Variations of Urban Environmental Transitions: The Experiences of Rapidly Developing Asia-Pacific Cities

Accounts of environmental challenges in cities in the developing world often include comparisons to situations already experienced by now-developed cities. For example, a 1998 article in The Economist on development and the environment starts out with a description of environmental problems in mid-19th century English cities, then suggests that environmental conditions in developing cities today are very similar to those of Manchester, UK, in the 1800s (Litvin, 1998).