China has an opportunity to strengthen its emerging global leadership role in urban sustainability. However, it must first implement an effective vision for how sponge city initiatives complement broader environmental governance efforts. Improving regulatory enforcement…
This article introduces government competitiveness, a concept that recognizes overlooked factors like the role of social organizations, the use of diverse policy inputs and policy development processes, and the imperative to address human needs at…
“I seek to be a part of the conversation about 21st century urbanization in its many forms, from uncontrolled sprawl in developing countries to post-industrial revitalization in developed countries. As an academic, I am not…
Elevating the groundwater crisis to the national policy agenda is essential, and the federal government must oversee a system that is at once distributed, standardized and robustly monitored. National un-governability of water can no longer…
In an era when political parties around the world are turning inwards, embracing populism, and behaving irrationally, the rationality of durable state institutions should supersede the self-preservation interests of a single dominant party. Vietnam has…
Natural disasters are having increasingly disruptive effects on social, environmental and economic systems. Wildfires, floods and similarly recurrent challenges have relatively clear policy interventions. By contrast, earthquakes are largely unpredictable, and there is no certain…
ASEAN’s 21st century call-to-action should be the pursuit of higher development standards and their normalisation across rural and urban areas – on issues like personal security, health, education, housing, and basic services. A robustly financed commitment…
With deepening links between technology and urban management, the means to innovate, scale-up, and implement “smart city” initiatives reside primarily with governments and corporations. The individual citizen is outside the conversation, as in the bygone…
Addressing the groundwater depletion problem – and in broader measure the growing crisis of water scarcity amidst rapid urbanisation – will require a multi-pronged approach that includes unequivocal political will, transparency, and support for technical…
Demographic changes in the 21st century have led to rapid urbanization around the world. Will growing cities coupled with global connectivity cause cities to play a leading role in handling issues of international importance? Or…
