Form Of Urban Development Research Articles

Introduction

The idea for this special issue, exploring the history of cities and urbanism within the emerging transnational paradigm, originated in a discussion among the members of the North American Editorial Board ofUrban Historyabout what it means for cities to be global. Veering in many directions, spanning multiple centuries and stretching into much of the world, the conversation touched on the movement of people and ideas, the relationship of urban areas with their hinterlands and with each other, the importance of given technologies and industries for particular forms of urban development, the critical role of politics – at all levels – in that development and the ongoing and evolving role of global capital on those cities. Using the global Internet, members of the North American Editorial Board located in Montreal (Michèle Dagenais), Rochester (Victoria Wolcott), Irvine (Jeffrey Wasserstrom), Philadelphia (Lynn Hollen Lees), Miami (Robin Bachin), Mexico City (Hira de Gortari Rabiela), Hamilton (Richard Harris), Los Angeles (Philip Ethington and Janice Reiff), Amherst (Max Page) and Ann Arbor (Matthew Lassiter) generated a plan to issue a global call for papers for the IXth International Conference of the European Association for Urban History in Lyon, France in August of 2008. Nine scholars from Canada, the United States, France and Mexico pre-circulated their papers for a special bilingual double-long session, co-chaired by Michèle Dagenais and Phil Ethington.

Urban Management and Regeneration in the United States: State Intervention or Redevelopment at All Costs?

For some commentators, urban regeneration in the United States is built around a narrowly economistic or neo-liberal model of redevelopment rather than a socially inclusive or participatory ‘new regionalist’ model. In considering whether or not there is a uniformly neo-liberal ‘US model’ of urban regeneration, this paper examines a variety of urban regeneration tools currently used in the US. These include: public–private partnerships; special purpose districts; revenue and general obligation bonds; tax-increment financing of redevelopment; and community activism and engagement. Although we discern a tendency towards ‘redevelopment at all costs’, actual regeneration tools as well as the uses to which they are put vary considerably according to conditions found in specific cities and metropolitan areas. We argue that the new Obama administration heralds a more interventionist federal urban policy regime. This new regime will be constructed out of the challenges posed by the material legacy of neo-liberal forms of urban development and the desire to build sustainable and inclusive metropolitan regions around a range of new federal infrastructural and housing programmes.

From Bangalore to the Bay Area: Comparing transportation and activity accessibility as drivers of urban growth

What determines urban growth and how do these factors vary globally? An understanding of the factors that drive urban spatial form will be critical for urban—and ultimately environmental—sustainability. We hypothesize that easy access to economic or social activity is a primary driver of urban form. From this, a city's spatial form is largely determined by the time–cost of access to transportation and activities. We use a stochastic pixel-based model to test the hypothesis of accessibility-driven urban growth using two case studies: Silicon Valley, U.S., and Bangalore, India. This study is the first to develop a spatially explicit modeling approach to urban growth in a comparative framework spanning the developed and developing world. Our analysis shows that Silicon Valley's relatively inexpensive auto-based transport (in time and financial costs), dispersed employment locations, and high labor force participation rates have resulted in intermittent and expansive highway-oriented urban growth patterns. In contrast, Bangalore's expensive non-auto transport (in time and financial costs), low participation in the formal economy, and emphasis on informal economic activity has produced a tighter clustering of urban development near existing urban locations. Over time, generally decreasing transport costs in both locations have led to increased dispersion of urban development. Economic growth in India and the inflows of IT-related foreign investment in Bangalore may further create urban forms increasingly similar to those found in the Silicon Valley. The results have important implications for the development of policies that may lead to more sustainable forms of urban development.

The absorbent city: urban form and flood risk management

Cities have always been built in hostile and harsh environments. Technological advances have helped increase the safety and security of their inhabitants and, to a large extent, have divorced the urban area from local environmental constraints. However, the dominance of economic issues in the development of urban form has created a legacy of exposure and vulnerability to flood risk, and a growing recognition of the limitations of this methodology has led to a desire to manage flooding in a way more in harmony with nature. This paper contends that, with regard to flood risk management, there has been a transition from self-protection to engineered defence to the current ideology of natural management, which provides a driver for consideration of the nature of an idealised urban form that is more resilient to flood risk, designed to absorb water and minimise damage. The paper identifies reflexivity, knowledge and adaptation as the three underlying principles of a theoretical ‘absorbent city’ and aims to stimulate debate by describing the potential urban form of a flood-resilient urban area, according to geographical and climatic constraints. Adaptive measures needed to help increase resilience are also discussed.

Understanding energy consumption pattern of households in different urban development forms: A comparative study in Bandung City, Indonesia

Urban development traditionally takes different physical and spatial forms. Taking development control and geographical location as common denominators, there are among others, three generic urban development forms in the cities of developing countries, namely controlled residential cum commercial areas, unplanned peri-urban areas, and planned satellite towns. This study attempts to analyze and compare the quantity of energy consumed for transport, non-cooking and cooking purposes at household level within those three forms of urban development, and for this purpose. Bandung City, Indonesia was selected as the study area. Data on present households’ energy consumption were acquired through questionnaire. The results show two major findings in relation with household's energy consumption. Firstly, the unplanned area outweighs planned and controlled areas in terms of energy consumption per unit of income. Secondly, the lower income people spend a higher percentage of income on energy expenses than higher income people.

Social and Public Costs of Residential Urban Sprawl

The long-run costs of different forms of urban development are one of the major problems in the field of land use and transport. This paper summarises and evaluates the most important international literature, dealing with Costs of Sprawl: comprehensive studies including many social aspects, studies on public costs and those simulating the local fiscal impact of various development scenarios. Taking these examples, the paper derives criteria and requirements for a calculation framework to estimate Social Residential Urban Sprawl Costs, which includes the aspect of cost-by-cause principle and sponsorship under the viewpoint that economic and fiscal problems basically occur, if costs are not paid by those who are causing them. Both fiscal instruments and land use development methods, which are described for Japan and Germany as an example, need to be taken into account in respect to its impact and its application aiming in socially efficient urban structures.

Developing Ordinary Cities: City Visioning Processes in Durban and Johannesburg

This paper adopts a perspective which views all cities as unique combinations of social, political, and economic configurations-which sees all cities as ‘ordinary’, and which resists attempts to determine hierarchical relations amongst cities as potentially damaging to rich and poor cities alike. While current urban theories tend to draw attention to the dynamism of globalising economic sectors, much urban policy directed at poorer countries is preoccupied with the delivery of basic services. Both urban theory and urban policy need to be reframed to address the diversity of activities and interests in cities, and to support a more inclusive and hopefully redistributive form of urban development. In the process of formulating citywide visions, urban managers in the two cities discussed here, although drawn to compete with other cities in a global arena, have also had to find ways to address diverse economies and unequal societies. This paper draws on the examples of city visioning processes in Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa to illustrate how developmental and growth-oriented urban policy agendas have been brought together in the complex political environments of these cities. These case studies suggest that the process of formulating a citywide strategy, and of thinking about the future of the city as a whole, required that policy makers attend to the many different and often competing demands in the locality. For urban theorists, this generates new kinds of research agendas-for example, considering how urban improvements can be spread across the different areas and constituencies of a city without sacrificing economic growth. Here, the benefits of supporting the generalised agglomerations economies of a city as opposed to specialised globalising clusters emerge as important. This paper suggests that urban theory can learn from the process of city visioning, despite the various problems associated with these exercises. In turn, theories which approach all cities as ordinary could reinforce policies which address both economic growth and inequality.

Social Costs of Suburbanization in Europe, Japan and the USA: A Literature Review

The long-run cost of different forms of urban development is one of the major problems in the field of land use and transport and the sustainability of cities. This paper summarizes and evaluates the international literature that deals with social costs as a consequence of suburbanization: comprehensive ‘development impact studies’; studies on ‘public service costs’; and those simulating the local ‘fiscal impact’ of various development scenarios. Such a review is needed because all studies are based on different approaches, methods and scope, as well as differences in the cost items considered. They show significantly different results. Due to the resulting complexity of comparison and evaluation, and the lack of transferability of the results to other areas, a state-of-the-art evaluation is helpful. This paper focuses mainly on the involvement of demographical changes beyond the growth paradigm, the consideration of environmental effects, and the consideration of cost burden/repayment of public costs according to the cost-by-causer principle. Using tabular comparisons of different study types, it is shown that various studies obtained different qualitative and numerical results, depending on the methodology and detail or representing different land-use patterns. Notwithstanding the different international legal frameworks, an international agreement by researchers towards a common methodology is necessary in order to enable more efficient ‘fiscal impact’ analyses as an instrument towards more compact, cost-saving development, and thus avoid unnecessary social costs by increasing the efficiency.

The Relationship Between Urban Regeneration and Neoliberalism: Two Presumptuous Theories and a Research Agenda

Most thinking about urban regeneration is undertheorized. Policy makers tend to justify their choices by referring to cognitive and normative prejudices that are widely shared amongst their reference groups (e.g. notions of ‘Global Good Practice’). But the theoretical assumptions underlying such claims are rarely exposed to examination. This paper draws out and criticizes what seem to be the two dominant theories that underpin, explicitly or implicitly, current policy thinking about urban regeneration. These are neoAustrian economics (or Normative Neoliberalism) on the one hand, and neoGramscian Marxism (or Regulation Theory) on the other. Although these present themselves as in opposition, they in fact converge for all practical purposes. The paper suggests both are primarily ideological constructions, supplying an ethical bias rather than offering insights and tools for an objective, detached framework of analysis. Their shared economic reductionism makes it impossible to grasp the ways in which neoliberalising forms of urban development are constructed as much at the ‘local’ level as the ‘global’, and that this involves a political and ethical intervention that is no less important than the role of markets. The paper concludes that, if we are to understand the drivers of current forms of urban regeneration, we should pay more attention to the growing significance of performative governance, and the related fixation of policy-makers and property developers on the visual. The profound weaknesses of the main justificatory theories of ‘neoliberalising urban regeneration’ also means that we should refute the prevailing assumption that attempts to resist regeneration proposals, and efforts to develop alternatives are necessarily intellectually ill-founded and doomed to failure.

Sustainability and local economic development in Canada and the United States

This article provides a description, summary, and analysis of representative efforts to deal with the challenges to sustainability that result from the predominant patterns of land use in the metropolitan areas of North America. Two broad categories of public policies are considered: management and control of peripheral growth and revitalization efforts to improve the competitiveness of older urban areas. Metropolitan efforts to achieve more sustainable development through management of new development tend to rely more on voluntary agreements that preserve local government autonomy than on regional collaborations. The regional approaches that have been implemented to date have had only limited effectiveness. Efforts to make older communities more competitive with greenfield development have focused on downtown revitalization, industrial location incentives, business incubators, and neighborhood revitalization. While most of these efforts are carried out by state and local governments, faith-based organizations have come to play an increasingly important role. Downtown and industrial revitalization initiatives frequently provide only limited benefits despite their high public cost. Business incubators and neighborhood improvement efforts appear to be more cost effective strategies. On balance, the lack of political will and the preferences of households and businesses for new, low-density developments are likely to continue to foster unsustainable forms of urban development in most North American urban areas.

The Impacts of Terrorism on Urban Form

During the past decade, terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, London, and other major cities have been popularly regarded as having profound impacts on the security and confidence of urban residents. The loss of life and damage to structures that transforms the urban landscape may similarly transform the structure of the urban economy. For example, many of the companies that resided in the World Trade Center were forced to relocate to midtown and the outer boroughs or New Jersey. Still others -- no one knows for sure how many -- have disappeared altogether. The World Trade Center housed 700 companies employing some 50,000 people. What happened to these firms and workers? More generally, what happens to economic agents in the aftermath of a terrorist attack? Fortunately, terrorist attacks of the magnitude of those that struck the United States on September 11, 2001, are rare and extraordinary events. In some cities, however, the terrorist attacks can be unrelenting, providing a constant threat of danger for years on end. These events, and the use of these tactics, could have significant impacts on the economic vitality of an urban area and the form of urban development. In this paper we address this issue by cataloging a large sample of terrorist attacks in major cities in the past two decades and linking these data to a new data set providing information on urban land use in a globally representative sample of cities. In doing so, we examine whether events like September 11 and much more frequent, smaller attacks influence the decisions to build and rebuild cities. Comment by Edward Glaeser pp 291-294 Language: en

L'effet de rupture avec l'environnement voisin des ensembles résidentiels enclavés. Une approche morphologique de l'enclavement résidentiel en France

Céline Loudier-Malgouyres The severance of residential enclaves from their immediate environment A morphological approach to the development of residential enclaves in France At a time when gated communities are emerging into the debate on towns and cities, this article looks at the question of residential enclaves of individual homes (before becoming gated, a development is generally an enclave) as a form of urban development and method of extending the periurban fabric, the individualism of which they are supposed to symbolise in contrast to the idea of integration. An analysis of their spatial and morphological characteristics gives the first clear idea of how they work and how they relate to their immediate environment, showing that physically they constitute what is known as a 'defendable space' (which comes with the idea of exclusive use), and generate a split with their environment. Understanding this type of urban phenomenon should pave the way for an analysis of how they come into being and the lifestyles of their inhabitants, specifically in the periurban environment, so that an understanding can be gained of what kind of society and «city» they are leading to and, potentially, from the point of view of those in charge of urban development, what approach should be taken to them.

Low-Impact-Development Practices for Stormwater: Implications for Urban Hydrology

Since 1970, the design focus of urban stormwater systems has expanded from quick removal of stormwater to include control of peak flows (1970s) and removal of pollutants (1980s). The addition of stormwater ponds as control elements satisfied these two concerns to some extent, but further concerns arose in the 1990s related to changes in flow patterns in urban receiving waters, such as extended periods of high flow rates and reduced baseflow. These changes result from altered surface water storage, reduced evapotranspiration and infiltration, and increased runoff in urbanized areas and cause unintended damage to ecosystems dependent on surface water and groundwater. An alternative form of urban development and stormwater management, called Low Impact Development (LID), provides for urban development while maintaining hydrologic and water quality characteristics closer to those existing prior to urbanization. This study used watershed modelling to evaluate the capability of LID techniques to mitigate the impact of urbanization on hydrology using a catchment area in Kitchener, Ontario as a case study. Results are consistent with those reported in recently published papers and demonstrate that LID practices have the potential to minimize the undesirable hydrologic effects of urbanization not only in new developments but also in a retrofit application.

Differentiation Between Forms of Urban Development Using The Object-Oriented Classification Method with Central Warsaw as The Example

Abstract The aim of the paper is to present automated methods of discrimination of urban development forms using object-oriented classification in high-resolution images taken by the Ikonos satellite. The object-oriented classification makes possible to describe individual classes using not only the spectral reflection values but also the shapes, textures and topology of objects. The classification process as such is based on the theory of fuzzy sets. The research covered an area of 25 km, situated in central Warsaw. As a result of object-oriented classification, five classes of development typical of large cities were distinguished and described.

Canals and lakes of Cairo: influence of traditional water system on the development of urban form

Cairo's medieval urban form cannot be separated from the history of water resource management in the Nile Basin. The city evolved based on a symbiotic relationship to flood management, agriculture, and enrichment of urban life. The system of constructed canals and lakes (birkas) that developed in Cairo fostered a unique perspective on sustainable city planning that grew out of a civilization highly dependent on and inimitably responsive to natural aquatic systems. These processes resulted in a planned ephemeral system of lakes and canals in a city that annually changed its physical form, urban structure, and social character. In the first half of the 19th century, however, changes in political and social outlooks resulted in the infill of these canals, lakes, and ponds, which completely transformed Cairo's landscape. As a result, Cairo's urban pleasures of spending nights on or near waterways, strolling the promenades, listening to musicians, being entertained by dancers or celebrating the cutting of the dykes (khalig) with feast and fireworks can only be imagined by current city dwellers. This paper explains how hydrologic and urban planning were inextricably linked playing a pivotal role in the design and daily life of Cairo, and examines this unique attitude to water planning and city design, including philosophical underpinnings, centralized planning objectives, and societal and cultural contexts that were linked to this process. Implications for current land planning and design are derived from the case study of Cairo and the unique design solutions that evolved from symbiotic interactions between the built environment and natural ecosystems. This paper suggests that a rich body of knowledge can be gained by examining the processes that led to this intricate design symbiosis and that there are many opportunities in contemporary urban design to combine water resources management with city planning that could enrich city life, protect property, reduce municipal infrastructure cost, and preserve natural aquatic environments.

Planning, Housing and Energy Use: A Review

The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) estimates that energy used in buildings accounts for almost 27 per cent of all energy related greenhouse gas emissions. In moving towards more sustainable urban forms the ability to model how different kinds of urban development might perform in terms of energy (and water) use will be a significant tool in enhancing sustainability. This article looks at recent research into these issues. The objective of this article is to enhance policy debates surrounding energy use in different forms of housing through a review of recent research into the issue. In particular, the article aims to add to debates surrounding current metropolitan planning strategies that promote particular sustainable urban development forms. Of course, this then leads to more broader policy debates about urban sustainability (which include water, transport, infrastructure and individual behaviours). This article migrates across the planning, housing and energy literature although it is aimed at the planning discipline, and particularly concentrates on Sydney. It starts with an overview of energy sources and uses in the urban environment and summarises the results of recent studies into energy use and the built form. Current planning strategies and initiatives aimed at reducing energy use in Sydney are then investigated. The article goes on to identify the kind of further investigations needed to improve the sustainability of urban development. Finally, the article discusses some of the policy implications of recent research.

Tráfico inducido en México: contribuciones al debate e implicaciones de política pública / Induced Traffic in Mexico: Contributions to the Debate and Public Policy Implications

El principal objetivo de este estudio es identificar la existencia del fenómeno del tráfico inducido en México. Los resultados obtenidos indican que la ampliación de las vialidades en México origina un aumento de los viajes y de los kilómetros recorridos como consecuencia de una disminución del tiempo de traslado. Esto es, la demanda de viajes puede modelarse como una función de demanda tradicional en donde una disminución de los costos por transporte, que incluyen tanto costos monetarios directos como de tiempo, se traduce en un aumento de la cantidad o longitud de los viajes. Las estimaciones realizadas indican que la elasticidad de las vialidades al consumo de gasolina es de 0.15, confirmando la presencia del tráfico inducido. Asimismo se presentan algunos ejercicios preliminares sobre posibles estimaciones del tráfico inducido para vialidades específicas, aunque debe reconocerse que los valores estimados para el país no necesariamente se aplican al caso de la Ciudad de México. El conjunto de resultados obtenidos indica que la ampliación de la infraestructura vial viene asociada a un aumento menos que proporcional del tráfico, pues se disminuye momentáneamente la razón de uso de las vialidades que, paulatinamente, se va incrementando. De este modo la ampliación vial genera en el corto plazo una mejora en el servicio que tiende a deteriorarse con el tiempo. Esta mejora en el servicio debe sin embargo evaluarse con referencia a los costos que implica en el largo plazo una opción de desarrollo urbano que privilegia el uso del automóvil como medio de transporte en contraposición a otras alternativas. AbstractThe main purpose of this study is to identify the existence of the phenomenon of induced traffic in Mexico. The results obtained indicate that the expansion of roads in Mexico leads to an increase in the number of trips made and kilometers traveled as a result of a reduction in the time taken to move from one place to another. In other words, the demand for trips can be modeled as a function of traditional demand, where a reduction of transport costs, which includes both monetary and time costs, translates into an increase in the number and length of trips. The estimates made indicate that the elasticity of roads to gasoline consumption is 0.15, which confirms the presence of induced traffic. Certain preliminary exercises have also been carried out on possible estimates of induced traffic for specific roads, although it should be recalled that the values estimated for the country as a whole do not necessarily apply to Mexico City. The set of results obtained indicates that the expansion of the road system is associated with a less than proportional increase in traffic, since there is a momentary decrease in the use of the roads that are gradually increased. Thus, in the short term, the expansion of roads leads to an improvement in service that gradually deteriorates over time. This improved service must, however, be evaluated with reference to the long-term costs of a form of urban development that favors the use of the automobile as a means of transport as opposed to other alternatives.

The Integration and Sustainable Development of Chengdu-Chongqing Urban Agglomeration

Abstract Urban Agglomeration is an inevitable outcome of urbanization and industrialization, and a main form of urban development. Based on the analysis of urbanization and urban system situation, this paper will discuss the integration of urban agglomeration development, using the urban area of Cheng (Chengdu)-Yu (Chongqing) Urban agglomeration (CYUA) as a case study. By means of industries, population and spatial integrations, the function, strength and competition of CYUA will be improved and this urban agglomeration will transit from a budding state to a growing and mature one in future. The sustainable development of CYUA will depend on countermeasures, such as accelerating industrialization and urbanization, building a traffic network and express roads, strengthening the ability of self-sufficiency, enlarging the ecological construction and environmental protection, and establishing the synergetic institution of cross districts.

Compact City and Urban Sprawl

Both in Europe and North America there is a growing concern about the development of urban form, especially deconcentration of urban land use in the form of urban sprawl. This has unintentional consequences such as city centre decline, increased reliance on the use of the private car, and the loss of open space. While governments try to regulate the development of urban form, there are no easy solutions. However, policies such as 'new urbanism' and 'smart growth' in North America, and 'compact city' and 'multifunctional land use' policies in Europe, though difficult to implement, have the potential to curb urban sprawl and the further growth in car use, as the cases of Portland, Oregon and Randstad Holland in The Netherlands illustrate. (A)

Superstores and the Politics of Retail Development

This article investigates retail development as a social problem, a political phenomenon, and an increasingly important form of urban development. I focus on mass retail, as exemplified by superstores. The data come from six case studies, carried out onsite, of local controversies over the siting of Wal‐Mart superstores. I analyze retail development and the conflicts that it may provoke in terms of six key categories: economic context, actors, dynamic, interests, ideology, and consumption. Throughout the analysis I critically engage the growth machine perspective and suggest how it may be modified to better account for the peculiarities of retail development. I argue that retail development does not necessarily lead to growth and that mass retail is driven by the pursuit of market share and profit, not growth. I also introduce several new concepts: the global development machine, which has taken over certain functions of the growth machine; the shoppers, a local group that appears to value shopping over broader community interests; and the ideology of shopping, which serves to promote retail development.