Planning for a Better Urban Living Environment in Asia

Anthony Gar-On Yeh, Mee Kam Ng

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429831201
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Urbanisme et développement urbain

First published in 2000, this volume explores how Asia has developed very rapidly in the last quarter of the century and will be a main focus of the world in the 21st century. With rapid growth and development, the urban areas in the region are undergoing dramatic changes. An appreciation of the heterogeneous nature of Asian cities and the related planning practices in the first step to understand various urban development problems in the region. This book is a consolidated effort by prominent scholars in Asian planning schools to explore urban development and planning practices in Asia. The book reflects on and examines some of the past and current challenges, and considers future prospects of urban and regional planning, environment, housing, redevelopment and conservation, and planning education in Asia. This book should be useful to students, teachers, researchers, professionals and people who are interested in urban development, planning and environment in Asia.

1
Introduction: Planning for a Better Urban Living Environment in Asia

ANTHONY GAR-ON YEH AND MEE KAM NG

Rapid economic growth and increasing population in Asia, where over 40 per cent of the world’s urban population is living, have led to many problems in different urban sectors: environmental degradation, housing shortages, traffic congestion, vehicular and pedestrian conflicts, problems in land management, etc. Squatters, high density development and urban sprawl are some typical spatial manifestations of these problems. Most Asian countries also face the coexistence of a large informal economy fuelled by rural-urban migration, and a restructuring formal economy as a result of the growing interdependency of the global economy. Urban planners in Asia, therefore, are given the challenging tasks of meeting rapidly evolving economic needs and preserving cultural heritage unique to Asia. However, the institutional setup often fails to meet these challenges. While an effective and efficient planning system is indispensable in dealing with all these issues, coordination of the central and local governments, non-government organisations, private business sectors and the public in the planning process is generally poor.

Not only are these issues at the top of the agenda for policy makers, research and practising planners, they also pose vexing problems to planning educators in Asia.

The central thesis of all the chapters in this volume, outcomes of the Second International Congress of the Asian Planning School, is to investigate urban development issues and various responses to plan for a better urban living environment in Asia. Chapters are grouped together according to various themes: urban and regional planning, environment, housing, redevelopment and conservation, and planning education.

Sazanami in chapter 2 provides an overview of the challenges and prospects of large cities in Asia. He argues that increasing industrialisation and urbanisation have led to many interrelated sectoral and spatial problems which can only be resolved by innovative planning and implementation mechanisms. The problems outlined by Sazanami are substantiated by the papers on urban and regional planning. In chapter 3, the origin and effects of the existence of a huge informal sector in Asian megacities are explored. Amin contends that with the existence of a huge labour surplus in the agricultural sector, rural-urban migration is inevitable which in turn will lead to income disparities and degradation of the urban environment. To better manage the urban economy and environment, it is necessary for the urban planning system to accommodate the informal sector.

Che Omar in chapter 4 further substantiates the general problems discussed in chapter 2 through a case study of urban development and planning practice in Malaysia. The paper argues that planners cannot handle urban problems properly unless the economic restructuring and related processes are thoroughly understood. Similarly, Ng in chapter 5 outlines the economic restructuring processes in the small territory of Hong Kong and its immediate hinterland, the Pearl River Delta in the People’s Republic of China. She argues that the economic integration of the two places in the context of their political reunification in 1997 has exposed two root problems of planning in the region: the lack of coordination between the local and cross-boundary authorities in physical and infrastructure planning, and a bias towards the interests of the local bureaucrats and private sectors in the development process. Unless tackled properly, these problems will be stumbling blocks for continuous regional development.

Megacities in Asia are characterised by high population densities. To promote pedestrians’ enjoyment of urban life, Hu, Nishimura and Watanabe (chapter 6) examine through simulation modelling how pedestrian movements can be facilitated by manipulating the built environment. While they focus on pedestrian movement, Yeh (chapter 7) discusses how urban planning and management measures can help create a better high density environment. Using the example of Hong Kong, he shows that high density if better planned and managed can be interesting and pleasant.

To improve the urban environment in a modern city, Qian and Wang suggest the adoption of an ecological plan. In chapter 8, they use Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China, as a case study and put forward an ecological plan which focuses on the management of the urban living environment according to ecological principles.

Islam in chapter 9 outlines all the environmental problems in the densely populated areas of Bangladesh. He argues that better planning and management are essential to overcome these environmental problems.

Housing issues also assume great importance amidst rapid economic and urban growth in Asia. Chu (chapter 10) evaluates the Five-Year Two Million Housing Unit Construction Plan of South Korea (1988–92) which was formulated to relieve housing problems. It shows how the plan has affected the housing market and the macroeconomy in South Korea. He also discusses future housing policies in the country. Rahman, instead of reviewing government policies, discusses the concept of attainability to solve the urban housing crisis in Bangladesh. He argues in chapter 11 that there are ways to extend the affordability of housing to lower-middle income households without increasing the level of expenditure. Through a survey in Dhaka, he proves that attainable housing schemes when run by housing agencies and financial institutions, can help solve housing problems in Bangladesh.

Housing is not just a shelter. It also embodies many cultural and socioeconomic characteristics unique to a country. Shophouses, as argued by Tohiguchi and Chong in chapter 12, not only facilitate the traditional Asian residential style of work-residence proximity, the architecture is also an excellent historical footprint of various races and culture. The chapter tries to analyse the formation, distribution, composition and conditions of shophouses and their significance in the design of the townscape. Chapter 13 is another sectoral study which illustrates the importance of culture in utilising space internal to a house. Narumi, Tahara, Subroto and Yoyok, in a survey done in 1991 to 1992, found that when people in Java, Indonesia, renovated their houses, they modified them according to a pattern of ‘bipolar interior space’. According to this principle, contact between the ‘two-worlds’, the private and the public realms, takes place in what local people called a ruang tamu, which is located at the front portion of the house and is demarcated from the interior. This principle also leads to the existence of the kitchen at the ‘back’ to protect their private life from the public world. They argue that this internal arrangement of space conforms to the hierarchy of Javanese social intercourse.

To satisfy housing and economic needs, sometimes urban redevelopment is necessary. Archer discusses the land pooling/readjustment technique (LP/R) in urban redevelopment with landowner participation in chapter 14. The LP/R technique is used to manage the unified design, servicing and subdivision of separately-owned land parcels for urban development. Through two case studies in Japan and Taiwan respectively, he shows some varieties of LP/R techniques, problems encountered in the redevelopment process and planning lessons that can be learnt from the experiences.

Through generalising and examining various redevelopment projects in mixed commercial and industrial areas, Fukami outlines Japan’s urban renewal system in chapter 15. In Japan, urban renewal generally refers to rebuilding wooden houses into fire-proof structures together with the provision of roads and social amenities through the ‘conversion of rights and buildings before and after the project’. However, he argues that this tool may no longer be effective in renewing the high-density urban core as Japan enters into a post-industrial age and a new settlement pattern featured by sub-urbanisation.

Instead of redeveloping the built environment, Hisa, Ikaputra and Narumi (chapter 16) illustrate how the noble’s residence in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, has been transformed from a house of an aristocratic family to a residential community meeting dynamic social needs of the evolving economy keeping intact its great traditional Javanese architecture.

The last three chapters of the book focus on planning education in Asia. Ansari in chapter 17 believes that planning education in India should go beyond its engineering, architectural and scientific emphases to meet the challenges imposed by the changing urban situations. She argues that as urban institutions are ill-equipped to tackle the urban problems and the government has adopted urban reforms to enlarge the private sector’s role in urban management, planning education needs to be reformed to cope with the development.

Santiago in chapter 18 shares the experience of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Philippines, in promoting the country’s planning environment and training professional planners for the government and private sectors. She shows how the School has evolved under the radically divergent political and socio-economic environment both within and outside the University. The paper also projects the School’s future directions and opportunities.

Wu asks the question ‘whither Asian planning education?’ in chapter 19. The paper reviews the challenges facing Asian planning educators and raises questions about the type of planning education that might be equal to the tasks ahead. He argues that the economic context and issues confronting Asian planners are unique. It is therefore important for Asian educators to develop planning programmes that are appropriate to the current conditions of Asia.

2
Challenges and Future Prospects of Planning for a Better Living Environment in the Large Cities in Asia

HIDEHIKO SAZANAMI

Introduction

Asia has the majority of the world’s population, vast lands that range from tropical to arctic, and numerous large cities. Its political systems, economies and cultures also reveal a great deal of diversity.

As we all know, nowadays the role of major urban regions in Asia is becoming more and more crucial. A country’s wealth, human resources, government authorities, educational and cultural institutions, and economic functions are all concentrated within large cities. Furthermore, taxes collected from these regions account for a major part of the national revenue, and the economic activities there contribute significantly to the growth of a nation’s GNP. However, these urban areas also have problems related to overpopulation, such as insufficient public institutions, decreasing public services, overcrowded residential areas, and traffic congestion. Despite these problems, people continue to move to large cities in order to leave the poverty of the countryside and to search for job opportunities. We must therefore focus on the coexistence of both positive and negative aspects in large cities. Such dualities are common in Asia: slums and empty lots exist next to modern buildings and historical sites, and automobiles travel next to carts pulled by cattle. The present challenge lies in the removal of these ‘paradoxes’ from large urban areas and minimising their negative aspects.

Toward the Development of a New Urban Society

Past Regional Development

The NIEs, ASEAN, South Asian, and Pacific island countries as well as other developing countries (including China) have each approached regional development based on their different economic and political structures. After the Second World War, two methods have been used consecutively by the developing countries of Asia for regional development: the regional resource development method and the comprehensive regional development method. The former was carried out by many countries which had won independence from colonialism and hoped to consolidate the national economy. In order to industrialise and modernise, they emphasised resource development to increase productivity and to stimulate import substitution industries. The establishment of productive infrastructure, mainly carried out in the 1960s, was aimed at transforming the social structure from traditional to modern. By this transformation these nations sought to improve the coordination of various branches of the government and the economy. However, there was often a severe shortage of human and material resources, and due to the absence of a developed market economy, these countries had to first rely heavily on national economic development policies made by the central governments.

Internationally, the rush to establish import-substitution industries led to economic dependence; domestically, problems such as the polarisation of traditional and modern industries, the stagnation of farming, and unemployment emerged. The result was the opposite of the goal of consolidation; divisions were created between the industrial/urban and the rural, the modern and the traditional, and the rich and the poor.

Based on the lessons of the 1960s resource development method, a second method, the comprehensive regional planning method, was formulated in the 1970s. This approach was characterised by the emphases on the transformation of organisational structures through market mechanisms, as well as the attainment of equality in the process of increasing productivity. Obtaining modern production materials and technologies, the establishment of various economic systems, and the organisation of local residents were necessary in order to carry out these fundamental changes. This meant that the government had to become involved even more deeply than before. Under this system, the functions of supply and distribution related to development measures, as well as the organisations which received them, were strengthened. However, these rapidly changing strategies stunted the efficiency of the programmes, and the changes seemed to profit only a small percentage of the population, which widened the disparities between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’

Overall, the regional resource development method aimed mainly to increase material production and economic growth, whereas the comprehensive regional development method sought to achieve social equality in addition to growth. Now, the NIEs are faced with problems that have arisen with rapid development, such as the destruction of natural resources, environmental pollution and insufficient services for the aging and the disabled. Accordingly, welfare and environmental strategies are now becoming a major part of their development efforts.

In the future, developing countries will have to choose their development methods based on the experiences of the developed nations, with optimal consideration on social equality and welfare. Such considerations are especially crucial in the case of urban development, which may lead to serious economic and social impacts. For this purpose, development planning must account for the costs of preventing the destruction of natural resources and pollution, and for the costs of protecting the underprivileged in the urban areas. In other words, it must take into account the costs and effects of development and its social benefits.

Urban Planning from a Social Perspective

It is essential for the Asian developing countries to recognise the realities and problems of large cities, as outlined above, and respond to them with flexibility and with concrete approaches. It should be noted that local communities, which usually depend on self-sufficiency and internal cooperation, have all too often been transformed and destroyed by modernisation. Modernisation, which has been regarded as the goal of development, often succeeds in the distribution of all goods through market mechanisms. However, it also implies shifting factors such as land, labour and trust into the market sphere, which had not been a part of this circulation in the past. Modernisation dissipates traditional mechanisms of local communities which regard family as the fundamental unit, causing problems outlined in previous paragraphs and destroying the social...