Geography and the Environment in Southeast Asia: Proceedings of the Geology Jubilee Symposium, The University of Hong Kong, 21-25 June 1976

3. The Urban Environment in Southeast Asia – Challenge and Opportunity

111 THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 一 CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY Y.M. Yeung As a region, Southeast Asla is characterized by an overaIl low level of urbanlzatlon but also by a hlgh degree ofprimacy. However, the increase in urban population has been outstripping the growth of the population as a whole. In the decade of the 1950s, the total population of Southeast Asia Increased at an annual rate of 2.4 per cent, whUe the urban popuiation grew at 5.7 per cent. In the succeeding decade the corresponding figures were 2.8 per cent and 5.0 per cent. Even at the latter reduced rate, the 1970 urban populatlon of Southeast Asia will double in s1ightly over 14 years and, accordlng to one projection, Its 1970 urban population of 60 million will multlply threefold by the year 2000 (Goldste尬， 1973, 85). Whereas one in five persons of the region lived in cities in 1970, one third of the total population willlive there by the end of this century. The implication to be drawn from these growth trends Is that the urban component of the population will 100m increasingly large in the development of Southeast Asian countries in the future. Wlthln the urban sector the saliency of the primate cities,which are many times the size of the second largest cities, is readUy apparent in the majority of the Southeast Asian countries (Table 3. 1). Although the rate of populatlon Increase in some of these cities had slowed down in the decade 1960 一 1970 compared wlth the precedlng decade, the growth rates as shown for most capital and/or milllon cities are still too large for the comfort of city administrators and policy-makers (Bree銬， 1969, 78). At the present rate of growth,some clties will double thelr pop叫ation In a little over ten years. 訂閱 pivotal role that these p也nate citles play in their respective countries can be easUy inferred from the very large proportion of the urban population which they contaln. They range from a low of 21.7 per cent for Jakarta to a high of 79.7 per cent for Phnom Penh. Cla甜.c examples of primacy are provided by Greater Bangkok and Metropolitan ManUa which completely overshadow 18 Y.M. YEUNG their respective urban systems in economic,social,and administrative terms (Romm, 1972,7; Vilor詞， 1972). Table 3. 1: Capital and/or Million Çities of Southeast Asia, 1970 1960 1970 Annual growth Percentage Primacy City (Population in rate (1960一 70) ofurban indexa millions) population (1) (2) (3) Rangoon 0.88 1.20 3.1 22.7 4.00 Phnom Penh 0.34 0.70 7.6 79.7 13.10b Greater JakartaC 2.97 4.58 4.6 21.7 3.44 SurabayaC 1.01 1.33 2.8 6.3 Bandungc 0.97 1.20 2.1 5.7 Vientiane 0.11 0.21 6.3 52.5 8.70d Kuala Lumpur (metropolitan area)e 0.31(1957) 0.45 2.8 178 1.67 Manila (metropolitan area)f 2.12 3.18 4.2 46.2 11.50 Singapore g 0.9 1(1957) 1.25 0.7 60.1 Greater Bangkokh 1.80 2.92 4.8 62.7 34.90 Hanoi 0.64 1.40 8.1 26.5 2.33 Saigon (metropolitan area)i 2.29 3.32 1.4 69.2 8.60 Source: Columns (1) to (紗， Da由(1 969)， unless otherwise indicated. Notes: aThe ratio of 伽e largest city to the second largest ci紗， bMunson (1968, 33) cMilol閱 (1966 ， 157); McNlcoll and Mamas (1973, 47) dRoberts (l 969,41) eSaw (1973) f Hollnsteiner (1976) gArumainathan (1973, 231) hNattonal Statistical Offl曲 (1973) i Goodman and Franks (1 974, 29) It is in the urban environment of these prunate cities that the greatest challenge is posed to city administrations to provide enough jobs, decent URBAN ENVIRONMENT 19 housing, basic infrastructure, free-t1owing traffic and, idea1ly, the machinery to transmlt posltlve growth-generating impulses down the urban hlerarchy and to the countryside. The urban environment in some cases has been visibly and functiona1ly deterlorating,to such an extent that an urban crisis is sald to be at hand. THE URBAN CHALLENGE Many of the metropolitan govemments of Southeast Asia are now faced wi曲曲 urban cha1lenge of unprecedented proportions in their history of govemance. From certain perspectives, if may even be argued that this cha1lenge is more daunting than...