Major Asian Cities Research Articles

Les Réseaux d’édition française en Asie 1840 – 1940

ABSTRACTThis article traces the history of French publishing houses in Asia in order to highlight their involvement in the emergence of Francophone communities among cultures classified as non-Francophone. It aims to examine the origin of French publishing houses from their initial appearances in Asia, the history of the publishing houses founded by religious communities in various cities in Asia, as well as the nature of books they publish will be studied.Next to be examined is the secular milieu, with the arrival of the first chain of publishing houses that fall within professional editorial organizations. The case of Albert Nachbaur and Georges Bigot will be examined as a prototype. This brief look at French publishing in Asia invites the reader to consider future discussions of other partners involved: members connected to book networks, such as the French Alliance, whose libraries cover major cities in Asia. This article is only an initial clarification on the networks/movement of French books in Asia.

Slum Rehabilitation Planning and Analysis Using AUTOCAD and GIS in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, Andhra Pradesh

Now-a-days one of the major concerns of urbanization is informal settlements also called slums. Accelerating urban growth is resulting in unprecedented and increasing numbers of impoverished people living in unacceptable conditions. Urbanization in developing world is unprecedented and in coming few years the number of urban dwellers is expected to exceed rural dwellers. Visakhapatnam, one of the major cities in Asia is a huge victim of such settlements. It poses a great threat for the growth of the city in both in industrial as well as urban aspects. The main objective of the present study is to study the reasons for the rapid growth of slums in and around Visakhapatnam and to suggest suitable planning strategies to curb the unacceptable conditions existing at those places and to propose suitable plans using AUTOCAD for some of those areas. The study also involves the identification of major slum areas in and around Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation using remote sensing images and with the aid of software like El Shayal Smart Online and also mapping land-use and land-cover patterns with the help of ARC GIS.

Introducing REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) to Enhance the Risk Adjusted Returns of the Risky Direct Real Estate Portfolio

<p><strong><em>Purpose</em></strong><strong><em>:</em></strong><em> </em><em>The paper has several objectives in mind: to examine whether or not </em><em>a dynamic, ex ante AHP-SAA model and a dynamic Markowitz QP TAA model that utilizes de-smoothed data, produces an investment strategy, which further optimizes the risk-adjusted return of the pan-Asian real estate portfolio. It examines the required de-smoothing and Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) for the TAA. </em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Design/Methodology/Approach</em></strong><strong><em>:</em></strong><em> </em><em>This paper reveals that the efficient frontier of risk-adjusted returns for direct real estate portfolio is enhanced by introducing REITS. The portfolio comprises the Pan-Asian office and industrial real estate markets for 13 major Asian cities, to which Asian REITS are added. Direct real estate total return data is in its </em><em>“</em><em>smooth</em><em>”</em><em> form while the REIT data is </em><em>“</em><em>de-smoothed</em><em>”</em><em> under the 1<sup>st</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> order autoregressive model. The efficient frontier is constructed under a dynamic Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) model, incorporating the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. Secondly, the dynamic Markowitz quadratic-programming Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) model is adopted to obtain a geographically and real estate sector diversified portfolio.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Findings</em></strong><strong><em>:</em></strong><em> </em><em>The resulting efficient frontier with the de-smoothed data reveals a higher overall TR for every corresponding standard deviation as compared to the smoothed data. TAA for the de-smoothed returns would lie on the efficient frontier at the maximum Sharpe ratio of 1.44 with a TR on 15.30% and a standard deviation of 7.31%. Conversely, TAA for the smoothed returns would lie on the efficient frontier at the maximum Sharpe ratio of 1.31 with a lower TR of 14.2% and a standard deviation of 7.18%.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Practical implications</em></strong><strong><em>: </em></strong><em>This paper should serve as a meaningful guide to look at </em><em>an alternative asset allocation process that can be effectively adopted and refined by practitioners and researchers. It enables asset managers/or investors to deploy expert opinions on an ex ante basis for a longer term dynamic SAA model and a short term dynamic Markowitz QP TAA model. </em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Originality/Value</em></strong><strong><em>:</em></strong><em> The paper offers insightful information for </em><em>in adopting the AHP to develop a dynamic SAA and the dynamic Markowitz QP TAA model in utilizing de-smoothed direct real estate TR data. This paper is specific to a Pan Asian direct real estate portfolio of 13 Asian cities together with the introduction of Asian REITS, to provide greater diversification and risk-return benefits.</em><em></em></p>

Finding Factors that Influence Carsharing Usage: Case Study in Seoul

The goal of this research is to investigate the factors that affect carsharing demand. As a proxy for carsharing demand, the number of (booking) transactions made by carsharing users is counted based on the data from one of the two major carsharing operators in Seoul, Korea. In order to identify the factors influencing station-based carsharing usage, multiple linear regression modeling was performed with the number of carsharing transactions as a dependent variable and with the three groups of independent variables: Built environment, demographic, and transportation variables. Instead of using the locations of the pods, this study uses the residential locations of carsharing users who made transactions, and the final result analyzing 420 districts shows that six variables significantly influence carsharing usage. Carsharing demand is high in an area where a higher proportion of building floor area is used for business, and which has a higher proportion of young residents in their 20s and 30s. It can also be predicted that the area with more registered cars and less subway entrances will show higher carsharing demand. The analysis result also suggests that providing additional carsharing pods, especially pods that utilize city owned public parking facilities, will help promote carsharing usage. This research establishes a basis for future research efforts to forecast carsharing demand and to identify areas with high potential, especially in major Asian cities.

<b>What are Crucial Issues in Promoting an Integrated Approach for Flood Risk Management in Urban Areas? </b>

Flooding has become a serious issue in rapidly urbanizing countries. It is widely recognized that flood damages in urban areas can be decreased by taking an integrated risk management approach. This approach, however, has not been realized easily in major cities in Asia. The purpose of this paper is to examine the crucial issues in adopting the integrated approach to developing countries. It reviews Japanese experience and lessons of managing urban flood risks, and compares these lessons with situations in developing countries. It was found that establishing coordination mechanisms among a wide range of sectors is a crucial challenge. Furthermore, the paper proposes practical methods of promoting the integrated approach for urban flood risk management in developing countries.

International Transmission Mechanisms and Contagion in Housing Markets

AbstractThis paper explores international transmission mechanism and its role in contagion effect in the housing markets across six major Asian cities. The analysis is based on the identification of house price diffusion effects through a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model estimated using quarterly data for six major Asian cities (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Bangkok) from 1991Q1 to 2011Q2. The empirical results indicate that the open economies heavily relying on international trade such as Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), Taiwan (Taipei) and Thailand (Bangkok) show positive correlations between the economy's openness and house prices, which is consistent with the Balassa–Samuelson hypothesis. Interestingly, some region‐specific conditions also appear to play important roles as determinants of house price movements, which may be driven by restrictive housing policies and demand–supply imbalances such as Singapore and Bangkok. These results are reasonably robust across several model specifications. The findings bear significant implications for formulation of investment strategy and public policies.

Supertall Asia/Middle East: Technological Responses and Contextual Impacts

Supported by rapid economic growth, major cities in Asia and the Middle East have been rising as new centers for tall buildings. This article reviews the state of tall building developments in Asian and Middle Eastern countries with an emphasis on supertall buildings, with their greater urban and global impacts. Focusing primarily on physical construction, this article examines technological responses for building tall in Asian and Middle Eastern contexts. The architectural transformation and globalization of what was once called the “American Building Type” in Asian and Middle Eastern countries is studied. Sustainable design technology transfer and adjustment in Asian and Middle Eastern climates are presented. Further, future prospects on supertall design in Asian and Middle Eastern contexts are discussed.

What You See is Not Always What You Know

Although Jakarta seems to follow in the footsteps of other major Asian cities in its determination to flood the city with mega-developments, there are hesitations and interruptions along this seemingly smooth path. In the majority world, the onus of developing a viable place in the city largely fell to residents themselves, who then proceeded to elaborate intricate social and economic architectures of collaboration whose logics and operations were not easily translatable into the predominant categorizations employed by urban elites and authorities. These elites then attempted to disentangle these relationships, prioritizing the need for visibility, even as their own methods for retaining control were, themselves, usually opaque. This article explores how these ambiguous modalities of visibility are being reworked in contemporary Jakarta.

Sexual activity and adolescent health risk behaviours amongst high school students in three ethnic Chinese urban populations

To compare sexually active Chinese high school students in three major Asian cities with their non-sexually active counterparts in order to determine prevalence and associations with selected health outcomes. There have been limited studies to date on the association between sexual activity and substance use in Chinese high schools. While the role of the school nurse in the development of sexual health and harm reduction education in secondary schools has been well documented in international studies, this has received little attention in Asia. Cross-sectional survey. This study was administered in 2003/2004 to 13,895 Grades 6 to 12 high school students in Hong Kong (3498), Macau (6286) and Taipei (4111). Descriptive analysis was conducted followed by univariate analysis comparing sexual behaviour with (1) substance use including alcohol, smoking, illicit drugs; (2) feeling depressed for greater than or equal to two weeks in last 12 months; contemplating suicide during the last 12 months; and (3) perception of poor health/academic performance. The students (8%) reported being sexually active had marked differences in selected health outcomes when compared with the nonsexually experienced students. More than 90% of the sexually active students had tried alcohol, with more than 50% being regular drinkers, more than 30% testifying to binge drinking and nearly 50% reported depression in the past 12 months. Substance use, poorer perception of health and academic performance were also significantly higher in the sexually experienced students relative to their nonexperienced counterparts. Sexually experienced Chinese high school students surveyed were at higher risk of substance abuse, poorer psychological health and academic performance. Community and public health nursing needs to address Asian adolescent sexual health education needs, in particular provide culturally targeted interventions for associated substance abuse and psychological health within the context of high school sex education.

Comparative studies of urban climate co-benefits in Asian cities: an analysis of relationships between CO2 emissions and environmental indicators

Abstract This study examines the factors that explain cross-sectional variations in per capita emissions of one of the primary greenhouse gases (GHGs), carbon dioxide (CO2), in major Asian cities. Why do individuals in Bangkok, Thailand, produce an average of 6.1 tons of carbon dioxide annually, but individuals in Shanghai emit 9.7 tons of CO2? Why do CO2 emissions per capita vary across twenty-two major Asian cities? To what extent are relevant environmental indicators associated with CO2 emissions? To answer these questions, we begin by reviewing the climate co-benefits of existing environmental indicators (waste, green space, water, public transport and energy use) and climate change. Based on a literature review, we hypothesize that cities with higher resource use and wealth will have higher CO2 per capita emissions. To test the hypotheses, we analyze the relationship between tentative co-benefits of existing environmental indicators and CO2 emissions per capita using regression analysis. We find that a city's energy inefficiency, waste generation per capita, and GDP per capita are positively associated with CO2 emissions per capita, while we control for a battery of variables such as population and industrial structure. Our findings suggest that enhancing energy efficiency and reducing waste generation are effective ways to mitigate climate change while also realizing climate co-benefits.

An urbanization bomb? Population growth and social disorder in cities

For the first time in history, the majority of the world population now lives in cities. Global urbanization will continue at high speed; the world's urban population is projected to increase by more than 3 billion people between 2010 and 2050. Some of this increase will be the result of high urban fertility rates and reclassification of rural land into urban areas, but a significant portion of future urbanization will be caused by rural-to-urban migration. This migration is expected to be particularly prevalent in countries and regions most affected by the changing climate. While urban populations generally enjoy a higher quality of life, many cities in the developing world have large slums with populations that are largely excluded from access to resources, jobs, and public services. In the environmental security literature, great rural resource scarcity, causing rural to urban migration, is seen as an important source of violent conflict. This study investigates how population growth affects patterns of public unrest in urban centers within the context of crucial intervening factors like democracy, poverty, economic shocks. It utilizes a newly collected event dataset of urban social disturbance covering 55 major cities in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa since 1960. The empirical analysis provides little support for the notion that high and increasing urban population pressure leads to a higher risk or frequency of social disorder. Instead, we find that urban disorder is primarily associated with a lack of consistent political institutions, economic shocks, and ongoing civil conflict.

The determinants of household energy-saving behavior: Survey and comparison in five major Asian cities

It is difficult to control household energy consumption through regulation. From a policy standpoint, it is particularly challenging to identify the factors that influence people’s actions. Moreover, whatever these factors are, they are unlikely to uniformly span multiple cities in the Asian region. In this paper, we conduct a survey of energy-saving behavior to clarify the differences among such factors across five major Asian cities. The results from these surveys in Dalian, Chongqing, Fukuoka, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh indicate that global warming consciousness, environmental behavior, and social interaction significantly affect energy-saving behavior. Income and age also had weak positive effects on energy-saving behaviors. Social interaction was strongly linked to energy-saving behaviors, particularly in the rural areas of Dalian and Chongqing. This result indicates that community-based activities impact energy-saving behaviors.

Explaining Urban Social Disorder and Violence: An Empirical Study of Event Data from Asian and Sub-Saharan African Cities

By 2050, two thirds of the world's population will live in cities, and the greatest growth in urban populations will take place in the least developed countries. This presents many governments with considerable challenges related to urban governance and the provision of services and opportunities to a burgeoning urban population. In the current article, we use a new event dataset on city-level urban social disorder, drawing upon prominent theories in the conflict literature. The dataset spans the 1960–2009 period, covering 55 major cities in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and includes data on nonviolent actions such as demonstrations and strikes and violent political actions like riots, terrorism, and armed conflict. We find that urban social disorder is associated in particular with low economic growth rates and hybrid democratic regimes, while level of development, economic inequality, large youth bulges, and economic globalization do not seem to affect levels of urban social disorder.

Trace elements and lead isotopic composition of PM10 in Lhasa, Tibet

Abstract This paper presents the first detailed investigation on airborne trace metals and their potential major sources at Lhasa, the largest city in Tibetan Plateau (TP). The whole year PM10 samples were collected during September 2007 and August 2008. The annual average concentration of PM10 in Lhasa was 51.8 ± 42.5 μg m−3, lower than those of major Asian cities. Distinct seasonal patterns were observed in PM10 concentration, with higher concentrations in winter, and lower in summer. The mean elemental concentrations were generally comparable with other urban areas, but significantly higher than those from a remote site in TP (i.e., Nam Co). Crustal elements, including Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, As and Ba, had similar seasonal patterns in PM10, while other elements, such as Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Cd, had less distinct seasonal variations, suggesting more anthropogenic inputs of the latter group. The result of principle component analysis (PCA) on trace elements demonstrated that fugitive dusts, traffic emissions and waste incineration activities were probably the major sources of anthropogenic metals in the atmosphere at Lhasa. The Pb isotopic compositions revealed that the metal was mainly originated from nature background with a minor contribution from the cement factory. The data obtained in this study can be useful for making pollution control strategies in the city, and also valuable for trace element studies in other environmental medium, such as snow, ice core, and lake sediments in the TP region.

Parking Requirements in Some Major Asian Cities

Parking requirements are a hotly debated element of parking policy. Yet such requirements are common worldwide. Little effort had been made, however, to make international comparisons that could place local policies into wider perspective. This study focused on parking requirement policies in 14 cities in South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Cities in these regions have tended to be high in urban density, relatively low in car ownership, and, in some cases, strongly transit-oriented in their urban transport systems. In the West, localities with these characteristics often reject the suburban-style parking policy that requires minimum parking, and adopt alternatives. Nevertheless, all Asian cities in the study did enforce such parking requirements on building developments. This surprising enforcement result raised questions. Are these Asian parking requirement policies really similar to those in the West? Are criticisms of Western policies relevant in Asia? Are there lessons to be drawn from parking requirement practices in this region? Such questions were addressed through comparisons of parking requirement policies in the 14 Asian cities (and with reference to Western practice, especially in North America and Australia). The study drew on information collected for a wider study of parking policy in Asia commissioned by the Asian Development Bank. The results revealed diversity, including some distinctive approaches. The findings should provide insights that are useful in debates on parking policy reform, inside and outside the region.

Reflections on emergency preparedness level of selected Asian hospitals visited during Bali Fellowship study tour

My presentation is based on the report of a study tour undertaken in 2005–2006 to review disaster preparedness of hospital systems in the major Asian cities of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo and Kobe.

Asia: Changing Times and Changing Problems

Asia: Changing Times and Changing Problems

Local water independency ratio (LWIR) as an index to define the sustainability of major cities in Asia

This paper defines the Local Water Independency Ratio (LWR) as a new parameter for evaluating a city' s safety and sustainability in terms of water supply. The present LWR values of major Asian cities Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing and Shanghai are compared. In order to increase the LWIR, non-structural alternatives and structural alternatives are suggested with regard to prioritize the ranking and the most suitable methods for these cities.

Assessment of potential cancer risk in children exposed to urban air pollution in Bangkok, Thailand

Urban air pollution resulting from traffic is a major problem in many cities in Asia, including Bangkok, Thailand. This pollution originates mainly from incomplete fossil fuel combustion, e.g. transportation, and the composition of which is very complex. Some of the compounds are carcinogenic in experimental animals and in man. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and benzene are among the major carcinogenic compounds found in urban air pollution from motor vehicle emissions. In major cities in Asia, the levels of PAHs and benzene are relatively high compared with those in Europe or in the United States and thus people are exposed to higher levels. Biomarkers of exposure and early biological effects have been used to study the potential health effects of exposure to PAHs and benzene in air pollution in school children attending schools in inner-city Bangkok compared to those attending schools in rural areas. Bangkok school children are exposed to total PAHs at levels 3.5-fold higher than those in the rural area. Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene, a metabolite of PAH, was also significantly higher, while PAH–DNA adducts in lymphocytes were five-fold higher in Bangkok school children than rural school children. Benzene exposure in Bangkok school children was approximately two-fold higher than in rural school children. This is in agreement with the levels of biomarkers of internal benzene dose, i.e. blood benzene and urinary t, t-muconic acid. The potential health risks from exposure to genotoxic substances were assessed through DNA-damage levels and DNA repair capacity. DNA strand breaks were significantly higher, whereas DNA repair capacity was significantly reduced in Bangkok children. Genetic polymorphisms have been detected in glutathione- S-transferases (GSTs) and cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes involved in the metabolism of benzene and PAHs, but these polymorphisms had no significant effects on the biomarkers of PAH exposure. Our results indicate that children living in a mega city such as Bangkok may have an increased health risk of the development of certain diseases due to exposure to genotoxic substances in air pollution compared to children living in suburban/rural areas.

Asset allocation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise a workable strategic asset allocation (SAA) model, given the data paucity problem, and involve an ex ante framework that is distributional free. Design/methodology/approach – The SAA model is developed within a semi‐quantitative and expert‐based framework – the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) – and not a purely time‐series one. It is developed on the basis of consensus by a group of real estate investment experts, who agree on a fixed investment time horizon so that the time factor is disregarded as a variant. The SAA becomes the interface around which a set of tactical bands is imposed, subject to the Markowitz mean‐variance optimisation, and utilizing the total‐return data set of the Jones Lang LaSalle Real Estate Intelligence Service‐Asia. The lower and upper limits of the tactical bands represent the cyclical attractiveness of the various Asian office markets as growth and value‐added markets Findings – The SAA‐AHP model robustly reflects expert judgement among a cohesive group of real estate investment experts, with regard to a Pan‐Asia office market portfolio of eight major Asian cities. Through pair‐wise comparisons and subject to consistency checks in terms of the consistency ratio of <0.10, then the comparative expert assessment of the macro‐economic and the real estate specific factors driving individual Asian real estate markets, would be consistent (i.e. non conflicting). Then the total weighted evaluations of individual markets are derived and deployed as the SAA portfolio mix. This portfolio mix thus becomes the appropriate interface, around which the tactical asset allocation (TAA) is developed within defined tactical bands. These bands must be in line with the underlying Asian real estate market analysis and their cyclical positions. The TAA is obtained through the Markowitz mean‐variance portfolio optimisation, with the objective of locating the optimally efficient TAA on the Markowitz efficient frontier, under a maximising risk‐adjusted‐return Sharpe ratio. Originality/value – The SAA‐AHP model is reliant on an ex ante assessment of alternative asset allocation strategies on the basis of expert judgement of the macroeconomic environment and the Asian office markets. It is an appropriate SAA alternative to one based on the typical economic‐sized indicators, for example, the urban GDP.