River Cities in Asia

Abstract

The River Cities volume was born out of a symposium hosted by Airlangga University in Surabaya, Indonesia in December 2017, entitled "River Cities: Water Space in Urban Development and History". The symposium was organized by the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) of the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), in collaboration with Airlangga University, to contribute innovative ways of thinking about how to better integrate rivers, creeks and canals-including their environmental, historical, social, political, cultural and economic dimensions-into the fabric of contemporary cities.We wish to thank the Faculty of Humanities at Airlangga University for their support and hospitality during the symposium, as well as the City and Mayor's office of Surabaya, which invited us to the City Hall for an unforgettable dinner and cultural show that made us feel so welcome in this marvelous "city of heroes" (Kota Pahlawan).The UKNA and IIAS provided a generous financial contribution to make the symposium possible, for which we are very grateful. Special thanks are due to Xiaolan Lin, Assistant Coordinator of UKNA, for her help in organizing the Surabaya gathering. We also wish to thank the paper presenters and volume contributors for their patience and collaboration during the (seemingly) long years of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we worked to put the pieces together for this book and incorporated the many useful insights and improvements suggested by the peer reviewers. We are very grateful to the reviewers, who have dedicated time and effort to provide meaningful comments.Our biggest thanks are to Mary Lynn van Dijk, IIAS Publications Officer, who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this entire book project possible. Without her constant and reliable follow-up, editing work, and communication with the chapter authors, the publisher and us as Editors, "River Cities" would never have materialized.Finally, we are very pleased and thankful to note that the "River Cities" book has spawned a transdisciplinary action research network by the same name, coordinated from IIAS, which seeks to promote revitalization of rivers and the landscapes, riverscapes, cities and neighborhoods that co-exist with them. This is surely the biggest achievement that a book can hope to have, namely, to translate insights from theory and practice to help build knowledge in other places and contexts. We started our Introductory essay with the observation that "cities and water have a love-hate relationship". Let us hope that this book-and the network that flows from it-can contribute to a new relationship where love can dominate hate, based on better understanding and mutual respect.