ancient cities

44 Athens, Greece
way by strengthening local universities. Singapore
has also attracted significant foreign universities to
establish small campuses and research centers in
the city in order to build local skills and attract
foreign students to Singapore.
Urban housing issues have attracted much
attention. Migration-driven urbanization meant
cities absorbed large numbers of rural workers
and their families. Spontaneous shantytowns and
squatter settlements appeared across many Asian
cities. Residents generally built their own houses,
often from secondhand or scavenged materials,
and seldom had security over land. There has been
some softening of attitudes toward settlements in
the past few decades.
The escalating economic growth within Pacific
Asia has seen the expansion of urban megaprojects
that are transforming the cities in China, Japan,
and Singapore. New middle- and high-income
housing developments are generally intrinsic parts
of new complexes of offices catering to the financial,
services, and high-tech industries. Transport
developments featuring extensive freeways and rail
developments have become common. The magnetically
levitating train that connects Pudong
Airport with Shanghai at speeds of around 430
kilometers (267 miles) per hour is an eye-catching
example of new forms of urban transport servicing
Asian cities.
Environmental issues are a significant concern
throughout most of the Asian region. The environmental
risk transition spotlights the changing relationship
between people and the environment as
cities develop and incomes rise. “Traditional”
environmental risks decline over time, but “modern”
environmental risks increase. Asian cities
cluster in three locations across the model. In the
most disadvantaged Asian cities the problems center
on water quality and management. The most
significant risk to human well-being is the lack of
access to clean water for human consumption. The
low-lying delta cities of Bangladesh have the added
risks of frequent flooding caused by either rainfall
in the upper reaches of the Ganges River or tidal
and storm surges through the Bay of Bengal.
Planning and Management
Building urban management and planning
frameworks has been challenged by the size and
rapid growth of Asia’s principal cities, in addition
to which so many are located in poor countries
with limited financial and human resources. The
problems being confronted range from the 2004
tsunami’s devastation of cities in coastal regions of
Sumatra and Sri Lanka, to the need to preserve
Hanoi’s architectural heritage in a period of rapid
growth in urban investment. Looking forward,
Asian urban planners will be at the cutting edge of
urban change, as Shanghai’s growth continues and
the major cities along the Pacific Asian coast connect
together into extensive mega urban regions.
As Asia’s urban population grows and the region’s
economies, particularly those of China and India,
rapidly expand, the Asian city will attract greater
world attention.
Dean Forbes
See also Hong Kong, China; Islamic City; Kolkata
(Calcutta), India; Manila, Philippines; Megalopolis;
Mumbai (Bombay), India; Delhi, India; Shanghai,
China; Singapore; Squatter Movements; Tokyo, Japan;
World City
Further Readings
Calvino, Italo. 1978. Invisible Cities. New York:
Harvest Books.
Committee on Population, National Research Council.
2003. Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and
Its Implications in the Developing World.
Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Elsheshtawry, Yasser, ed. 2004. Planning Middle Eastern
Cities: An Urban Kaleidoscope. London: Routledge.
Forbes, Dean. 1996. Asian Metropolis. Melbourne,
Australia: Oxford University Press.
Mehta, Suketu. 2004. Maximum City: Bombay Lost and
Found. New Delhi: Penguin Books India.
Pahuk, Orhan. 2005. Istanbul: Memories of a City.
Translated by M. Freely. New York: Knopf.
At H e n s, gr e e c e
Athens, the capital of modern Hellas (Greece),
treaded a discontinuous itinerary reaching over six
millennia, of which the classical period of the
ancient city-state has time and again inspired the
collective memory of Western cities. Athens stands