Projected Population Year India China World
2009 1,160,813,000 1,338,612,968 6,786,743,939
2012 1,208,116,000 1,366,205,049 7,028,369,002
2015 1,254,019,000 1,393,417,233 7,269,526,256
2020 1,326,155,000 1,430,532,735 7,659,291,953
2025 1,388,994,000 1,453,123,817 8,027,490,191
2050 1,807,878,574 1,424,161,948 9,538,988,263
Sources : National Commission on Population Govt. of India and U.S Census Bureau, International Database.
The Young and working population of India is the biggest positive factor for India and its growth in coming years ± We have written about it many times earlier on this blog, and another survey reiterates this fact again with some Interesting numbers !
Just to show you the amount of difference between other developing Countries and India± Have a look at this graph.
Between 2010-2030, India will add 241 Million people in working-age population (and that means the children who are currently in our education system), Brazil will add around 18 million, while China will add a meager 10 million people during the same time.
So even with all the drawbacks that India has, this particular Indian aspect is going to prove pivotal in making India the world leader in coming years.
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¢
£ ¤ ¦ The demographi outlook for the BRIC ¡ t s ± Brazil Russia, India and China ± could hardl be more different. In terms of the demographic transition model, India is at the beginning of stage three (declining fertilit , population growth , Brazil and China are at stage four (low mortalit and fertilit , population trending towards stabilit ), while Russia is already at stage fi e (sub-replacement-rate fertility, declining population). Not surprisingly, the differences in the projected change in the working-age population ± the economically
relevant variable ± are very significant in both absolute and relative terms. [Source: DB
Resea ¤ h]
The demographic developments in the BRICs over the next 10, 20, 30 years will vary greatly. This will impact not only economic growth prospects, but also savings and investment behavior and potentially ± if somewhat difficult to quantify ± financial market growth prospects. India is demographically in a substantially more favorable position than China and Russia.
Brazil¶s ³demographic window´ (defined here, non-technically, as a falling dependency ratio) will close around 2020-25, while in China and Russia it is closing right now. Indi , by c ntrast, will njoy a very favorable demographic momentum for another three decades.
So even though in current scenario, India may not exactly be mentioned in the same breath as US, UK and China, the picture in next couple of decades will be quite different.
Even from our Financial Markets point of view ± If you really have a long-long term view, there is not better place to invest in stock Markets than in India !
India is developing into an open-market economy, yet traces of its past autarkic policies remain. Economic liberalization, including reduced controls on foreign trade and investment, began in the early 1990s and has served to accelerate the country's growth, which has averaged more than 7% per year since 1997. India's diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of services. Slightly more than half of the work force is in agriculture, but services are the major source of economic growth, accounting for more than half of India's output, with only one-third of its labor force. India has capitalized on its large educated English- speaking population to become a major exporter of information technology services and software workers. An industrial slowdown early in 2008, followed by the global financial crisis, led annual GDP growth to slow to 6.5% in 2009, still the second highest growth in the world among major economies. India escaped the brunt of the global financial crisis because of cautious banking policies and a relatively low dependence on exports for growth. Domestic demand, driven by purchases of consumer durables and automobiles, has re- emerged as a key driver of growth, as exports have fallen since the global crisis started. India's fiscal deficit increased substantially in 2008 due to fuel and fertilizer subsidies, a debt waiver program for farmers, a job guarantee program for rural workers, and stimulus expenditures. The government abandoned its deficit target and allowed the deficit to reach 6.8% of GDP in FY10. Nevertheless, as shares of GDP, both government spending and taxation are among the lowest in the world. The government has expressed a commitment to fiscal stimulus in FY10, and to deficit reduction the following two years. It has increased the pace of privatization of government-owned companies, partly to offset the deficit. India's long term challenges include widespread poverty, inadequate physical and social infrastructure, limited employment opportunities, and insufficient access to basic and higher education. Over the long-term, a growing population and changing demographics will only exacerbate social, economic, and environmental problems. Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Its fish are of great and growing importance to the bordering countries for domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly for shrimp and tuna. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and western Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. Beach sands rich in heavy minerals and offshore placer deposits are actively exploited by bordering countries, particularly India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
China China's economy during the past 30 years has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy. Reforms started in the late 1970s with the phasing out of collectivized agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises, the foundation of a diversified banking system, the development of stock markets, the rapid growth of the non-state sector, and the opening to foreign trade and investment. Annual inflows of foreign direct investment rose to nearly $108 billion in 2008. China has generally implemented reforms in a gradualist or piecemeal fashion. In recent years, China has re-invigorated its support for leading state-owned enterprises in sectors it considers important to "economic security," explicitly looking to foster globally competitive national champions. After keeping its currency tightly linked to the US dollar for years, China in July 2005 revalued its currency by 2.1% against the US dollar and moved to an exchange rate system that references a basket of currencies. Cumulative appreciation of the renminbi against the US dollar since the end of the dollar peg was more than 20% by late 2008, but the exchange rate has remained virtually pegged since the onset of the global financial crisis. The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis that adjusts for price differences, China in 2009 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, although in per capita terms the country is still lower middle-income. The Chinese government faces numerous economic development challenges, including: (a) reducing its high domestic savings rate and correspondingly low domestic demand through increased corporate transfers and a strengthened social safety net; (b) sustaining adequate job growth for tens of millions of migrants and new entrants to the work force; (c) reducing corruption and other economic crimes; and (d) containing environmental damage and social strife related to the economy's rapid transformation. Economic development has been more rapid in coastal provinces than in the interior, and approximately 200 million rural laborers and their dependents have relocated to urban areas to find work. One demographic consequence of the "one child" policy is that China is now one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world. Deterioration in the environment - notably air pollution, soil erosion, and the steady fall of the water table, especially in the north - is another long-term problem. China continues to lose arable land because of erosion and economic development. In 2006, China announced that by 2010 it would decrease energy intensity 20% from 2005 levels. In 2009, China announced that by 2020 it would reduce carbon intensity 40% from 2005 levels. The Chinese government seeks to add energy production capacity from sources other than coal and oil, and is focusing on nuclear and other alternative energy development. In 2009, the global economic downturn reduced foreign demand for Chinese exports for the first time in many years. The government vowed to continue reforming the economy and emphasized the need to increase domestic consumption in order to make China less dependent on foreign exports for GDP growth in the future. Country Comparison :: GDP (purchasing power parity)
This entry gives the gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. A nation's GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States. This is the measure most economists prefer when looking at per-capita welfare and when comparing living conditions or use of resources across countries. The measure is difficult to compute, as a US dollar value has to be assigned to all goods and services in the country regardless of whether these goods and services have a direct equivalent in the United States (for example, the value of an ox-cart or non-US military equipment); as a result, PPP estimates for some countries are based on a small and sometimes different set of goods and services. In addition, many countries do not formally participate in the World Bank's PPP project that calculates these measures, so the resulting GDP estimates for these countries may lack precision. For many developing countries, PPP- based GDP measures are multiples of the official exchange rate (OER) measure. The differences between the OER- and PPP-denominated GDP values for most of the wealthy industrialized countries are generally much smaller.
India :: 5
GDP (purchasing power Rank country Date of Information parity)
1 European Union $ 14,430,000,000,000 2009 est.
2 United States $ 14,120,000,000,000 2009 est.
3 China $ 8,818,000,000,000 2009 est.
4 Japan $ 4,149,000,000,000 2009 est.
5 India $ 3,680,000,000,000 2009 est.
6 Germany $ 2,815,000,000,000 2009 est.
7 United Kingdom $ 2,123,000,000,000 2009 est.
8 Russia $ 2,116,000,000,000 2009 est.
9 France $ 2,094,000,000,000 2009 est.
10 Brazil $ 2,010,000,000,000 2009 est.
11 Italy $ 1,737,000,000,000 2009 est.
12 Mexico $ 1,463,000,000,000 2009 est.
13 Korea, South $ 1,362,000,000,000 2009 est.
14 Spain $ 1,359,000,000,000 2009 est.
15 Canada $ 1,277,000,000,000 2009 est.
16 Indonesia $ 960,200,000,000 2009 est.
17 Turkey $ 879,900,000,000 2009 est.
18 Australia $ 848,400,000,000 2009 est.
19 Iran $ 825,900,000,000 2009 est.
20 Taiwan $ 734,300,000,000 2009 est.
21 Poland $ 688,300,000,000 2009 est.
22 Netherlands $ 659,100,000,000 2009 est.
23 Saudi Arabia $ 590,900,000,000 2009 est.
24 Argentina $ 568,200,000,000 2009 est.
25 Thailand $ 539,300,000,000 2009 est.
26 South Africa $ 504,600,000,000 2009 est.
27 Egypt $ 468,700,000,000 2009 est.
28 Pakistan $ 432,900,000,000 2009 est.
29 Colombia $ 407,500,000,000 2009 est.
30 Belgium $ 383,000,000,000 2009 est.
31 Malaysia $ 383,000,000,000 2009 est.
32 Venezuela $ 348,800,000,000 2009 est.
33 Nigeria $ 341,100,000,000 2009 est.
34 Sweden $ 335,100,000,000 2009 est.
35 Greece $ 332,900,000,000 2009 est.
36 Philippines $ 324,300,000,000 2009 est.
37 Austria $ 321,600,000,000 2009 est.
38 Switzerland $ 313,300,000,000 2009 est.
39 Hong Kong $ 301,300,000,000 2009 est.
40 Ukraine $ 289,300,000,000 2009 est.
41 Norway $ 268,300,000,000 2009 est.
42 Vietnam $ 256,500,000,000 2009 est.
43 Romania $ 254,400,000,000 2009 est.
44 Czech Republic $ 253,100,000,000 2009 est.
45 Singapore $ 251,200,000,000 2009 est.
46 Peru $ 251,000,000,000 2009 est.
47 Chile $ 243,200,000,000 2009 est.
48 Algeria $ 241,000,000,000 2009 est.
49 Bangladesh $ 241,000,000,000 2009 est.
50 Portugal $ 240,900,000,000 2009 est.
51 Israel $ 206,900,000,000 2009 est.
52 Denmark $ 197,500,000,000 2009 est.
53 United Arab Emirates $ 191,900,000,000 2009 est.
54 Hungary $ 185,700,000,000 2009 est.
55 Kazakhstan $ 182,000,000,000 2009 est.
56 Finland $ 178,900,000,000 2009 est.
57 Ireland $ 172,500,000,000 2009 est.
58 Morocco $ 145,400,000,000 2009 est.
59 Kuwait $ 137,700,000,000 2009 est.
60 Belarus $ 120,700,000,000 2009 est.
61 New Zealand $ 115,100,000,000 2009 est.
62 Slovakia $ 114,900,000,000 2009 est.
63 Cuba $ 110,800,000,000 2009 est.
64 Ecuador $ 110,400,000,000 2009 est.
65 Iraq $ 109,900,000,000 2009 est.
66 Angola $ 106,200,000,000 2009 est.
67 Qatar $ 100,800,000,000 2009 est.
68 Syria $ 100,800,000,000 2009 est.
69 Sri Lanka $ 96,470,000,000 2009 est.
70 Tunisia $ 95,600,000,000 2009 est.
71 Sudan $ 92,520,000,000 2009 est.
72 Bulgaria $ 90,480,000,000 2009 est.
73 Azerbaijan $ 85,650,000,000 2009 est.
74 Libya $ 84,920,000,000 2009 est.
75 Dominican Republic $ 80,310,000,000 2009 est.
76 Croatia $ 78,460,000,000 2009 est.
77 Uzbekistan $ 78,370,000,000 2009 est.
78 Serbia $ 78,050,000,000 2009 est.
79 Ethiopia $ 77,360,000,000 2009 est.
80 Oman $ 72,780,000,000 2009 est.
81 Puerto Rico $ 67,820,000,000 2009 est.
82 Guatemala $ 67,780,000,000 2009 est.
83 Kenya $ 62,480,000,000 2009 est.
84 Yemen $ 57,950,000,000 2009 est.
85 Tanzania $ 57,610,000,000 2009 est.
86 Burma $ 57,410,000,000 2009 est.
87 Slovenia $ 55,410,000,000 2009 est.
88 Lithuania $ 55,170,000,000 2009 est.
89 Lebanon $ 53,900,000,000 2009 est.
90 Costa Rica $ 48,830,000,000 2009 est.
91 Bolivia $ 45,540,000,000 2009 est.
92 Uruguay $ 43,980,000,000 2009 est.
93 El Salvador $ 42,820,000,000 2009 est.
94 Cameroon $ 42,790,000,000 2009 est.
95 Panama $ 40,760,000,000 2009 est.
96 Korea, North $ 40,000,000,000 2009 est.
97 Luxembourg $ 39,080,000,000 2009 est.
98 Uganda $ 38,120,000,000 2009 est.
99 Ghana $ 35,990,000,000 2009 est.
100 Cote d'Ivoire $ 35,940,000,000 2009 est.
101 Nepal $ 33,610,000,000 2009 est.
102 Turkmenistan $ 32,520,000,000 2009 est.
103 Honduras $ 32,460,000,000 2009 est.
104 Latvia $ 32,310,000,000 2009 est.
105 Jordan $ 32,260,000,000 2009 est.
106 Bosnia and Herzegovina $ 29,780,000,000 2009 est.
107 Paraguay $ 28,630,000,000 2009 est.
108 Bahrain $ 28,270,000,000 2009 est.
109 Cambodia $ 27,880,000,000 2009 est.
110 Afghanistan $ 26,980,000,000 2009 est.
111 Trinidad and Tobago $ 26,150,000,000 2009 est.
112 Botswana $ 25,380,000,000 2009 est.
113 Equatorial Guinea $ 23,820,000,000 2009 est.
114 Jamaica $ 23,760,000,000 2009 est.
115 Estonia $ 23,710,000,000 2009 est.
116 Albania $ 22,880,000,000 2009 est.
117 Cyprus $ 22,750,000,000 2009 est.
118 Senegal $ 22,620,000,000 2009 est.
Congo, Democratic Republic of 119 $ 21,750,000,000 2009 est.
the
120 Gabon $ 21,070,000,000 2009 est.
121 Georgia $ 20,850,000,000 2009 est.
122 Mozambique $ 20,190,000,000 2009 est.
123 Madagascar $ 20,120,000,000 2009 est.
124 Brunei $ 19,390,000,000 2009 est.
125 Macedonia $ 18,890,000,000 2009 est.
126 Burkina Faso $ 18,790,000,000 2009 est.
127 Macau $ 18,470,000,000 2009 est.
128 Zambia $ 18,440,000,000 2009 est.
129 Chad $ 17,930,000,000 2009 est.
130 Mauritius $ 16,630,000,000 2009 est.
131 Nicaragua $ 16,620,000,000 2009 est.
132 Armenia $ 16,250,000,000 2009 est.
133 Mali $ 15,680,000,000 2009 est.
134 Congo, Republic of the $ 15,560,000,000 2009 est.
135 Laos $ 14,200,000,000 2009 est.
136 Namibia $ 13,850,000,000 2009 est.
137 Papua New Guinea $ 13,850,000,000 2009 est.
138 Tajikistan $ 13,650,000,000 2009 est.
139 Benin $ 13,580,000,000 2009 est.
140 West Bank $ 12,790,000,000 2009 est.
141 Malawi $ 12,500,000,000 2009 est.
142 Iceland $ 12,090,000,000 2009 est.
143 Kyrgyzstan $ 12,090,000,000 2009 est.
144 Haiti $ 11,970,000,000 2009 est.
145 Rwanda $ 11,010,000,000 2009 est.
146 Guinea $ 10,140,000,000 2009 est.
147 Moldova $ 10,130,000,000 2009 est.
148 Niger $ 10,070,000,000 2009 est.
149 Malta $ 9,866,000,000 2009 est.
150 Mongolia $ 9,360,000,000 2009 est.
151 Bahamas, The $ 8,791,000,000 2009 est.
152 Montenegro $ 6,590,000,000 2009 est.
153 Mauritania $ 6,381,000,000 2009 est.
154 Barbados $ 6,148,000,000 2009 est.
155 Swaziland $ 5,849,000,000 2009 est.
156 Somalia $ 5,665,000,000 2009 est.
157 Togo $ 5,653,000,000 2009 est.
158 Kosovo $ 5,300,000,000 2008
159 Jersey $ 5,100,000,000 2005 est.
160 Guyana $ 4,873,000,000 2009 est.
161 French Polynesia $ 4,718,000,000 2004 est.
162 Suriname $ 4,563,000,000 2009 est.
163 Sierra Leone $ 4,507,000,000 2009 est.
164 Bermuda $ 4,500,000,000 2004 est.
165 Andorra $ 4,220,000,000 2008
166 Zimbabwe $ 4,161,000,000 2009 est.
167 Liechtenstein $ 4,160,000,000 2007
168 Eritrea $ 3,958,000,000 2009 est.
169 Fiji $ 3,670,000,000 2009 est.
170 Central African Republic $ 3,295,000,000 2009 est.
171 Bhutan $ 3,252,000,000 2009 est.
172 Burundi $ 3,241,000,000 2009 est.
173 Gambia, The $ 3,196,000,000 2009 est.
174 New Caledonia $ 3,158,000,000 2003 est.
175 Lesotho $ 3,151,000,000 2009 est.
176 Curacao $ 2,838,000,000 2008 est.
177 Netherlands Antilles $ 2,800,000,000 2004 est.
178 Guernsey $ 2,742,000,000 2005
179 Timor-Leste $ 2,740,000,000 2009 est.
180 Isle of Man $ 2,719,000,000 2005 est.
181 Belize $ 2,575,000,000 2009 est.
182 Aruba $ 2,258,000,000 2005 est.
183 Cayman Islands $ 2,250,000,000 2008 est.
184 Greenland $ 2,030,000,000 2008 est.
185 Djibouti $ 1,974,000,000 2009 est.
186 Seychelles $ 1,816,000,000 2009 est.
187 Cape Verde $ 1,754,000,000 2009 est.
188 Saint Lucia $ 1,743,000,000 2009 est.
189 Guinea-Bissau $ 1,712,000,000 2009 est.
190 Maldives $ 1,683,000,000 2009 est.
191 San Marino $ 1,662,000,000 2007
192 Liberia $ 1,635,000,000 2009 est.
193 Virgin Islands $ 1,577,000,000 2004 est.
194 Faroe Islands $ 1,561,000,000 2008 est.
195 Solomon Islands $ 1,494,000,000 2009 est.
196 Antigua and Barbuda $ 1,472,000,000 2009 est.
197 Vanuatu $ 1,151,000,000 2009 est.
198 Gibraltar $ 1,106,000,000 2006 est.
199 Grenada $ 1,101,000,000 2009 est.
200 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines $ 1,085,000,000 2009 est.
201 Samoa $ 1,007,000,000 2009 est.
202 Monaco $ 976,300,000 2006 est.
203 Mayotte $ 953,600,000 2005 est.
204 Northern Mariana Islands $ 900,000,000 2000 est.
205 Western Sahara $ 900,000,000 2007 est.
206 British Virgin Islands $ 853,400,000 2004 est.
207 Sint Maarten $ 794,700,000 2008 est.
208 Comoros $ 764,800,000 2009 est.
209 Tonga $ 759,500,000 2009 est.
210 Dominica $ 743,700,000 2009 est.
211 Saint Kitts and Nevis $ 719,700,000 2009 est.
212 Kiribati $ 601,300,000 2009 est.
213 American Samoa $ 575,300,000 2007 est.
214 Sao Tome and Principe $ 294,600,000 2009 est.
215 Micronesia, Federated States of $ 238,100,000 2008 est.
216 Turks and Caicos Islands $ 216,000,000 2002 est.
217 Cook Islands $ 183,200,000 2005 est.
218 Anguilla $ 175,400,000 2009 est.
219 Palau $ 164,000,000 2008 est.
220 Marshall Islands $ 133,500,000 2008 est.
221 Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) $ 105,100,000 2002 est.
222 Nauru $ 60,000,000 2005 est.
223 Wallis and Futuna $ 60,000,000 2004 est.
224 Saint Pierre and Miquelon $ 48,300,000 2003 est.
225 Montserrat $ 29,000,000 2002 est.
Saint Helena, Ascension, and 226 $ 18,000,000 1998 est.
Tristan da Cunha
227 Tuvalu $ 14,940,000 2002 est.
228 Niue $ 10,010,000 2003 est.
229 Tokelau $ 1,500,000 1993 est
¨
The economy of Asia comprises more than 4 billion people (60% of the world pop § lat on) living in 46 different states. Six further states lie partly in As ¨ a, but are considered to belong to another region economically and politically.
As in all world regions, the wealth of Asia differs widely between, and within, states. This is due to its vast size, meaning a huge range of differing cultures, environments, historical ties
and government systems. The largest economies in Asia in terms of nominal GDP are Ch¨ na,
¨ ¨ Japan, Ind¨ a, South Korea, Indones a and Iran. In terms of GDP by purchas ng power parity, China has the largest economy in Asia and the second largest economy in the world, followed by Japan, India, and South Korea.
Wealth (if measured by GDP per capita) is mostly concentrated in east Asian territories such as
Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, as well in oil rich Middle Eastern countries
© such as Iran, Saudi Ara© ia, Qatar, United Ara E irates. Asia, with the exception of Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, is currently undergoing rapid growth and industrialization spearheaded by China and India - the two fastest growing major economies in the world. While east Asian and southeast Asian countries generally rely on manufacturing and trade for growth, countries in the Middle East depend more on the production of commodities, principally oil, for economic growth. Over the years, with rapid economic growth and large trade surplus with the rest of the world, Asia has accumulated over US$4 trillion of foreign exchange reserves - more than half of the world's total.
Economic development
[edit] Ancient and medieval times
China and India alternated in being the largest economies in the world from 1 to 1800 A.D. China was a major economic power and attracted many to the east,[1][2][3][4] and for many the legendary wealth and prosperity of the ancient culture of India personified Asia[5], attracting European commerce, exploration and colonialism. The accidental discovery of America by Columbus in search for India demonstrates this deep fascination. The Silk Road became the main East-West trading route in the Asian hitherland while the Straits of Malacca stood as a major sea route.
[edit] Pre-1945
Prior to World War II, most of Asia was under colonial rule. Only relatively few states managed to remain independent in the face of constant pressure exerted by European power. Such
examples are Sia and Japan.
Japan in particular managed to develop its economy due to a reformation in the 19th century. The reformation was comprehensive and is today known as the Meiji Restoration. The Japanese economy continued to grow well into the 20th century and its economic growth created various shortages of resources essential to economic growth. As a result the Japanese expansion began with a great part of Korea and China annexed, thus allowing the Japanese to secure strategic resources.
At the same time, Southeast Asia was prospering due to trade and the introduction of various new technologies of that time. The volume of trade continued to increase with the opening of the Suez Canal in the 1860s. Manila had its gallion or Manila galleon wherein products from the Philippines were traded to Europe. The Philippines was the first Asian country to trade with Latin America via Acapulco. Tobacco, coconut, corn, and sugar trade was the most in demand during that time. Singapore, founded in 1819, rose to prominence as trade between the east and the west increased at an incredible rate. The British colony of Malaya, now part of Malaysia, was the world's largest producer of tin and rubber. The Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, on the other hand, was known for its spices production. Both the British and the Dutch created their own trading companies to manage their trade flow in Asia. The British created the British East India Company while the Dutch formed Dutch East India Company. Both companies maintained trade monopolies of their respective colonies.
In 1908, crude oil was first discovered in Persia, modern day Iran. Afterwards, many oil fields were discovered and it was learnt later that the Mideast possesses the world's largest oil stocks. This made the rulers of the Arab nations very rich though the socioeconomic development in that region lagged behind.
In the early 1930s, the world underwent a global economic depression, today known as the Great Depression. Asia was not spared, and suffered the same pain as Europe and the United States. The volume of trade decreased dramatically all around Asia and indeed the world. With falling demand, prices of various goods starting to fall and further impoverished locals and foreigners alike. In 1941, Japan invaded Malaya and thus began World War II in Asia.
[edit] 1945-1990
Following World War II, the People's Republic of China and India, which account for half of the population of Asia, adopted socialist policies to promote their domestic economy. These policies limited the economic growth of the region. In contrast, the economies of superiors Japan, South Korea and the other tigers Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong--were economic successes, and the only successful economies outside of North America, Western Europe and Australia. The Philippines from the post-World War II until the late 1970s had the second largest economy in Asia. The Philippine economy during the 1980s was marked by stagnant growth as a result of political instability and incompetence of the succeeding government.
One of the most pronounced Asian economic phenomenons during this time - the Japanese post-war economic miracle greatly impacted the rest of the world. After World War II, under central guidance from the Japanese government, the entire economy was undergoing a remarkable restructuring. Close cooperation between the government, corporations and banks facilitated easy access to much-needed capital, and large conglomerates known as keiretsu spurred horizontal and vertical integration across all industries, keeping out foreign competition. These policies, in addition to an abandonment of military spending, worked phenomenally well. Japanese corporations as a result exported and still export massive amounts of high quality products from The Land of The Rising Sun.
Another amazing economic success story is that of South Korea's, also referred to as the Miracle on the Han River. The country was left impoverished after the Korean War, yet was able to recover at double digit percentiles. Many conglomerates, also known as Chaebols, such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Kia, SK, and more grew tremendously during this period. South Korea has now become the most wired country in the world.
Taiwan and Hong Kong experienced rapid growth up till the 1990s. Taiwan became, and still remains one of the main centers of consumer electronics R&D as well as manufacturing. However, unlike in Japan and South Korea, the bulk of Taiwan's economy is dependent on small to medium sized businesses. Hong Kong, on the other hand, experienced rapid growth in the financial sector due to liberal market policies, with many financial institutions setting up their Asian headquarters in Hong Kong. Till today, Hong Kong has been ranked as the world's freest economy for many years running, and it remains among one of the world's top 5 leading financial centers. This period was also marked by military conflict. Wars driven by the Cold War, notably in Vietnam and Afghanistan, wrecked the economies of these respective nations. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990-91, many Central Asian states were cut free and were forced to adapt to pressure for democratic and economic change. Also, several of the USSR's allies lost valuable aid and funding.
[edit] 1991-2007
After the liberalization of the economy of India, the Indian economy coupled with the Chinese economy to power Asia into being one of the hotspots for world trade. The Chinese economy was already booming under the economic measures undertaken by Deng Xiaoping, in the 1980s, and continuing under Jiang Zemin in the 1990s. In 2007, China's economic growth rate exceeded 11% while India's growth rate increased to around 9%. One of the factors was the sheer size of the population in this region.[citation needed]
Meanwhile, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore emerged as the Four Asian Tigers with their GDPs growing well above 7% per year in the 1980s and the 90s. Their economies were mainly driven by growing exports. The Philippines only began to open up its stagnated economy in the early 1990s. Vietnam's economy began to grow in 1995, shortly after the United States and Vietnam restored economic and political ties.
Throughout the 1990s, the manufacturing ability and cheap labor markets in Asian developing nations allowed companies to establish themselves in many of the industries previously dominated by companies from developed nations. Asia became one of the largest sources of automobiles, machinery, audio equipment and other electronics.
At the end of 1997, Thailand was hit by currency speculators, and the value of the Baht along with its annual growth rate fell dramatically. Soon after, the crisis spread to Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and many other Asian economies, resulting in great economic damage on the affected countries (Japan largely escaped the crisis). In fact, some of the economies, most notably those of Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea actually contracted. This later would be known as the Asian financial crisis. By 1999, most countries had already recovered from the crisis.
In 2004, parts of Sumatra and South Asia were severely damaged by an earthquake and the subsequent tsunami. The natural disaster wiped out huge amounts of infrastructure throughout the affected area and displaced millions.
[edit] Future
Asia's large economic disparities are a source of major continuing tension in the region.[citation needed] While global economic powers China, Japan, India, and South Korea continue powering through, and Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam have entered the path to long-term growth, regions right next to these countries are in need of severe assistance.
Given the large number cheap and amply available labor in the region, particularly in China and India, where large workforces provide an economical advantage over other countries, the rising standard of living will eventually lead to a slow-down. Asia is also riddled with political problems that threaten not just the economies, but the general stability of the region and world. The nuclear neighbors²Pakistan and India²constantly pose a threat to each
other, causing their governments to heavily invest in military spending.
Military intervention by the United States in Iraq and ghanistan has also inflamed extremism and resulted in several terrorist attacks in a number of Asian countries. Another impending crisis is the depletion of oil reserves in the Middle East. Most of these economies have traditionally been over-dependent on oil and have had difficulty establishing another pillar in their economies.
Yet another potential global danger posed by the economy of Asia is the growing
accumulation of oreign exchange reserves. The countries/regions with the largest foreign reserves are mostly in Asia - China (Mainland - $2,454 billion & Hong Kong - $245 billion, June 2010), Japan ($1,019 billion, June 2009), Russia ($456 billion, April 2010), India ($284 billion, July 2010), Taiwan ($372 billion, September 2010), the Republic of Korea ($286
billion, July 2010), ingapore ($206 billion, July 2010). This increasingly means that the interchangeability of the Euro, USD, and GBP are heavily influenced by Asian central banks. Some economists in the western countries see this as a bad thing, prompting their respective governments to take action.
The economies of Asia are expected to be unequally divided for a long period of time. ast sian nations such as economic leaders China, Japan and South Korea will continue to
flourish. Japanese products such as ony and Hitachi are commanding premium prices in the western world. South Korean conglomerates amsung and G are respectively the second and fifth largest in Asia in terms of annual revenues. These two rivaling countries are expected to
be joined by new economic competitors such as China and India. On the other hand, the
Middle ast and a few parts of outh ast sia are will be in a state of trouble.
According to the World Bank, China may become the largest economy in the world sometime
between 2020 and 2030.6]
[ed ]A i c u ri by GDP
Main article: List o sia count ies by
This is a list of Asian countries sorted by their 2009 gross domestic product at market or government official exchange rates (nominal GDP) and PPP map is for year 2009. 2009 figures are estimates. Data produced by the International Monetary Fund as of October 2009.
Country o ! GDP nominal GDP PPP GDP PPP per capita # Lo " tion
territory millions of USD millions of USD USD
$ $ Asia 24 077 16 774
$ $ A
Afghanistan 11 709 21 388 760 %outh sia
&
$ $
A $ (
rmenia 8 683 16 057 4 916 Wes As '
&
$ $
Az $ ( erbaijan 46 378 74 856 8 634 Wes As '
*
) ) ) ,
Bahrain 21 236 27 014 34 662 Wes As +
) ) ) A
Bangladesh 84 196 226 205 1 398 South sia
) ) ) A
Bhutan 1 389 3 490 5 312 South sia
) ) ) A
Brunei 14 553 19 716 50 198 Southeast sia
) ) ) A
Burma 26 205 67 963 1 156 Southeast sia
) ) ) A
Cambodia 11 250 28 461 2 082 Southeast sia
) ) ) ) ) A
China (PRC) 4 911 000 8 767 000 6 546 - ast sia
*
) ) ) ,
C +
yprus 24 922 22 721 29 853 Wes As
) )
- T A
ast imor 499 2 522 2 368 Southeast sia
*
) ) ) ,
Georgia 12 864 21 424 4 869 Wes As +
.
/ / / A
Hong ong 210 730 301 300 42 574 East sia
/ / / / / A
India 1 243 000 3 298 000 2 930 South sia
/ / / A
Indonesia 511 765 909 729 4 150 Southeast sia
0
/ / / 2
I 1
ran 390 757 827 058 12 500 Wes As
0
/ / / 2
Iraq 68 553 114 151 3 655 Wes As 1
0
/ / / 2
Israel 215 727 202 562 28 473 Wes As 1
/ / / / / A
3apan 5 073 000 4 141 000 32 817 East sia
0
/ / /
1 2
3ordan 21 225 32 416 5 661 Wes As
/ / / C A z
4a akhstan 135 601 177 835 11 434 entral sia
/ / / A
North 4 orea 27 820 40 000 1 800 East sia
/ / / / A
South 4 orea 800 300 1 343 000 27 791 East sia
0
/ / /
1 2 4uwait 114 878 137 450 38 875 Wes As
5 5 5 C A
Kyrgyzstan 5 050 11 604 2 184 entral sia
5 5 5 A
Laos 5 374 13 310 2 127 Southeast sia
6
5 5 5 8
Lebanon 32 660 53 818 11 752 Wes As 7
; ; ; A
:
Ma 9 a 21 700 18 140 59 451 East sia
; ; ; A
Malaysia 221 606 383 388 14 081 Southeast sia
; ; ; A
Maldives 1 261 1 713 4 967 South sia
; ; ; A
Mongolia 4 212 10 480 3 567 East sia
; ; ; A
Nepal 12 283 31 634 1 144 South sia
<
; ; ; >
Oman 59 946 68 331 24 674 Wes As =
; ; ; A
? akistan 164 557 422 392 2 624 South sia
; ; ; A
? apua New Guinea 8 092 13 064 2 108 Southeast sia
; ; ; A
? hilippines 166 909 317 964 3 515 Southeast sia
<
; ; ;
= >
@ atar 102 302 94 404 86 008 Wes As
; ; ; ; ; A
Russia 1 255 000 2 126 000 15 039 North sia
<
; ; ; >
Saudi Arabia 469 426 592 886 23 814 Wes As =
; ; ; A
Singapore 181 939 239 146 51 226 Southeast sia
; ; ; A
Sri Lanka 39 604 92 168 4 589 South sia
<
; ; ; >
Syria 55 024 94 563 4 756 Wes As =
; ; ; A
Taiwan (ROC) 379 400 693 200 29 829 East sia
; ; T ; C A
ajikistan 5 135 13 062 2 022 entral sia
; ; ; A
Thailand 273 313 547 060 8 239 Southeast sia
<
; ; ; > Turkey 729 983 874 212 11 400 Wes As =
A A A C A
Turkmenistan 18 269 30 332 5 756 entral sia
B
A A
A A D
United rab Emirates 228 578 187 851 38 283 Wes As C
A A z A C A
U bekistan 27 918 71 618 2 634 entral sia
A A A A
Vietnam 89 829 240 757 2 793 Southeast sia
B
A A A D
Yemen 26 909 55 393 2 410 Wes As C
F H G
[edit] Tr Ed bl c
I L M L L L O L M
J K N J P
[edit]A i J-P cific c icC p r i Q The Asia- Q acific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a group of acific Rim countries who meet with
the purpose of improving economic and political ties
R R S S S S W R R S R
U V U T U T V T U V [edit]A ci T i fS u h A i N i
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a political, economic, and cultural organization of countries located in Southeast Asia. Founded in 1967, its aim is to foster cooperation and mutual assistance among members. The countries meet annually every November in summits.
The current member countries of ASEAN are Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand, Cambodia,
Y X Vietnam, X hilippines, Malaysia, Brunei arussalam, Singapore, Timor Leste and Indonesia. apua New Guinea is given an observer status.
In 2005 ASEAN was instrumental in establishing the East Asia Summit (involving all ASEAN [ members plus China, Z apan, South Korea, India, Australia and New ealand) which some have proposed may become in the future a trade bloc, the arrangements for which are far from certain and not yet clear.
The Asian Currency Unit (ACU) is a proposed currency unit for the ASEAN "10+3" economic
f f Z circle. (ASEAN, the mainland of the X eople's Republic o China, India, apan, and the Republic o
Korea).
c c
` b ` b ` `
] ^ _ \ \ a ^ ] ^ a ^ [edit] Cl \ r c ic P r r hip Arr g
The Closer Economic d artnership Arrangement (CEPA) is an economic agreement between the f d eople's Republic o China and both the Hong Kong SAR government (signed on 29 June 2003), and the Macau SAR government (signed on 18 October 2003), in order to promote trade and investment facilitation.
The main aims of CEPA are to eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barrier on substantially all the trade in goods between the three, and achieve liberalization of trade in services through reduction or elimination of substantially all discriminatory measures.
f e f [edit] Are bL gu
The Arab League is an association of Arab countries in Africa and Asia. The Arab League facilitates political, economic, cultural, scientific and social programs designed to promote
the interests of its member states.
l l l l
g h h g i g i i i
k j j j k j m [edit]C w j l h fI d p d S
p
o o n q F n of the Commonwe th of Inde endent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a confederation consisting of 12 of the 15 states of the former Soviet Union, both Asian and European, (the exceptions being the three Baltic states). Although the CIS has few supranational powers, it is more than a purely symbolic organization and possesses coordinating powers in the realm of trade, finance, lawmaking and security. The most significant issue for the CIS is the establishment of a full- fledged free trade zone / economic union between the member states, to be launched in 2005.
It has also promoted cooperation on democratisation and cross-border crime prevention.
r r r r r r r r
t u v t t u s v w v u w u s v [edit]S u s hA i A ci i f rR gi lC p r i
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an association of 8 countries of Af South Asia, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, x akistan, Sri Lanka and ghanistan. These countries comprise an area of 5 130 746 km and a fifth of the population of the world.
SAARC encourages cooperation in agriculture, rural development, science and technology, culture, health, population control, narcotics control and anti-terrorism.
[edit] South Asia Free Trade Agreement (proposed)
The South Asia Free Trade Agreement is an agreement reached at the 12th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit. It creates a framework for the creation of a free trade zone covering 1.6 billion people in India, y akistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the
Maldives. {
[edit] Curr z cy
} ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ This artic |e s factual accuracy may b comp omis d b caus of out-of-dat info mation. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the
talk page. (January 2010)
Below is a list of the urren ies of Asia, including all fully Asian states plus Russia, with exchange rates between each currency and both the Euro and US Dollars as of 9 December 2004.
Count y Cu ncy wo th in u o wo th in USD Central bank
Af Afghanistan ghani 0.0171287 0.0228157
Bahraini C . . entral Bank Bahrain 1 99136 2 65957 f o Bahrain Dinar
. Bangladesh Bangladesh Taka 0 0167723
Bank
. . Bhutan Ngultrum 0 0170095 0 0226630
Brunei Brunei Currency and Brunei 0.455736 0.606944 Monetary Dollar
Board
National . . Cambodia Riel 0 000305774 0 000260068 Bank of C ambodia
eople's Bank China Renminbi of China Hong Kong 0.09 0.12 Hong Kong y Mainland Dollar 0.11 0.13 Monetary y Hong Kong Authority Macanese 0.11 0.13 y Macau Monetary Pataca Authority of Macao
Central Bank New Taiwan of the Taiwan 0.0233412 0.0310945
Dollar Republic of
China
T . imor-Leste US Dollar 0 750803 1
Indian Reserve Bank I . . ndia 0175701 0253710 f I o ndia Rupee
Bank
I Rupiah . . ndonesia 0 0000819210 0 000109059 I ndonesia
Central Bank I . . ran Iranian Rial 0 0000847274 0 000112852
of Iran
. . Central Bank I raq Iraqi Dinar 0 000513340 0 000683737 f I o raq f I . . Israel Sheqel 0 172654 0 229975 Bank o srael
. . Bank of
apan Yen 0 00718413 0 00956539
apan
Jordanian
ordan 1.06031 1.41243 Dinar
National z . . f Ka akhstan Tenge 0 00576997 0 00768610 Bank o z Ka akhstan
North North Korea 0.341229 0.454545 Korean Won
South Bank of South Korea 0.000711045 0.000947424
Korea Korean Won
Kuwaiti Central Bank K . . uwait 2 54691 3 39425 f o Kuwait Dinar
Kyrgy stani Kyrgyzstan 0.0181059 0.0241177 Som
Laos Kip 0.0000692876 0.0000922935
Lebanese Lebanon 0.000495695 0.000659979 Pound
. . Bank Negara Malaysia Ringgit 0 197525 0 263219
Malaysia
. . Maldives Rufiyah 0 0637958 0 0849618
. . Mongolia Tugrik 0 000618514 0 000823723
. . Myanmar Kyat 0 135242 0 180112
Nepalese Nepal Rastra Nepal 0.0105153 0.0140041 Bank Rupee
. . Oman Omani Rial 1 95241 2 60077
Pakistani f . . State Bank o akistan 0 0124665 0 0166064
akistan Rupee
f I
. . alestine Sheqel 0 17 0 23 Bank o srael (Israeli)
Philippine Bangko Philippines 0.0133941 0.0178531 Sentral ng
Peso
Pilipinas . . atar Qatari Riyal 0 206213 0 274786
Central Bank Russian of the Russia 0.0267806 0.0356723
Ruble Russian
Federation
. . Saudi Arabia Saudi Riyal 0 200178 0 266660
Singapore Monetary Singapore 0.455762 0.607083 Authority of
Dollar Singapore
Sri Lankan C . . entral Bank Sri Lanka 0 00715451 0 00953107 f o Sri Lanka Rupee
Syrian Syria 0.0143770 0.0191527 Pound
Tajikistani Tajikistan 0.269553 0.359066 Somoni
. . Bank of T Baht hailand 0 0189565 0 0252245 T hailand
. . Turkmenistan Manat 0 000144365 0 000192306
Central Bank United Arab of United Arab Emirates Emirates 0.204394 0.272301 the United
dirham Arab
Emirates
Uzbekistani Uzbekistan 0.000715188 0.000952628
Som . . Vietnam ong 0 0000476064 0 0000634115
. . Yemen Yemeni Rial 0 00409130 0 00544959
Table correct as of 9 December 2004 (see [1] for latest)
[edit] c ic c r
[edit] Pri ry S c r
Asia is by a considerable margin the largest continent in the world, and is rich in natural resources. The vast expanse of the former Soviet Union, particularly that of Russia, contains a huge variety of metals, such as gold, iron, lead, titanium, uranium, and zinc. These metals are mined, but inefficiently due to continued use of poorly maintained, obsolete machinery left over from the communist era. Nevertheless, profits are high due to a commodity price boom in 2003/2004 caused largely by increased demand in China. Oil is Southwest Asia's most important natural resource. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait are rich in oil reserves and have benefited from recent oil price escalations.
Asia is home to some four billion people, and thus has a well established tradition in agriculture. High productivity in agriculture, especially of rice, allows high population density of many countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, southern China, Cambodia, India, and Vietnam. Agriculture constitutes a high portion of land usage in warm and humid areas of Asia. Many hillsides are farmed in a terrace method to boost arable land. The main agricultural products in Asia include rice and wheat. Opium is one of major cash crops in Central and Southeast Asia, particularly in Afghanistan, though its production is prohibited everywhere. Forestry is extensive throughout Asia except Southwest and Central Asia, with many of the items of furniture sold in the developed nations made out of Asian timber.
Fishing is a major source of food, particularly in Japan.
[edit]S c d ry S c r
The manufacturing sector in Asia has traditionally been strongest in the East region-
particularly in China, Taiwan, apan, South Korea and Singapore. The industry varies from manufacturing cheap low value goods such as toys to high-tech added value goods such as computers, CD players, Games consoles, mobile phones and cars. Major Asian manufacturing
companies are mostly based in either South Korea or apan. They include Samsung, Hyundai, LG,
and Kia from South Korea, and Sony, Toyota, Toshiba, and Honda from apan. Many developed- A nation firms from Europe, North merica, apan and South Korea have significant operations in the developing Asia to take avantage of the abundant supply of cheap labor. One of the major employers in manufacturing in Asia is the textile industry. Much of the world's supply of clothing and footwear now originates in Southeast Asia and South Asia, particularly in
Vietnam, China, India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
[edit]T r i ry S c r
A view of the Tidel Park in Chennai. Software industries of late, have been outsourced to Asian cities as such for good infrastructure, efficient man-power & cheap labour.
Asia has seven important financial centers, located in Dubai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. India has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of the economic boom. The country has emerged as one of the world's largest exporters of software and other information technology related services. World class Indian software giants such as Infosys, HCL, Wipro, Mahindra Satyam and TCS have emerged as the world's most sought after service providers. Call centers are also becoming major employers in India and Philippines due to the availability of many well educated English speakers. Here again India holds close to 60% of
the trade share. The rise of the Business Process utsourcing (BPO) industry has seen the rise of India and China as the other financial centers. Experts believe that the current center of financial activity is moving toward "Chindia" - a name used for jointly referring to China and India - with Shanghai and Mumbai, Bangalore becoming major financial hubs in their own right. Other growing technological and financial hubs include Dhaka (Bangladesh), Chennai (India), New Delhi (India), Pune (India), Hyderabad (India), Shenzhen (China), Kolkata (India), Jakarta (Indonesia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Karachi (Pakistan), Lahore (Pakistan), Manila (Philippines) and Bangkok (Thailand).
Economy of Asia During 2008 unless otherwise stated
Population: 4 billion (60%)
US$24.077 GDP (PPP) (US$): trillion (2009)
$16.774 trillion GDP (Currency) (US$): (2009)
GDP/capita (PPP) (US$): $7,041 (2009)
GDP/capita (Currency) $4,629 (2009) (US$):
Annual growth of 7.5% (2010) per capita GDP: Income of top 10%:
Millionaires (US$): 3 million (0.06%)
Unemployment: 3.8% (2010 est.)
Estimated female income:
*Most numbers are from the IMF. All GDP figures are in US$.
See also: Economy of the world ʹ Economy of Africa ʹ Economy of Asia ʹ Economy of Europe ʹ Economy of North America ʹ Economy of ceania ʹ Economy of South America
Urbanization involves excessively forceful impact on habitats, often including their extinction and replacement with artificial structures. These transformations disrupt flow paths of energy, water and matter, within and between adjacent ecosystems, re-directing them into unsustainable, human-originated tracks. These transformations pose major ecological consequences for ecosystems functioning. Changes of hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological processes in catchments are reflected in freshwaters - the receivers of deregulated, extreme runoffs and accelerated flow of matter from disrupted natural cycles. Additionally, degradation of water habitats handicaps their resilience - the ability to maintain oscillations within boundaries defined by steady state. Consequently, ecosystems functions and ability to provide services may be permanently amended.
Organizing the flow paths pursuing rules governing natural ecosystems in some parts of the city catchments, may compensate effects of their degradation in others. Reduction of impacts, such as minimizing pollution or water detention, together with rehabilitation of freshwater habitats are the foremost and fundamental conditions. It is also necessary to take measures toward augmenting absorbing capacity of ecosystems.
"Urban aquatic habitats in integrated urban water management" Activity aims in improving knowledge and methodological base for the integration of urban aquatic habitats and water based amenities into urban water development and management strategies. It also tests the proposed approaches in the set of selected case studies addressing various water related issues all over the world.
Urbanization process is a domain of developing countries. One of the results of the extremely high densities of fast- growing populations is "wild development", leading to such negative social and ecological effects as: formation and growth of slums and intense pressure on the environment and its resources (e.g., water and space).
At the same time, an inverse process, so called sub-urbanization, take place and has an important meaning in highly developed countries. Disperse of the human population to the cities' outskirts and surrounding lands results with increase of the antropopression on expanding extra-municipal areas, changes in the structure of the space organization, increased pressure on water resources and green areas. The final effect of this process is formation of so called Megalopolis, e.g. BosWash, where the area of approx. 146 thousand km2 is inhabited by a population of above 45 millions. Several water related problems, such as: modification of microclimate, changed environmental conditions for water cycling in landscape, reduced capacity for water retention thus increased vulnerability to extreme events (e.g., long- lasting droughts and extreme floods) and deteriorated quality of water resources are become burning issues and challenges in the new global urbanized world. Rapid development of landscape an housing often result with physical modification of habitats, which often results with degradation of the ability of ecosystems to maintain theirs structures and properties, thus providing ecosystem services.
The World in XX and XXI century have witnessed rapid urbanization:
y The global proportion of urban population increased from a mere 13% (220 million) in 1900 to 29% (732 million) in 1950 and, according to the 2005 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects (http://www.un.org/esa/), reached 49% (3.2 billion) in 2005. y Over half of the world's population will live in cities by year 2010, a large part in an increasing number of mega-cities. y Since the world is projected to continue to urbanize, 60% of the global population is expected to live in cities by 2030. y The rising number of urban dwellers give the best indication of the scale of these unprecedented trends: According to the latest United Nations population projections, 4.9 billion people are expected to be urban dwellers in 2030 - http://esa.un.org/unpp/
United Nations, DESA, Population Division.World Urbanization Prospects: The 2005 Revision http://esa.un.org/unpp/
MEGA-CITIES
Among the six most populous mega-cities in the world in 2005 - Tokyo, Ciudad de México (Mexico City), New York- Newark, Sao Paulo, Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi - Ciudad de México (Mexico City), Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi had annual population growth rates above 2.4%. Compared to 1950, the population of Delhi in 2005 was about 11 times larger; that of Sao Paulo was 8 times larger, and that of Ciudad de México (Mexico City) was almost 7 times larger. 1
In the future, the growth of the major mega-cities is projected to slow down, both in the more as well as less developed regions. However, there will be more variation in growth rates in less developed regions. For example, It is anticipated that Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi will be growing faster than Ciudad de México (Mexico City) and Sao Paulo. Both Tokyo and New York-Newark will experience very low population growth, resulting in the virtual stagnation of their population size.
New York City and surrounding area http://www.yp.com/cities/images/265px-Ny.terra.600pix.jpg
SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES
The example of a medium-size city - the City of Lodz, Poland.
The majority of the urban population of almost every country lives in small and medium-sized cities. In 2005, 51.5% of the urban population lived in cities with less than half a million residents. That proportion is projected to decrease to 50.5% by 2015.
The majority or urban dwellers in both more and less developed regions resided in small and medium-sized cities in 2005: 53.4% in more developed regions and 50.7% in less developed regions.
SLUMS
The growth of slums in the last 15 years has been unprecedented. In 1990, the World was inhabited by almost 715 million of slum dwellers. The slums population had increased to 912 million by 2000 and to approximately 998 million by today. UN-HABITAT (http://www.unhabitat.org/) estimates that if current trends continue, it will reach 1.4 billion by 2020.
A slum dweller may only have 5 to 10 litres per day at his or her disposal. A middle- or high-income household in the same city, however, may use some 50 to 150 litres per day, if not more.
UN Millennium Development Goals (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals) call for achieving significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.
Resources:
1. Millennium Development Goals Report 2006 - http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ 2. Human Development Report 2006 - http://hdr.undp.org 3. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2005 Revision- http://esa.un.org/unpp/ 4. United Nations Human Settlements Programme - http://www.unhabitat.org/ 5. New York City and surrounding area http://www.yp.com/cities/images/265px-Ny.terra.600pix.jpg
WATER CYCLE IN URBAN AREAS
WATER IN LANDSCAPE
Combined effects of urbanization, industrialization, and population growth greatly modify landscapes and thus the continuous circulation of water within catchments and the Earth's hydrosphere - the hydrological cycle.
The hydrological cycle control several processes in the landscape (e.g., transport of pollutants, water chemistry, pattern of nutrient fluxes, erosion, surface and groundwater levels), and thus some of the ecosystems features (e.g., rate of productivity, decomposition) and processes (e.g., rate and pathways of matter circulation). Functioning of ecological processes in the whole catchment depends on the water cycle reflects in the quality of aquatic habitats and ecological stability of their ecosystems.
URBAN DEVELOPMENT SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGES THE HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE..
The main changes of the physical pathways of the water cycles due to urbanization include:
y removal of natural vegetation drainage patterns; y loss of natural depressions which temporarily store surface water; y loss of rainfall absorbing capacity of soil; y creation of impervious areas (e.g., rooftops, roads, parking lots, sidewalks, driveways) y provision of man-made drainage systems (e.g., storm sewers, channels, detention ponds).
Therefore, although the hydrological cycle consists of the same elements, their proportions in urban area are significantly different:
y interception of rainfall is reduced due to removal of trees; y precipitation is usually higher than in rural areas; y evapotranspiration is much lower; y surface run-off is much larger; y ground-water run-off, infiltration and recharge is small; y water storage is much lower; y runoff volumes and peak flows in rivers are higher; y frequency of surface runoff is increased.
Urban development significantly increases the amount of storm water and the frequency of extreme hydrological events experienced by the City's catchments. The increased runoff causes more intense local flooding, while droughts during dry weather are deeper and longer.
Runoff amounts typically for 10-20% of the average annual rainfall in rural areas. In urban areas, where surfaces are highly impervious, typical runoff volumes range between 60-70% of the average annual rainfall.
These changes impact strongly water habitats: increased discharges erodes stream beds and banks, exports high concentrations of pollution into the rivers, wetlands and reservoirs, destabilizes ecological processes, handicap ecological stability of ecosystems. All this not only reduce aesthetic values of the city, but also restrict provision of ecosystem services and causes water-related problems to the urban population, related to flood risk, water supply, drainage, wastewater collection and management.
GREEN SPACE IN CITIES AND THE HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE
Cities expansion usually reduce green spaces areas. The satellite pictures show the overall look on two big urban areas: Brasilia and Beijing, and the changes within greens peace areas which accrued during a decade (green colour).
Brasilia, Brazil 1989 and 1999
Beijing, China 1992 and 2001 In some cites however, green space covers larger areas than built and paved spaces. In Vienna, only 32.8% of the city is classified as built-up, whilst green spaces cover 48.8% of the city's surface area when farmland and woodlands on the urban fringe are included. Similarly, two thirds of Oslo's surface area consists of woodlands and farmland. In other cities, the proportionate cover of green spaces can be considerably lower. According to land use statistics, the proportionate cover of green spaces is below 40% in Munich. However, the figures are difficult to compare as the proportionate cover of green space varies depending on how much of the surrounding countryside is incorporated within the municipal boundaries.
Percent of green urban area within the total urbanised area (based on data from: EEA, 2002),
¢
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Development of green areas in cities mitigate the negative impact on the hydrological cycle and improve the quality of the environment and quality of life in cities. Increased water retentiveness of catchments improves flood protection, quality of water, environment and aquatic ecosystems. Open water spaces and green areas improves microclimate providing better environment for people, increasing population health, providing recreational spaces.
References:
Water Resources of the United States
¤ ttp://water.usgs.gov/
¤ Environmental Scence Publisher for Everybody Round the Earth ¤ ttp://www.atmosp ere.mpg.de/enid/3rx.html
Designe Centre for American Urban Landscape http://www.designcenter.umn.edu
Greenstructures and Urban Planning
http://www.map21ltd.com/CO £ TC11/comp.htm
URBAN AQUATIC HABITATS
Aquatic habitats are water bodies supporting aquatic life. Increased temperatures of effluents, greater discharges of water, pollutants and waste, and changes in water bodies morphology impact all the basic habitats characteristics and affect the performance of associated biological communities. Impacted ecosystems lose their resistance to the escalating stresses as well as the resilience allowing them to adapt to changing conditions. Water stress imposes losses of, and trade-offs between, services and their different beneficiaries and stakeholders. Considering the growing water use and wastewater production, the need for tradeoffs between meeting the demands of urban population and those of aquatic habitats will be even more challenging in the future (Maksimovic and Tejada-Guibert 2001; Marsalek et al. 2006).
Urban aquatic habitats include urban streams, canals, rivers, ponds, impoundments, reservoirs and lakes and other water bodies. The main aquatic habitat characteristics, fall into five groups: (a) flow regime, (b) physical habitat structure, (c) chemical variables (water quality), (d) energy (food) sources, and (e) biotic interactions, (Yoder, 1989).
¦ § ¦ ¥ ¨ § ¦ © © ª « ¥¬ Factors influencing b ¥ g c c y performance (Yoder, 1989)
Human modifications of aquatic habitats ¬ The ab ¦ ve charac eristics of aquatic habitats is also reflected in the classification of major human pressures to which they are exposed (Karr et al. 1986), especially in urban areas. The primary factors of habitat deterioration are water quality decline and flow alternations, which is particularly pronounced in urban catchments. The broad range of chemicals from point and diffused sources include toxic substances and carcinogens, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, household hazardous wastes, oils, anti-freeze, heavy metals, pet and yard wastes, and pseudo-hormones. Simultaneously, the natural heterogeneity of habitats is very often destroyed. In many cities, aquatic habitats are included into the urban sewerage, playing a role of storm water receiver and disposer. Their structure is adapted for these purposes, and include canalisation, regulation with concrete stabs, water uptakes, turning underground, damming and others. These modifications induce several changes in habitats characteristics.
Resources:
y Lafont, M., Marsalek, J., Breil P. 2007. Urban Aquatic Habitats: Characteristics and Functioning. In: Wagner, I. , Marshalek, J. and Breil, P. (eds). Aquatic Habitats in Sustainable Urban Water Management: Science, Policy and Practice. Taylor and Francis/Balkema: Leiden . y Karr J.R., Fausch K. D., Angermeier P. L., Yant P. R & Schlosser I. J. 1986. Assessing biological integrity in running waters: a method and its rationale. Illinois Natural History Survey, Special Publication 5, 28 pp. y Maksimovic, C. & Tejada-Guibert, J.A. (2001). Frontiers on Urban Water Management: Deadlock or Hope? IWA Publishing, ISBN: 1 900222 76 0, London, UK. y Marsalek, J., Jimenez-Cisneros, B., Karamouz, M., Malmqvist, P.A., Goldenfum, J. and Chocat, B. (2006). Urban water cycle processes and interaction. UNESCO Press, Paris, Feb. y Yoder, C. 1989. The development and use of biocriteria for Ohio surface waters. In: Flock, G.H. (Ed.), Proc. National Conf. Water Quality Standards for the 21st Century, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Washingt on, D.C., pp. 139-146.
URBAN AQUATIC HABITAT MANAGEMENT
A balanced approach addressing the pressing issues in urban environment is not common in the water service sector, which has been traditionally based on a sectorial approach. Conventional urban water management focused mainly on protecting the urban human population against hydrological extremes (floods and droughts) and providing water services. The latter ones typically included water supply, urban drainage and flood protection, wastewater management and, more recently, some form of aquatic ecosystems protection. These however often did not address specific features of aquatic habitats, their needs and potentials. In many cases, to minimise drainage costs, urban streams and rivers were incorporated into major drainage systems and conveyed various types of municipal effluents, resulting in the ultimate habitats degradation.
Currently, the development of comprehensive knowledge generated by integration of various sectors of science as well as the recent developments in ecological engineering, increase opportunities to develop a more sustainable, economically viable urban environments. Newly emerging paradigms underline the need for water conservation, rational use, reuse, and sustainable integration of different components of urban river systems, including those of technical and natural character (Pinkham, 2004; Zalewski, 2006). This tendency creates opportunities for changing attitude to UAHs, and their use for concurrently improving efficiency of urban water management and the quality of human life in cities (Zalewski and Wagner, 2006).
Restoration, preservation, rehabilitation or remediation?
Among several approaches to urban aquatic habitats, the following are usually considered:
y Restoration - is a process which ideally brings a degraded river back to its original conditions. It includes restoring water quality, sediment and flow regime, channel morphology, communities of native aquatic plants and animals, and adjacent riparian lands. The goal of restoration is impossible to achieve in urban watercourses. Re-establishing the historical, original state would require replication of the original conditions, which no longer exist, and are not even well known. y Preservation - preservation of aquatic habitats state and biodiversity is a realistic goal, when the urbanisation impact on ecosystems is not severe. This ideal situation generally occurs in peri-urban areas, where urbanisation has not yet fully invaded the surrounding landscapes and where industrial or agricultural activities are limited (Lafont et al. 2006). y Rehabilitation - is a less ambitious but more realistic aim. It enhances or re-establishes lost or diminished biotic functions of ecosystems that can persist in it without attempts to restore pristine conditions. It improves the most important aspects of aquatic environment and creates habitats resembling its original conditions. y Remediation - is an approach applied in those cases where environmental changes are irreversible and catchment conditions no longer support aquatic ecosystem functioning. The remediation goal is to improve ecological conditions of the aquatic ecosystem, which may not lead to a state resembling the original state of the stream. It means that after the r emediation process we can obtain a new ecosystem, different from the original one (Lovett and Edgar, 2002).
Criteria for making a decision should balance potential increase of ecological benefits (and possibly of human well-being) and spatial, demographic, and economic limitations together with economic gains and losses.
Resources:
Breil, P., Marsalek, J., Wagner, I., Dogse, P. 2007. Introduction to Urban Aquatic Habitats Management. In Wagner, I. , Marshalek, J. and Breil, P. (eds). Aquatic Habitats in Sustainable Urban Water Management: Science, Policy and Practice. Taylor and Francis/Balkema: Leiden .
Pinkham, R., 2004. 21st Century Water Systems: Scenarios, Visions, and Drivers. http://www.rmi.org/images/other/Water/W99-21_21CentWaterSys.pdf. Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, Colorado
Lafont, M., Vivier, A., Nogueira, S., Namour, P. & Breil, P. 2006. Surface and hyporheic Oligochaete assemblages in a French suburban stream. Hydrobiologia 564: 183-193.
Lovett, S. and Edgar, B. 2002. 'Planning for river restoration', Fact Sheet 9, Land & Water Australia, Canberra
Zalewski, M. 2006. Ecohydrology - an interdisciplinary tool for integrated protection and management of water bodies. Arch. Hydrobiol. Suppl. 158/4, p:613-622
Zalewski M. & Wagner I. 2006. Ecohydrology - the use of water and ecosystem processes for healthy urban environments. Aquatic Habitats in Integrated Urban Water Management. Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology. Vol. 5. No 4, 263-268
Ecohydrology for Urban Aquatic Habitats From the point of view of environmental science, urban environment can be considered as a highly condensed anthropogenic system, which is organised for efficient flow of water, matter, energy and information. This extremely productive "organism" can efficiently provide the services required by the society such as safe drinking water and efficient sewerage, which is very important due to very high population density. However, increase of society's education and environmental awareness rises also the public demand for improvement of the quality of life. Therefore other expectations, depending to a great extent on proper ecosystem functioning, appear. These include ecosystem services such as those determining human safety (e.g., mitigation of floods), health (e.g., water quality improvement by self-purification, clean air), as well as those fulfilling materialistic and spiritual aspirations - high quality living space, recreational areas and aesthetic values. The services depend to a great extent on the functioning of aquatic ecosystems and their ability to cope with high impacts, determined among others by the size and distribution of "green areas". However low availability and high prices of land in cites make maximising environmental amenities at low management a real challenge for any society. Therefore one of the alternative solutions is increasing the absorbing capacity of ecosystems, in order to improve their ability for coping with the highly condensed human impacts in urban areas. The methods for achieving this are implicitly provided by the main principle of ecohydrology (Zalewski et al., 1997), which postulates to "use ecosystem properties as a management tool" for enhancement the efficiency of some regulatory processes. The solutions have to be synergistically integrated into the city "system" by their harmonisation with engineering solutions.
Ecohydrology is a scientific concept, which quantifies and explains relationships between hydrological processes and biotic dynamics at a catchment scale, and is applied to solving environmental problems (e.g., Zalewski 2006). It has been defined as a sub-discipline of hydrology focused on ecological aspects of the water cycle. This concept is based upon the assumption that sustainable development of water resources is dependent on the ability to restore and maintain the evolutionarily established processes of water and nutrient circulation and energy flows at the catchment scale.
Ecohydrology for the urban environment
The expression a "green city" is synonymous with the notion of a healthy urban environment with a high quality of life. Moreover, it implicitly means that a significant part of the urbanised space is covered by semi-natural terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems have an excellent potential for moderation and control of the water cycle and pollution that should be considered while management plans are being developed. Such areas in cities provide citizens not only with regulatory ecosystem services, but also aesthetic, cultural and recreational values. However first and foremost improve human health in direct and indirect ways. There is growing evidence that higher and more stable moisture of the city air reduces the amount of dust which in turn reduces asthma, allergies and other related diseases. Also the opportunities for recreation in green areas are important for the proper physical and psychological regeneration of inhabitants.
Rehabilitation of a municipal river: an example of possible multidimensional benefits for the urban environment and the society
Well-managed water habitats are visually the most attractive elements of modern cities landscapes, and are usually considered by city planners as "axes" or "nucleii" around which individual green areas and urbanised spaces are functionally organised (e.g., Day et al., 2005; Tezer, 2005; Braioni et al., 2006). They improve the quality of life and human health and accelerate the city development, by attracting creative and innovative leaders.
Resources:
y Zalewski M., Wagner I. 2007. Ecohydrology of Urban Aquatic Ecosystems for Healthy Cities In: Wagner, I. , Marshalek, J. and Breil, P. (eds). Aquatic Habitats in Sustainable Urban Water Management: Science, Policy and Practice. Taylor and Francis/Balkema: Leiden. y Braioni M.G., Braioni A., Salmoiraghi G., 2006. A model for the integrated management of river ecosystems. Verh. Internat.Verein. Limnol., 29 (4): 2115-2123. y Day, E., Ractliffe, G. and Wood, J. 2005. An audit of the ecological implications of remediation, management and conservation or urban aquatic habitats in Cape Town, South Africa, with reference to their social and ecological contexts. Ecohydrology and hydrobiology. Vol 5:4. y Tezer, A. 2005. "The Urban Biosphere Reserve (UBR) concept for sustainable use and protection of urban aquatic habitats: case of the Omerli Watershed, Istanbul" Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 309-320. y Zalewski, M. 2006. Ecohydrology - an interdisciplinary tool for integrated protection and management of water bodies. Arch. Hydrobiol. Suppl. 158/4, p:613-622 y Zalewski, M., Janauer, G.A. & Jolankai, G. 1997. Ecohydrology. A new paradigm for the sustainable use of aquatic resources. UNESCO IHP Technical Document in Hydrology No. 7.; IHP - V Projects 2.3/2.4, UNESCO Paris, 60 pp.
No. : 7
Name of activity: Urban aquatic habitats in integrated urban water management Objective: Improved knowledge and methodological base for the integration of urban aquatic habitats and water based amenities into urban water development and management strategies. Testing of methodologies in selected case studies.
Description: y Methodological development of socio-ecological indices for environmental health and water interactions in different environments towards creation of healthy urban aquatic habitats y Environment friendly urban water system analysis, design and management, taking in consideration habitat issues, geomorphology / wetlands in urban areas y Quantification, characterisation innovation of amenities corridors and buffer zones under particular bio-climate and bio- geographic condition (eco-regions) including remediation scenario for recreation in urban areas. y Development of urban water amenities systems (urban ponds and lakes, enclosed water bodies, coastal areas); y Performance of source control, urban amenity and urban ecological habitats systems under specific climate conditions (HT, ASA, CC and TC)
Expected results: Guidelines for planning and management of urban aquatic habitats and water amenities as a part of regional and local economic development.
Beneficiary groups: Member countries, water and environment professional, urban and environmental planners
Expected executing and supporting MAB, UNEP, SCOPE partners:
Proposed (co-ordinator - pending), Dreiseitl (member), P. Dogse (member), J. co-ordinator/focal Celecia (member) point:
No. : 1 Data requirements management for integrated urban water Name of activity: management Objective: Reliability and availability of data is a prerequisite for quality urban water analysis of performance planning of rehabilitation and management. The project will result in a consistent methodology for data gathering, processing, and quantification of uncertainty and application under specific climate conditions.
Description: y Assessment of requirements of natural, climate, infrastructure, urban water balance (spatial and temporal distribution) social and economic data for integrated urban water management y Development of urban water information system (including water withdrawals and consumption, impacts, descriptors of receiving water and their ecosystem) y Establishment data structure for special utilisation: resources assessment and quantification, planning, modelling, managing under specific climates: humid tropics, arid and semi-arid, cold and temperate (HT, ASA, CC and TC).
Implementation Interactions with data providers and data users. Systematic strategy: gathering of selected representative data sets and links with HELP programme to be encouraged
Implementation Workshop on data needs, reliability and availability mechanism: Links with 2K2C project (new generation models) On site workshop on the applicability management tools developed for urban planners & urban water specialist in a specific given geographical region.
Expected results: Manual of urban water data management Selected samples of data under specific climate conditions
Beneficiary groups: Urban water researchers, urban planners, water and urban water environmental professionals, local governments, software developers
Expected executing and WWAP, MAB, UNCHS (Habitat), FRIEND, WMO, WHO, MOST, supporting partners: Member countries (National IHP Committees), RCUMW Tehran
Duration/schedule: --
Proposed J. Niemczynowicz (co-ordinator), J.L.B. Krajewski (member)and L. co-ordinator/focal Fuchs (member) point:
Financial implications:
No. : 2
Name of activity: Processes and interactions in the urban water cycle
Objective: y Improved understanding of processes that take place in urban environment, and of the interactions of natural suburban, rural and urban environments for the successful analysis, planning, development and management of urban water systems y Development of the innovative analytical tools to address the problems of spatial, temporal variability y Assessment of the potential effects of climate variations and changes on urban water systems
Description: y Quantification of the imprint of human activities on urban hydrological cycle and its interaction with the environment under present and future conditions, y Urban water and soil interface: development of the understanding of water and soil relation, with particular reference to soil erosion, soil pollution and land subsidence y Hydrological, ecological, biological and chemical processes in urban water environment for sustainable cities of the future y Assessment of the impact of urban development, land use and socio-economic changes on availability of water supply, aquatic chemistry, (anthropogenic) pollution, soil erosion and sedimentation and natural habitat availability and diversity
Implementation -- strategy:
Implementation -- mechanism:
Expected results: Manual of water and environment sensitive urban development
Beneficiary groups: Urban planners and urban water managers
Expected executing and IAHS, MAB, BAC, WWC, FRIEND, HELP, IAH, IOC, UNEP- supporting partners: GPA, IHP National Committees, RUCMW Tehran
Duration/schedule: --
Proposed co-ordinator/focal J. Marsalek (Co-ordinator), A. Malmquist (member) point:
Financial implications: --
No. : 3
Name of activity: Towards sustainable urban groundwater management Objective: Enhanced understanding of the role and the interactions of groundwater in the urban environment for sustainable integrated strategies
Description: Evaluation and further development, including analysis of case studies, of approaches for the assessment of groundwater quantity (spatial and temporal distribution), quality (including pollution and contamination), susceptibility to over-exploitation and control of pollution sources Specific issues which will be addressed are:
y Changes in water balance due to urbanisation: storm water recharge, leakage from drain water, sewer and wastewater infiltration and exfiltration y Groundwater interaction with soil water zone (including urban agriculture and forestry) y Groundwater/surface water (including marine water) interaction y Management-of groundwater table dynamics (raising and lowering)
Implementation y Identification of key issues of urban groundwater strategy: y Designing analytic framework to get the specific models in implementation y Capacity building/awareness raising
Implementation Workshops, development of analytic tools and case studies; regional mechanism: studies (including cooperation RCUWM-Tehran); training and awareness-raising activities.
Expected results: y New modelling, planning and management tools y Guideline on urban groundwater management including use of analytic tools, y Training and awareness rising material for urban planners and managers, water managers and public at large on urban groundwater
Beneficiary groups: Urban water research and professional community in the areas facing groundwater problems; public at large.
Expected executing and supporting IAH,IOC, IAHR, BAC, JIIHP, IGCP partners:
Duration/schedule: --
Proposed D. Pokrajac (co-ordinator), Kinzelbach (member), Ken Howard co-ordinator/focal (IAH ± Commission on Groundwater in Urban Areas) point:
Financial implications:
No. : 4 Integrated urban water system interactions: Name of activity: Complementarity among urban water services Objective: Expanded knowledge base related to the interactions of man-made systems in the urban environment and development applicable tools and approaches for analysis such as:
y Mutual interactions of UW systems (water supply, wastewater and stormwater drainage and their effects on the systems¶ performance y Wastewater design tools, integrating wastewater reuse and solid waste y Evaluation tools/models for new technologies combining wastewater, solid waste, with resources socio-economic, health, reliability, efficiency etc.
Description: Development of approaches for urban water management under present and future development and climate variation scenarios:
y Better management of water supply: water demand (water quality, quantity and distribution), water conservation, impacts of climate change y Sustainable development and guidelines for new alternative water supply based on alternative and non conventional water resources such as stormwater harvesting, recycling and reuse y Coping with climate change effects on flood, extremes events and human health y Assessment of the impact of urbanisation on wastewater management y Wastewater management interaction with solid waste management and air pollution, division point and non point source pollution y Assessment of urban streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands and reservoir systems and their impact on sustainable water supply y Criteria for combined and separate urban sewer systems in developing countries y Wastewater deign in household, separation and pollutant control y Risk analysis for design under specific climates (cold, arid and semi-arid, humid tropics and temperate) and developing countries with economic constraints y Development of methodologies for integrated catchment management comprising urban centres
Implementation Multidisciplinary working group strategy:
Implementation Seminar on integrated urban water system interaction. The seminar mechanism: will focus on evaluation tools for urban water and waste interactions, as well as wastewater separation and pollution control in households. Document tools (paper and computer models)
Expected results: Planning guidelines and toll kits for selecting future technology for urban water supply and sanitation (software basis)
Beneficiary groups: Water and environment professionals (Professional NGOs)
Expected executing IWA, MAB, National IHP Committees, COST, at Regional level and supporting RCUWM partners: Tehran
Duration/schedule: 5 years
Proposed Mogens Henze (co-ordinator), Peter Steen Mikkelsen (Technical co-ordinator/focal University of Danemark), Niels Thygesen (Danish University point: Consortium for Env. and Devt. of Urban Areas and industry, Ahmad Abrishamchi, Massoud Tajrishi (Sharif Univ. of Tech. Iran). Other potential participants: Ralf Otterpohl (Hamburg Technical University) and Takashi Asano (UC Davis).
Financial implications:
No. : 5 Integrated urban water modelling and management under Name of activity: specific climates: humid tropics(HT), arid and semiarid climates (ASA), cold climates (CC) and temperate climates (TC) Objective: Strengthening the analytical framework for integrated urban water management under specific climates, with special focus on developing countries
Description: y Development of methodologies for evaluation of models for analysis of performance: formulation and quantification of performance indicators, optimisation by taking account economic evaluation y Development of analytic framework for urban, peri-urban and rural water interactions under specific climates y Development of tools for holistic modelling and operational management of water based systems y Sensitivity and parameter analysis for hydrological modelling under specific climate conditions y Environmental impact assessment of separate urban water components y Environmental impact under integrated effects of Urban Water Systems
Implementation -- strategy:
Implementation Series of selected case studies in specific climate conditions ± co- mechanism: ordinated by IRTCUD / CUW units and other UNESCO regional centres Organisation of workshop
Expected results: Guidelines, modelling tools and teaching materials
Beneficiary groups: Water and environment professional, professional NGOs
Expected executing and IWA, MAB, HELP, ESCAP supporting partners:
Duration/schedule: --
Proposed Carlos Tucci (co-ordinator), Ahmad Abrishamchi, S. Simonovic co-ordinator/focal IRTCUD / CUW network: Norway, Yugoslavia, Egypt and point: RCUWM -Tehran Regional Center for Urban Water Management. Other potential participant: Jay Lund (UC Davis).
Financial implications: --
No. : 6
Name of activity: Urban water security, human health and disaster prevention Objective: Provide criteria and problem solving approaches to enhance water related security in the urban environment under present day and future emerging threats
Description: y Identification and quantification of the key aspects affecting water security in cities y Outbreaks (water quality jeopardising) in drinking water distribution system, technologies for safe drinking water (modelling & management) y Urban water system and health hazards ± identification of security aspects of water resources management and assessment of impacts of biotic (microbiological) and abiotic pollution (heavy metals) on human health y Methodological development of socio-ecological indices for environmental health and water interactions in urban area y Assessment of societal impacts (i.e. population, economic, health, security issues) of future imbalances in the global distribution of water supply and use in conjunction with Theme 1 y Identification of causes, analysis, mapping and mitigation of natural disasters (floods, landslides, deliberate disasters- sabotage) affecting urban water services.
Implementation Development and testing of tools for health and security risk strategy: reduction under various climate, economic and social conditions.
Implementation Problem identification, implementation of the developed tools. mechanism:
Expected results: Regional reports (joint product with WHO/other international partners), problem solving and awareness raising tools
Beneficiary groups: General public, NGOs working in public health domain,
Expected executing and WHO, MOST, UNDP, ISDR, IGCP, BAC, ESCAP, WB, supporting partners: UNU/INWEH, RCUWM Tehran
Duration/schedule: --
Proposed co-ordinator/focal Ivanildo Hespanhol (Brazil) , Tuula Tuhkanen (Finland) point:
Financial implications:
No. : 8 Socio-economic and institutional aspects in urban water Name of activity: management Objective: Expand capabilities of urban water decision-makers, planners and managers by advising appropriate strategies for urban water management taking into account social and institutional aspects.
Description: Development of sound strategies for realising sustainable water use to ensure service equity and alleviate poverty considering:
y Issues linked to assessing safe water as a human right y Socio-economic study on water service and consumption y Development of public awareness on urban water management y Community participation in water project y Water and ethics y Water conflicts related to urban water development and use y Integrated water and land-use policies to combat man- induced deterioration of the environment y Institutional development and participatory process for decision making in management urban water system y Communications between water specialist, politicians and communities to strengthen public participation in UWM y Legal aspect: evaluation of trends in water regulation
Implementation Establishment of appropriate guidelines and dissemination to strategy: stakeholders, including the use of mass media on the role of water in the society and point out risks connected to water shortage.
Implementation Cooperation with RCUWM in Tehran and international NGOs on mechanism: organization a regional workshop for city and regional planners and various cities on urban water management in coastal megacities of developing countries.
Expected results: Guidelines and appropriate strategies for urban water management
Beneficiary groups: Member countries, water and environment professionals and decision makers on urban development, urban water managers, and the public at large
Expected executing and MOST, UNDP, Habitat, HELP, MAB, WWAP, IOC, CSI, supporting partners: Development Agencies (DFID, OEDC), IsoCaRP and ISSC, international NGOs (IULA/Metropolis, OVPM...)
Duration/schedule: --
Proposed Brigitte Colin, Jan Lundqvist, Rebekah Brown, Poul Harremoes, at co-ordinator/focal regional level RCUWM-Tehran. point:
Financial implications:
No. : 9
Name of activity: Urban water education, training and technology transfer Objective: Strengthening the ways and means of providing urban water education and training. The new paradigm in integrated urban water management requires top-level decision-makers, urban water and environmental professionals to have access to up-to-date knowledge and technologies. The project will compile the existing and create new training tools, including the providing of basic management knowledge for municipal professionals
Description: y Strengthening of the global network of urban water centres y Development of research and training method in cooperation with Delft, IRTCUD/CUW, Regional centres: Tehran, Kuala Lumpur, Cairo, Porto Alegre, Belgrade, Trondheim, UNU y Integration, customisation and production of new tools and training on use of new tools y Application of the tools in target oriented training actions, TETT, IAHR/IWA y Continuing education and training for selected target groups
Implementation -- strategy:
Implementation Series of training courses and awareness raising actions (including mechanism: briefing sessions for top-level decision-makers).
Expected results: Consolidated sets of training tools tested and applied in selected courses at various levels
Beneficiary groups: Member countries, water and environment professional
Expected executing IHE - Delft, IRTCUD/CUW, Regional centres: Tehran, Kuala and supporting Lumpur, Cairo, Porto Alegre, Belgrade, Trondheim, Sofia, , UNU, partners: UNICEF, UNEP-IETC, WET, WB
Duration/schedule: 6 years
Proposed Cedo Maksimovic, Jonathan Parkinson, UNU, IHE, et regional level co-ordinator/focal RCUWM-Tehran point:
Financial implications: Current Population of India in 2010 is around 1,150,000,000 (1.15 billion) people. Currently, India is second largest country in the world after China in terms of population. By 2030, the population of India will be largest in the world estimated to be around 1.53 billion. There has been rapid increase in Indian population in the last 60 years. Population of India at the time of Independence was only 350 million. So Indian Population has increased more than three times.
Current Population of India in 2010:
Current Population of India in 2010 - 1,150,000,000 (1.15 billion)
Population of India in 1947 was - 350 million Demographi s of Asia
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Map of countries by population density (See List o countries by population density.) The Demographi s of Asia refers to the human population of Asia. The continent covers 29.4% of the Earth's land area and has a population of almost 4 billion - accounting for about 56% of the world population. Together, China's and India's populations are estimated to be
around 2.5 billion people.
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¶ · [edit] ´ c y Further information: Economy of ¸ sia
Economically, most of Asia is traditionally considered part of the "Second World", with the
significant exception of the industrialized "First World" nations of ¹ apan, South Korea and Turkey.
Asian nations in the G20 major economies are China, India, Indonesia, ¹ apan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Turkey. Of these, Russia and Japan are also in the G8, and additionally China and India in the G8+5.
Six Asian countries / regions are on the IMF advanced economy list: South Korea Hong º Kong China Israel Taiwan ¹apan Singapore.
The Human Development Index is mostly in the "medium" range of 0.5-0.8, with 13 countries in the "high" range:
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1 (0) Japan 0.953 1 (0) Yemen 0.508
2 (0) Taiwan 0.943 2 (0) East Timor 0.514
3 (0) I 0.932 P srael 3 (0) apua New 0.530 Guinea 4 (0) Singapore 0.922 4 (0) Nepal 0.534 5 (0) South Korea 0.921 5 (0) Bangladesh 0.547 6 (1) Brunei 0.894 6 (1) Pakistan 0.551 7 (1) Kuwait 0.891 7 (1) Bhutan 0.579
8 (4) Ã atar 0.875 8 (1) Myanmar 0.583 United Arab 9 (10) 0.868 Emirates 9 (1) Cambodia 0.598
10 (2) Bahrain 0.866 10 (2) Laos 0.601
11 (2) Oman 0.814
12 (15) Saudi Arabia 0.812
13 (2) Malaysia 0.811
14 (2) Russia 0.802
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Î Î Ð Ñ [edit] Í h ici i Main article: Ethnic groups of Asia
Further information: Asian people
Central Asian peoples: Turkic peoples East Asian peoples:
y List of Chinese ethnic groups (historical), Sino-Tibetan peoples, Japanese people, Koreans
y Northern Asia: List of indigenous peoples of Russia: Indigenous peoples of Siberia; Finno-Ugric peoples
y Ethnic groups of South Asia: Ethnic groups of India, Ethnic groups in Pakistan, Dravidians, Indo-Aryans, Munda people
y Ethnic groups of Southeast Asia: List of ethnic groups in Cambodia, ethnic groups in Indonesia, List of ethnic groups in Laos, Ethnic groups of the Philippines, List of ethnic groups in Vietnam; Austronesian peoples, Tai peoples
y Ethnic groups of the Middle East: Peoples of the Caucasus (transcontinental), Ethnic
minorities in Iran, Ethnic minorities in Iraq; Semites, Iranian peoples, Turkmen, Turks
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y Missing women of Asia
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y World Population: Major Trends List of Asian ountries population
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This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced
material may be challenged and removed. (February 2010)
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This is a list of Asian countries by population. It is sourced from the global list of countries by population as of December 2007.
A part of Kazakhstan which lie within Europe is included here. Cyprus, on the other hand, is normally included in Europe for political and cultural reasons, and is therefore excluded from this list, although it is traditionally considered part of Asia geographically. Pos Country Population
- Asia 3,776,000,000
[1] 1 People's Republic of China 1,322,597,000
2 India 1,131,043,000
3 Indonesia 231,627,000
4 Pakistan 161,998,000
5 Bangladesh 158,665,000
6 Japan 127,718,000
7 Philippines 88,706,300
8 Vietnam 87,375,000
9 Iran 71,208,000
10 Thailand 62,828,706
11 Myanmar 48,798,000
12 South Korea 48,512,000
13 Iraq 28,993,000
14 Nepal 28,196,000
15 Malaysia 27,544,000
16 Uzbekistan 27,372,000
17 Afghanistan 27,145,000
18 Saudi Arabia 24,735,000
19 North Korea 23,790,000
20 Republic of China (Taiwan) 22,935,000
[2] 21 Syria 22,198,110 22 Yemen 20,727,063
23 Sri Lanka 19,299,000
24 Kazakhstan 15,422,000
25 Cambodia 14,444,000
26 Israel 7,208,520
27 Hong Kong Ý China 7,206,000
28 Tajikistan 6,736,000
29 Jordan 5,924,000
30 Laos 5,859,000
31 Kyrgyzstan 5,317,000
32 Turkmenistan 4,965,000
33 Singapore 4,436,000
34 United Arab Emirates 4,380,000
35 Lebanon 4,099,000
36 Palestinian Authority 4,017,000
37 Kuwait 2,851,000
38 Mongolia 2,629,000
39 Oman 2,595,000
40 East Timor 1,155,000
41 Þ atar 841,000
42 Bahrain 753,000
43 Bhutan 658,000
44 Macau, China 481,000 45 Brunei 390,000
46 Maldives 306,000
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Environment - current issues This entry lists the most pressing and important environmental problems. The following terms and abbreviations are used throughout the entry: A idifi ation - the lowering of soil and water pH due to acid precipitation and deposition usually through precipitation; this process disrupts ecosystem nutrient flows and may kill freshwater fish and plants dependent on more neutral or alkaline conditions (see acid rain). A id rain - characterized as containing harmful levels of sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide; acid rain is damaging and potentially deadly to the earth's fragile ecosystems; acidity is measured using the pH scale where 7 is neutral, values greater than 7 are considered alkaline, and values below 5.6 are considered acid precipitation; note- a pH of 2.4 (the acidity of vinegar) has been measured in rainfall in New England. Aerosol - a collection of airborne particles dispersed in a gas, smoke, or fog. Afforestation - converting a bare or agricultural space by planting trees and plants; reforestation involves replanting trees on areas that have been cut or destroyed by fire. As estos - a naturally occurring soft fibrous mineral commonly used in fireproofing materials and considered to be highly carcinogenic in particulate form. Biodiversit - also biological diversity; the relative number of species, diverse in form and function, at the genetic, organism, community, and ecosystem level; loss of biodiversity reduces an ecosystem's ability to recover from natural or man-induced disruption. Bio-indi ators - a plant or animal species whose presence, abundance, and health reveal the general condition of its habitat. Biomass - the total weight or volume of living matter in a given area or volume. Car on le - the term used to describe the exchange of carbon (in various forms, e.g., as carbon dioxide) between the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial biosphere, and geological deposits. Cat hments - assemblages used to capture and retain rainwater and runoff; an important water management technique in areas with limited freshwater resources, such as Gibraltar. DDT (di hloro-diphen l-tri hloro-ethane - a colorless, odorless insecticide that has toxic effects on most animals; the use of DDT was banned in the US in 1972. Defoliants - chemicals which cause plants to lose their leaves artificially; often used in agricultural practices for weed control, and may have detrimental impacts on human and ecosystem health. Deforestation - the destruction of vast areas of forest (e.g., unsustainable forestry practices, agricultural and range land clearing, and the over exploitation of wood products for use as fuel) without planting new growth. Desertifi ation - the spread of desert-like conditions in arid or semi-arid areas, due to overgrazing, loss of agriculturally productive soils, or climate change. Dredging - the practice of deepening an existing waterway; also, a technique used for collecting bottom-dwelling marine organisms (e.g., shellfish) or harvesting coral, often causing significant destruction of reef and ocean-floor ecosystems. Drift-net fishing - done with a net, miles in extent, that is generally anchored to a boat and left to float with the tide; often results in an over harvesting and waste of large populations of non-commercial marine species (by-catch) by its effect of "sweeping the ocean clean." Ecosystems - ecological units comprised of complex communities of organisms and their specific environments. Effluents - waste materials, such as smoke, sewage, or industrial waste which are released into the environment, subsequently polluting it. Endangered species - a species that is threatened with extinction either by direct hunting or habitat destruction. Freshwater - water with very low soluble mineral content; sources include lakes, streams, rivers, glaciers, and underground aquifers. Greenhouse gas - a gas that "traps" infrared radiation in the lower atmosphere causing surface warming; water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons, and ozone are the primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. Groundwater - water sources found below the surface of the earth often in naturally occurring reservoirs in permeable rock strata; the source for wells and natural springs. Highlands Water Project - a series of dams constructed jointly by Lesotho and South Africa to redirect Lesotho's abundant water supply into a rapidly growing area in South Africa; while it is the largest infrastructure project in southern Africa, it is also the most costly and controversial; objections to the project include claims that it forces people from their homes, submerges farmlands, and squanders economic resources. Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) - represents the roughly 150,000 Inuits of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia in international environmental issues; a General Assembly convenes every three years to determine the focus of the ICC; the most current concerns are long-range transport of pollutants, sustainable development, and climate change. Metallurgical plants - industries which specialize in the science, technology, and processing of metals; these plants produce highly concentrated and toxic wastes which can contribute to pollution of ground water and air when not properly disposed. Noxious substances - injurious, very harmful to living beings. Overgrazing - the grazing of animals on plant material faster than it can naturally regrow leading to the permanent loss of plant cover, a common effect of too many animals grazing limited range land. Ozone shield - a layer of the atmosphere composed of ozone gas (O3) that resides approximately 25 miles above the Earth's surface and absorbs solar ultraviolet radiation that can be harmful to living organisms. Poaching - the illegal killing of animals or fish, a great concern with respect to endangered or threatened species. Pollution - the contamination of a healthy environment by man-made waste. Potable water - water that is drinkable, safe to be consumed. Salination - the process through which fresh (drinkable) water becomes salt (undrinkable) water; hence, desalination is the reverse process; also involves the accumulation of salts in topsoil caused by evaporation of excessive irrigation water, a process that can eventually render soil incapable of supporting crops. Siltation - occurs when water channels and reservoirs become clotted with silt and mud, a side effect of deforestation and soil erosion. Slash-and-burn agriculture - a rotating cultivation technique in which trees are cut down and burned in order to clear land for temporary agriculture; the land is used until its productivity declines at which point a new plot is selected and the process repeats; this practice is sustainable while population levels are low and time is permitted for regrowth of natural vegetation; conversely, where these conditions do not exist, the practice can have disastrous consequences for the environment. Soil degradation - damage to the land's productive capacity because of poor agricultural practices such as the excessive use of pesticides or fertilizers, soil compaction from heavy equipment, or erosion of topsoil, eventually resulting in reduced ability to produce agricultural products. Soil erosion - the removal of soil by the action of water or wind, compounded by poor agricultural practices, deforestation, overgrazing, and desertification. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation - a portion of the electromagnetic energy emitted by the sun and naturally filtered in the upper atmosphere by the ozone layer; UV radiation can be harmful to living organisms and has been linked to increasing rates of skin cancer in humans. Waterborne diseases - those in which bacteria survive in, and are transmitted through, water; always a serious threat in areas with an untreated water supply.