cities: Colonial to Global (Amsterdam University Press, 2015) and The Shanghai Alleyway House: A Vanishing Urban Vernacular (Routledge 2013, translated into Chinese in 2015). Paul Rabé is academic coordinator of the cities cluster at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Leiden, the Netherlands, which includes two networks of urban scholars: the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) and the Southeast Asia Neighborhoods Network (SEANNET). In addition, Paul is Senior Land Expert at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he heads the FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS Future ChAllenGes oF Cities in AsiA 21 Urban Land Governance team. He is a political scientist by training, with a doctoral degree in policy, planning, and development from the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy. Paul’s motivation is to bridge the divide between academia and practice when it comes to our approaches to cities. His engagement is in both worlds: he has over 20 years of experience in advisory work and capacity building as well as research and teaching on urban policy topics. His research and professional interests focus on urban land governance and access to land for social, economic, and environmental uses. His current focus is on the intersection of land policy and the management of water resources in urban and peri-urban areas. Dr. R. Parthasarathy is a MEGA Chair Professor and Director, Gujarat Institute of Development Research. He has both teaching and research interests. Until recently, he was teaching at CEPT University to postgraduate and graduate students, besides guiding MA and PhD dissertations. In his research, he explores relations between resources management and the social distributions of power, leadership, and economic development and the impacts of policy and development organizations on these relations. In all these, the special focus has been on large-scale infrastructure in rural and urban areas. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He has coauthored and coedited books and has published extensively. Neha Sami studies urban and regional development and governance in postliberalization India. Her research focuses on the governance arrangements of megaprojects, regional planning, and the environmental governance questions in Indian cities, particularly around issues of climate change adaptation. Neha is currently a member of the faculty at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements in Bangalore, India, where she teaches on questions of governance and sustainability as well as anchors the research program. She also serves on the editorial collective of Urbanisation. She holds a PhD in urban planning from the University of Michigan, an MA in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and a BA in economics from the University of Mumbai. Dr. Bing Zhang is the Chief Planner of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design and Adjunct Professor at Tongji and Tianjin Universities. He chairs the Academic Committee of Historic City Conservation, Urban Planning Society of China. He has published a series of outstanding works in urban and regional planning, including a number of books and more FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS 22 GreGory Br ACken, PAul r ABé, r. PArthAsAr Athy, nehA sAmi, And BinG ZhAnG than 70 papers on theory and history, heritage conservation, and strategic planning. In 2012-2016, as a pilot researcher, he has been involved in the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) and was a visiting scholar at TU Delft in 2012, at the Development Planning Unit, UCL, in 2013, and at ENSAPB in Paris in 2015. FOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESS