ASIAN CITIES

Edited by Gregory Bracken, Paul Rabé,
R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami, and Bing Zhang

Future Challenges of Cities in Asia

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Future Challenges of Cities in Asia

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The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a research and exchange platform based inLeiden, the Netherlands. Its objective is to encourage the interdisciplinary and comparative study ofAsia 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 thethree book series published with Amsterdam University Press: Global Asia, Asian Heritages andAsian Cities.
IIAS acts as an international mediator, bringing together various parties in Asia and other partsof 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 thecontemporary city, from West Asia and the Near East to East Asia and the Pacific. The series focuseson 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, theNetherlands

Editorial Board
Henco Bekkering, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands; Charles Goldblum, Universityof Paris 8, France; Xiaoxi Hui, Beijing University of Technology, China; Stephen Lau, University ofHong 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

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Future Challenges of Cities in Asia

Edited by
Gregory Bracken,
Paul Rabé,
R. Parthasarathy,
Neha Sami,and Bing Zhang

Amsterdam University Press

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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-isbndoi
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 ofthis 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 isadvised to contact the publisher.

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AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESSUKNA was funded by a grant awarded by theMarie 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 Institutefor 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’sMarie Curie Actions International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES)
mobility scheme to bring together scholars from thirteen universities andplanning institutions in greater China, India, Europe and the United Statesaround 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 “humanflourishing 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 bycontributing insights that put people at the center of urban governance anddevelopment strategies. The emphasis is on immediate problem solving aswell 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 Academyof 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 (theNetherlands); 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).

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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, onethat goes beyond the “scientific” approaches transmitted in the curricula ofclassic urban studies programs. It seeks to encompass alternative epistemologies of the city rooted in everyday urban life. These epistemologies seek toembrace non-Western knowledge and traditions and the contributions of awide 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 asother 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 ofways 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 scholarsthat were at the basis of the collaborative research that led to many of thebook 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

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AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY PRESSTable of Contents
1 Future Challenges of Cities in Asia

13

2 Human Agency in the Asian City

23

3 Toward Inclusive, Vital and Livable City Scenarios

39

4 Cultural Dilemma in Beijing’s Urban Regeneration

65

5 Housing as Heritage

99

6 Not an Act of God131

7 The Political Ecology of Climate Injustice in Bangkok

155

8 Assessing Flood-Related Vulnerability of the Urban Poor

183

9 The Ecological Future of Cities

209

An Introduction
Gregory Bracken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami, and Bing
Zhang

Shiqiao Li

The Transformation of Urban Villages in Shenzhen
Lei QuFrom Liulichang Cultural Street to Qianmen Street and Yangmeizhu
Oblique Street
Wan Liu

The Great Urban Dilemma of the Global City of Shanghai
Non Arkaraprasertkul

Lessons from a Disaster in the Settlements Planning of a River City
Carmeli Marie C. Chaves

Danny Marks

Hendricus Andy Simarmata, Anna-Katharina Hornidge, andChristoph Antweiler

Evaluating the Role of Green Infrastructure in Promoting
Sustainability/Resilience in India
Ian Mell

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10 Hong Kong’s “Rail-plus-Property” Development

243

11 Large Infrastructure Projects

277

Index

299

A Model for Financing Public Transportation in Developing Cities inSoutheast Asia?
Clément MusilThe Emergence of Corridors in Asia
Amogh Arakali and Jyothi Koduganti

List of Figures and Tables
FiguresFigure 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 thethree cases in the old city of Beijing
Source: Wan Liu
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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 locationof the city on the Yangtze River Delta (below)
Maps drawn by Ariel Shepherd
A scene in a branch lane similar to that of this72-year-old retired cadre where senior residents
have set up a table for others to join in and engage inconversations 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)
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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 locallyas the lilong. This photograph shows this centrallylocated neighborhood surrounded by high-risebuildings similar to those surrounding Tranquil Light 110
Photograph by Sue Anne Tay of Shanghai Street Stories
A computer-generated rendering of a cross-sectionalview of a typical row house in Tranquil Light showing both the courtyard on the south-facing side
111
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 foregroundand the new modern high-rises in the background113
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 forothers to join in and engage in conversations or116
communal activities
Photograph by the author
A construction blueprint showing one of the eleva117
tions 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 135
Maps drawn by Ariel Shepherd
Cagayan River
136
Source: Elpidio Paras
Map of (A) Bangkok, (B) Thailand, (C) Bang Khun
Thian165
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
190(A) and (B) drawn by Ariel Shepherd(C) Source: Hendricus Andy Simarmata
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Figure 8.3aFigure 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, 2013Man 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)
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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
TablesTable 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 andthe 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

252

254

267
278

Emissions values and indicators of major global cities 168
Source: Croci, Melandri, and Molteni, 2011
Contribution to MTRC profits by segment
255
Sources: MTRC, 2012; MTRC, 2013b
Cost and funding mechanisms of the current MTRC
projects259
Sources: LegCo, 2008b; LegCo, 2014a; LegCo, 2014b;
SCMP, 25 August 2014; SCMP, 11 August 2014

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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 slumof 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 passentirely unnoticed. Nonetheless it will constitute a watershed in human history,comparable to the Neolithic or Industrial revolutions. For the first time, theurban 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 thisfuture has not yet come to pass, there are large sections of urban populations
that are increasingly vulnerable due to growing inequality, poverty, andenvironmental risk. However, urban regions also offer opportunities to tackle
these challenges. Cities have been called “engines of economic growth,” withthe ability to foster equitable development, raise the standard of living andprovide economic opportunities to a wider population (Anand et al. 2014;
Glaeser 2011; Sankhe et al. 2010). Cities are also extremely vulnerable todisasters and where the impacts of climate change will be felt most acutely,
but they are also where some of the greatest opportunities to address theseenvironmental challenges are emerging (Revi and Rosenzweig 2013; Revi
2009; Stone 2012).
Globally, we are at the cusp of an urban transition: 54 percent of theworld’s population now lives in urban centers (UN Population Division

Bracken, Gregory, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami & Bing Zhang (eds), Future Challengesof Cities in Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020
doi: 10.5117/9789463728812_ch01

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Gregory Br acken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasar athy, Neha Sami, and Bing Zhang2014). As a UN Population Division report on world urbanization prospects
shows, Africa and Asia are urbanizing faster than any other part of theworld: 90 percent of the urban population growth will be concentrated
in these regions (ibid.). Much of this increase will take place in India andChina, 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 comewith 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 tounderstand 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 haverepresented 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 wererecognized 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 ofurban theory (Brenner and Schmid 2011). It is increasingly diff icult toconceptualize the “urban” as a particular type of settlement. It is no longer
possible to differentiate between high-density agglomerations and their lessdense peripheries. The “urban” characterizes a global transition in the way
we are beginning to think about settlements. Increasingly, academic andpolicy 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 andregional 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 ofquestions that begin to examine some of the critical urban challenges of thenear future. Our cities today are facing complex, wicked problems. These arewide ranging, from issues of social and economic equity to environmental
concerns, from transportation and mobility to resource constraints, andfrom questions of governance and scale to those about economic and humandevelopment. The chapters in this book reflect these challenges in specificlocations in Asia. This volume also emphasizes the potential that exists for
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Future Challenges of Cities in Asia

15

urban regions across Asia as well as other parts of the world to learn fromeach other’s experiences. Several chapters in this book explicitly highlightboth challenges and opportunities that emerge from the particular casesthat they examine and that have wider applicability beyond the specificsof their research. This volume is therefore of use to not only researchersinterested 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 thatexist 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, andenvironmental justice; and, finally, urban infrastructure, built form, andnew emerging types of urban settlements. These are not phenomena thatare specific to any particular urban region, but rather have wide purchaseacross the Global South and North. We hope that the arguments in thisvolume 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, andChinese 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 tothe understanding of cities in an Asian context. First, he proposes threebroad 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 thatthe need for Asian cities that have typically been portrayed as “fantastical,
exotic, informal, chaotic, and overcrowded” to recover their own speech inimmanence 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 throughspecific lenses in three Chinese cities: Lei Qu discusses the changing natureof 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
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Gregory Br acken, Paul Rabé, 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 thesevillages do not qualify as “urban,” yet they cannot be defined as completely“rural” either. Lei Qu suggests that the challenge during current processes ofurban redevelopment in Shenzhen is to allow urban villages to retain theirrole 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 impactof 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 socialand economic sustainability of regeneration measures remain elusive.
Arkaraprasertkul examines historic preservation in Shanghai through thelens 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 andthe 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, andtherefore, 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 otherreason 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, andenvironmental justice. Carmeli Marie C. Chaves looks at Cagayan de Oroin the Philippines, which was ravaged by Tropical Storm Washi and theimpact 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 arevulnerable to natural disasters. She finds that following the disaster, theFOR PRIVATE AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE
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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 thecity’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, particularlyin 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, hebrings 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, andthe coastal erosion in the southern part of Bangkok. Marks argues that the
governance of Bangkok’s land and water resources has been unjust due toa 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 differentiatedexposure to climate change.
The third paper in this section focuses on vulnerability to floods throughthe case of Kampung Muara Baru in Jakarta. Hendricus Andy Simarmata,Anna-Katharina Hornidge, and Christoph Antweiler explore perceptionsof kampung residents of their own flood-related vulnerability, aiming tounderstand 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, theyexamine 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 formof local wisdom, drawing on experience, is useful in contextualizing themeaning 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 moresustainable approaches to investment in cities in India, with Ahmedabad
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Gregory Br acken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasar athy, Neha Sami, and Bing Zhang

and the New Delhi National Capital Region as case studies. However, Mellconcludes that the current limitations in green space planning, due among
others to limited financial and political support in both cities, illustrate thedifficulty of translating broader global discussions of GI into the specificgeo-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 comesto 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 phenomenonof urban infrastructure corridors emerging across Asia and examine what
this means for urban regions, infrastructure development, and economicplanning. 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 andinternational regions. The corridors can overrule existing governancestructures: they often operate under their own rules, independent of thoseof local governments, and they impose their own specific economic andbusiness 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
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which conventionally existed between economic and urban planning” andin some cases, scenarios of “splintered urbanisms.” They conclude that, inthe current macroeconomic environment where an export-led strategy
is unlikely to yield benefits as significant as those in earlier decades, it isfar from clear that the corridor model still addresses the most importantdevelopment priorities.
Brenner and Schmid (2014) call for a “new vocabulary of urbanization”
to adequately capture the changing nature of urbanization processes andtheir “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, andassociational 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 theworld irrespective of their developmental status. This book hopes to further
a conversation about the future of the “urban” in all its diverse forms, notjust 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 ofStatehood. 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.

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Gregory Br acken, Paul Rabé, 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 andAddressing the Development Challenges, ed. Jane Bicknell, David Dodman, andDavid 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 dedicatedto architecture theory. From 2009 to 2015 he was a research fellow at theInternational 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
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Urban Land Governance team. He is a political scientist by training, with adoctoral degree in policy, planning, and development from the Universityof 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 ourapproaches to cities. His engagement is in both worlds: he has over 20 yearsof experience in advisory work and capacity building as well as researchand teaching on urban policy topics. His research and professional interests
focus on urban land governance and access to land for social, economic, andenvironmental 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 researchinterests. 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 thesocial distributions of power, leadership, and economic development and theimpacts of policy and development organizations on these relations. In allthese, the special focus has been on large-scale infrastructure in rural andurban areas. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of California,
Berkeley, USA, and at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He hascoauthored 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 arrangementsof megaprojects, regional planning, and the environmental governancequestions in Indian cities, particularly around issues of climate change
adaptation. Neha is currently a member of the faculty at the Indian Institutefor Human Settlements in Bangalore, India, where she teaches on questionsof 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
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Gregory Br acken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasar athy, Neha Sami, and Bing Zhang

than 70 papers on theory and history, heritage conservation, and strategicplanning. 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 ENSAPBin Paris in 2015.

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