Convergent Development: Integrating Economic Development and Downtown Revitalization in Small Cities and Towns

Small cities and towns in Indonesia have experienced a significant development during the period of 2000-2010. However, the development of small cities and towns has not been in line with the way the urban areas are governed and managed. There is a tendency that the governments pay a little attention to the governance of smaller urban areas, especially those which do not municipal status or the urban areas which is part of regency administrative boundary. This research analyzes the governance and planning of small towns in Central Java taken four small towns in Joglosemar region (Yogyakarta-Surakarta-Semarang). The research applied some qualitative methods combining document analysis, interview and regulation analysis. It is found that there is a significant gap between the urban development and its planning and governance. Urban development policies seem to be lacking in providing guidelines to drive the development of the small towns so that they can perform their functions within their respective regional urban system as well as solve their internal problems. The governance has mostly relied on the role of local government despite continuing lack of institutional capacity in managing urban development.

In modern world, also in Russia, tourism is dynamic, independent branch of the economy. The tourism expands the boundaries of commercial offers and deepens specialization. Landscape, environment and space are the foundation for the tourism development. The potential of Russia's tourism industry, as one of the most important factors of regional development, is still underestimated. Many of landscape and cultural features remain unnoticed and unused. The tourism development in small cities is very important, since they have a valuable historical and cultural heritage, they are an important source of improving the welfare of the country. This territory can be represented as a system that
 
 opens great opportunities for knowledge about the history, culture, customs, spiritual and religious values of small cities in Russia. The article is dedicated to the regional features of tourism development in small historical cities of Russia. Nowadays the government has a great deal of attention to the development of tourism in the Russian Federation, in particular, the article discusses the federal programs that are currently being implemented. Many small cities have historical status now. The modern development of tourism in small historical cities was promoted by an increase of people's interest in their historical heritage, their past. This type of tourism is especially important for the preservation of the individuality of the peoples of the Russian Federation, their involvement in the world civilization. Creation in 2007 of the Association of Small Tourist Cities confirms this. The peculiarity of each of the cities is the perfectly preserved appearance of their historical part with a lot of unique monuments of architecture, history and culture. Some monuments are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

In modern world, also in Russia, tourism is dynamic, independent branch of the economy. The tourism expands the boundaries of commercial offers and deepens specialization. Landscape, environment and space are the foundation for the tourism development. The potential of Russia's tourism industry, as one of the most important factors of regional development, is still underestimated. Many of landscape and cultural features remain unnoticed and unused. The tourism development in small cities is very important, since they have a valuable historical and cultural heritage, they are an important source of improving the welfare of the country. This territory can be represented as a system that opens great opportunities for knowledge about the history, culture, customs, spiritual and religious values of small cities in Russia. The article is dedicated to the regional features of tourism development in small historical cities of Russia. Nowadays the government has a great deal of attention to the development of tourism in the Russian Federation, in particular, the article discusses the federal programs that are currently being implemented. Many small cities have historical status now. The modern development of tourism in small historical cities was promoted by an increase of people's interest in their historical heritage, their past. This type of tourism is especially important for the preservation of the individuality of the peoples of the Russian Federation, their involvement in the world civilization. Creation in 2007 of the Association of Small Tourist Cities confirms this. The peculiarity of each of the cities is the perfectly preserved appearance of their historical part with a lot of unique monuments of architecture, history and culture. Some monuments are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

This paper, on the basis of analyzing development conditions, puts forward main factors that constitute the construction of industrial park such as construction thoughts, targets, function layout and guidelines for urban planning and finally presents implementation strategy, which promotes the construction of compound type and ecotype industrial parks with characteristics in small cities and towns and boosts the economic development in small cities and towns.

Проектный менеджмент в настоящее время является важным инструментом управления социально-экономическими системами разного уровня управления. Огромное значение проектный менеджмент имеет в управлении развитием малых городов России. За последние пять лет в области проектного управления развитием малых городов проделана огромная работа, разработаны сотни проектов по развитию малых городов, часть из которых уже реализуется. Автором обозначены проблемы малых городов: изношенность объектов жилищно-коммунального хозяйства, старый жилой фонд, высокий уровень безработицы местного населения, нехватка инвестиций, недостаточная развитость туристической инфраструктуры и др. Автором рассматриваются программы и конкурсы, позволяющие привлечь инвестиции в малые города, сделать в них центры туризма, улучшить инфраструктуру и жилищно-коммунальное хозяйство малых городов, реставрировать культурные исторические объекты. В процессе исследования определяется значимость и оценивается результативность реализации наиболее значимых для развития малых городов программ и конкурсов: программы «Комплексного развития моногородов», Всероссийского конкурса лучших проектов создания комфортной городской среды в малых городах и исторических поселениях, конкурса Фонда президентских грантов, программы по модернизации объектов ЖКХ, конкурса «Развитие внутреннего туризма», конкурса «Пространство развития». Выявлено, что все данные программы и конкурсы реализуются на основе инструментов проектного менеджмента, что позволяет достичь желаемого результата по средством структурных преобразований социально-экономической системы в определенный период времени в условиях выделенных ресурсов. В завершении автором делается вывод, что реализация проектовпобедителей данных программ и конкурсов позволяет поддержать малые города, разработать им новую стратегию развития, сделать их лучше и удобнее для жителей. Project management is now an important tool for managing socio-economic systems at different levels of management. Project management is of great importance in managing the development of small cities in Russia. Over the past five years, a lot of work has been done in the field of project management of the development of small cities, hundreds of projects for the development of small cities have been developed, some of which are already being implemented. The author outlines the problems of small cities: wear and tear of housing and communal services, old housing stock, high unemployment rate of the local population, lack of investment, insufficient development of tourist infrastructure, etc. The article considers programs and competitions that allow attracting investments in small cities, making tourism centers in them, improving the infrastructure and housing and communal services of small cities, and restoring cultural historical objects. During the study, the significance and effectiveness of the implementation of the program "Integrated Development of Single-Industry Towns," the All-Russian competition of the best projects for creating a comfortable urban environment in small towns and historical settlements, the competition of the Presidential Grant Fund, the program for the modernization of housing and communal services facilities, the competition "Development of domestic tourism," the competition "Development Space." It was revealed that all these programs and tenders are implemented on the basis of project management tools, which makes it possible to achieve the desired result by means of structural transformations of the socioeconomic system in a certain period of time in the conditions of allocated resources. At the end, the author revealed that the implementation of the winning projects of these programs and competitions allows us to support small cities, develop a new development strategy for them, make them better and more convenient for residents.

The urban planning regime in Independent India started with the Master plan and the Town and Country Planning Act (1947), and continued for decades with an overwhelming importance on large and metropolitan cities. In the 1980s, the emphasis on urban planning and development experienced a shift from large cities to small and medium cities following the Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns (IDSMT) Program launched in 1979. In 1990s, the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) was passed to ensure decentralized planning and participatory development of cities in India under independent local governments. The present chapter, based on both secondary sources and empirical findings in the context of smaller cities, tries to explore the trajectories of changes in governing cities over the last three decades, especially after the 74th CAA and the impact of such changes. The models of urban governance differ from state to state followed by the State Municipal Acts. This chapter looks into the changes in the urban governance structure and in the pattern of municipal financing in West Bengal, and their impact on the efficiency of the provision of basic service in smaller cities. The paper critically analyses the nature of changes at the city level and shows how decentralization and people’s participation are undermined by the omnipresence of the party and the State in controlling the local governments of financially dependent smaller cities in West Bengal. For in-depth understanding of the ground level situation, the chapter focuses on four cities of West Bengal—Burdwan, Durgapur, Balurghat and Kalimpong.

In the conditions of administrative and territorial reform, the development of small towns becomes more relevant, because according to the methodology of forming capable territorial communities, it is determined that communities should be formed around the cities-district centers, most of which are the small towns. In such conditions, one of the primary tasks of the local self-government bodies is the development of the strategy for territorial communities and small towns, which primarily involves determining the priority directions of their development and is a systematic process aimed at solving the most urgent local problems, realizing the socio-economic potential, increasing the efficiency of the use of available resources, which will ultimately contribute to the development of small towns and the growth of their role in the development of the regional economy. The purpose of the article is to determine the strategic priorities of the development of small towns in the conditions of administrative and territorial reform and decentralization. The analysis proved that in the conditions of administrative and territorial reform, small cities, acting as the centers of newly formed territorial communities, are in the focus of increased attention of scientists and experts that require the development of an effective strategy for their development and the determination of priority areas of their functioning. Due to the fact that the most of the small towns are characterized by a monofunctional type of development, in the long-term period, the strengthening of the industrial potential of these towns and the restructuring of the economy should be expected; accordingly, the social development of small towns will depend on the levels and directions of their economic growth. In the conditions of the military crisis and post-war recovery in our country, experts consider the improvement of the system of tax administration in communities to be one of the effective tools for the recovery and modernization of the country. Along with this, one of the integral conditions of the development of small towns is the deepening of intersectoral partnership between the government, business and the public sector, and the development of innovative entrepreneurship. In the conditions of decentralization the small cities are an important component of the socio-economic development of communities and regions, which requires increased attention to the development of an effective strategy for their operation, the determination of priorities for their development in the long term period, which involves strengthening of the potential of small cities, deepening partnership relations between various entities management, improvement of the local tax administration system, reorientation of industrial production to an innovative type of development.

Dynamic development of small towns can not be separated from the urbanization. The small towns are located along the road corridor that connects major cities experiencing rapid growth. It is also common in the District Mungkid, Muntilan and Salam which administratively belong to the small town. In the past 10 years, there have been additions village with city status, namely: in District Mungkid of 4 villages and in the District Salam much as 3 villages. In addition, there has been increased by 5% undeveloped land, in the villages located around the national road linking Semarang - Yogyakarta. It is also common in the increasing number of population density, where the concentration of the population are in the areas around the national road. Based on these descriptions, the question arises, how the dynamic development of the small town, and what are the factors that influence it? This study uses quantitative methods to assess the dynamics of a small town in terms of spatial, demographic, and social economic. The findings of this research study is the development of small town dynamics are affected by urbanization. Urbanization formed are influenced by social economic activities compared with the development of undeveloped land and population. From the analysis of the factors affecting the dynamics of a small town, there are several factors, such as: the location factor, accessibility, social, political, physical environment, and history. Based on the analysis, and interviews can be concluded that the development of small cities most affected by the location factor.

Background: Urbanization has been regarded as a strategic process to alleviate rural poverty, support local economic growth, and facilitate national sustainable development in China. Scholars have long realized that urbanization is a comprehensive process that can be understood through studies of population migration among places where population flows occur. Objective: Place attractivity is a concept derived from the place interaction model, which measures the ability for urban areas to attract migrants, hence the “ability” of urbanization. By studying the spatial patterns of China’s place attractivity, the study attempts to depict the current migration and urbanization dynamics in China and support sustainable urbanization strategies in China. Methods: The Relative Intrinsic Attractivity (RIA) index provides an excellent quantification strategy to measure place attractivity. With data obtained at the prefecture level from China’s 2005 1% census sampling survey (the most recent of such data), the study calculated RIA for each prefecture units and various population groups. Results: The results suggest that cities in central China have the lowest place attractivity. There is a diverging trend of China’s place attractivity with a rather unbalanced urban system development. Cities of different sizes have a different place attractivity, with large cities having the highest attractivity. A city’s attractivity also varies between population groups. Contribution: The study suggests from a place attractivity perspective that urbanization in China requires careful coordination and planning. The top priority for China’s urbanization is to devise relevant policies and support rational and sustainable industrial development in small cities and towns to increase their attractivity.

On the basis of the survey on the housing conditions under different levels of small towns' economic development in China, the residential development law of small towns in various regions was analyzed and induced in the study, and the existing housing problems in small towns were picked up consequently. The research showed that the housing construction cycle were not consistent in different levels and different levels of small towns' economic development in China; small towns' housing construction still remained at the initial stage as a whole; the private housing as the mainstream had made the real estate market development lagged behind; the efficiency of land use in small towns was lower; the fusion tendency among different town residents came into being; the degree of homogenization of small towns' communities was higher; the habitation was poor and the will to settle was weak, however, the floating population is going to be main force in the future increment of small towns' housing. Currently, small towns' housing construction should be reasonably guided, small towns' planning should be strengthened, and the community and commercialization of development in small towns' housing construction should be impelled. It is urgent to improve the living environment of small towns' dwellers, to implement intensive land use, and to enhance the urbanization process in China's countryside.

The rapid development of high-speed rail has brought about the rapid development of the overall economy and the change of small cities. On the one hand, it is difficult to determine whether the opening of high-speed rail will serve as a “corridor” or an “engine” role for the development of small cities. On the other hand, the growing expansion of big cities is also squeezing the development space of smaller cities. In this context, whether small cities can take the opening of high-speed railway as an opportunity to give play to the advantages of high-speed rail in a larger scope and at a deeper level, and thereby get rid of the development dilemma caused by regional disadvantages, becomes a very realistic problem naturally. In addition, as a major improved public service, high-speed rail will affect people’s regional identity and willingness to settle down, and speed up the frequency and scope of population movement. Therefore, it is more worth studying to pay attention to the population flow in small cities in the era of high-speed rail. Therefore, this paper takes the sample panel data of small cities from 2010 to 2018 as the research object, and adopts the research method of PSM-DID to discuss the impact of high-speed rail opening on the population hollowing-out in small cities and its internal influence mechanism. It is found that the opening of high-speed rail reduces the size of permanent resident population in small cities significantly, so small cities face the risk of population hollowing-out. Through the heterogeneity analysis, this paper finds that for small cities of different sizes, the degree of population loss caused by high-speed rail operation is also different. The results show that the population loss of small cities with an urban population of 0-200 thousand is much lower than that of small cities with an urban population of 200-500 thousand. The mechanism test results show that high-speed rail causes the population hollowing-out in small cities by leading to the outflow of consumer demand, the lag of industrial structure upgrading and the increase of housing prices. Further research finds that the construction of high-speed rail does not lead to a gap in economic growth between small cities with high-speed rail and those without high-speed rail. At the same time, the internal growth gap between small cities with high-speed rail has not been effectively verified. The possible contributions are as follows: First, it broadens the research scope of existing literature, which focuses on the analysis of the impact of high-speed rail opening on central and regional cities, or the impact on the surrounding cities of a high-speed rail line. However, there is a lack of research on the impact of cities of the same scale, especially the quantitative research on the development of small cities by the opening of high-speed rail. Based on the sample panel data of small cities, this paper adopts the PSM-DID method to focus on the study of the impact of high-speed rail opening on population hollowing-out in small cities, which can effectively alleviate the impact of the omission of important variables and systematic bias on the results. Second, it reveals the internal influence mechanisms of population outflow from small cities caused by the opening of high-speed rail. Among them, the outflow of consumption demand in small cities caused by high-speed rail, the lag of industrial structure upgrading, and the increase of housing prices are the important ways to cause population hollowing-out.

It is widely accepted that the cultural sector and the creative sector have an impact on the socio-economic revival of cities. They create urban images, form a specific creative milieu, generate new jobs, and organize urban space. The above-mentioned observations have been mainly referred to the largest cities. So far, small cities have not been the subject of similar considerations. As many studies have shown in recent years, the potential of culture for socio-economic development in small cities has been noticed more and more often. It refers mainly to countries in Western Europe or in North America where generally, in the 1980s, the cultural sector was perceived as a remedy for the problems of post-industrial cities. This paper discusses the role of culture in the development of small cities in Poland, i.e. in a country in which only after 1989 is it possible to consider local development managed by local communities. The paper aims at showing how local governments of small cities in Poland perceive the role of culture in their development. The study is based on the analysis of strategic documents dedicated to the development of individual cities. When analysed, strategic documents clearly indicate that local authorities in every city use and are planning to further use different types of cultural activities for the enhancement or development of selected elements included in the broadly-understood socio-economic development; however, only few small cities notice the wide array of opportunities for making the cultural sector a base for socio-economic development.

September 21, 2016 marked the 25th anniversary since Armenians voted for Independence from Soviet rule and re-established the Republic of Armenia. The new Republic had many challenges to face from its first day of the re-establishment: the 1988 devastating earthquake, ongoing war with Azerbaijan and total collapse of the industry sector. Now looking back many problems have been solved in favor of Armenia: the nation achieved victory in the battle and years later even gained the status of The Caucasian Tiger Economy. But the country still is not able to regain its industrial power it once had. After the collapse of the USSR the industry sector of Armenia deteriorated and this caused a high unemployment rate in the small industrial cities of Armenia. This led to high emigration which is a wellknown economic problem which destabilized the situation of Armenia. Each year thousands of Armenians leave the country for a better future seeking financial stability. The main reason is unemployment and low economic growth as well as the huge economic disparity between the regions of the country. Since the establishment of the local government system in Armenia (1995), one of the essential issues is the administrative structure, more specifically its high level of fragmentation. The harmonious territorial development strategy in Armenia is not yet fully developed and is predominantly fragmentary in nature. Although certain official documents, such as the Main Resettlement Project of the RA, National Security Strategy of the RA, Stable Development Strategy of the RA, 2012-2016 Plan of Action concerning the Implementation of the State Migration Regulatory Strategy Concept, 2010 – 2012 Rural and Agricultural Stable Development Strategy of the RA, Regional Development Concept of the RA, Community Enlargement and Concept for the Creation of Inter-community Unions and other documents include the vital aspects necessary for implementing an efficient harmonious territorial development strategy and are surely useful for creating a general strategy, they do not envelop the entirety of the issues and certain vital challenges have been left out. Among them is the issue of the comprehensive development of small cities, which is not yet analyzed as a separate issue in the general context of the country’s administrative improvements and harmonious territorial development. This paper tries to fill this gap and to provide some policy advises on future development of the small cities in Armenia. In the first part of the paper we analyze the small city (monotown) concept and problems associated with it. In the second part we test the hypothesis of the connection between migration and small city effect. We use the Ministry of Territorial Administration database for 2014 which is the latest and the most accurate data available in Armenia. Our findings conclude that there is a positive dependence between migration and the effect of being a monotown. In the third part we provide some innovative ideas on how the situation can be improved using the impact generating methods.

Because of their reliance on large samples of micro-level housing and wage data, quality of life studies using Rosen–Roback models have focused almost exclusively on metropolitan areas, largely ignoring non-metropolitan areas. Although understandable given data constraints, this dominant focus on metropolitans has limited the data-driven approaches available to policymakers concerned with community and economic development in small cities, or micropolitan areas. To address this gap, we develop an aggregate approach to estimate both quality of life and quality of the business environment in micropolitan areas utilizing county-level housing and wage data that can be used when large samples of micro-level data are unavailable. Specifically, we use the county residuals from wage and housing regressions to replace the fixed effects typically estimated from the micro-level estimations in quality of life studies. We find compelling evidence that higher quality of life is not only associated with higher employment and population growth and lower poverty rates, but that it is more important than quality of the business environment in determining the success of micropolitan areas.

The economic development in China and the rising of the living standard need to speed up the urbanisation. The development of small towns is an important way to Chinese urbanisation. Land use plays a very important role in the development of small towns. However there are many problems in the development of small towns, esp. in land use. The paper first discusses the land problems in the development of small towns. Such as much cultivated land lies idle, under-utilization and waste of land, increasing illegal use of land, unstable contractual relationship for land use. The relationship between the development of small towns and land use is also studied. Then the guidelines for the land system innovations of small towns are put forward. Namely the sustainability of social and economic development, the balance between land reservation and land utilization, the provision of service to village, agriculture and farmer, the management of land resource and land assets, the parsimonious and legal use of land. The basic framework of land system innovations of small towns is put forward finally. It include the land replacement policy for small towns and the permanent tenancy of farmland, the overall plan for land uses and other plans in harmony, the establishment of a flexible system of land supplies, using land with payments, the transfer of agricultural land and refining the land law related to the construction of small towns.