Shifting paradigm of urban sustainability: Major sustainable city development trends in the East Asian context

Over the past one and a half centuries, urbanization has coincided with industrialization and globalization. The business as usual mode of urban development has proven unsustainable, and the consensus of developing new paradigms toward more sustainable trajectories has been reached. This paper reviews and identifies the most prominent forms of sustainable urban development, encompassing theories of urban frameworks, major definitions and concepts and historical developments in the East Asian context. Three major trends are assessed, including garden cities (and eco-cities), low-carbon cities and smart cities, which identify each main phase of sustainable urbanization in the East Asian context.