While there has been much recent research into achieving sustainability in urban areas, most of this is specific to a particular region. This volume broadens these discussions by extending the analysis from North American and European cities to include East Asian cities. Many cities in Asia have deep historical roots, have sustained dense populations through time and have grown prosperous in recent decades. They also face significant environmental degradation and other planning challenges. In bringing together and comparing strategies and experiences from three distinct global regions, this book offers unique insights and new perspectives on the challenges of moving towards greater urban sustainability. While questioning which strategies can promote sustainable cities in a global context, the book also illustrates that while formulae generated out of American and European experience cannot be universally applied, some of the analytical approaches and experience of the other developed countries can offer insights for those working in different contexts. It argues that managing urban change for greater urban sustainability in diverse regions requires detailed understanding of local issues and regional strategies as well as strong support from local communities.

This book offers careful glimpse from the lenses of selected case studies of major counties in East Asia, namely China and Japan to obtain insights as well as lessons regarding their perspective sustainable cities development. Urban sustainability is the pillar domain for achieving overall sustainability. East Asia has the world most populous countries and cities; therefore, it is of great importance to understand, analyze, and assess the sustainable urban development trends and paradigms in an East Asia setting so as to better guide the future development of sustainable cities in the region. The outcomes of this book are policy-relevant consultations to key stakeholders from various walks of sustainability studies.

With cities rapidly encroaching onto surrounding lands, the notion of "eco-city" proposes an innovative yet pragmatic approach to designing, building and operating cities in a way that the destructive impact of human urban activity upon nature will be significantly reduced. This book comprises of papers from a workshop organized by the East Asian Institute on Eco-cities in East Asia on 27 February 2009 in Singapore. Contributed by scholars, officials and environmental specialists from Japan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, the papers focus on how individual governments in these countries undertake eco-city projects. The book also highlights best practices that are useful to policy makers and anyone else who seeks to learn from the experiences of other countries in order to reduce their ecological footprints.

This book considers urbanization in Asia and presents case studies of sustainable development "best practice" from 12 Asian countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, People's Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

Urbanization occurs in tandem with development. Countries in Southeast Asia need to build - individually and collectively - the capacity of their cities and towns to promote economic growth and development, to make urban development more sustainable, to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and to ensure that all groups in society share in the development. This book is a result of a series of regional discussions by experts and practitioners involved in the urban and planning of their countries. It highlights urbanization issues that have implications for regional - including ASEAN - cooperation, and provides practical recommendations for policymakers. It is a first step towards assisting governments in the region to take advantage of existing collaborative partnerships to address the urban transformation that Southeast Asia is experiencing today.

This book presents a blueprint for transforming East Asian cities to global engines of green growth by choosing energy efficient solutions for their infrastructure needs, with case studies in Cebu City (the Philippines), Da Nang (Vietnam), and Surabaya (Indonesia) illustrating the use of sustainable urban energy and emissions planning (SUEEP).

Published in 1999. Analyzing and chronicling the continued development of key information, communication and fast transport networks at a global and regional level, this book looks at the transition to an information-based economy, and its urban impacts, at a global, regional and city level. The book outlines the change by defining it as the third great societal transition in the history of human settlement, and points to key factors that have fuelled progress. These include the growth of global telecommunications and fast transport networks; the coming together of information and communication technologies and their links to transport and land use; the shift to information and knowledge as a resource base for new industries; the increasing movement of people and information; the emergence of cities as economic entities, network nodes, and centres for generating, exchanging and processing information, and, most significantly, the competition among cities for these new key elements of of the urban economy.