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Urbanization has increased dramatically across Asia, rising from 32% urban in 1990 to 48% urban in 2010. The highest rate or urbanization was in East Asia (2%) which was 59% urban in 2010. South-East Asia was 47% urban in 2010. South and Central Asia remain the least urbanized areas in Asia, and while the Pacific region overall has low levels of urbanization, that is changing quickly. The highest estimated rate of urban growth between 2010 2020 will be in South and South-West Asia (27%), South-East Asia (24%) and East and North-East Asia (20%) close behind.
Some results of increased urbanization include the spread of informal settlements onto unsafe, hazard-prone or unsuitable land and the physical expansion of cities. The conversion of quality agricultural land into urban settlements, the growth of mega-cities, the large proportion of people who live in informal settlements, poor quality housing, and large increases in property values in some areas are all indicators of the ineffectiveness of land-use and development control policies and of land-use planning in urban and peri-urban areas.
Improved management of urbanization and urban growth will be the responsibility of many stakeholders, including local governments, the private sector, civil society, communities and customary land groups. Decisions made by all these stakeholders about future land use will define the way urban growth occurs. In many countries, local governments cannot do this alone. Partnerships may be required to support decisions about housing and the provision of infrastructure. For example, in the Pacific Islands, much of the urban growth will occur outside urban boundaries on customary land and customary groups will have a central role.
More effective management of urban growth will require urban and rural authorities to adopt a coordinated approach that involves the effective urban and territorial planning and control, and gender-responsive, pro-poor and fit-for purpose land administration. This approach is about acknowledging informal development is the prevailing form, and seeking incremental improvements. Instruments and approaches to support responsible governance include the Voluntary Guidelines, a realization of the continuum of land rights, and land tools such as the Social Tenure Domain Model, participatory enumeration, and Participatory and Inclusive Land Readjustment (PILaR). These aim to improve urban governance and inclusion in the process of city growth and densification, and to improve the supply of serviced urban land through a negotiated process.
This paper discusses the nature of urbanisation and tenure security in Asia and the Pacific, and the significance of land in supporting the new urban Agenda, and considers how effective land administration and land management responses can be developed in this context. This includes improving tenure security and examining the critical roles of land use planning, land administration and land valuation to the sustainable and inclusive growth of cities in the Asia and Pacific region.
Copyright 2016 by author(s). All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies.
Authors
David Mitchell - School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences, RMIT University, Australia.
Donovan Storey - Sustainable Urban Development Section, Environment and Development Division, ESCAP, Thailand.
Danilo Antonio - Land and GLTN Unit, Urban Legislation, Land and Governance Branch, UN-Habitat, Kenya.
Cheehai Teo - ASEAN Federation of Land Surveying and Geomatics, Malaysia.
Lowie Rosalis-Kawasaki - Land and GLTN Unit, Urban Legislation, Land and Governance Branch, UN-Habitat, Kenya.
