Report of the NEAT Working Group on Urbanisation:
"Towards Good Urban Planning: Sustainable Development and Better Quality of Life"
Held in Singapore
Tuesday, 21 July 2015
Overview
More than half of the world’s population already resides in urban areas. The United Nations has observed that Asia is currently home to 53% of the world’s urban population, followed by Europe at 14%, and Latin America and the Caribbean at 13%. It estimates that continuing population growth and urbanisation will add 2.5 billion people to the world’s urban population by 2050. Asia and Africa are expected to contribute nearly 90% of this increase.
The ASEAN plus Three (APT) countries in Asia have to grapple with the challenges and opportunities of this expected acceleration in urban population growth in the coming years. Last year, the NEAT Working Group (WG) on Urbanisation examined the broad trends of urbanisation in the APT countries arising largely from the rural-urban migration. The WG shared experiences and best practices related to the urbanisation process in general and made some recommendations to foster cooperation among the APT countries in this area.
Building on this foundation, NEAT Singapore decided to embark on Phase II this year by examining the specific area of urban planning, a critical component in ensuring positive outcomes for residents living in a city. The concentration of people in urban areas has raised urban density, and with that, led to increasing demand for land use. It is therefore extremely important to plan a city well to ensure that it develops in a manner that achieves optimal economic, social and sustainability outcomes in spite of physical constraints, the competing demands for land use and the lack of resources.
For the full text of the report, click here.
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