This edited volume covers the multiple changes concerning urban governance in the course of the progressive transformation of the Pearl River Delta mega-urban region in China. Looking at the megacities Guangzhou and Shenzhen, it analyzes the maturing of socio-economic, political and spatial structures after the first waves of economic globalization, political transformation, and their rapid expansion and urbanization. The initial claim and starting point of the book is the existence of a profound multidimensional shift in the coastal mega-urban region with a major tendency towards urban upgrading, economic restructuring and a clearly observable consolidation of political institutions. For the first time since the beginning of the reform and opening up after 1978, this has led to a stronger bias toward urban regeneration, an adaptive re-use of the building stock and an establishment of post-industrial knowledge-based creative industries. The book investigates these changes as a set of mutually dependent developments that have to be understood and analyzed in connection with one another. Thus, the backgrounds and underlying forces that shape physical restructuring in the developed urban cores of the mega-urban region and the ways in which the relevant actors and institutions are trying to both cope with and to influence each other are introduced here.

A systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations. Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations. Smil takes readers from bacterial invasions through animal metabolisms to megacities and the global economy. He begins with organisms whose mature sizes range from microscopic to enormous, looking at disease-causing microbes, the cultivation of staple crops, and human growth from infancy to adulthood. He examines the growth of energy conversions and man-made objects that enable economic activities—developments that have been essential to civilization. Finally, he looks at growth in complex systems, beginning with the growth of human populations and proceeding to the growth of cities. He considers the challenges of tracing the growth of empires and civilizations, explaining that we can chart the growth of organisms across individual and evolutionary time, but that the progress of societies and economies, not so linear, encompasses both decline and renewal. The trajectory of modern civilization, driven by competing imperatives of material growth and biospheric limits, Smil tells us, remains uncertain.

In 2030, the world's population will be a staggering eight billion people. Of these, two-thirds will live in cities, and most will be poor. With limited resources, this uneven growth will be one of the greatest challenges faced by societies across the globe. Over the next years, city authorities, urban planners and designers, economists, and many others will have to join forces to avoid major social and economical catastrophes, working together to ensure these expanding megacities will remain habitable. To engage this international debate The Museum of Modern Art presents Uneven Growth, Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities, its third iteration in the 'Issues in Contemporary Architecture' series. Following the same model as the critically acclaimed Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront and Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream, Uneven Growth brings together an international group of scholars, practitioners, and experts of architecture and urbanism in a series of workshops, an exhibition, and a publication to focus on how emergent forms of tactical urbanism can address the increasing inequality of urban development around the globe. Featuring proposals for six global metropolises - New York, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Hong Kong and Lagos - each developed by a team pairing local practitioners with international researchers, Uneven Growth documents the brainstorming sessions and workshops. Interviews with each team and essays by leading scholars on the issue make the publication a rich resource for students and professionals alike, and a catalyst for worldwide change.

In this book, an interdisciplinary research group of faculty members, researchers, professionals, and planners contributed to an understanding of the dynamics and dimensions of emerging challenges and risks in megacities in the rapidly changing urban environments in Asia and examined emerging resilience themes from the point of view of sustainability and public policy. The world’s urban population in 2009 was approximately 3.4 billion and Asia’s urban population was about 1.72 billion. Between 2010 and 2020, 411 million people will be added to Asian cities (60 % of the growth in the world’s urban population). By 2020, of the world’s urban population of 4.2 billion, approximately 2.2 billion will be in Asia. China and India will contribute 31.3 % of the total world urban population by 2025. Developing Asia’s projected global share of CO2 emissions for energy consumption will increase from 30 % in 2006 to 43 % by 2030. City regions serve as magnets for people, enterprise, and culture, but with urbanisation , the worst form of visible poverty becomes prominent. The Asian region, with a slum population of an estimated 505.5 million people, remains host to over half of the world’s slum population . The book provides information on a comprehensive range of environmental threats faced by the inhabitants of megacities. It also offers a wide and multidisciplinary group of case studies from rapidly growing megacities (with populations of more than 5 million) from developed and developing countries of Asia.

Asia’s emerging and growing megacities are expected to handle a large volume of air traffic flows for regional, national, and local economic development in wider production networks. In some phases of development, major capital investments to improve airport capacity and accessibility within megacities are required. This report reviews urban policies on airport development and investment in airport infrastructure in Asian megacities, analyzes the influence of airport system development on spatial transformation of megacities, and offers policy options to promote economic competitiveness of growing and emerging megacities.

For the first time in human history, more than half the world’s population is urban. A fundamental aspect of this transformation has been the emergence of giant cities, or megacities, that present major new challenges. This book examines how issues of megacity development, urban form, sustainability, and unsustainability are conceived, how governance processes are influenced by these ideas, and how these processes have in turn influenced outcomes on the ground, in some cases in transformative ways. Through 15 in-depth case studies by prominent researchers from around the world, this book examines the major challenges facing megacities today. The studies are organized around a shared set of concerns and questions about issues of sustainability, land development, urban governance, and urban form. Some of the main questions addressed are: What are the most pressing issues of sustainability and urban form in each megacity? How are major issues of sustainability understood and framed by policymakers? Is urban form considered a significant component of sustainability issues in public debates and public policy? Who are the key actors framing urban sustainability challenges and shaping urban change? How is unsustainability, risk, or disaster imagined, and how are those concerns reflected in policy approaches? What has been achieved so far, and what challenges remain? The publication of this book is a step toward answering these and other crucial questions.

In Asia, there are a growing number of gigantic megacities, accompanied by a series of speculative and extravagant megaprojects. Amid the fast-paced urban and development challenges, many Asian governments have been searching for replicable and inspirational cases in Asia. South Korea and its capital city, Seoul, are among frequently referenced models. However, South Korea’s "economic miracle" in the late twentieth century has been mostly studied through an economic policy lens. This book revisits the development of South Korea by looking at its urban dimension and exploring the city of Seoul as a developmental megaproject. Offering an alternative to the focus on economic policies when it comes to explaining South Korea’s development successes, Joo looks at the urbanization that took place under the guidance of the strong developmental state. She provides empirical evidence of the "property state" at work, both complementing and supporting the developmental state. She also analyzes why and how Seoul was able to emerge as an important Asian global city and a global front-runner in terms of ambitious and pioneering urban investments, despite its relatively recent history marked by massive slums and urban poverty. This book provides an analytical framework for studying South Korea’s modern development under capitalism as a precursor to East Asian urbanism and development. It paints a comprehensive story of how cities have been politically and economically important to Korea’s development experience and are increasingly becoming a new mode of development.