Urban development has been expanding into peripheral agricultural areas in Asian growing cities, which causes numerous serious environmental problems. Many Asian large cities are located on deltaic lowlands, characterized with a variable land-use mixture of urban housing and rice-dominant agricultural lands. Mono-functional zoning could not control this land-use variability, and could not handle emerging environmental problems. This project aims to develop urban-rural planning which is suitable for the deltaic Asian urban fringe.

We aim at developing urban-rural planning which is suitable for the deltaic Asian urban fringe, with special focuses on two key bio-resource flows between urban and rural land uses; foods and organic wastes. Case study cities include Bangkok, Manila, Osaka and Tianjin.

We develop new methodological framework for integrating material flow analysis and land use change analysis, which originally come from the different disciplines, for truly understanding the linkage between urban and rural land uses.

Our research outcomes in a map format will contribute to the integration of sustainability thinking in multiple land use related stakeholders, includes land owners, municipal officials and NPO/NGOs. A new mixed land use model will contribute to the sustainable land use planning in Asia and elsewhere.

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