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Measuring Sustainability Based Upon Various Perspectives: A Case Study of a Hill Station in Southeast Asia

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Abstract

A hill station is a town or city situated in mountain regions in the tropics founded during the western colonization in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hill stations have moderate temperatures, and are known for their relatively good natural environments, which generate valuable ecosystem services that benefit the local population. However, rapid urbanization threatens the sustainability of these areas. This study evaluates the sustainability of the urbanization process of Baguio City, a hill station city in Southeast Asia and the summer capital of the Philippines, by determining the relationship between its velocity of urbanization and velocity of urban sustainability based upon various perspectives. From an equal weight perspective (of the triple bottom line of sustainability components, namely environmental, social, and economic) and a pro-economic perspective, the results revealed that the urbanization of Baguio City has been moving toward a “sustainable urbanization.” However, from the environmental and eco-sustainable human development perspectives, the results indicated that it has been moving toward an “unsustainable urbanization.” The paper discusses the implications of the findings for the planning of sustainable development for Baguio City, including some critical challenges in sustainability assessment and the applicability of the framework used for future sustainability assessments of the other hill stations in Southeast Asia.

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Notes

  1. The term ‘hill station’ is commonly used to refer to a town or city in the tropics founded by a Western colonial power during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most hill stations are sited in mountain regions at an altitude between 1000 and 2500 m above sea level, and thus enjoy relatively moderate temperatures than those recorded in the surrounding lowlands.

  2. Tabuk, Kalinga is the region’s second city. It was first declared as such in 2007, second in 2009, and third in 2011. The first two declarations were both followed by a Supreme Court decision, reverting Tabuk back to the status of a municipality.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) under a grant for postdoctoral fellowship (ID No. P 13001). Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the JSPS. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

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  1. Division of Spatial Information Science, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan

    Ronald C. Estoque & Yuji Murayama

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  1. Ronald C. Estoque
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Correspondence to Ronald C. Estoque.

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Estoque, R.C., Murayama, Y. Measuring Sustainability Based Upon Various Perspectives: A Case Study of a Hill Station in Southeast Asia. AMBIO 43, 943–956 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-014-0498-7

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