Post-suburban Elements in an Asian Extended Metropolitan Region: The Case of Jabodetabek (Jakarta Metropolitan Area)

Abstract

Urban development in many Asian countries is characterized by an extensive growth of built-up areas which radiates from city centres in all directions, and extends beyond city and metropolitan boundaries. This process is referred to as the phenomenon of the Extended Metropolitan Region (EMR) (McGee and Robinson, 1995; Leaf, 2002; Firman, 2003; Jones, 2006; Wong, 2006). The development is also characterized by mixing of many different land uses and economic activities, including large-scale housing projects, industrial estates, and agricultural activities. The EMR phenomenon has occurred not only in primate cities and the fringe areas in the Southeast Asian countries, such as Bangkok, Ho-Chi-Min City, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta, but also in their middle cities, including Surabaya, Medan and Bandung in Indonesia, Cebu City in the Philippines, and Chiang Mai in Thailand (see also Rimmer and Dick, 2009). The trend shows that the future of Pacific Asia EMR will see a shift from mono-centric to multicentric EMR with decentred spatial flows (Douglass and Jones, 2008, p. 37).