Introduction

Governing Flooding in Asia's Urban Transition

Bibliographic Data

ID2870334
AuthorsMichelle Ann Miller (0000-0003-3375-8398, National University of Singapore), Mike Douglas, Mike Douglass (0000-0003-3705-7425, National University of Singapore)
Year2015
Volume88
Issue3
Pages499-515
Publication date2015-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePacific Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0030-851X • E-ISSN: 1715-3379
PublisherPacific Affairs (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5509/2015883499
OpenAlexW2750813084
LanguageEN
Citations received13

The twenty-first century not only marks the advent of Asia’s first urban era in which more than half of its population lives in cities; it is also the emergence of an age of increasing frequency and intensity of environmental disasters. Urban flooding leads disaster trends and is directly impacting the lives and livelihoods of a growing share of Asia’s population. By 2010 more than 1.5 billion people were residing in urban areas in Asia, accounting for over half of the global urban population. The pervasive coastal and riparian orientation of Asia’s rapid urban transition is placing greater numbers of people in locations that arc highly exposed to floods, cyclones, tropical storms, and tsunamis. Human transformations of the natural and built environment of cities substantially add to global climate change as interactive sources of the heightening occurrence of floods. Moreover, floods contribute to compound disasters that generate cascading effects with multiple sources, interactive impacts, and long-term social and economic recover)’ issues. The pervasive and socially uneven impacts of floods bring acute awareness of flooding as a political issue for participatory governance. In light of these interwoven complexities, responses can no longer be carried out as sector management tasks, but must instead adopt multi-sector, multi-disciplinary, and multi-stakeholder approaches to disaster governance to directly link knowledge to action in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from floods in urbanizing Asia

Economic geography · Flooding (psychology) · Geography · Political science · Transition (genetics) · Psychology · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies · Water Governance and Infrastructure