Land Teleconnection, Governance and Urban Sustainability

Abstract

With the world’s urban population growing at an unprecedented rate and cities growing dramatically in size, there is a need to recognise and investigate the impacts of cities on natural ecosystems. The concept of urban land teleconnections (ULT) is focused on process-based conceptualisation along a continuum of land systems and is important in the study of environmental change and urbanisation. However, with previous studies of urban sustainability in Taiwan mostly focused on a geographical region and lacking the views of bilateral interactions between urban areas being studied and the other remote urban or rural areas, there is a need for study on urban sustainability that includes the effects and governance of urban land teleconnections. Professor Shu-Li Huang, Director of the Center for Global change and Sustainability Science (CGCSS) of National Taipei University, Taiwan, is working alongside colleagues from National Taiwan University, from National Taipei University, Lee-Ming Institute of Technology, and the National Chengchi University. This article examines the research themes of the Land teleconnection, governance and urban sustainability project are to: rethink the implications and scope of urbanisation on urban sustainability from the viewpoint of urban land teleconnections; identify the driving forces of urbanisation in the Taipei Metropolitan region, and analyse the teleconnected influence on distal areas; and propose strategies of urban governance and planning with consideration of urban land teleconnections.