O espaço do olhar

Urban regeneration represents the future of contemporary cities, seeking for better life conditions of populations and environment. As a strategy, process and political instrument, it is inserted in strategic guidelines of international communitarian development, implying, on one hand, a constant updating/revision of the legal diplomas of urban planning and management, and, on the other hand, new models of territorial development based on economic competitiveness, globalization, sustainability and social cohesion. The rapid European and Portuguese urban development focus urban regeneration as a priority. In the case of Lisbon, the expansion and the subsequent industrial dislocation shaped new and external urban centralities that are currently inserted in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, requiring specific technical-political organizations. Analysing the complex evolution of post-industrial areas, from expansion/progress until the decline and regeneration, the matter of heritage is one of the most challenging elements in the territory. Since in port and post-industrial areas it is hence notorious, the presence of History, preservation, conservation and/or demolition are present and future challenges to Architects. We highlight the case of the Eastern waterfront area of Lisbon due to its historic and urban evolution – marked by successive and complex urban and infrastructural transformations – and by its current situation of urban decline that introduces problems, challenges and opportunities of intervention to the technicians that are involved in urban regeneration processes. In the case study, we are able to find many examples of rural and industrial legacy, that reveal the past of that territory. Considering that the past justifies and supports the intervention in the contemporary city and the current scarcity of funds/in times of crisis, it is now crucial to question ways of regenerate declined areas. We conclude that the territory must be social and economic active and productive, renting pre-existing elements. Especially in the current context of public financial unavailability, it urges to globally rethink urban management strategies - highlighting factors as cooperation, connection and public participation -, and stimulating the intervention departing from the pre-existences, history and heritage.

Adaptive Planning for Resilient Coastal Waterfronts

Many delta and coastal cities worldwide face increasing flood risk due to changing climate conditions and sea level rise. The question is how to develop measures and strategies for existing urban coastal areas that can anticipate these slowly changing conditions, such as gradually increasing sea levels and extreme river discharges. There is growing recognition that the increasing vulnerability of urbanised delta and coastal cities is strongly related to urbanisation, changing socio-economic conditions and human-induced land subsidence. Consequently, in response to climate change, it is likely to be most effective to adapt existing urban environments and urban assets, and promote flood sensitive behaviour in combination with prevention based approaches, aiming to improve the whole capacity of the urban system to deal with changing and more extreme conditions in the future. This approach is known as the resilience approach. Although there is much focus on resilience in research and practice, it still lacks knowledge on the effectiveness of measures, and increasing coastal flood resilience is mostly understood in terms of risk reduction and not yet as an opportunity for change and creating liveability. In addition, it lacks knowledge on processes of urban development, management and change at the neighbourhood level as an important condition for creating coastal flood risk resilience and to create added value. The main research question of this thesis is therefore twofold: “how can we adapt existing coastal urban waterfront areas to changing climatic circumstances and how can we take this adaptation process as an opportunity for creating added value?” When adapting urban environments three challenges can be identified. First of all, it is necessary to understand under what conditions coastal urban systems become less resilient and adaptation is needed, and what (combinations) of measures are most effective to improve resilience. Secondly, key to the successful adaptation of urban environments is effectively using moments of change in urban development and management as windows of opportunity for low-cost adaptation, and to yield additional benefits. This requires a better understanding of the opportunities to spatially and in a timely manner, synchronise adaptation measures with investments in urban development, urban management and infrastructure maintenance projects at the neighbourhood level. Changes can be both incremental, for example building renovation cycles as an opportunity for retrofitting flood resilience measures into buildings, or can be transformative, for example by using urban redevelopment projects that create new options for adaptation. Finally, a major challenge of adapting existing urban environments to the effects of climate change is that it requires anticipating long-term trends and changes that easily exceed periods of 50 to 100 years. This brings large uncertainties into the design and planning process. When facing deep uncertainty it is necessary to improve flexibility. Improving flexibility can be either tactical-operational (designed) or strategic (planned). Designed flexibility can be achieved by developing design that anticipates, or can adapt according to future conditions or functional requirements. This can be achieved by incorporating modifications in the design, through preserving space, by over-dimensioning critical elements or by built-in redundancies. On a strategic level, flexibility can be achieved by developing sequences of adaptation options that keep options open in anticipation of future conditions. Sequences of adaptation options (pathways) that are reversible and offer multiple options to adapt should be favoured over irreversible and non-flexible paths. To answer the research question, this research applies a resilience based planning method (the Adaptive Pathways Method, or APM) to develop and assess adaptation pathways at the level of neighbourhood development in two flood prone waterfront cases in Rotterdam. APM is a structured, iterative approach based on defining the conditions under which policy objectives are no longer attainable and adaptation is required, and the assessment of sequences of adaptation actions. It enables policy makers to explore and develop adaptive strategies The case study research in two flood prone urbanised areas in Rotterdam showed that Rotterdam’s land elevation policy for new building plots is expensive and offers no solution to reduce the flood risk of existing homes and businesses in the area. In this study, two alternative solutions (water robust and keeping water out) were developed and tested for spatial integration, (cost) effectiveness and opportunities for creating added value. The Feijenoord case shows that a district-wide flood protection strategy provides the most beneficial solution and opens up opportunities for capitalising on investments in waterfront development and improvements of the urban realm. The Noordereiland case shows a more diverse portfolio of adaptation responses, although there are only a few combinations of adaptation responses that are complementary to deal with change in the long run. A potential adaptation strategy for the Noordereiland is based on sequencing property level protection (wet-proofing and dry-proofing adaptation measures), followed by the development of a permanent or temporary floodwall strategy. However, this strategy offers few opportunities to link with spatial dynamics and to create added value. Based on case study research, this research concludes that the APM is an effective tool to evaluate and select appropriate adaptation measures. In particular, the value of this method is that it helps to bridge the gap between highly uncertain long-term climate change effects and the short-term decision making horizons of urban planning and development. Additionally, the method helps to better grasp the timing of adaptation and develop a wide portfolio of adaptation actions, which opens up opportunities to couple adaptation measures with other planned investments, or to anticipate by developing urban design that allows for easier adaptation in the future. Both cases underline the fact that strategies to enhance the resilience of urban waterfronts must be based on a detailed assessment of local vulnerabilities, and should select sitespecific adaptation measures leading to a tailor-made portfolio of solutions. An important element of adaptive planning is the assumption that a transfer between, or sequencing alternative interventions (and thus developing alternative pathways) is straightforward. However, in reality there is no smooth transfer between alternatives. Both cases clearly show that a change of strategy, for example from property-level to a district-wide solution, is accompanied with ‘transfer costs’ that creates an economic lock-in and is constrained by legal, financial and institutional barriers. For example, every investment to reduce a household’s sensitivity to flooding reduces the overall flood risks of the larger area and hence the benefits accruing to a wider floodwall option, making a ‘transfer’ to a district-level solution less feasible from an economic point of view. In addition, the potential loss of investments for individual homeowners caused by a change of strategy could lead to societal and political resistance to change. Overcoming the economic and political path dependencies is a major challenge and it unfortunately often needs a disaster to change the course of an adaptation path. Possibly, co-benefits and added value arising from flood protection investments (e.g. increase in real estate value) may have a positive effect on reducing the transfer costs, although the effects strongly depend on site conditions. In view of the above, it is necessary to decide early in the adaptation process on the long-term preferred strategy and to support this strategy with short-cycle, low cost incremental interventions aimed at “buying time” to increase the opportunities for creating district-wide protection at low costs. In addition to this, there is also a second, more fundamental shortcoming of the method. Although the APM is adaptive, in the sense that it allows for uncertainties to be resolved in time, the method ignores the dynamic aspect of urban development and new opportunities for adaptation that might arise from it. For example, a redesign of industrial waterfronts to residential functions creates new financial and spatial opportunities for creating integrated flood protection at relatively low costs. Research by Design is an important tool to explore these new opportunities. A more effective approach is to focus on interventions in the economic and institutional processes of urban development and changes that create new opportunities for adaptation. In the second part of this research an urban dynamics based adaptation method is introduced that focuses on identifying the following: adaptation intervention points, which are defined as the actual moments of change that potentially may be used for adaptation; adaptation transitions that are defined as changes in legal, institutional and financial structures that are needed to improve or unlock the full potential of adaptation intervention points; and adaptation transformations that are fundamental changes in urban form, policies, institutional arrangements and norms that could create new adaptation opportunities. The method follows three basic steps: (1) assessing the spatial and timely synchronisation of adaptation measures with planned urban development projects and public and private infrastructure maintenance investments; (2) assessing the institutional and financial barriers to be removed in order to mainstream climate adaptation measures in these urban development processes, and (3) assessing what opportunities derived from urban development are able to ‘break through’ the path dependencies that lock-in more sustainable adaptive paths. The method is based on mapping all planned spatial investments in brownfield development, urban renovation, and maintenance projects of public and private infrastructure and assets and by assessing the effectiveness of prevailing policies. Using design research, new opportunities for adaptation are explored and assessed. The urban dynamics based adaptation pathways method is tested at two waterfront areas in Rotterdam (Feijenoord) and New York (Red Hook). Both cases show that identifying intervention opportunities and potential transitional interventions is helpful in selecting and assessing adaptive pathways. Moreover, it helps to identify legal or financial arrangements that are needed to unlock the potential of adaptation paths. One of the key findings of the case study research is that in high density urban conditions there is limited potential to build resilience from household redevelopment or renovation, even when new complementary policies and regulative instruments that support buildinglevel resilience would be developed. District-wide flood protection is effective in terms of flood risk, but requires large-scale transformations of the waterfront zone to seize opportunities to develop integrated protection at low costs. This strategy, however, needs new governance structures and financial arrangements to redistribute costs and benefits fairly among stakeholders.

Private Sector-led Urban Development Projects. Management, Partnerships and Effects in the Netherlands and the UK

Private Sector-led Urban Development Projects. Management, Partnerships and Effects in the Netherlands and the UK

Central to this research lays the concept of private sector-led urban development projects (Heurkens, 2010). Such projects involve project developers taking a leading role and local authorities adopting a facilitating role, in managing the development of an urban area, based on a clear public-private role division. Such a development strategy is quite common in Anglo-Saxon urban development practices, but is less known in Continental European practices. Nonetheless, since the beginning of the millennium such a development strategy also occurred in the Netherlands in the form of ‘concessions’. However, remarkably little empirical knowledge is available about how public and private actors collaborate on and manage private sector-led urban development projects. Moreover, it remains unclear what the effects of such projects are. This dissertation provides an understanding of the various characteristics of private sector-led urban development projects by conducting empirical case study research in the institutional contexts of the Netherlands and the UK. The research provides an answer to the following research question: What can we learn from private sector-led urban development projects in the Netherlands and UK in terms of the collaborative and managerial roles of public and private actors, and the effects of their (inter)actions? Indications for a market-oriented Dutch urban development practice Urban development practice in the Netherlands has been subject to changes pointing towards more private sector involvement in the built environment in the past decades. Although the current economic recession might indicate otherwise, there are several motives that indicate a continuation of private sector involvement and a private leadership role in Dutch urban development projects in the future. First, a shift towards more market-oriented development practice is the result of an evolutionary process of increased ‘neoliberalization’ and the adoption of Anglo-Saxon principles in Dutch society. Despite its Rhineland roots with a focus on welfare provision, in the Netherlands several neoliberal principles (privatization, decentralization, deregulation) have been adopted by government and incorporated in the management of organizations (Bakker et al., 2005). Hence, market institutionalization on the one hand, and rising civic emancipation on the other, in current Western societies prevents a return towards hierarchical governance. Second, the result of such changes is the emergence of a market-oriented type of planning practice based on the concept of ‘development planning’. Public-Private Partnerships and the ‘forward integration’ of market parties (De Zeeuw, 2007) enforce the role of market actors. In historical perspective, Boelens et al. (2006) argue that Dutch spatial planning always has been characterized by public-private collaborations in which governments facilitated private and civic entrepreneurship. Therefore, post-war public-led spatial planning with necessary government intervention was a ‘temporary hiccup’, an exception to the rule. Third, the European Commission expresses concerns about the hybrid role of public actors in Dutch institutionalized PPP joint ventures. EU legislation opts for formal public-private role divisions in realizing urban projects based on Anglo-Saxon law that comply with the legislative tendering principles of competition, transparency, equality, and public legitimacy. Fourth, experiences with joint ventures in the Netherlands are less positive as often is advocated. Such institutionalized public-private entities have seldom generated the assumed added value, caused by misconceptions about the objectives of both partners grounded in incompatible value systems. This results in contra-productive levels of distrust, time-consuming partnership formations, lack of transparency, and compromising decision-making processes (Teisman & Klijn, 2002), providing a need for other forms of collaboration. Finally, current financial retrenchments in the public sector and debates about the possible abundance of Dutch active land development policies point towards a lean and mean government that moves away from risk-bearing participation and investment in urban projects and leaves this to the market. Importantly, Van der Krabben (2011b) argues that the Dutch active public land development policies can be considered as an international exception, and advocates for facilitating land development policies. In this light, it becomes highly relevant to study private sector-led urban development as a future Dutch urban development strategy. Integrative urban management approach This research is rooted in the research school of Urban Area Development within the Department of Real Estate and Housing at the Faculty of Architecture (Delft University of Technology). It is a relatively young academic domain which views urban development most profoundly as a complex management assignment (Bruil et al., 2004; Franzen et al., 2011). This academic school uses an integrative perspective with a strong practice-orientation and carries out solution-oriented design research. Here, the integration involves bridging various actor interests, spatial functions, spatial scales, academic domains, knowledge and skills, development goals, and links process with content aspects. Such a perspective does justice to complex societal processes. Therefore it provides a fruitful ground for studying urban development aimed at developing conceptual knowledge and product for science and practice. Such integrative perspective and practice-orientation forms the basis of this research and has been applied in the following manner. In order to create an understanding of the roles of public and private actors in private sector-led urban development, this research takes a management perspective based on an integrative management approach. This involves viewing management more broadly as ‘any type of direct influencing’ urban development projects, and therefore aims at bridging often separated management theories (Osborne, 2000a). Hence, an integrative management approach assists in both understanding urban development practices and projects and constructing useful conceptual tools for practitioners and academics. Integrative approaches attempt to combine a number of different elements into a more holistic management approach (Black & Porter, 2000). Importantly, it does not view the management of projects in isolation but in its entire complexity and dynamics. Therefore, our management approach combines two integrative management theories; the open systems theory (De Leeuw, 2002) and contingency theory. The former provides opportunities to study the management of a project in a structured manner. The latter emphasizes that there is no universally effective way of managing and recognizes the importance of contextual circumstances. Hence, an integrative management approach favors incorporating theories from multiple academic domains such as political science, economics, law, business administration, and organizational and management concepts. Hence, it moves away from the classical academic division between planning theory and property theory, and organization and management theories. It positions itself in between such academic domains, and aims at bridging theoretical viewpoints by following the concept of planning ánd markets (Alexander, 2001) rather than concepts such as ‘planning versus markets’, public versus private sector, and organization versus management. Also, such an integrative view values the complexity and dynamics of empirical urban development practices. More specifically, this research studies urban development projects as object, as urban areas are the focus point of spatial intervention and public-private interaction (Daamen, 2010), and thus collaboration and management. Here, public planning processes and private development processes merge with each other. Thus, our research continues to build upon the importance of studying and reflecting on empirical practices and projects (e.g. Healey, 2006). In addition to these authors, this research does so by using meaningful integrative concepts that reflect empirical realities of urban projects. Thereby, this research serves to bridge management sciences with management practices (Van Aken, 2004; Mintzberg, 2010) through iterative processes of reflecting on science and practice. Moreover, the integrative management approach applied in this research assists in filling an academic gap, namely the lack of management knowledge about public-private interaction in urban development projects. Despite the vast amount of literature on the governance of planning practices (e.g. DiGaetano & Strom, 2003), and Public-Private Partnerships (e.g. Osborne, 2000b), remarkable little knowledge exists about what shifting public-private relationships mean for day-to-day management by public and private actors in development projects. Hence, here we follow the main argument made by public administration scholar Klijn (2008) who claims that it is such direct actor influence that brings about the most significant change to the built environment. An integrative urban management model (see Figure 2.3) based on the open systems approach has been constructed which forms a conceptual representation of empirical private sectorled urban development projects. This model serves as an analytical tool to comprehend the complexity of managing such projects. In this research, several theoretical insights about publicprivate relations and roles are used to understand different contextual and organizational factors that affect the management of private sector-led urban development projects. Hence, a project context exists

The aim of the research is to open the discussion of role of water bodies as an agent in the process of urban regeneration. Finding sustainable solutions to foster the regeneration schemes in postindustrial urban areas has become an important and updated subject in field of architecture and urban planning. Considering the importance of water in 21st century and numerous water-related postindustrial urban spaces, it seems crucial to build a regenerative relationship between water bodies and postindustrial urban sites. This paper will try to indicate the water bodies and the potential within using them for regeneration activities. The research is based on a minor body of water to open the discussion so as to introduce water bodies into the urban regeneration processes. In this case, the main conclusion of the research here is the purposefulness of introduction of water bodies as regeneration agents in postindustrial urban areas. Further case-based studies along with desk studies will play the main role in building the basic knowledge for the analytic discussion on the subject.

Urban revitalization has already become the main goal for urban managers. However, various stakeholders may have different perspectives on urban revitalization. Therefore, how urban managers understand various stakeholders’ urban revitalization needs and determine urban sustainable development strategies has become a significant challenge. This study defines four driving aspects of urban revitalization (infrastructure construction, living environment, trade and investment, and urban consciousness). It analyzes the status of importance and satisfaction for various stakeholders (residents, sojourners, travelers) for urban revitalization using the ISA (importance satisfaction analysis) approach. The study also adopted the NRM (network relation map) approach to evaluate the network relation structure based on the DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) approach. This study integrates the ISA and NRM approaches and proposes using the ISA-NRM approach to assess the acceptance strategies and common suitable paths for various stakeholders. The proposed model can aid urban managers in understanding the various stakeholders’ perspectives for urban sustainable development strategies and determine the urban revitalization paths based on diverse perspectives of groups of stakeholders.

Urban management in any context has a different economic, social and political structure, which is in harmony with the existing models of organization. In spite of these differences, in order to reach a sustainable urban development, several different conferences should be referred to. In the “Brundtland Commission 1987” about urban sustainable development these definitions have been given: “preservation and promotion of the quality level of city life. This consists of ecology, culture, politics, economies, and social participation. However, this development should in no case weigh on and create any problems for the future generations”. In all the definitions of urban management and urban sustainable development and in any political context citizens’ participation in decision making and insistence on social justice are mentioned. The aim of this article is a descriptive, analytic, and comparative study of different models of popular participation in different developed countries. Each of these countries has different social and political structure. However they all have the same aim which is the citizens’ empowerment. To reach the ideal urban management model it is necessary to have a clear image of the place and participation of citizens in order to create a socially, economically and politically sustainable developed society.

Planning history is sometimes looked down on as a minority interest, tangential to the dynamism and focus of the major issues facing contemporary society and those responsible for its planning. However, the message emerging from the International Planning History Society (IPHS) Fourteenth Biennial Conference held in Istanbul from 12-15 July 2010 is clear: planning history is alive and kicking, vibrant and relevant. For there were no less than ten 'invited papers' and about 325 other submitted papers listed in the conference programme (and these represented a quality control that winnowed down from the 510 abstracts proposed). Not only was IPHS 2010 a large conference, but its theme - 'Urban transformation: controversies, contrasts and challenges' - was both wide-ranging and a challenge to the contributors. Conference participants and Istanbul The different origins of participants in the conference were interesting and reflected the relevance of the subject. No less than 42 countries were represented, although only nine generated participant numbers in double figures. Unsurprisingly, the host country produced the most (115 participants), a reflection not only of the nature and scope of relevant research in Turkey, but of that country's significant efforts in recent years to develop a high-performing, research-driven university sector. There were 51 participants from Brazil, apparently a response to changing funding arrangements; yet the academic profile of Brazil, too, is fast developing and the 2012 IPHS Conference will be held in Sao Paulo. China (3 participants) and India (2) represent places with fascinating planning histories, but whose academics have thus far had less engagement with IPHS and its conferences. Africa as a whole is even more difficult of access. The venue may also have attracted many participants. Accepting Istanbul's bid in its year as European Capital of Culture was a carefully considered decision by the IPHS, and the organisers and sponsors delivered a memorable experience. There was a welcoming evening cruise on the Bosphorus, the conference dinner at a major museum, a special evening opening of a major exhibition of artefacts from across the world relating to Istanbul's 8,000-year heritage held at the Sak?p Sabanc? Museum and tours of the remarkable city centre among other destinations. Lunch in the neighbouring Hyatt Hotel was also quite an experience. The conference programme, papers and sessions The quality of many conference papers was high, although in an event of this size it would be invidious to single out individuals. Nevertheless, it was good to see the number of papers singly or jointly authored by new researchers, among which the IPHS awarded the prize for best paper to Frederick Omolo-Okalebo (KTH, Stockholm) for a paper on Kampala that explored not only an unfamiliar topic, but an underresearched part of the world (at least in planning history terms). Also memorable was the plenary paper by Baykan Gunay (Middle East Technical University) on 'Ankara: duality of the core and the fringe' that was informative and entertaining, bringing the personality and history of the researcher to the fore (many of those attending the presentation conduct research about places and issues closely linked to their own backgrounds, and so it was well received). I spent most time in the 'heritage sites' theme sessions, where Muge Akkar Ercan (Middle East Technical University) gave a salutary reminder that we should consider the sustainability dimension of conservation, which is sometimes problematic in historic housing districts. The conference programme delivered some familiar themes, which included 'planning culture', 'heritage sites', 'planning models', 'public space and landscape', 'emerging concepts under urban transformation', 'public space and landscape', 'the economy and urban development', 'industrial and commercial districts', 'urban form and architecture', 'urban space', 'urban management, strategies policies and tools' and 'social justice'. …

Although the beginnings of a formal town planning system in Portugal date back to 1934, little effective progress was made in the next quarter of the century. Portugal was thus ill equipped to deal with the urban development processes which accompanied the significant migration flows of the 1960s and 1970s and the economic and spatial changes of the 1980s and 1990s. Despite attempts to strengthen the planning system, culminating in the first general framework law for planning in 1998, the general record of urban growth and development was one of extensive uncoordinated building, often without legal permission (the clandestinos). Even with the new framework of plans and regulatory mechanisms, more informal processes are still significant and leave issues of accountability open at national, regional and local scales.Following an introduction to the changing demographic, economic and political contexts for territorial planning and urban development in Portugal, the paper continues to examine the changes that have taken place in the planning mechanisms for the control of urban development in Portugal. In particular, the discussion will focus on the last two decades, the present system and the problems that still remain. An understanding of the present situation in Portugal requires an understanding of the previous regime with its anti-planning philosophy and strong defence of private landownership.ContextPortugal has a population of about 9.4 million, 45 per cent of whom live in the two metropolitan areas of Lisbon (30 per cent) and Oporto (15 per cent) (Fig. 1). During the 1960s and early 1970s there was significant immigration into the Lisbon metropolitan area, mainly from the then Portuguese African colonies, but also including a significant amount of internal rural-urban movement. After the Democratic Revolution of April 1974, as a consequence of the decolonisation process, more than half-a-million people came to mainland Portugal within two years. With the European economic crisis of the mid-1970s, and before Portugal had joined the European Union (EU), a further half-million people returned home from other European countries. Most of these immigrants were housed in the Lisbon and Oporto metropolitan areas (CEPCEP, 1987). The population of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) rose from 1.54 million in 1960 to 2.44 million in 1991-an average annual growth rate of between three and four per cent, although some municipalities close to the centre of the capital reached 15 per cent (INE, 1960; 1991).In the 1980s and 1990s there were significant further changes in Lisbon. In the city of Lisbon itself office and service developments have considerably replaced former residential land use. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Lisbon office rents were among the fastest growing in Europe (Richard Ellis, 1998). By 1991, the city of Lisbon, only three per cent of the area of the AML, contained 75 per cent of the metropolitan region's tertiary employment (CML, 1994).Today most of the nineteenth-century buildings in the major central avenues have been replaced by office blocks. There has also been considerable decentralisation of the working population, both secondary and tertiary sectors, from the municipality of Lisbon and of secondary sector workers from the whole of the AML. Between 1981 and 1991 the city lost 150,000 inhabitants in spite of the growth of its suburban neighbourhoods (INE, 1981; 1991).After 1984, just before Portugal joined the EU, some major European development firms began to invest in Portugal, focusing mainly on three market sectors. First was the commercial sector both in Lisbon itself and along the main transport routes in Greater Lisbon,1 and in Oporto, Portugal's second city. The business parks in the municipalities of Oeiras and Cascais, redevelopment projects along the main and most prestigious avenues of Lisbon and Oporto, as well as new office areas in those two cities, provide good examples of this type of development focus (Fig. …

Urban community regeneration and community vitality revitalization through participatory planning in China

A just urban ecosystem service governance at the neighbourhood level- perspectives from Sofielund, Malmö, Sweden

This chapter discusses the urban regeneration and development processes in Iran and Tehran prior to the following case study chapters. Urban development in Iran is discussed with a focus on the housing and development sectors as well as the urban policies that have shaped Iranian cities in the past few decades. The focus is then placed on urban development in Tehran, outlining the city’s formation, its rapid expansion, and its current spatial structure. Further, the development industry in Tehran is analysed through discussions on the property market’s behaviour, various types of developers that operate, and the current housing conditions. Finally, urban management and regeneration policies in Tehran are discussed, and previous unsuccessful regeneration experiences are outlined.KeywordsUrban development in IranUrban redevelopment in TehranHousing development in TehranSmall-scale developersUrban land policy

Urban renewal planning and development are vital for enhancing the living quality of city residents. However, such improvement activities are often expensive, time-consuming, and in need of standardization. The convergence of remote sensing technologies, social big data, and artificial intelligence solutions has created unprecedented opportunities for comprehensive digital planning and analysis in urban renewal development and management. However, fast interdisciplinary development imposes some challenges because the data collected and the solutions built are defined piece by piece and require further fusion and integration of knowledge, evaluation standards, systematic analyses, and new methodologies. To address these challenges, we propose a municipal and urban renewal development index (MUDI) system with data modeling and mathematical analysis models. The MUDI system is applied and studied in three circumstances: (1) at regional level, 337 cities are selected in China to demonstrate the MUDI system’s comparable analysis capabilities on a large scale across cities; (2) at city level, 285 residential communities are selected in Xiamen to demonstrate the use of remote sensing data as key MUDIs for a temporal urban land change analysis; and (3) at the level of residential neighborhoods’ urban renewal practices, Xiamen’s Yingping District is selected to demonstrate the MUDI system’s project management capabilities. We find that the MUDI system is highly effective in municipal and urban data model building through the abstraction and summation of grid-based satellite and social big data. Secondly, the MUDI system enables comprehension of the high dimensionality and complexity of multisource datasets for municipal and urban renewal development. Thirdly, the system is applied to enable the use of the newly developed UMAP algorithm, a model based on Riemannian geometry and algebraic topology, and the carrying out of a principal component analysis for the key dimensions and an index correlation analysis. Fourthly, various artificial intelligence-driven algorithms can be developed for urban renewal analyses based on the MUDIs. The MUDI system is a new and effective method for urban renewal planning and management that can be flexibly extended and applied to various cities and urban districts.