General Urban Planning Research Articles

The Challenges of Implementing Sustainable Development: The Case of Sofia’s Master Plan

In this paper, we explore how master planning promotes and implements particular urban development patterns and, more generally, contributes to sustainability. Our goal is to understand the link between urban growth intentions articulated through the master planning process and realisation of its specific forms, e.g., monocentric or polycentric, compact or dispersed. As a case study, we examine the current General Urban Development Plan (GUDP) of the Bulgarian capital Sofia against the city’s actual development pattern. We observe that the primary goals of the GUDP are to promote a polycentric urban structure and low-density expansion, as well as preserve green edges. While the question of whether and how these goals reflect the sustainability ideal requires further consideration, there are some indications that Sofia’s GUDP may not be effective in encouraging sustainable forms of growth. Substantial inconsistencies exist between the plan’s overall goals and some of its measures and implementation tools. The results on the ground suggest that, despite the plan’s low-density aspirations, Sofia is becoming more compact and densified, while losing its green edges and failing to redirect growth to its northern territories where ample space and opportunities exist. We conclude that employing the achievements of research on sustainability and developing relevant implementation tools such as more effective zoning regulations and viable suburban transportation infrastructure are necessary for realising both the patterns proposed through master planning and achieving sustainable urban growth.

Building a GIS Platform for Sustainable Land Management: A Case Study of the City of Čačak, Serbia

The general aim of this research is to contribute to sustainable land management and urban planning practices. An approach for building an urban planning-oriented information platform that could support a sustainable (i.e. environmentally sustainable), socially responsible and economically efficient decision-making process in the future at the municipal level is proposed. The proposed information platform approach relies on and is built for the Geographic Information System (GIS) but includes basic data management principles and the standards of the Spatial Data Information (SDI) concept, namely, INSPIRE. Thus, a model with the two following technical elements for building land management and urban planning based on a general platform or database is proposed in this article: (1) a conceptual Unified Modeling Language (UML) data model for urban planning metadata and data for different types of urban plans and (2) lists of land-use classes and types at the municipal level (included in the UML data model). The proposed approach includes a land-use model and the standardization of urban planning data to build a GIS platform to better integrate various types of data (social, economic, environmental, etc.) and is based on general and detailed urban regulation plans and land governance practices in the City of Čačak, Republic of Serbia. Once implemented, the proposed approach is expected to create preconditions for decision making regarding future sustainable land development in Čačak and other municipalities in Serbia.

Collective habitation in urban planning of Jagodina, Serbia

An extensive collective habitation in Jagodina started in the middle of 1950s by planned construction of settlements ?Pivara? and ?Kablovi? by architect Dragisa Brasovan. Along with the further demographic and economic development of Jagodina, construction of numerous settlements of collective buildings on the periphery of the town was continued during the first fifteen years of the 21st century when the settlements were built, mostly contrary to the provisions of valid planning documents. An urban development of Jagodina was regulated by general urban plans from 1956, 1976 and 2015.Planning documents were not being carried out completely, and a legalization of unplanned residential and other construction represented a reason for changes in existing planning documents. Since 2000 the residential and another construction has been realized by individual decisions of local government, and a good base for complex treatment of urban town development was not made by GUP 2015. According to GUP 2015, five residential zones cover the largest part of central building area. According to architectural-urban values, settlements ?Pivara? and ?Kablovi? are particularly noteworthy, followed by settlements ?Kajsijar?, ?Streliste?, ?Sarina me?a? and other ones.

Urban Renewal Versus Rehabilitation - Case of Fuencarral Social Housing Estates in Madrid

Nowadays, one of the main concerns in the urban agenda of the European Union and Member States is how to adopt an integrated approach to urban challenges and needs of the consolidated city, in particular, to address the complex condition of multi-deprived neighbourhoods. Beyond the strategic integrated approaches based on economic interests perceived within the European Union, the disadvantage condition of multi-deprived areas requires an active and consistent implication of the diversity of urban players, including the affected communities themselves. This paper pursues to contribute to this urban challenge with a reflection about the social implications of massive remodelling or re-development operations of deprived localities in comparison with rehabilitation projects eluding the whole demolition-reconstruction processes. For this purpose, the social housing estates A, B and C of Fuencarral in Madrid are taken as reference case studies that represent an important lesson of the recent history of the City and the Remodelling Operation of neighbourhoods in Madrid. Fuencarral A and B units, built as temporal settlements in the late 60s, have undergone a massive remodelling intervention that has lasted more than expected; in fact, some residents complain that it is not yet concluded after more than two decades. While Fuencarral C, with somewhat higher standards, is a protected area on the General Urban Development Plan 1997 and declared as an Integrated Rehabilitation Zone (ZRI) in 2008.

歩行消費エネルギーからみた斜面市街地における空き家・空き地の発生要因に関する研究

In Japan, even though sloped area is much larger than plain area, plain area is used for public facilities and industrial sites preferentially, and consequently, there are a lot of sloped urban districts which are commonly for residential use. Generally in sloped urban districts, there are various inconveniences for living due to the physical characteristics, such as insufficient road networks and many steep hillsides/stairs, so these inconveniences are viewed as the key elements inducing some problems such as depopulation and increased number of vacant house/lot at such districts. Therefore, in this study, the problem related to vacant house and lot is focused as the subject to solve among various kinds of problems emerging at sloped urban districts, and Nagasaki city is chosen as the targeted city to conduct a series of researches. In the first half of this study, through a statistical analysis on the relationships between the emergence of vacant house/lot and physical residential environment which were investigated based on an on-the-spot survey, some significant environmental factors were clarified. Then, in the last half of this study, utilizing the concept of walking energy expenditure, accessibility from each residential site to daily facility were digitized in order to quantitatively detect and assess the relationship between the emergence of vacant house/lot and the walking energy expenditure. The results obtained through this study can be concluded as follows: (1) It was difficult to renew or convert buildings and lands due to the legal responsibility of having a building site join the frontal road in sloped urban districts which comparatively has small number of roads in the past; however it has now become easy to do so even in sloped urban districts since designated streets have been implemented. Consequently, “join-the-frontal-road” issue is no more one of the influential factors to the vacant house/lot emergence. On the other hand, the car access-related factors such as the presence of garages and the width of frontal roads show significant impact on preventing houses and lots from being vacant. (2) For the residents whose main travel mean is walking, accessibility to out-of-house facilities is highly important, and the walking energy expenditure which is utilized as an index to evaluate the accessibility has statistically significant effects on the emergence of vacant houses and lots. Specifically, the distribution rate of vacant houses and lots is low in the districts which show high accessibility to educational facilities (e.g. kindergartens and elementary schools) and the place where residents can take public transportation. (3) Dissimilarly to general urban planning for plain sites which have few slopes and undulation, not only distance to walk but also undulation of routes significantly influence the energy consumption when it comes to sloped urban districts, and so the undulation of routes is needed to be involved in the calculation of accessibility. Considering the results above, for the further progress of solution toward the issues related vacant houses/lots in sloped urban districts, the necessity to evaluate accessibility utilizing the concept of walking energy expenditure is highlighted. Also, it is implied that there is a clear need to construct road networks and conduct locational induction of facilities based on the result of such evaluation on walking energy expenditure.

Collective planning process: a driving seat for formalising urban informality in Egypt

In Egypt, between 1982 and 2004, agricultural land was being lost at an estimated annual, daily and hourly rate of 54,545, 149.4 and 6.22 feddan, respectively. In early 2006, the General Organization for Physical Planning introduced a programme, based upon a participatory approach, for setting up General Strategic Urban Plans (GSUP) for 231 Egyptian cities; as an attempt to prevent further urban sprawl on agricultural land. Detailed Plans for Urban Expansion Areas (DPUEA) as a main outcome of the GSUP of the city of Kotor is examined. This article examines two aspects; first it looks at the process, and the various challenges, of carrying out the DPUEA as the main outcome of the GSUP. Second, it investigates the process of collective planning; by which the stakeholders’ participation played a major role to facilitate/improve the outcome from a guided land development plan. Accordingly, this article sheds light on the assumption that abolishing obstacles of the DPUEA process, with ‘technical enablement’ at the local level, combined with a collective planning process would facilitate land delivery system for the urban poor and eradicate further urban sprawl on agricultural land. It concludes that a collective planning process with ‘technical enablement’ would facilitate land delivery system for the urban poor in a sustainable manner. Furthermore, the government should play the role of an agent for urban sustainability in order to magnify the political goal of saving and rescuing agricultural land and to encourage a guided sustainable urban development in the back desert in Egypt.

A timber-framed construction system preserved: the historic centre of Madrid

Many timber-framed buildings of two to six storeys built between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries have been preserved in the historic centre of Madrid. In recent decades there has been a growing interest in conserving them, although structural decay has led to the demolition of many. The latest General Urban Plan for Madrid published a catalogue for special protection, including more than 9000 historic buildings and making their preservation compulsory. An underlying structural theory will be expounded from the following elements: a barely known timbered construction system within its context; building regulations to assure the stability of timbered walls; and any written or graphic evidence from original projects. The purpose is to highlight the origin of a modular construction system starting with the earliest records in 1606, regulated in 1719, developed in the 1800s and analysed in preserved buildings. The final decades of the 1800s point to the end of timbered walls and the beginning of a new construction system. Study of the most common damage, inspected together with current methods of repair and conservation policy, will reveal further details.

A Sustainable Planning Approach to Resolving Transportation Hub Problems in Egyptian Cities “Proposed Measurement Matrix”

The research study discusses the environmental aspects of automated and pedestrian transport that need to be addressed when devising general and detailed urban plans, particularly for new urban conglomerations. It describes the adverse effects resulting from motor vehicles dominating roads and highways, including environmental hazards such as air and noise pollution, and identifies environmental concerns to be taken into account in the planning of automated and pedestrian traffic routes and parking spaces and underlines the need for upgrading transport and traffic policies in new urban conglomerates. The study focuses on environmental issues that can be resolved through the application of laws, policies and implementation mechanisms. It also identifies environmental considerations that should be included in all general urbanization plans, pointing out that the review of these issues by environment experts (before and during plan implementation) is a key developmental approach to resolving transportation hub problems in Egypt. In addition, the study presents an account of the components and basic principles of transportation hub design and the international criteria used in assessing the sustainability of transport routes. Local and international examples of sustainable transportation hubs are used as a reference to help in formulating the principal findings and conclusions that constitute the developmental approach to resolving this problem.

Gradonačelnici kao tvorci uloge generalnog urbanistickog plana

The General Urban Plan (GUP) is an integral part of local development policy and one of the most controversial development documents in Serbia. Although the Law (Planning and Construction Law, 2014) defines this instrument as a 'strategic development plan', it is not used as such in institutional practice. GUP is drafted merely to fulfill a formal requirement, utilised to satisfy individual interests, and ignored or amended, or followed blindly. Local stakeholders shape the design, implementation, and basic purpose of each GUP, but they are not even nearly equal to each other at any point, meaning they lack the same leverage, interest, or power to affect the drafting or implementation of documents of this magnitude. The GUP is largely left to the vagaries of the complex system of local authorities and its numerous currents and agents. This paper focuses on mayors as formally and potentially the most influential stakeholders in local governance, but with lack of knowledge or interest to change the role of GUP. There is an obvious deficit of agents in Serbia who can institutionalize GUP as a strategic instrument for local development, and serious deficit of actors who recognize the need for change and want to react.

ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS OF THE BUILDING AREA

We plan to debate in the existing article the problematic of an aspect entirely special in the legal status of real estate and namely: acquiring property right upon the building area, analyzed in its legal and urban architectural dimension. This way of acquiring the property right of real estate is not something new, but was adjusted during time, to some legal regulations which belong to the sphere of civil right and that of urban planning law, subjected always to the changes of economic, social, juridical and architectural life. In legal terms, this regime of the building area has suffered several changes, adjustments through a complex legislation, with a lack of clarity and coherency needed for a legal document so vast and complex which raised and continues to raise numerous problems to the social and legal practice. The newest and most consistent clarifications are brought by the new Civil Code and the new Civil Procedure Code, but also through special legal norms belonging to the urban architecture field. These regulations try to cover some legal gasps and to offer some innovative solutions in agreement with the new Romanian realities required by the status of Romania as a state of the European Community. As it concerns the urban architectural field, the general legal code, is being assured by the regulations mentioned above which refers to the special legal norms of this field, especially the Law no.350/1991 concerning construction authorization and the Law no.350/2001 concerning land and urban space management. Based on these regulations, has been developed the general urban and local regulations, Regional Urban Planning (R.U.P) and General Urban Planning (G.U.P) and Detailed Urban Plan (D.U.P). Seen on a large scale, these documents are regulating the ways through which the cities can be developed based on the urbanism regulations and with a view based on a strategy of development, for a longer period of time. Iftime, E. Vagner, I. (2014). Acquisition of Property Rights of the Building Area. European Journal of Law and Public Administration, Year 2014, Issue 1, pp. 99-111. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18662/eljpa.2014.0101.08

Decisions on Building Stock Survival and Conservation in a Multi-Hazard Environment: Cultural and Functional Identity vs. Safety and Environment Values in Protected Areas

Romania’s capital city, Bucharest, was struck by multi-hazards in its historybut has also suffered a huge trauma by demolition of 450 hectares, to build publicinstitutions in the 1980s, during the past regime. This zone is now a protectedarea, under the threats of climate and social changes. This research projectfinanced by the Romanian Ministry of National Education aimed to identifythe patterns of building blocks, in a balanced relationship between cultural,functional values, as an identity dimension, and the nature of safety, stabilityas state values (vulnerability), under earthquakes and other hazards. Functionalvalues were evaluated with respect to the Code significance categories, functionalzoning of the General Urban Plan and Law of quality in construction. Analysis ofcultural value observed the Law of Monuments, associated to 13 criteria suggestedby authors, resulting in six evaluation stages. The intervention works includedcurrent maintenance; conservative maintenance, using also strengthening;conservative works; restoration and strengthening; partial or global restricting,with possible demolition and reconstruction works; demolition; new building.New knowledge is represented by a methodology of evaluation and decisionmakingfor multi-levelinterventioncategories, to preserveurban memoryandpresentsa case study of Bucharest,Romania(Europe).Keywords: Environmental Science, multi-hazard environment, urban heritage,conservation and intervention approaches, evaluation of cultural identity andvulnerability value, disaster risk reduction, Romania

Revisiting urban planning and design practices in a small city in Florida

In many local jurisdictions in Florida, practitioners have overlooked the general urban planning and design process and have helped to create a politically optimised planning structure. Politically optimised practice, as observed through this study, has produced errors in acquiring knowledge of urban morphology for future potential, understanding preferences in urban policy structure, and providing consistency between planning policies. The errors have then created inefficient planning practices. Consequently, there have been demands for more efficient and effective urban planning and design practices. According to the results of this study, the general urban planning and design process provides a guide for better collaborative work between planners, the public and politicians, and offers better performance through a scientific planning approach.

The influence of medical and geographical factors on the appearance and development of allergic rhinitis and eczema among school children in Belgrade

Allergic rhinitis and eczema represent ailments which are increasingly linked with urban areas. Although they do not belong to illnesses which are predominantly caused by geographical factors, their importance for the development of these illnesses will be considered in this paper. As an example of the influence of urban environment on the development of these illnesses, the city core of Belgrade (the area included in the General Urban Plan) is taken into consideration. The emphasis is put especially on the quality of air, industry, traffic and the conditions for living. The research is based on tracking these illnesses among children, considering the frequent appearance of these illnesses especially among school children. The survey, whose results were partly presented in this research paper, was an important method for examining the subject matter of this paper. Namely, the above mentioned survey was realized in the International Study of Asthma and Allergy among children (ISAAC), which was conducted by World Health Organization (WHO), 156 centres from 56 countries took part. Among them, there were four centres from Serbia: Belgrade, Nis, Podgorica and Sombor.

The Present Status and Trends in Development of Agriculture in Apuseni Mountains

The region of Apuseni Mountain has suffered many changes over time, which is due to supra intensive exploitation of the wood mass, depopulation of villages, decreasing the number of livestock and land abandonment. The civilization of villages from „Stone Land” is represented by a specific landscape which includes reliefs forms, the pastoral construction generated by a way of life is seriously threatened by current developments. The purpose of this study was to track the time evolution of the structure of agricultural land, livestock and prospects of the area. The information about agricultural surfaces, livestock ( their evolution in time ) were taken from the Agricultural Registers of Băișoara, Beliș, Călăţele villages,  ( General Urban Plan -1998-2010-2011) , but also from villages records ( 1990-2011) from I.N.S. Cluj. Demographic data necessary for this study were taken from the 1990-2011 Censuses of Population to trace the trend of evolution of the area studied. These data were graphically processed. The results show that during the years 1990-2011, the Băișoara, Beliș, Călăţele villages have occurred important changes in the categories of land use, livestock and degree of depopulation of villages. It was found that over time, the population of the villages taken to be studied ( Băișoara, Beliș, Călăţele ) decreased and therefore changes occurred regarding land use, the number of livestock decreased and pastures are under cargo. The close relationship between the grassland condition and number of animals and degree of intensification of crop systems determines the direction of their evolution.

The General Urban Plan of Casimcea territorial administrative unit, map of natural and anthropogenic risks

The General Urban Plan represents the legal ground for any development action proposed. After endorsement and approval as required by law, GUP is act of authority of local government for the area in which it applies. The aim is to establish priorities regulations applied in land use planning and construction of structures. In terms of geographical location, the administrative territory of Casimcea, Tulcea county, falls in the central Northwest Plateau Casimcei. This is the second unit of the Central Dobrogea Plateau. Geographical location in southeastern Romania, climatic and relief conditions and anthropogenic pressure, expose the village administrative territorial unit Casimcea, permanent susceptibility to produce natural and antropogenical risks. In this context, we identified the following categories of natural and anthropogenic risks: i) natural risk phenomena (earthquakes, strong winds, heavy rains, floods caused by overflowing or precipitation, erosion of river banks and torrents, gravitational processes, rain droplet erosion and surface soil erosion); and ii) anthropogenic risk phenomena (overgrazing, chemicals use in agriculture, road transport infrastructure and electricity, wind turbines for electricity production, waste deposits, agro-zootechnical complexs, and human cemeteries). Extending their surface was materialized by creating a map of natural and anthropogenic risk on Casimcea territorial administrative unit, explaining the share of potentially affected areas as territorial balance

Una lectura de las políticas de suelo y los modelos urbanísticos madrileños desde mediados de los años 1990: de la liberalización a la resaca inmobiliaria

This article reviews the policies and planning models that have shaped Madrid in the last 30 years, with particular attention to their positioning with respect to the economic situation, and particularly to its role in the formation of the recent housing bubble. On the one hand, it highlights the link between policies and models of different levels of government, such as land liberalization policy promoted by the State and the regional level; the abandonment of territorial planning by the regional government; and, the evolution of the urban model of the city of Madrid through the three General Urban Plans elaborated by the City Council. It is also possible to point at a displacement in the three spatial scales towards policies located half-way between the emerging neoliberal policies with common features in the global scale and a particular local neo-urban entrepreneurialism, with a gradual devaluation of the role of planning as a regulatory mechanism of market dynamics, and as the expression of a political consensus around the spatial pattern of the local society.

Brownfield sites - between abandonment and redevelopment case study: Craiova city

This paper addresses the problem of Brownfield sites in Craiova City. The brownfield sites are of primary importance because they do not only influence the natural environment but also have socio-economic influences on the city in broad meaning: problems in attracting investors, decreasing the attractiveness of real estate properties, the increased rate of unemployment or the consumption of greenfields. Despite this, there is a lack or insufficient information among the decision makers. The general urban plan of Craiova City does not identify the existence of any brownfield site. Moreover, the official planning papers developed by the local authorities (such as The Local Development Strategy and the Integrated Plan for Urban Development) make no references to the brownfield sites. In this respect, the first part of the papers addresses the concept of brownfield and also identifies and maps the types of brownfields in Craiova. Based on specific and relevant case studies, the second part is critically examining the evolution patterns of the brownfield sites within the last decades. Specific management solutions for the reuse and redevelopment of the brownfield sites are also put forward. The paper addresses primarily the and use planners, in order to provide them with a better understanding of what brownfield site are, their nature, scale and patterns.

Study on Urban Environmental Carrying Capacity Based on an Inexact Fuzzy Multiobjective Programming Model

To determine the essence of the environmental carrying capacity (ECC), namely “threshold value of the human activities”, the paper established the optimization model of ECC using an inexact fuzzy multiobjective programming (IFMOP) method. It was solved to obtain the scale of economy, the size of the population, chemical oxygen demand (COD), sulfur dioxide emissions, and water and energy consumption using LINGO software in Wuhan city. Results showed that the available energy is the bottleneck restricting the economic development. And the available water resources and environmental capacity of sulfur dioxide played strong limit role. In the end, suggestion was proposed to further improve the Wuhan general urban planning.

Mapping Urban Water Demands Using Multi-Criteria Analysis and GIS

A multi-criteria spatial data analysis method is presented to seek and model major determinants of future growth of urban water demands based on the urban growth trend by a case study performed in the city of Mytilene (Lesvos island) in north-eastern Aegean archipelagos, Greece. Domestic water use/demand is a complex element of socio-economic and physical characteristics, urban planning strategies, infrastructures and public water policies. Under a GIS environment, these factors correspond to different thematic layers, such as road network distance, distance from the city centre, distance from the coastline, topographic slope, land use/land cover, General Urban Plan of Mytilene, areas in which buildings with less than two storeys are allowed, the respective areas of buildings with more than two storeys, present population density and existing water supply and sewerage system. The Analytical Hierarchy Process applied in the evaluation of these factors led to spatial potential water demand map, which was classified into five priority zones. Results showed that a large percentage of the study area was identified as very high and high priority areas for future domestic water demand. The applied method was verified against the prepared maps showing the varying rates of water consumption and active water connections. The comparative evaluation of these maps validated the accuracy of the proposed method which can be used by the local officials of Mytilene in adopting policies and strategies aiming towards sustainable water resource management and development.

Synergy between Gmes and Regional Innovation Strategies: Very High Resolution Images for Local Planning and Monitoring

In the European strategy for a sustainable territory management, the European Commission (EC) gives great relevance to the active participation of the final Users, with the purpose of gathering their specific requirements in the definition processes and in the qualification of the services. Starting from the results obtained by GSE LAND project, funded by ESA within GMES initiatives and by its successor GEOLAND2 project, financed by EC within the FP7 Programme, Regione Puglia supported a regional project aimed to provide EO value added products and services in the fields of environmental monitoring and urban planning. This paper describes the operational case of the construction of the new General Urban Plans for a local Municipality.