Urban Shrinkage in Pacific Asia I: Patterns, Patterns, Processes and Policies

Panel Convenor(s)

• CW

  Chung-Tong Wu

  Western Sydney University, Australia
• JC

  Jae-Heon Choi

  Konkuk University, Republic of Korea
• KZ

  Kai Zhou

  Hunan University, China

Panel Chair(s)

• SB

  Sophie Buhnik

  Ecole Supérieure des Professions Immobilières, France

Presenter(s)

• PP

  Paanghi Park

  Konkuk University, Republic of Korea
• JC

  Jae-Heon Choi

  Konkuk University, Republic of Korea
• KZ

  Kai Zhou

  Hunan University, China
• YL

  Ying Long

  Tsinghua University, China

Much of Pacific Asia is known for its extraordinary industrialization and economic growth accompanied by rapid urbanization and megacities. Indeed, much of the discourse on urban Asia, for example, the recently published Routledge Handbook on Asian Cities (Hu 2023) still focuses on its rapid urban growth. The reality is that increasing number of smaller cities and regions in a number of Asian countries and territories have experienced and are experiencing urban shrinkage, a fact only briefly acknowledged by the United Nations on one page of its 79 page report on World Urbanization Prospects in 2018 (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2019). It is now obvious that parts of Pacific Asia are undergoing or soon to experience population transitions that will manifest in absolute population decline. Japan and S. Korea are two notable examples of countries with persistent low fertility rates that are already experiencing population decline. China and Thailand are examples that will be facing the same decline within the next few decades.

The literature on shrinking cities is rich with examples from Europe and North America but comparatively impoverished on Asian countries though this is slowly changing (Joo and Seo 2018, Long and Gao 2019, Kubo and Yui 2020, Park, Newman et al. 2021). With few exceptions (Masuda 2014), political leaders in Asia have not fully acknowledged or accepted the need for comprehensive policies. The growth paradigm still holds sway even in the few cases where programs have been promoted to deal with urban shrinkage. The emphasis is still on returning to growth without acknowledging that alternative thinking is necessary. China’s program to assist resource depleted cities and the S Korean program for ‘depopulation areas’ exemplify this approach.

While economic transformations due to resource depletion and industrial decline contribute to urban shrinkage, others contributing factors include persistent uneven urban and regional development and rapidly ageing population due to dramatic falls in total fertility. Declining population, vacant buildings including abandoned dwellings are the obvious signs of urban shrinkage in Pacific Asia, especially in Japan and S. Korea.

The papers in this panel include research on the three most prominent examples of China, Japan, and S. Korea as well as Thailand and Taiwan. We seek to identify common patterns, processes and policies concerns within relevant context and social systems as a first step towards in-depth comparative studies of urban shrinkage in Pacific Asia.

Presentations:

• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Spatial Characteristics of Urban Shrinkage in Korea
  

  Presenter: Paanghi Park – Konkuk University
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Urban Shrinkage in Korea: A Comprehensive Analysis
  

  Presenter: Jae-Heon Choi – Konkuk University
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  The Growth or Shrinkage Dichotomy of Chinese Cities Between the Demographic Siphon-Effect and the Economic Spillover Effect
  

  Presenter: Kai Zhou – Hunan University
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Nationwide Urban Vacant Land Identification in China Using Segment Anything Model and Remote Sensing Imagery
  

  Presenter: Ying Long – Tsinghua University