The Future of Asian & Pacific Cities Report 2023 entitled, Crisis Resilient Urban Futures, is a comprehensive analysis and assessment of sustainable urban development in the Asia and Pacific region at a time of great disruption and uncertainty resulting from multiple interlinked global crises in a post-pandemic era. This report aims to provide valuable insights into the spatial, economic, social, environmental and governance aspects of cities, offering holistic policy recommendations towards a sustainable urban recovery from these crises.
Understanding the dynamics and characteristics of the region’s cities is crucial for national and local governments, businesses, local communities, researchers and urban planners. With this report, ESCAP and UN-Habitat continue their collaboration to provide an updated, reliable resource for decision-makers seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the trends, challenges and future opportunities within the Asia-Pacific cities landscape.
The report builds on three previous editions in this series, each of which explored the key existing and emerging trends in urban development within the region. It continues the forward-looking perspective, capturing the transformative messages of the New Urban Agenda (2016) with the current edition setting a much-needed agenda for a sustainable urban recovery across the region. The 2023 report is released in a year where progress against SDG 11 on ‘sustainable cities and communities’ is under review globally by the United Nations General Assembly.
Creators: UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programmes) and UN ESCAP
Editors: Paul Bunsell and Alan Cooper
Spatial Coverage: Asia-Pacific
The report was made possible through financial support provided by Suwon City, Republic of Korea, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as well as a research partnership with the Melbourne Centre for Cities, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, Australia.
The lead authors of the report chapters were as follows: Shocks in the city: multiple interlinked crises test sustainable urban development: Omar Siddique, Sustainable Urban Development Section, ESCAP Urban and territorial planning for resilient and impactful futures: Sanjeevani Singh, Sustainable Urban Development Section, ESCAP Urban resilience at a crossroads: multilevel climate action: Alexei Trundle, Melbourne Centre for Cities, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne Urban digital transformation: linking innovation to inclusion: Michele Acuto, Melbourne Centre for Cities, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne Urban finance during turbulent times: Pushpa Pathak and Partha Mukhopadhyay, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, India, in partnership with Sunghoon Kris Moon and Hong Soo Lee, Asian Development Bank Seizing the urban opportunity: Paul Bunsell, ESCAP consultant
Publication subject/topics: urban climate action, urban territorial planning, urban digitalization, urban finance, urban development, urbanization, urban planning, cities, climate change, pandemics, governance, environment, economy
