New book captures urban change

June 2010 — Asia Beyond Growth, one of three recent AECOM book publications, is now available through publisher ORO. The book is a photographic, graphic and written atlas documenting history's most dramatic physical transformation, the rapid urbanization occurring in places along an arc of the world that spans from Dubai, U.A.E., to Mumbai India, to Shanghai, China.

The photography of David Lloyd and Dixi Carrillo, who yearly travel the globe capturing not only AECOM projects but the contexts of our placemaking work, is the defining element of the book, offering windows into the juxtapositions that characterize this world in transition: old and new, wealth and poverty, urban growth and environmental decay, successful places and places gone awry. A bold graphic language complements the photographs, illustrating quantifiable measures of a phenomenon occurring at unprecedented scale. Essays from AECOM's design and planning professionals offer comment on what we have seen and what we are learning for the future.

These emerging megacities will tip the global scales both economically and environmentally. If they embrace strategies of smart growth, ecological respect and livability, they can have an enormous positive influence. AECOM has been involved with shaping positive outcomes in this context. New public realm in Taiyuan, Tianjin and Bengbu is helping to remake China's coal-choked industrial machines into livable cities. A coastal park system in Shenzhen is preserving southern China's remaining natural habitat for the respectful enjoyment of future generations. New infrastructure is bringing economic opportunity to impoverished areas in India. And the Middle East is angling toward cultural tourism as an economic driver for the post-oil world.

Serious challenges stand in the way of realizing a positive future. As populations boom and cities sprawl, forests disappear and rivers darken, water and energy needs increase, and social equity and cultural heritage become more elusive.

Asia Beyond Growth is a lens through which to see the world's fastest-changing and increasingly most influential context. It is groundwork for the creative and technical thinking necessary to address the challenges inherent in this transforming region, as AECOM, through partnership with visionary clients in Asia and the Middle East, works to foster positive change.

Jake Herson