Creating livable Asian cities

More than half of the 4 billion residents of developing Asia lived in urban areas in 2019. About 1 billion may join them in the next 30 years, pushing the regional urbanization rate above 64% by 2050. While urbanization has driven regional productivity growth, it has also created major challenges. The need to improve urban resilience has long been apparent from the natural disasters that cities have always faced, and more recently from the effects of climate change. This has been made even clearer by the wide ranging social and economic costs of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that began in early 2020. An environmentally sustainable and resilient city helps individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and industries survive, adapt, and grow when shocks and stresses from disasters, infrastructure failures, and disruptive socioeconomic events occur.

This book makes the case for five priorities to create livable and resilient cities and realize a sustainable urban future in Asia:

1. Smart and inclusive planning;
2. sustainable transport;
3. sustainable energy;
4. sustainable finance; and
5. resilience and rejuvenation.