Typologies of Rapid Urbanization in Developing Asian Countries: A Study of Shanghai’s Rapid Urbanization and Subsequent Strategies

Over the last several decades developing countries, especially in Asia, have undergone large scale rapid urbanization, impacting their developmental patterns. Compounded with increased economic prosperity and social mobility attracting individuals and companies, to urban centres, has led to severe administrative challenges that can negatively affect the citizens, nation, and environment. In efforts to mitigate those adverse side effects cities have instituted, or citizens naturally adopted, a variety of strategies to address those issues. These strategies result in the typologies of rapid urbanization that are most prevalent in developing Asian cities. By focusing on Asian and Chinese cities, using shanghai as a test case, this research proposes several major typological categories associated with rapidly urbanizing areas. Shanghai’s rapid urbanization has been shaped by seven main typologies of urban growth and expansion, since the implementation of China’s economic growth policies and its resurgence as an influential global city. Spatial typological patterns of urban growth in Shanghai are analyzed to explain how the economic prosperity and social mobility have been managed. Typological adaptations learned from the historical urban expansion provide the subsequent strategies for future sustainable development in a rapidly urbanizing area.