Abstract
We are at an important juncture in the history of urbanization, more so with regard to Asian countries. The World Urbanisation Prospects (2018) of the United Nations reports that 18 of the 29 megacities (with population more than 10 million) were located in Asia in 2015. Also, Asia accounted for 53.7 per cent of the global share of urban population in 2018 (Table 1). In 1950, Europe reported the highest share of global urban population followed by Asia. However, there was a reversal of this trend in 2018, with Asia registering the highest share of global urban population followed by Europe. This is mainly because Asia experienced a high increment in the size of urban population from 1950 to 2018. By mid-twenty-first century, Asia is expected to house 3.48 billion urban dwellers, which is 14 times higher as compared to its urban population size in 1950.
Urbanization in Asia: 1950–2050
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, Online Edition.
Note: *Represents the figures for 2015.
The aforementioned statistics makes it evident that the epicentre of urbanization has progressively shifted from ‘the predominantly northern latitudes of developed countries to the southern ones of developing countries’ and ‘the mean latitude of global urban population has been steadily moving towards south’ (Mohan & Dasgupta, 2005). In fact, a large increment in the urban population in the Global South has resulted in excess demand for infrastructure, basic services, land and housing. Much of this urban growth occurred in an unplanned manner, leading to the growth of slums in many cities of Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean regions. Notably, Asian cities are increasingly becoming vulnerable to floods, landslides, heatwaves and shortages of water as consequences of climate change and under-investment in urban development. On the other side, Asia is emerging as a vast urban laboratory with a variety of initiatives, innovations, experiments and reforms in spheres that cover urban poverty and vulnerability, new forms of urban governance, finance, participation, institutional coordination, urban planning, smart cities, disaster management and climate change resilience and adaptation. This region also has a significant number of growing urban economies, as a forecast of GDP estimated by Oxford Economics (2018) shows that in 2027, for the first time, the aggregate GDP of all Asian cities will exceed the combined GDP of all North American and European cities. Also, most Asian countries have recognized the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals and are signatories to the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework. Importantly, scholars and researchers across the globe are interested in assessing where different countries stand with regard to global goals and commitments. The journal provides a platform for sharing at least some of these analyses and experiences which generate discussions, improve understanding and possibly even begin to impact the future approaches to urban issues.
The current issue is the 10th anniversary special issue of invited contributions. The first two articles suggest ways of making cities smart and more efficient while the third suggests gender-responsive budgeting for Indian cities. There are also articles dealing with environmental issues of floods and climate change by taking case studies of cities in Indonesia and Malaysia.
To elucidate, in the article titled ‘Henry George and Mohring-Harwitz Theorems: Lessons for Financing Smart Cities in Developing Countries’, Alok Kumar Mishra argues that while embarking on ‘smart city’ programmes to rejuvenate cities as engines of economic growth, developing countries are applying smart solutions and managerial innovations but ignoring the powerful externalities of cities. The cities are far from adopting ‘smart’ ways of financing urban infrastructure and services based on known theories and international practices. To meet this challenge, this article combines the Henry George Theorem (HGT) from Urban Economics and Mohring-Harwitz Theorem (MHT) from Transport Economics to suggest a robust strategy of financing infrastructure in cities. While the HGT emphasizes on the taxation of urban land value, the MHT advocates for the pricing of congestion externalities and suggests that if ‘beneficiaries’ pay’ and ‘congesters’ pay’ principles are combined, cities in developing countries like India can generate adequate revenue to service long tenor debt incurred for core infrastructure facilities. It presents a tool-box of instruments to finance urban infrastructure.
In continuation with the arguments cited earlier, Debasish Kundu in the article titled ‘Blockchain and Trust in a Smart City’’ emphasizes on blockchain as the essential layer of trust in a smart city. He explains the technology by drawing real-life examples to the ‘memory game’ that operates in an ecosystem of ‘trust and consensus’ and argue that trust in a smart city is fundamental to its transparency, the participation of its people in governance, entrepreneurial initiatives, trade, commerce and hence the growth of its economy. The article provides further insight into institutions that can be governed on blockchain through ‘smart contracts’ in a sovereign and human independent manner. The use cases of blockchain have been corroborated with examples of successful blockchain implementation. The author argues that given the current topology of technology innovations, there is no solution better than blockchain that embodies trust and hope. This article will help planners, developers, architects and thinkers implement blockchain as the embodiment of trust in smart cities that are increasingly becoming digital.
In the article titled ‘Gender Responsive Budgeting for Indian Cities – The Case of Bhopal and Pune’, Darshini Mahadevia, Neha Bhatia and Ritika Sebastian highlight the importance of the contribution of women to the prosperity of cities through their paid and unpaid labour. However, limited or lack of access to essential infrastructure services such as water and sanitation, restricted mobility, tenure security and so on have increased their burden of unpaid care work, thereby aggravating gender-based disadvantages and resulting in ‘time poverty’, which is largely overlooked by policymakers. This article assesses whether the metropolitan cities of India, that is, Bhopal and Pune, have integrated a gendered perspective in their development using the gender responsive budgeting tool from the expenditure side. Using Maxine Molyneaux’s conceptualization of ‘Strategic Gender Needs’ and ‘Practical Gender Needs’, the article develops gender-sensitive indicators to assess progress on four categories of urban infrastructure: water supply, sanitation, housing and public transport. It then uses the benefit incidence analysis of public expenditure tool to arrive at expenditure benefits reaching women in both cities.
Wilmar Salim, Keith Bettinger and Micah Fisher in their article titled ‘Maladaptation on the Waterfront: Jakarta’s Growth Coalition and the Great Garuda’ highlight that the megaproject solution to the floods of Jakarta will simultaneously address the problem of chronic flooding while enhancing Jakarta’s status as a ‘world city’, improving the economy of the metropolitan region and the country as a whole. However, the so-called ‘Great Garuda’ project has a number of flaws. The authors describe how this project fails to address the root causes of flooding in Jakarta as well as the primary drivers of vulnerability to flooding and further how the Great Garuda project is a channel through which politically connected economic elites of the Suharto regime, now marginalized by democratization and decentralization reforms, can reconstitute ‘growth coalitions’ to benefit from state resources and privileged access to development contracts and concessions. Lastly, they share their apprehensions and demonstrate how the project could leave the city and its residents more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than they currently are by applying and expanding on the concept of maladaptation.
In the article ‘Domestic Water Adequacy of Surakarta, Indonesia: Is it prone to vulnerability?’ Paramita Rahayu, Erma Fitria Rini and Soedwiwahjono assess the vulnerability of domestic water supply of Surakarta, a rapidly urbanized medium-sized city in Java. The vulnerability was assessed at the city scale and the household scale. The study recommends the establishment of a regional water reservoir as a necessity through regional cooperation. The article also suggests that stakeholders of cities and regions should be aware of the importance of water and stresses on the development of the collaborative capacity of local governments as one of the key determinants of dealing with the problem of domestic water supply.
Rulia Akhtar, Rafia Afroz and Muhammad Mehedi Masud in their article titled ‘Perception of Climate Change and the Adaptation Strategies and Capacities of the Rice Farmers in Kedah, Malaysia’ attempt to understand the perceptions of rice-growing farmers on the issue of climate change and identify their adaptive capacity. A survey was conducted through structured questionnaires to understand farmers’ perceptions and adaptation strategies in response to the changing climate and variability. The findings indicate that farmers are moderately adaptive to climate change in the study area. The result also revealed that the main barriers are lack of funds and information on climate change. Rice producers should be enabled through improved extension services, government aid, such as grants, and training for better levels of adaptability to help them achieve higher rice production.
In the section on ‘Perspective’, G. Balaji and K. Thirumaran attempt to investigate the impact of Madurai’s urban expansion on River Vaigai in the article ‘Evaluating the Impact of Urbanization on the Physiochemical Parameters of the Urban River System: A Study on Vaigai River, Madurai’. The article suggests that impervious surface cover has impacted the river. Based on the physical and chemical characteristics of water samples collected during 2017 in 15 stations on the urban stretch and 2 stations on the peri-urban stretch, the study showed anomalous concentrations of physiochemical parameters in the river much higher than the permissible standards prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards. The causeways recorded greater variations in total dissolved solids levels between the upstream and downstream zone. The study identifies two realities: first, variance in the intensity of physiochemical properties on the urban and peri-urban stretch and second, the impact of causeways on the flow characteristics of the river.
On behalf of the editorial board and myself, I am pleased to place in your hands the 10.1 issue of Environment and Urbanization ASIA. Given that the fulcrum of urban growth is shifting to Asia, the journal provides an important platform for knowledge exchange on issues pertaining to urbanization and environment. I hope this journal will continue to serve the academia, researchers, policy makers and practitioners with a space for debate and discussion on issues of topical importance based on evidence-based research.