Major Asian Cities Research Articles

Assessment of Urban Environmental Quality by Socioeconomic and Environmental Variables Using Open‐Source Datasets

ABSTRACTIn this era of rapid development, environmental quality is an essential aspect of sustainable development. A healthy urban environment supports, regulates, and provides livable conditions. In urban areas, environmental quality is considerably affected by socioeconomic factors such as population expansion and economic development. For decision‐making, it is also significant for stakeholders and policymakers to understand the impact of urban expansion on environmental quality. While previous studies have examined urban environmental quality, they often focused on single cities or limited environmental parameters. This research addresses these limitations by conducting a comparative analysis of two major Asian cities with similar demographic features, utilizing a comprehensive set of socioeconomic and environmental variables. Our innovative approach combines open‐source datasets with advanced remote sensing techniques to provide a more holistic assessment of urban environmental quality over two decades. We analyzed urban environmental quality for last two decades with the selected urban environmental quality parameters: surface greenness, surface moisture, and land surface temperature. Lahore (Pakistan) and Wuhan (China) cities were selected for having approximately same demographic features. Correlation matrix has been used to assess the relationship between these environmental variables and social‐economic variables: urban expansion and carbon emission. Correlation coefficient indicated that urban expansion correlates negatively with surface greenness and surface moisture for both Lahore (−0.67 and −0.71) and Wuhan District (−0.5 and −0.75), respectively, while it had a positive relation with land surface temperature: 0.65 and 0.57 for Lahore and Wuhan District, respectively. These effects are more prominent within 10 km distance from the city center, where a substantial urban expansion is observed during the time window.

A critical review of NO2 and AOD in major Asian cities: challenges, mitigation approaches and way forwards

A critical review of NO2 and AOD in major Asian cities: challenges, mitigation approaches and way forwards

Developing a mapping procedure for urban forests using online map services and Sentinel-2A images

Accurate area statistics at the local government level are important for the scientific management of urban forests. A more consistent and robust mapping of urban forests can enable a comparison of the size and quality management guidelines at major cities in Asia. However, few administrative statistics have employed these scientific techniques. Therefore, a cover map of urban forests focusing on their types is needed for the quantitative and qualitative estimation and evaluation of urban forests. This study presents an approach for mapping urban forest cover for 2021 using Sentinel remote sensing images and aerial photographs from commercial maps. Cover maps of urban forests at a city scale were developed for three pilot study areas in Korea’s capital area. Labeling was performed for deciduous forests, coniferous forests, grasslands, wetlands, bare land, croplands, urban areas, and water bodies. The land cover classification was performed using machine learning models, including random forest (RF), support vector machines (SVM), and gradient tree boost classifier (GBT), and a comparison was made among them. All three methods performed well in the three study areas; the RF model was simple to use, and the SVM was better at detecting forest connections. The proposed mapping method, which focuses on forest types in cities, can be used to compare the area and connection of urban forests in cities.

Understanding the adoption of electric motorcycles among road users in Vietnam

Motorcycles with internal combustion engines using fossil fuels account for the majority of traffic flow in major Asian cities. The increase in the number of conventional motorcycles using a gas engine is one of the main causes leading to air and noise pollution in comparison with other lower-emitting transport modes (e.g., walking, cycling, and public transport). Thus, many Asian countries have promoted the adoption of electric motorcycles to significantly reduce air pollution and non-renewable energy consumption as a solution for motorcycles using internal combustion engines. However, the application of electric motorcycles still faces many limitations and challenges. This study explores factors influencing the adoption of electric motorcycles in Vietnam based on the extention of TAM model. Based on 751 valid responses in Ho Chi Minh and Da Nang cities, Vietnam, a structural equation model (SEM) with first-order and second-order latent variables is proposed to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that perceived of usefulness is the most significant positive effect on the adoption of electric motorcycles. In contrast, perceived risk is found to be a barrier of the adoption intention. In addition, the results of multigroup analysis show that age moderates the correlation between prceived easy to use and the adoption intention. Similarly, the correlation between perceived risk and the adoption of electric motorcycles is influenced by the difference in monthly income. Several policies and governance implications are also discussed in this study.

Settlement intentions among Taiwanese skilled migrants in Tokyo and Hong Kong

ABSTRACT While many countries now prioritise accepting skilled migrants to meet labour demand in a globalised economy, retaining them has been a challenge. Low retention is often attributed to immigration policy failures and/or skill mismatches in the labour market. This paper argues that besides career issues, skilled migrants’ cultural aspirations and their sense of ‘civic belonging’ are significant factors when evaluating migration outcomes and the prospect of staying. This paper is based on 44 in-depth interviews with Taiwanese college-educated migrants working in Hong Kong and Tokyo, two major Asian global cities known for attracting foreign talent. The paper found that ambivalence towards staying prevails, due to unfulfilled aspirations for cosmopolitanism—in the case of Tokyo—and frustrations with a limited ‘social contract’—in the case of Hong Kong. The implications of these findings could extend the scope of factors to be considered in investigating what shapes migrants’ settlement decisions in demographic research.

Can Press Freedom Enhance the Effect of News Exposure on COVID-19 Health Beliefs? A Health Belief Model Perspective

ABSTRACT News media can influence citizens’ health beliefs about COVID-19 and eventually their vaccination intention. However, existing literature has rarely investigated how such effect is contingent upon a country-level factor: press freedom. Situated in the Health Belief Model, this study draws upon a multi-national survey (N = 3,599), involving 10 major cities in Asia to address the research gap. Results showed that news exposure has a positive effect on personal health beliefs on COVID-19, affecting their vaccination intention. More interestingly, the relationship between news exposure and personal health beliefs about COVID-19 was negatively moderated by level of press freedom – that is, the relationship between news exposure and personal health beliefs is stronger in cities that belong to countries with low levels of press freedom.

Public views on green roofs and green walls in two major Asian cities and implications for promotion policy

Public views on green roofs and green walls (GRGW) have received little attention; hence, related policies could be detached from community needs and expectations. A comprehensive questionnaire was developed to compare perceptions of GRGW benefits and negative impacts and attitudes towards government GRGW promotion in Beijing and Hong Kong. Beijing residents reported stronger positive perceptions of benefits, weaker perceptions of negative impacts, and greater support to promotion measures. Beijing’s more proactive and effective promotion efforts brought a better-informed citizenry with positive outlooks. Both cities appreciated promotion policies and strongly preferred advocating for GRGW quality. Public views were subsumed under three underlying factors: socio-demographic, living-environment, and greening-attitude. Principal component analysis and multiple linear regression detected city-dependent relationships between factors and perceptions. Senior and less-educated respondents in Beijing were less able to perceive the negative impacts. Younger and well-educated respondents in Hong Kong held a strong greening attitude and better recognition of benefits. GRGW perceptions were robust predictors of attitudes towards promotion policies in both cities. The implications for GRGW development vis-a-vis a city’s socio-cultural context were discussed. The findings could help governments hone the publicity and policy aspects of GRGW promotion and development and fine-tune greening programmes to citizen preferences.

Visual-Based Motorcycle Detection using You Only Look Once (YOLO) Deep Network

In Malaysia and various Asian countries, use of motorcycle is growing in numbers, and the motorcycle is the dominating transport mode. In fact, the number of motorcycles per thousand people averaged over several major Asian cities is significantly higher than the average of the rest of the world. With growing use of motorcycle, blind spots have become one of major cause to road injuries and fatalities of motorcyclists in Malaysia. In this work, a visual-based detector is proposed to reduce the risk of blind spots in causing road injuries to motorcyclists. The objective of this detector is to provide alerts to the drivers of cars and other vehicles when there are motorcyclists in proximity to the vehicles especially around blind spot areas. In developing this solution, a variant of deep network called You Only Look Once (YOLO) is chosen as visual-based detector. This YOLO deep network is trained and tested using the 5811 collected images of motorcyclists. A benchmark with regards to its accuracy and speed is conducted by comparing this visual detector against several methods such as Aggregate Channel Features (ACF) and Faster Region Convolutional Neural Network (FRCNN). Results showed that YOLO detector is the most superior detector since it has the best average precision out of all detectors, and its inference time at 22.55 ms (44 fps) is able to provide real-time implementation. Besides, YOLO inference on machines without GPU still manage to achieve a commanding performance, which is on average, at 17 fps.

Linear asynchronous traction drive in urban rail and maglev transport systems

The development of transport infrastructure of large cities with high population density and development should be carried out on the basis of innovative technical solutions, that allow to simplify the conditions of laying of tracks, reduce the cost of construction, reduce noise, provide comfort to passengers and reduce the cost of operating rolling stock. One such solution, the effectiveness of which is confirmed by foreign experience, is the use of linear asynchronous traction drive (LATD) in urban rail and maglev transport systems. This, in particular, allows to increase the allowable value of slope paths to 6065, reduce the vertical dimensions of rolling stock to 3.15 m, reduce the diameter of the tunnel by 2530%. The release of the wheel pair from the function of the implementation of traction effort makes it possible to apply on the wagons the articulated semi-frames of trolleys, that ensures better rolling stock in curves, and as a result - less wear of wheels and rails and less noise.
 This article analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of LATD compared to the traction drive of traditional execution, considers variants of constructive performance of linear induction motors (LIM), processes of electromechanical energy conversion in LIM, the option of building a LATD control system is presented. The article examines the flat LIM, which have found use in the transport systems of major cities in Asia and America. The processes of energy conversion in LIM are distinguished by the presence of a longitudinal edge effect, which determines the distortion of the resulting magnetic field, which is manifested in the reduction of induction and the displacement of the peak of the induction distribution curve to the escaping edge of the inductor. This effect is particularly manifested in high-speed LIMs with high quality. When the linearity of the magnetic environment is allowed, the resulting electromagnetic force of the LIM can be considered as the sum of electromagnetic forces created by the main field, as well as the direct and reverse fields of the longitudinal edge effect. The edge effects reduce efficiency and power ratio of LIM. The article discusses ways to compensate for the edge effects, as well as an overview of the world experience of the use of LATD in rail and maglev transport systems.
 The advantages of LATD and the world experience of its use suggest that for urban transport systems at speeds of up to 100-120 km/h this drive can be a real competition to traditional urban rail systems.

Does gender matter? Attitude towards waste charging policy and pro-environmental behaviours

Purpose A waste charging policy had been implemented in major Asian cities like Taipei and Seoul years ago. Hong Kong is not yet to charge household rubbish, which is one of the major municipal solid waste sources. Landfill places will be exhausted in a year or two in the city. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of waste charging policies by exploring relationships among social norms, lifestyles, attitudes towards waste charging policy and pro-environmental behaviour. Design/methodology/approach Purposeful sampling was used in this study to recruit university students to take part in the survey. Purposeful sampling helps to make a “highly credible sample” (Gall et al., 2006, p.185). This study distributed questionnaires to respondents aged over 18 years. Among them, there were 404 valid questionnaires (35.6% male; 64.4% female) that were returned with a response rate of 53.9%. Findings It is found that attitude towards waste charging policies affects pro-environmental behaviour through lifestyles and social norms. Female respondents’ pro-environmental behaviours are affected by their lifestyles and social norms. But male respondents’ lifestyle is affected by their attitude towards policy. Attitude towards charging policy does not have an impact on young people's pro-environmental behaviours. Originality/value Social acceptance towards any environmental policy is a must for its final outcome. It is because attitude towards any environmental policy is a starting point to affect pro-environmental behaviours. Female respondents are more engaged in pro-environmental behaviour compared to male. Almost all big cities encourage the re-use, re-cycle and reduce of waste. Before designing and implementing relevant policy, stakeholder participation is important. The new environmental policy usually has stricter measures, such as heavier charge on municipal waste. Policymakers are advised to obtain solid arguments and data support to convince stakeholders.

Gaining or losing ground? Tracking Asia's hunger for ‘new’ coastal land in the era of sea level rise

Many coastal cities are short of land for development and, coupled with the need to mitigate the impact of extreme events against a background of ongoing sea-level rise, coastal land reclamation (CLR) has emerged as a frequently applied solution, most especially in Asia. However, the sustainability of these newly reclaimed lands under the combined onslaught of increasing population pressure, SRL, greater frequency of extreme events, and land subsidence is largely unknown. In order to assess the spatial extent and temporal trends in recent CLR projects, we mapped and tabulated the annual magnitude of change in coastal land gain from 1988 to 2018 for eight major Asian coastal cities. Across these cities, both the spatial extent and rate of CLR is remarkable; some 700 km2 has been reclaimed in just three decades. >35% of this new coastal land has been constructed in Shanghai alone (562 km2), while Singapore and Incheon have also experienced substantial land gains. These three cities alone account for almost 10% of all the land gained globally over the last three decades. An analysis of the spatio-temporal patterns reveals that, since recently reclaimed areas are predominantly characterized by construction, including ports, airports, commercial and residential uses, economic development is the most prominent driver. Shanghai, however, represents a significant departure from this trend, whereby >50% of the new coastal land gained during the recent past has not been devoted to construction projects and is vegetated, suggesting a different policy context. Commercial or otherwise, subsidence is widely reported as a major characteristic of recently reclaimed coastal land and is a major environmental challenge. Mapping recent rates of land subsidence over these newly reclaimed lands reveal that most are subject to significant levels of deformation, in the case of the international airport at Incheon, Republic of Korea, exceeding 25 cm annually.

Risk of Vehicle Blind Spot towards Motorcyclist Safety in Malaysia: Assessment on Perceptions of Behaviour


 
 
 Motorization in Asian countries is growing fast, and the motorcycle is the dominating transport mode. The number of motorcycles per thousand people averaged over several major Asian cities is significantly higher than the average of the rest of the world. With the growing use of motorcycles, road injuries and fatalities are a growing concern in Malaysia and one of its major causes is vehicle blind spots. In this work, we conduct a survey to assess the perception of the behaviour of road users concerning the risk of blind spots towards motorcyclist safety in Malaysia. We asked 397 respondents to classify themselves into one of these driving roles – (1) motorists (those who drive vehicles other than motorcycles), (2) motorcyclists, and (3) dual-role (drives other vehicles and motorcycles). We provide the respondents with 21 questions classified into few categories of assessments including blind spot awareness, blind spot risks, perception of faults in road collisions and near-misses, motorists and motorcyclists' behaviours, perception towards motorists, motorcyclists, and technology used to improve road safety. We found that 98.2 % of respondents are aware of the existence of blind spots on the vehicle and a total of 43 % of respondents agree that they have driving difficulty due to blind spots. Moreover, 75 % of respondents suggest that blind spot is a major contributing factor to road collisions or near-misses, with 63 % of collisions experienced are side collisions. We found that more than 30 % of motorists and motorcyclists believe that motorists are not careful towards motorcyclists' safety. Moreover, 51 % of motorists perceive motorcyclists as not being careful towards their safety, but 40 % of motorcyclists stated otherwise. Dual-role drivers show that they are more cautious towards the safety of fellow motorcyclists than the motorists. More dual-role drivers than motorcyclists suggest that they practice good behaviours in relation to vehicle blind spots while riding a motorcycle.
 
 

Sustainability Evaluation of Municipal Solid Waste Management System for Hanoi (Vietnam)—Why to Choose the ‘Waste-to-Energy’ Concept

According to decision no. 491/QD-TTg signed in 2018 by the Vietnamese Prime Minister approving adjustments to the national strategy for the general management of solid waste until 2025 with a vision toward 2050, Vietnam has committed itself to move toward collecting, transporting, and treating 100% of non-household waste by 2025 and 85% of waste discharged by households by 2025. This paper aims to determine which is the best sustainable solid waste management system out of those that have been formulated by World Bank experts for Hanoi until 2030 for implementing the national strategy. The paper compares four distinct solid waste management enhancement alternatives, namely, “Improving the current system for waste collection and transportation”; “Reducing, reusing, and recycling waste at source”; “Mechanical–biological treatment (MBT) plants for classifying, composting, and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for the cement industry”; and “MBT plants for classifying, composting, and RDF for waste-to-energy/incineration plants”. The comparison was made using an analytic hierarchy process. As a result, the research indicated that “MBT plants for classifying, composting, and RDF for waste-to-energy/incineration plants” has the highest ranking in terms of a sustainable solution for the municipal solid waste management system. Therefore, it should be applied for managing the current situation in Hanoi. At the same time, the sustainable development of the system must seek to decrease the waste-to-energy ratio continuously and significantly through the planned reuse of materials that can be recycled to industry. According to the literature, in major cities in Asia and Africa, development programs are moving toward waste-to-energy solutions. The EU’s circular innovation programs and action plan may be in the opposite direction to this trend.

Spatial Analysis of Urbanization in Major Asian and African Cities

Abstract. The world statistics shows that 54% of the world population had been accumulated in urbanized areas by 2014. It is estimated that the global urban population will be increasing up to 66% of the total by 2050. According to the United Nations (UN) projection, the urbanization will be faster in Asian and African countries than the other continents. It is obvious this rapid increase will bring about serious socio-economic and environmental problems in the near future. Thus the geographical thinking of urbanization is becoming a vital topic to introduce proper urban planning for the future sustainability.Many geographers have focused on the urbanization pattern and process of the developing countries during the last two decades. In this connection, the scarcity of the spatial data has been an obstacle to study quantitatively urbanization especially in Asian and African cities. Based on this background, since the 2000s, the Division of Spatial Information Sciences, University of Tsukuba, has conducted the research to establish the city-based spatial information platform to overcome this obstacle, i.e., the lack of the data. The main objective of this project is to capture the urbanization pattern and process over the time by using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) techniques. The data on land use and land cover, land surface temperature, energy consumption, and population density are now available with the same spatial resolution in terms of selected cities.Our goal is to open the web-based GIS system to provide the geospatial database of Asian and African cities and scientifically discuss the urban sustainability by using scenario-based simulation. The projected future scenario will be useful for the urban policy by the “back-casting method.”

Variable Signal Progression Bands for Transit Vehicles Under Dwell Time Uncertainty and Traffic Queues

Signal priority controls have long been viewed as one of the viable strategies to minimize bus delays at intersections so as to reduce the travel time variability or increase headway stability. Such control strategies, however, are often not effective for arterials serving heavy bus flows, because frequent signal priority calls will inevitably disrupt the arterial signal plan and incur excessive delays to general traffic. To overcome such deficiencies, this paper presents a bus-based signal progression model for arterials with heavy bus flows as in most major cities in Asia and Europe. The proposed model features its properties of accounting for the impacts of average bus dwell time, its variance, and the bus stop capacity. The impacts of various upstream traffic flow rates and signal plans on the available bus progression band have also been included in computing the optimal bus-progression offsets. Extensive simulation experiments have confirmed the effectiveness of the computed bus progression bands under various traffic congestion levels. The proposed bus-based pre-timed signal system can serve as a base plan for real-time operations of priority control for bus progression if the congestion level on the arterial or dwelling time variance as well as traffic queues have exceeded the operational capacity of the bus-based progression system.

Multi-city comparison of the relationships between spatial pattern and cooling effect of urban green spaces in four major Asian cities

Studies on the role of urban green spaces (UGS) in mitigating the urban heat island (UHI) effect demonstrate the influence of two related, but distinct attributes of UGS: the composition (amount), and configuration (spatial attributes and distribution) of UGS patches. While the positive role of UGS amount in providing cooling effect seems unequivocal, it is still not possible to develop a consensus on the role of UGS configuration from the small number of studies that have been conducted to-date. The latter observation could be due to different methodologies, such as choice of landscape metrics and statistical methods used in different studies, as well as differences in urban form of cities. This study addresses the current knowledge gap by using a same set of methodologies applied to four cities of different urban forms: Singapore and Hong Kong as compact cities, and Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur as sprawling cities. Landsat imageries were used to derive land cover and land surface temperature (LST) maps. Different statistical and spatial analysis techniques were also used. We report several novel findings from this study: (1) only four metrics of percentage of landscape (PLAND), area-weighted mean shape index (SHAPE_AM), patch density (PD), and mean Euclidean nearest neighbor distance (ENN_MN) were adequate to explain UGS pattern-LST relationships in all four cities; (2) the relative importance of composition versus configuration of UGS in determining LST seems to be a function of the existing UGS pattern: what the average per unit area of the city is like in terms of patch size (area-weighted mean patch size (AREA_AM)), shape complexity (SHAPE_AM), and distribution (skewness and kurtosis) of patches; and (3) decision tree classifier is a novel and effective method to unravel hidden patterns in complex UGS pattern-LST relationships. Our results also provide insights on UGS management in cities for higher cooling effects. Greening priorities may differ among cities. In cities where configuration is not a determinant of LST (e.g. Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong), greening may focus on providing conditions necessary for configuration to influence LST and adding greenery, and where configuration already affects LST (e.g. Jakarta and Singapore), the focus may be placed on optimization of UGS by providing larger, simpler in shape, more aggregated and connected, and less fragmented UGS patches.

Missionary Architecture and Hybrid Modernity in Colonial Korea: The Case of Yonsei University

This article explores the hybrid modernity made through missionary architectural practices during colonial Korea, by examining how the master plan of Yonsei University, one of the earliest mission schools in Korea, has gone through a unique evolutionary process throughout the convoluted modern history of the twentieth century. In doing so, this article conducts a thorough visual and spatial analysis of the given case with two emphases: first, analyzing three campus master plans—produced in 1917, 1925, and 2016 respectively—in a comparative way; and second, analyzing the layout and façade composition of major buildings that comprise the campus in great details. These master plans are crucial evidences enabling us to investigate the transatlantic architectural practices in early 20th century, as Henry K. Murphy, the architect in charge of the first two master plans of Yonsei University, was one who had long practiced in New York and greatly admired the values of Asian architecture through a series of field trips to major Asian cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul.While the 1917 master plan was in part influenced by the Western precedents, as well as ones from Japan and China some of which Murphy himself was involved in as a master architect the 1925 case deviates from it and illustrates multiple points of transformation that go beyond spatial symmetry and visual harmony. The 1925 one is marked by the rearranged spatial disposition and façade composition of dormitories and residential halls as influenced by the geographical peculiarities of Korea at that time. Long after the revision, the third, 2016, version illustrates the much expanded, triangular shape toward the south with added buildings and facilities, while the entombment area and other historical fragments in the upper part are well preserved. Hence, this article claims that the case of Yonsei University elicits the hybridization of missionary architectural practices and local Korean culture throughout the twentieth century, which is neither subsumed by the missionaries' imposition of design ideas nor bound by the authentically Korean tradition of design.

An Internet-Based GIS Platform Providing Data for Visualization and Spatial Analysis of Urbanization in Major Asian and African Cities

Rapid urbanization in developing countries has been observed to be relatively high in the last two decades, especially in the Asian and African regions. Although many researchers have made efforts to improve the understanding of the urbanization trends of various cities in Asia and Africa, the absence of platforms where local stakeholders can visualize and obtain processed urbanization data for their specific needs or analysis, still remains a gap. In this paper, we present an Internet-based GIS platform called MEGA-WEB. The Platform was developed in view of the urban planning and management challenges in developing countries of Asia and Africa due to the limited availability of data resources, effective tools, and proficiency in data analysis. MEGA-WEB provides online access, visualization, spatial analysis, and data sharing services following a mashup framework of the MEGA-WEB Geo Web Services (GWS), with the third-party map services using HTML5/JavaScript techniques. Through the integration of GIS, remote sensing, geo-modelling, and Internet GIS, several indicators for analyzing urbanization are provided in MEGA-WEB to give diverse perspectives on the urbanization of not only the physical land surface condition, but also the relationships of population, energy use, and the environment. The design, architecture, system functions, and uses of MEGA-WEB are discussed in the paper. The MEGA-WEB project is aimed at contributing to sustainable urban development in developing countries of Asia and Africa.

Dampak Aspek Emosional Konsumen terhadap Brand Loyalty

The preferences of millennial generations for premium Sneakers products are increasing especially in major Asian cities. Previous research has shown that millenials are very concerned about how the others perceive to them. The consumed product is part of the attribute that can strengthen his/her identity. The proximity of identity itself and the product will increase consumer commitment to the brand. This research is aimed to find out how far the influence and linkage between emotional aspect (self-concept connection, brand love, and emotional attachment) to brand loyalty in the willingness and sense of consumer ownership toward the brand in premium Sneakers product. An empirical study was conducted to examine the conceptual model constructed in this study. The instrument used was adapted from the previous researcher, then purified through pilot testing, then testing the validity through face validity and expolatory factor analysis approach. The empirical studies found three emotional aspects that strengthen brand loyalty to premium Sneakers consumers. Brand love has the most significant impact on brand loyalty. The existence of shifting loyalty, consumers feel loyal to various brands. Loyalty shifts from being loyal to one brand, being loyal to the lifestyle of premium consumer Sneakers. Although the study population needs to be expanded, this finding helps brand managers formulate effective brand strategies to achieve long-term viability for the company. https://doi.org/10.21632/ajefb.1.1.47-62

CONSERVATION OF HISTORIC WATERFRONT TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN OLD DHAKA

Liveability of a city is related to the quality of life (QOL) assessed by the impact of the quality of physical environment on liveability and the role of recreation in psychological wellbeing of individuals. Like in major Asian cities, the historic waterfront and architectural heritage of Dhaka are important components of the fabric. Despite diminution, it continues to affect the social life of Old Dhaka residents. In recent years, protection of the waterfront from illegal encroachment and pollution has become a major concern, amidst a lack of understanding of the river’s role in improving the QOL of the waterfront residents and the role of community involvement. By comparing waterfronts in similar contexts and through literature review and observations, the authors investigate how the conservation of the historic waterfront can contribute to the improvement of quality of life in Old Dhaka, and suggest ways to protect the riverfront with this objective. Seeing waterfronts as products of human intervention into nature, this paper discusses the socio-political forces that shape this, and investigates how conservation of the historic landscape can improve the QOL of the nearby residents. It uses a case study approach based on documentary research, unstructured and nonparticipant observations, and interviews with community leaders, environmental activists and local bodies.