ABSTRACT
Economic globalisation has become ‘a strong force’ driving the urban development of Asian countries. The formation of megacities which have 10 million or more inhabitants, or a new class of urban agglomeration of Extended Metropolitan Regions (EMRs), has increased in number and scale (McGee, 1991, 1995; Douglass, 2000). It is estimated that the urban population in East Asia will increase by approximately 200 million people over the next twenty-five years, of which 40% will occur in the peri-urban area (PUA). 1 The environmental challenges of these megacities – high rates of land and energy consumption, severe pollution of air, water and soil, and decrease of quality of life – have become of increasing concern (Marcotullio, 2001; Yueng, 2001; Webster, 2002; Ng and Hills, 2003).
