Inflexible Planning Research Articles

Mapping potential surpluses, deficits, and mismatches of ecosystem services supply and demand for urban areas

Land-use decision making in densely populated cities is challenged to cover the urban demand for water and food while maintaining the integrity of ecosystems that regulate the supply of these ecosystem services, beyond urban limits. Land-use decision making can be informed using spatial analysis of ecosystem services supply and demand, shedding light on potential mismatches, surpluses, deficits, and unsustainable uses of ecosystems. The integration of such analysis in land-use decision making, however, can be challenged by the complexity of the hierarchical and inflexible planning models used in various countries. We explored how the analysis of potential mismatches, surpluses, and deficits in the supply and demand of water and fertile soil can be spatially assessed for urban areas, and how such information can be used to inform land-use decision making. We used official data and geoprocessing methods to map water -supply, demand, and risk for water scarcity-, and fertile supply –supply, demand, and risk for food insecurity-, for Bogota and Villavicencio. We showed a high risk for water scarcity in Bogota, and an increasing competition for fertile soil between urbanization and agriculture. We recommended a cooperative management strategy of ecosystems and services considering that both cities shared river basins and natural reserves, in addition to their strike differences in population size. Inter-jurisdictional and inter-municipal cooperation, in addition to strong governance, are necessary to handle mismatches of urban ecosystem services supply and demand, and a potential solution to solve conflicts related to access, availability, and jurisdiction of ecosystem services in urban areas..

Fragmentation and urban knowledge: An analysis of urban knowledge exchange institutions

Silo-ed thinking, fragmented knowledge systems and short-termism remain key challenges in transforming urban systems and policy making towards more sustainable and resilient cities. Innovative strategies and actions which seek to drive agendas of change are often stuck in established and inflexible planning or policy structures. Complex issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss or socio-economic disparities require the attention of a variety of stakeholders from public, private and academic sectors and civil society. To meet this challenge, some cities have recognised that new knowledge networks and forms of collaboration are needed to meet this challenge. Urban knowledge exchanges are increasingly discussed and practiced as boundary-spanning platforms to bridging knowledge gaps and catalyse innovative forms of cross-sectoral communication, cooperative learning and action. To understand this new form of intermediation, this paper systematically analyses 26 international examples of urban knowledge exchanges. By comparing their organisational structures and approaches of knowledge sharing and translation, the analysis shows that there are several differing models globally that are adopted to respond to the challenge of knowledge fragmentation. The identified key features include: inclusive knowledge co-production, openness of interaction around a boundary object, ongoing monitoring and evaluation and the sustained investment of time in the institution.

The Moderating Effect of External Environment on the Relationship Between Strategic Entrepreneurship and Performance of Selected Oil and Gas Service Firms in Lagos and Rivers States, Nigeria

Globally, oil and gas service industry is one of the major contributors to the economic development of many nations. However, the industry is faced with problems of poor entrepreneurial orientation, inflexible planning and poor management of external environmental challenges. These problems have negatively affected their overall performance. This study therefore examined the effect of strategic entrepreneurship on overall performance. The study adopted cross-sectional survey research design with a target population of 9,324 owners and managers of oil and gas service companies operating in Lagos and Rivers States, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to select the sample size of 733 using the Cochran (1997) formula. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple and hierarchical regression methods of analyses. Findings revealed that strategic entrepreneurship components (entrepreneurial orientation and planning flexibility) had significant effect on firm performance (R2 = .216, F-stat = 34.743, p<0.05). Strategic entrepreneurship components significantly affected sales growth (Adj. R2 = .582, F-stat = 98.422, p<0.05); market share (Adj. R2 = .511, F-stat = 58.132, p<0.05); and profitability (Adj. R2 = .410, F-stat = 42.982, p<0.05). External environment significantly moderated the relationship between strategic entrepreneurship and firm performance (ΔR2 = .593, ΔF = 19.256; F-stat = 67.765, p<0.05) all at 5% level of significance. Implications of the findings and recommendations were made.

Employing big data analytics to monitor transportation impacts in El Paso during Pope’s visit to the US-Mexico border City of Juárez

Abstract City and state agencies often need guidance to manage traffic demand during special events. The demand and supply uncertainty during a major event makes it challenging to identify an optimal demand management strategy. Hence, agencies take a conventional approach, developing inflexible plans that inherently assume a high demand and congested conditions. Often, perceived supply constraints on the day of “rare” special events leads to reduced demand, resulting in uncongested conditions. This was the case when Pope Francis visited various cities across the US, and later the border city of Juarez near El Paso on the US-Mexico border. This study analyzed the impact of the Papal Visit on El Paso’s transportation system. The results found mostly uncongested traffic conditions and increased travel time reliability when compared with regular weekdays and weekends. People preferred walking and transit over using private vehicles to cross the border to attend either the mass in Juarez or the event in El Paso. The developed methodology and results will be useful for city, state and federal agencies in El Paso to manage travel demand during similar special events.

Stimulating Enterprising Environments for Development and Sustainability (SEEDS) Conference University of Sheffield, 14–16 April 2015

Conference ReportCities must cope with continual change. The rigidity of the urban built environment contrasts with the relative fluidity of the socio-economic processes that it accommodates. Ultimately, the former adapts to the latter through the redevelopment of land and buildings to meet new requirements. This involves various combinations of change of use, renovation, alteration, demolition and new construction, and so on. However, physical, social, economic, political, institutional and cultural factors frequently cause a hiatus between the decline and obsolescence of land uses and buildings and their redevelopment. Thus vacancy and/or dereliction are common stages in the urban development cycle.Post-industrial cities have experienced a dramatic growth in vacant/derelict land and buildings, raising questions about how such sites may be used temporarily for social, economic or environmental benefit, and about how these transient uses may affect the long-run trajectory of urban development. The Stimulating Enterprising Environments for Development and Sustainability (SEEDS) project responds to this situation - and aims to promote the temporary re-use of vacant land and buildings as an essential, but hitherto neglected, part of long-term planning and development. The interdisciplinary, applied research project - funded by the Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme - unites the South Yorkshire Forest Partnership, Sheffield City Council and the University of Sheffield in the UK, Denmark's University of Copenhagen, the City of Goteborg in Sweden, Deltares and Regio Groningen Assen in the Netherlands, Lawaetz-Stiftung in Germany and Vlaamse Landmaatschappij in Belgium. Since 2012, the group has been working towards a durable legacy of improved planning policies and transferrable re-use strategies which have been tested on the ground with pilot projects across the partner nations.1The SEEDS Conference was the culmination of the project, and an opportunity for those involved in planning, supporting and realising temporary re-use projects to not only engage in the findings of the research, but to share successful case studies, innovative spatial planning instruments, transferrable principles and methods, and ideas for the future of temporary use. The event featured keynotes and presentations by speakers from a range of European countries, as well as New Zealand, who were involved in both enabling temporary use projects and building or designing them directly. Similarly, the audience comprised individuals ranging from not-for-profit organisations to urban regeneration practitioners, development trusts, local government, architects and landscape architects - with an emphasis on the practice of temporary use rather than its theorisation in academia. Three fundamental questions were addressed by the keynotes, and percolated discussions throughout the conference: what is important about the temporary use and re-use of sites and buildings; why are the benefits not fully recognised; and what is the future of such interventions? A series of four parallel workshops in the afternoon sought to confront the barriers to temporary use, including changing mindsets, dealing with organisational frameworks, the importance of people and partnerships, and the journey from short- to long-term transformation.Changing context, changing cultureForming the backdrop to the conference was an awareness of how the context within which cities are shaped has altered since 2007 - prior to this date, development was typically planned without change in mind. The situation since 2007, characterised by market failure, credit freeze and shrinking populations, has resulted in forgotten, stalled, and abandoned development projects - precipitated by outmoded inflexible planning policies. As Tom Wild of the South Yorkshire Forest Partnership explained in his opening address, a fundamental change in the way we approach the development of cities is required. …

Encouraging reactivity to create robust machines

The robustness of animal behavior is unmatched by current machines, which often falter when exposed to unforeseen conditions. While animals are notably reactive to changes in their environment, machines often follow finely tuned yet inflexible plans. Thus, instead of the traditional approach of training such machines over many different unpredictable scenarios in detailed simulations (which is the most intuitive approach to inducing robustness), this work proposes to train machines to be reactive to their environment. The idea is that robustness may result not from detailed internal models or finely tuned control policies but from cautious exploratory behavior. Supporting this hypothesis, robots trained to navigate mazes with a reactive disposition prove more robust than those trained over many trials yet not rewarded for reactive behavior in both simulated tests and when embodied in real robots. The conclusion is that robustness may neither require an accurate model nor finely calibrated behavior.

미매각 토지의 원인진단 및 가치제고 사업지구 선정 방안

본 논문은 가치제고 대안의 적용 여건을 감안한 미매각 토지의 개념을 새롭게 정의내리고, 공사 사업지구의 미매각 토지 현황과 원인을 진단하였다. 연구결과, 첫째, 미매각 토지의 개념을 용지 매각을 위한 판매비 지출시점 이후부터 사업 준공까지 판매되지 못한 토지로서, 사업시행자의 자체사용분이 아닌 지자체 민간 등을 대상으로 판매를 지속하는 토지 중 부분적으로 계획변경이 가능한 경우로 정의하였다. 둘째, 2012년 기준으로 진행중인 226개 사업지구의 미매각 현황을 분석하였다. 전체 유상면적 <TEX>$195km^2$</TEX>의 74.8%에 해당하는 <TEX>$146km^2$</TEX>가 미매각된 것으로 나타났으며, 용지별로는 공동택지(<TEX>$38km^2$</TEX>), 산업용지(<TEX>$21km^2$</TEX>), 단독택지(<TEX>$16.4km^2$</TEX>), 상업업무용지(<TEX>$12.5km^2$</TEX>), 교육청사(<TEX>$10.2km^2$</TEX>) 순으로 나타났다. 셋째, 가치제고 사업지구를 선정하고 해당 지구의 미매각 현상과 원인을 분석하였다. 평균 미매각 비율 이상인 사업지구를 대상으로 실무자 및 전문가 의견을 수렴하여 수도권 6개, 지방권 2개 사업지구를 최종 선정하였다. 8개 사업지구의 용지별 매각현황을 분석한 결과, 주로 중대형 공동주택과 도시지원시설용지, 블록형 단독 및 연립주택용지 매각이 부진한 것으로 나타났다. 8개 사업지구는 공통적으로 경기변동, 시장수요변화 등 외부적 측면과 수요와 공급의 불일치, 경직된 계획기준 등 내부적 측면의 원인을 두고 있는 것으로 분석되었다. This paper defined the concept of unsold land and diagnosed the cause of unsold land of LH business site. The results are showing as follows. First, unsold land is defined as land could not be sold until the completion of the project, and plan to sell the unsold land can be changed partially. Second, the status of unsold land in the 226 project sites were analyzed. <TEX>$146km^2$</TEX> area corresponding to 74.8% of the total capital area(<TEX>$195km^2$</TEX>) are unsold. By purpose, co-residential(<TEX>$38km^2$</TEX>), industry(<TEX>$21km^2$</TEX>), exclusive residential(<TEX>$16.4km^2$</TEX>), commercial business(<TEX>$12.5km^2$</TEX>), education(<TEX>$10.2km^2$</TEX>) was larger in order. Third, value enhancement target project sites were selected and its symptoms and the cause of unsold land were analyzed. For the project site over average unsold rate, 6 sites located in province and 2 sites located in capital region were selected through collecting the practitioners and expert opinion. These 8 sites are characterized that sale of land for medium and large co-residential, urban support facilities, block-shaped house and attached house was inactive. Also, these sites commonly experienced economic fluctuations, changes in market demand, supply and demand mismatch, inflexible planning standards.

Reconstructing the City, Constructing the State: Government in Valparaíso after the Earthquake of 1906

Reconstructing the City, Constructing the State: Government in Valparaíso after the Earthquake of 1906

Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer’s Block

Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer’s Block

Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer's Block

Ruth will labor over the first paragraph of an essay for hours. She'll write a sentence, then erase it. Try another, then scratch part of it out. Finally, as the evening winds on toward ten o'clock and Ruth, anxious about tomorrow's deadline, begins to wind into herself, she'll compose that first paragraph only to sit back and level her favorite exasperated interdiction at herself and her page: No. You can't say that. You'll bore them to death. Ruth is one of ten UCLA undergraduates with whom I discussed writer's block, that frustrating, self-defeating inability to generate the next line, the right phrase, the sentence that will release the flow of words once again. These ten people represented a fair cross-section of the UCLA student community: lower-middle-class to upper-middle-class backgrounds and high schools, third-world and Caucasian origins, biology to fine arts majors, C+ to Agrade point averages, enthusiastic to blase attitudes toward school. They were set off from the community by the twin facts that all ten could write competently, and all were currently enrolled in at least one course that required a significant amount of writing. They were set off among themselves by the fact that five of them wrote with relative to enviable ease while the other five experienced moderate to nearly immobilizing writer's block. This blocking usually resulted in rushed, often late papers and resultant grades that did not truly reflect these students' writing ability. And then, of course, there were other less measurable but probably more serious results: a growing distrust of their abilities and an aversion toward the composing process itself. What separated the five students who blocked from those who didn't? It wasn't skill; that was held fairly constant. The answer could have rested in the emotional realm-anxiety, fear of evaluation, insecurity, etc. Or perhaps blocking in some way resulted from variation in cognitive style. Perhaps, too, blocking originated in and typified a melding of emotion and cognition not unlike the relationship posited by Shapiro between neurotic feeling and