This project examined multiple aspects of how natural resources, urban form and infrastructure affect each other and potentially lead to the establishment of divergent forms of urbanism.

The project’s point of departure was the common assumption that cities and urban development are directly affected by the availability and costs of natural resources, and that in turn, different forms of urban development result in substantial differences in resource use. The project primarily focused on the spific case of two natural resources, land and energy, and explored their relationships with city form, urban dwelling and mobility. It analysed these relationships through a comparative case study approach which considers extreme and divergent city models in Asia.

The research included the multi-scale temporal analysis of different types and changes of urban development in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi (a second Middle East comparator case) and two contrasting city types in East Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Project Report

In November 2017 LSE Cities published their final report containing the key findings of the project.

Read the project report

Research Team

Philipp Rode | Principal Investigator

Philipp is Executive Director of LSE Cities and Associate Professorial Research Fellow at LSE.

Alexandra Gomes | Research Officer

Alexandra Gomes is a Research Officer at LSE Cities. She is responsible for coordinating LSE Cities’ spatial analysis across a range of projects.

Muhammad Adeel | Research Officer

Muhammad is Research Officer at LSE Cities working on the 'Resource Urbanism' project.