Theory of Mountainurbanology. By Guangyu Huang

When I started my scholarly journey toward a better understanding of urban development in mountains more than a decade ago, I noticed that (1) relatively little was then published on the relationship between cities and mountains and (2) a surprisingly large share of those publications was in Chinese. Therefore, I am happy to see one of the principal Chinese œuvres on mountain cities (Huang 2006) in English. The monograph Theory of Mountainurbanology is by Guangyu Huang (1935–2006), who was an eminent urban planner at Chongqing University. His book has a regional focus on China and aims to ‘‘emphasize the multi-discipline study on mountain cities, promote the ecological theory, and innovative thoughts on urban science research, in order to better direct mountain human settlement, balance human beings, and nature’’ (p vii). It also targets ‘‘planning and design professionals, decision-makers, college faculties, and students’’ (p xi). These intentions are shown by the 12 main chapters: ‘‘Introduction,’’ ‘‘Investigation,’’ ‘‘Site Selection,’’ ‘‘Typology,’’ ‘‘Planning,’’ ‘‘Design,’’ ‘‘Architecture,’’ ‘‘Transportation,’’ ‘‘Ecology,’’ ‘‘Disasters,’’ ‘‘Aesthetics,’’ and ‘‘Governance.’’ In chapter 1 (‘‘Introduction’’), the reader is introduced to basic definitions. ‘‘Mountains’’ are divided into different categories (mainly based on altitude), ranging from ‘‘hills’’ to ‘‘extremely high mountains.’’ Then the author briefly describes the character of ‘‘mountain cities,’’ rejecting simplistic visions that ignore the manifold relations between urban settlements (‘‘cities’’) and their surroundings (‘‘mountains’’). To underline the latter’s importance for urban construction, Huang lists several locational advantages and disadvantages of Chinese mountain cities. Chapter 1 continues with a definition of what the author calls mountainurbanology (why not mountain urbanology?): a holistic research approach to urban mountain settlements that explicitly includes the humanities (eg urban philosophy) and applied sciences such as engineering ecology as well as folk science (eg Chinese geomancy or [fēngshuı̌]). This attempt sounds intriguing, yet, at some point, I got confused by the comprehensiveness of the concept, and the redundant and inconsistent Table 3 might indicate that the author (or the translator) did not fully distinguish the spectrum of and relation between disciplines (eg montology is 1 of 3 pillars of mountainurbanology, and at the same time both montology and mountainurbanology appear again as elements of montology). The first part of the book concludes with thoughts on the complexity, diversity, vulnerability, and sensitivity of natural/artificial ‘‘mountainurban’’ ecosystems, integrating the concepts of landscape ecology and ecosystem services. The subsequent chapters 2 (‘‘Investigation’’) and 3 (‘‘Site Selection’’) focus on conditions to be understood and approaches to be applied to get a feel for a region and select appropriate sites to build cities in mountains. What is most probably new to many Western scholars is the Chinese geomantic approach to site selection, where the relation of cities to nearby mountains and rivers is crucial and even influences the building design (Hong Kong’s ‘‘dragon gates’’ are good examples). Chapter 3 concludes with a ‘‘case study’’ (1 paragraph) on the example of New Yunyang, where people were moved in the context of the Three Gorges project. I found these 2 chapters highly interesting and innovative. Chapter 4 provides a ‘‘Typology’’ of mountain cities in China, based on location (hilly, river valley, and ravine mountain cities) and function (‘‘resources developmentoriented mountain cities,’’ ‘‘regional transportation hub mountain cities,’’ ‘‘port mountain cities,’’ ‘‘memorial mountain cities,’’ ‘‘mountain cities of scenic tourism or religious worship,’’ and ‘‘comprehensive mountain cities’’). Although these types are properly illustrated with photos and maps, the typology lacks explanations on how (inductively or deductively?) it was developed. For example, it is not clear why port cities are not included in the transport hub category. Although such a listing of city types by location and function can heuristically make sense to structure the study object, in this case it conveys arbitrariness and remains rather superficial. From a geographer’s point of view, this chapter is not that convincing. Chapters 5 (‘‘Planning’’), 6 (‘‘Design’’), 7 (‘‘Architecture’’), and 8 (‘‘Transportation’’) are, perhaps, the core of this book. They start with principles of ‘‘mountainurban’’ planning, motivating the reader to engage with systems thinking, connecting nature and culture as well as space and time. What follows is a structural typology of mountain cities (that could have enriched chapter 4), with subsections on the specificities of planning and constructing in mountain watersheds, on the importance of open spaces, and on the use of the underground in mountain cities; the last subsection is inspiring and seems to be of uttermost importance. Then Huang highlights principles for designing mountain cities, for example, prioritizing ecology, adequately interacting with water, building on appropriate slopes, carefully selecting building heights, and protecting mountain tops or ridges against construction (for their recreation function). After a presentation of methodologies to correctly apply these principles, Huang underlines the importance of designing accessible urban environments, Mountain Research and Development (MRD) An international, peer-reviewed open access journal published by the International Mountain Society (IMS) www.mrd-journal.org MountainMedia