How do East and Southeast Asian Cities Differ from Western Cities? A Systematic Review of the Urban Form Characteristics

Yu-Fang Lin,Tzu-Ling Chen,Hao-Wei Chiu

doi:10.3390/su12062423

Yu-Fang Lin, Tzu-Ling Chen + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062423

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Abstract

The Fifth Assessment Report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5) revealed that the scale of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Asian cities is similar to those from developed economies, which are driven predominantly by economic growth. Due to variations in geographic and climatic contexts, culture and religion, living style and travel behavior, governance and institutions, and a wide range of density and land use mixes, there are significant variations in urban form patterns across Western and Asian cities. This paper uses a systematic review, which is a critical interpretive synthesis methodology, to review keywords of studies related to urban form among East and Southeast Asian cities. From 3725 records identified through database searching, 213 studies were included in qualitative analysis. The results show that, although the population density in built-up areas is higher, annual population density is declining significantly in East and Southeast Asia. In addition, there are various kinds of land use mixes including horizontal, vertical, and temporal forms. As a whole, the inconsistencies of urban form characteristics exist not only between Western and Asian cities, but also among Asian cities. Serious population density decreases in Asian cities might indicate that they are undergoing similar urban development processes to those of Western cities. We should be aware of the potential lock-in trends of urban development patterns in Chinese and Southeast Asian cities.

Highlights

Climate change has become one of the most challenging global issues, and the issue calls for a global response
The latest IPCC report (IPCC AR5) further addressed a key message that urban areas are the main areas of global energy consumption and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, which were mainly consumed in the sectors of infrastructure and transportation [2]
In order to conduct comparative analysis between variables, this article is based upon the built-up area density to do further discussion), transport energy use, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Western and Asian cities, there is a distinct difference by region

Summary

Introduction

Climate change has become one of the most challenging global issues, and the issue calls for a global response. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR4) concludes that human activities, such as the combustion of energy consumption and land use changes, are “very likely” to be the cause of global warming, and that approximately 77% of the anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions affect the long term warming trend [1]. Cities play a crucial role in climate change due to increasing pressure from the trend of rising populations, economic development, and built-environment concentration in urban areas. The latest IPCC report (IPCC AR5) further addressed a key message that urban areas are the main areas of global energy consumption and GHG emissions, which were mainly consumed in the sectors of infrastructure and transportation [2]. While urban sprawl has been recognized as being responsible for three-quarters of GHG emissions, it is essential to estimate and attempt to reduce GHG emissions from urbanization dynamics

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