Chindiamod: comparative modelling of urbanization in China and India

Elfie Swerts, chercheuse FNS Senior à l'IGD, nous présentera son projet Ambizione intitulé "CHINDIAMOD: COMPARATIVE MODELLING OF URBANIZATION IN CHINA AND INDIA" dans le format de l'entretien auquel elle a été conviée par le FNS à Berne. Nous découvrirons donc l'ensemble du projet durant 15 minutes avant de prendre le reste de l'heure pour en discuter; vos questions (15 minutes), suggestions et remarques seront très appréciées afin d'affiner au mieux cet entretien.

Résumé du projet
The acceleration of the urbanization of the planet raises a set of challenges related to societal, geopolitical, socio-economic and environmental change that it generates. This set of challenges addresses the question of sustainable and resilient urban development. In this context, the CHINDIAMOD project proposes to question the singularity of the Indian and Chinese cities’ dynamics. Indeed, their latent potential for urbanization and their rapid entry into globalization represent considerable change and may transform the future evolution in many respects. Above all, the unique forms of urbanization that are developing in these two great countries make it possible to question traditional approaches to cities and the rural urban dichotomy. Moreover, the rapid growth of some cities makes it possible to observe the mechanisms of growth over much shorter times than in other parts of the world. The main objective of the CHINDIAMOD project is to build models of retrospective and prospective evolution of the Indian and Chinese city systems. These models, built at the level of systems of cities, will be implemented first through a multiscale approach allowing a synoptic view of the urbanization of these two countries beyond the borders of their cities; and second, various models of the linkages between the cities including their economic links through multinational enterprise ownership and co-patenting networks will be completed by the topic modelling of political frameworks that govern interurban collaboration and the development of cities. The approach will consist in identifying the factors influencing the balance of the evolution of socio-economic profiles of cities within Indian and Chinese City Systems at different scales; Evaluating the influence of multi-scales political management on the economic and urban development of the Indian and Chinese City Systems; It will allow to produce retrospective and prospective simulations of the evolution of the Indian and Chinese system of cities and their multi-scale resilience evaluations. The results will benefit both to the knowledge and the prospective on these two countries, and it will further bring new sources of reflection on the general processes of urban growth in the world.