Large-scale Urban Development Projects Research Articles

Complementary assistance: multilateral exchanges between the Soviet Union, China and Eastern European countries in Cold War Mongolia

ABSTRACT During the Cold War, large-scale urban development projects were launched in Mongolia with technical assistance from various socialist countries – China, East Germany (the GDR), Poland, Czechoslovakia and, above all, the Soviet Union. Looking at the involvement of these dissimilar countries to Mongolia, this article challenges simplistic narratives about bilateral East-South exchanges, and frames socialist development assistance as multilateral, asymmetric and complementary. It argues that some of the iconic projects of socialist development in Mongolia could hardly be called products of any one donor’s aid programme, and instead required the cooperation of various providers, collaborating on multiple, interconnected fronts. Such multilateral assistance was marked by highly hierarchical racialised divisions of labour, and created strong interdependencies between various countries involved in Mongolia.

Integrating Minimum Spanning Tree and MILP in Urban Planning: A Novel Algorithmic Perspective

This paper presents a novel eight-step iterative algorithm for optimizing the layout of a neighborhood, focusing on the efficient allocation of houses to strategically placed facilities, herein referred to as ’points of interest’. The methodology integrates a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) approach with a heuristic algorithm to address a variant of the facility location problem combined with network design considerations. The algorithm begins by defining a set of geographic coordinates to represent houses within a predefined area. It then identifies key points of interest, forming the basis for subsequent connectivity and allocation analyses. The methodology’s core involves applying the Greedy algorithm to assign houses to the nearest points of interest, subject to capacity constraints. The method is followed by computing a Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) among these points to ensure efficient overall connectivity. The proposed algorithm’s iterative design is a key attribute. The most promising result of this approach is its ability to minimize the distance between houses and points of interest while optimizing the network’s total length. This dual optimization ensures a balanced distribution of houses and an efficient layout, making it particularly suitable for urban planning and infrastructure development. The paper’s findings demonstrate the algorithm’s effectiveness in creating a practical and efficient neighborhood layout, highlighting its potential application in large-scale urban planning and development projects.

Evaluating large-language-model chatbots to engage communities in large-scale design projects

Abstract Recent advances in machine learning have enabled computers to converse with humans meaningfully. In this study, we propose using this technology to facilitate design conversations in large-scale urban development projects by creating chatbot systems that can automate and streamline information exchange between stakeholders and designers. To this end, we developed and evaluated a proof-of-concept chatbot system that can perform design conversations on a specific construction project and convert those conversations into a list of requirements. Next, in an experiment with 56 participants, we compared the chatbot system to a regular online survey, focusing on user satisfaction and the quality and quantity of collected information. The results revealed that, with regard to user satisfaction, the participants preferred the chatbot experience to a regular survey. However, we found that chatbot conversations produced more data than the survey, with a similar rate of novel ideas but fewer themes. Our findings provide robust evidence that chatbots can be effectively used for design discussions in large-scale design projects and offer a user-friendly experience that can help to engage people in the design process. Based on this evidence, by providing a space for meaningful conversations between stakeholders and expanding the reach of design projects, the use of chatbot systems in interactive design systems can potentially improve design processes and their outcomes.

A Sustainability-driven Integrated model of strategic management for coastal urban projects

ABSTRACT Amidst today’s climate change-related environmental risks, both new and experienced investors may face uncertainty and lack of direction when preparing for investments, particularly in large-scale urban development projects. Therefore, guidance in construction investment, especially during the planning stage, becomes crucial to enhance the likelihood of success in coastal urban development projects and promote sustainable development. This study offers a valuable tool that integrates quantitative approaches like the “Balanced Scorecard” (BSC), “Analytical Network Process” (ANP), fuzzy theory, and “Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory” (DEMATEL) to create a strategic performance management framework focused on sustainable development. The model emphasizes the significance of investing in human resources, IT systems, and enterprise culture to foster business growth and development in urban coastal projects. Additionally, the study underscores the importance of internal control over project time, technology, quality, legal compliance, and resources, which serve as the driving forces behind operational processes. Furthermore, effective and flexible management of financial, social, and environmental activities is vital to ensure enterprise success while adhering to environmental, health, and safety requirements.

Governance Discourses and Image Management Strategies in Large-Scale Urban Development Projects—How a Shifting Context and Actor Relations Influence Planning

Governance processes and image management strategies in large-scale urban development projects are exposed to a range of contextual and internal actor-network-related influences. These relations are complex and, due the long realization time of these projects, cannot be entirely anticipated by management strategies. This research investigates how organizations manage these complexities and uncertainties, what strategies they employ, and how these strategies adapt over time. The research analyzes the empirical case of the Amsterdam Zuidas development through a series of interviews conducted with key stakeholder group representatives and an extensive study of the development visions at different milestones of the development. The study relates these findings to the theoretical framework of Henry Mintzberg on strategy formation and finds that large-scale urban development projects need to employ overlapping strategies and engage in adaptive learning to balance development ambitions with the internal and external influences affecting the strategies.

Syndicated leadership in urban development projects: the case of the River City Gothenburg project

Large-scale urban development projects are complex economic and politically shaped activities, and such projects have oftentimes proved to be more costly and demanding more time to complete than is frequently being stipulated from the outset. Based on these conditions, urban development projects demand effective cross-organizational collaborations to optimize the use of available expertise, the capacity to process data and information, and to optimize public interests (being monitored by democratically elected entities in democratic societies). Based on a study of a major urban development project in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article introduces the concept of syndicated leadership, derived from the concept of syndicated investment in the venture capital industry. Syndicated leadership is based on the centralization of decision-making authority and resource allocation to a team of leaders, each representing (in the case examined) a private corporation, a municipality corporation, or a municipality agency having specific responsibilities in the shared urban development project, but also being dependent on the capacity to coordinate and align project activities. As the case indicates, syndicated leadership demands new expertise and communicative capacities and political skills, but when implemented effectively, it holds the promise of avoiding costly and embarrassing urban development project failures as it makes better use of the expertise of the participant organizations and better accommodate public interests.

Mainstreaming climate adaptation into urban development projects in the Netherlands: private sector drivers and municipal policy instruments

ABSTRACT Improving the climate resilience of urban areas critically depends on the integration of climate adaptation measures, i.e. mainstreaming, into regular construction practices. As research has largely focused on public sector adaptation, the mainstreaming of adaptation into private sector projects remains poorly understood. The aims of this study are twofold. First, we examine what drives private developers and investors to mainstream adaptation into large-scale urban development projects. Second, we explore what policy instruments municipalities can employ to stimulate private sector mainstreaming. Our theoretical lens combines insights from the literature on mainstreaming, sustainable building drivers and policy instruments. These concepts are used to guide our analysis of four urban development projects and an interview study in the Netherlands, a densely populated delta country which is rather vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Our results show that private developers and investors seldom explicitly include adaptation measures into their development projects. An important impediment is the perceived absence of direct monetary benefits. If adaptation measures are implemented, they are often realized as a side-effect of creating a high-quality living environment or because private actors expect other professional benefits, such as corporate image enhancement or development of know-how. To stimulate private sector mainstreaming, Dutch municipalities already use a mix of policy instruments that might be a source of inspiration for other countries. Yet, especially the way in which enforcement and incentives are applied is not always effective. Key policy insights Despite the private sector’s growing awareness about the need for and importance of climate change adaptation in the Netherlands, adaptation is still seldom explicitly included in large-scale urban development projects. Municipalities should invest in policy instruments that target consumers. Communication, education and incentives can be used to raise consumer awareness and consequently demand for climate-adaptive properties. Municipalities should collaborate with the private sector to develop clear, uniform and feasible adaptation requirements. Municipalities should actively participate in urban development projects, i.e. co-developing with the private sector. This way, private sector drivers and policy instruments can strengthen each other to pave the way for future-proof and climate-resilient urban environments.

Entanglements in urban governance in new African cities: Appolonia City in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana

ABSTRACT Large scale urban development projects, marketed as “new cities,” are emerging across the African continent. However, there is a limited empirical insight into how their partnerships, involving foreign investors and the local African landowners, are brokered, and the extent to which local communities are engaged in such projects. Using the Appolonia City project in Ghana and drawing analytical insights from the DEDA urban governance framework, this paper scrutinizes the partnership between Rendeavour, the foreign investor, and the Appolonia community, the owners of the land used for the project, to interrogate the extent to which the community has been involved, and the benefits that have accrued. We find that the traditional rulers saw the project as an opportunity to secure community lands against ongoing unauthorized encroachments, and to assist the local economy. We argue that the 99-year lease granted to Rendeavour in return for a 10% equity stake does not reflect a partnership where concessions and benefits are equally distributed. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of the unequal partnership arrangements and the ensuing entangled urban governance process that set in motion project outcomes that do not necessarily reflect the needs of urban citizens.

Taking Stock of What We Know About Large-Scale Urban Development Projects: A Review of Existing Theoretical Frameworks and Case Studies

Despite the wealth of academic research on large-scale urban developments, a comprehensive meta-analysis of the literature is yet to exist. On the one hand, theories on urban change and development have offered useful frameworks for explaining the processes and outcomes of large-scale developments. On the other hand, in-depth case studies have provided profound insights into specific examples. Nevertheless, how the case studies relate to the theoretical debates is unclear. In response, this article undertakes a systematic review of the theories and case studies on large-scale developments and identifies the multitude of ways in which case studies relate to theories.

Planning behind Closed Doors: Unlocking Large-Scale Urban Development Projects Using the Stakeholder Approach on Tenerife, Spain

Santa Cruz Verde 2030 is an inner-city megaproject that will transform the local oil refinery into an urban neighborhood in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. The project is expected to reconfigure Santa Cruz’s tourism model significantly, while applying rather undemocratic planning practices. This paper explores Santa Cruz Verde 2030, focusing on the perception of local stakeholders. My research builds on 18 qualitative interviews with planning authorities, the city’s mayor, political parties, experts from the real estate sector and residents. I identify a large perception gap among the interviewees. While the project’s initiators praise the participatory process, other stakeholders feel neither informed nor integrated. In particular, the “behind closed doors” planning approach has provoked resentment among citizens. In contrast, the possible impact on tourism of the project has given rise to less discussion. This contributes to the “stealthy” touristification strategy that has already transformed large areas of Santa Cruz’s waterfront in past decades. Hence, this paper adds to the ongoing discussion on how to design megaprojects in a more sustainable way, for example, by ensuring political consensus and learning from former megaprojects.

Beyond variegation: The territorialisation of states, communities and developers in large-scale developments in Johannesburg, Shanghai and London

Large-scale urban development projects are a significant format of urban expansion and renewal across the globe. As generators of governance innovation and indicators of the future city in each urban context, large-scale development projects have been interpreted within frameworks of ‘variegations’ of wider circulating processes, such as neoliberalisation or financialisation. However, such projects often entail significant state support and investment, are strongly linked to a wide variety of transnational investors and developers and are frequently highly contested in their local environments. Thus, each project comes to fruition in a distinctive regulatory context, often as an exception to the norm, and each emerges through complex interactions over a long period of time amongst an array of actors. We therefore seek to broaden the discussion from an analytical focus on variegated globalised processes to consider three large-scale urban development projects (in Shanghai, Johannesburg and London) as distinctive (transcalar) territorialisations. Using an innovative comparative approach, we outline the grounds for a systematic analytical conversation across mega-urban development projects in very different contexts. Initially, comparability rests on the shared features of large-scale developments – that they are multi-jurisdictional, involve long time scales and bring significant financing challenges. Comparing three development projects, we are able to interrogate, rather than take for granted, how a range of wider processes, circulating practices, transcalar actors and territorial regulatory formations composed specific urban outcomes in each case. Thinking across these diverse cases provides grounds for rebuilding understandings of urban development politics.

Definition of Socio-Economic Impacts of Large-Scale Development Projects within Urban Development

The article focuses on the socio-economic impacts of large-scale urban development projects in cities. Both in Czech cities and large cities around the world, there is increasing pressure on converting previously unused areas (“greenfields”) as well as the areas that no longer serve their original purpose and are inefficiently used (“brownfields”) to new use purposes. As a result, public administration representatives face a difficult decision on how to change the use of these areas to be consistent with the current zoning plan. The resulting decision has to be explained to the public in such a way that they feel they meet the public needs and interests. Decision-makers need valid and accurate inputs to make the right decisions. Therefore, it is necessary to clearly define and describe the procedure for assessing the benefits of these important revitalization or regeneration projects for various segments of the public. Only a small part of the urban development project impacts is of a purely financial character. Therefore, the evaluation process uses modelling of socio-economic impacts, which are evaluated financially, so that the decision-makers are able to compare the most valid impacts to the initial investment costs necessary for converting the territory into the area with new functional use. The research sample consists of important urban development projects in the largest cities in the Czech Republic. Most of these projects consist have a territorial study, which was established as the main source of relevant information for the analyses. The outputs of the research described in the article build on the previous research of the authors, where they defined 3 basic variables - Incremental capacity of jobs, Incremental capacity of the population and Incremental capacity of visitors as the carriers of following project socio-economic impacts on the territory. The research article presents a list of socio-economic impacts defined on the basis of incremental capacities.

Making railway land productive: The commodification of public land in Kenyan and Indian cities

This paper contributes to the current debates on public land commodification and privatization in a Global South perspective by comparing the disposal of railway land in Kenya and India. Turning public land into profits through inventory, sale, concession, real estate capitalisation is a growing phenomenon at the global level. The literature on large-scale urban development projects and political economy accounts on public land commodification often mobilize the prism of “the land grab” in their analysis to highlight the consequences of a predatory private property supported by State governments, leading to various forms of dispossession. In contrast to these works, we explore over a long period of time the professional cultures, the internal restructuring and the relations to central administrations of two public operators who are pushed to valorize their urban land and real estate properties. This vantage point from the inside of the organizations offers a specific account of the changing trajectories of land ownership, the generation of urban land value and the changing faces of public enterprises in an era of neoliberal reforms in cities of the Global South. It allows us to open a more complex and varied process of land commodification than it would appear from examples of the urban land grab debate.

The Impact of Road Infrastructure Development Projects on Local Communities in Peri-Urban Areas: the Case of Kisumu, Kenya and Accra, Ghana

Large-scale spatial planning and urban development projects have gained popularity in cities of the Global South. Such projects are being used to improve connectivity, scale up cities’ competitiveness, and in return, attract investments. However, while road development changes peri-urban environments in the Global South cities, little attention is given to the consequences of road infrastructure in those areas. The objective of this paper is to investigate how the implementation of road infrastructure projects is transforming the socio-spatial landscapes and economic development, and how they affect social groups within the peri-urban areas of Kisumu (Kenya) and Accra (Ghana) cities, focusing on effects at the community level. The research employed a case study approach, using qualitative, quantitative and spatial methods to examine these socio-spatial and economic development dynamics. The findings show that, on the one hand, road infrastructure projects scaled up residential development, both in Kisumu and Accra, as the roads contributed to housing rents and land prices to increase and rendered peri-urban communities along them as attractive zones for real estate developers. Furthermore, accessibility to facilities and services improved. Also, in both cities, the road improvements fuelled employment opportunities. Conversely, in both cities, the road infrastructure projects led to gentrification and therefore to the displacement of poor residents into the hinterlands, which changed the social fibre and integration to a certain degree. The road infrastructure projects benefitted the rich, who own land at the expense of the poor. The findings that the impacts of road infrastructure appear to differ in locational context and class of individuals within peri-urban areas make us suggest that place-based and people-based policies need to be combined to address the consequences of road infrastructure projects.

The shape of knowledge redistribution within planning cultures

With the beginning of the 21st century a series of large-scale urban development projects (LUDPs) were planned alongside the transformation or modernization of federal railway stations in Vienna. Herein, in October 2012 the City of Vienna together with the landowner set the course for a telling modified urban development project: the new general concept for the former railway station Wien Nordbahnhof. Just a stone’s throw away from the city’s center a new generation of citizens will find its home close or within the typological setting of an experimental superstructure, that is one of today’s biggest inner-city transformation zones, originally called the future city (“Stadt der Zukunft”). According to the city planners’ intentions the Nordbahnhof will be finished until the year of 2025 after a development process of more than three decades and a multifaceted process of public participation. The long period of development led to illuminating different imaginations of the future city and to a particular materialization of the shift of planning ideology into urban form, which accentuates a dialectical process of transformation. This paper focuses on crucial acts of resistance playing a role for the interplay of democracy and innovation within the transformation process in question.

Emerging paradigm for land records in India

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to establish the importance of land records for urban development. The study focuses on how traditionally land records were managed and presently what are the important parameters impacting the land record management systems in India.Design/methodology/approachThe framework adopted for the study was as follows: 1) literature study: aim to study the historical issues, to study global systems across the globe, various government reforms. 2) Present system of land management: to study the administrative, legal, economic issues, problems and potential in the present system. 3) Technology interventions: to study how technology can help to make the system more robust and trustworthy. 4) Conclusion: to study how the recommended technological measures will work and how to implement it in the system. Several pilot interviews were carried out to understand how the present system of land record management works in India, and important parameters were established through the pilot interviews of various stakeholders in the system.FindingsThe study brings out certain striking facts about the inefficiencies in the system since centuries, which are still being carried forward. Any reforms by the authorities have not been able to solve the issues and reduce the number of litigations because digitisation was only a step forward to replicate the wrong entries of records in digitised format. Thus, a paradigm shift in technology is required to bring a considerable change in the present management system.Originality/valueVarious studies worldwide have been done in several countries regarding land records, but all the studies are in piecemeal basis. Very less literature is available on the study that how land records effect large scale urban development projects. This study is an attempt to study impact of land records on urban development and to bring back transparency in the system to reduce the number of litigations on the most important ingredient of built environment, which is land.

From the “project within the project” to the “city within the city”? Governance and Management Problems in Large Urban Development Projects Using the Example of the Science City Belval, Luxembourg

The paper explores the issue of new urban development areas from two specific perspectives: on the one hand, rather than concentrating on housing, we address the question of science and research, in particular university locations and science parks, as a central guiding principle for urban expansion. On the other hand, the paper focuses on the analysis of urban management and governance practices and, more specifically, the disjoining of large projects from their common urban planning context. Emphasis is put on the fact that such undertakings are defined as ‘projects’ and that they are subordinated to a specific management approach. Amid debates concerning large-scale urban development projects and urban governance, we develop the thesis that the risk for projects to unfold as a sort of ‘foreign matter’ in the urban realm increases as the degree to which they are subject to proven planning processes and regulatory practices diminishes. This argument will be empirically illustrated with Belval, the science city in the south of Luxembourg, which is developed ever since 2003 and whose progress is critically assessed here. The general conclusions include planning requirements for dealing with new large-scale development projects.

City Government Capacity and Patterns in Urban Development Project Governance

This article explores the mutual influence between a city government’s jurisdictional capacity (its ability to plan and implement policy) and its interactions with other governance actors. It does so by quantifying, categorizing, and analyzing the composition of governance actors at various levels (national, regional, local) and of various types (public, private, civic) that are active in large-scale urban development projects in three cities: Hamburg, Manchester, Pittsburgh. Considering these findings in the context of national governance infrastructures, the article argues that divergent arrays of jurisdictional capacity (linked to multilevel distributions of state power) influence how city governments engage with other governance actors and influence which governance actors they engage with. This not only impacts project outcomes but also ultimately reinforces the kinds of governance strategies in which cities engage.

The Implementation of Large-Scale Urban Development Projects in Brazilian Cities—Case Study: Rio de Janeiro/RJ

The Implementation of Large-Scale Urban Development Projects in Brazilian Cities—Case Study: Rio de Janeiro/RJ

State rescaling and large-scale urban development projects in China: The case of Lingang New Town, Shanghai

Large-scale urban development projects have become the main vehicle by which targeted interventions for place- and scale-specific state initiatives unfold, triggering a series of processes that are associated with the rescaling of state space. This study aims to understand the place-specific conditions, pathways and strategies whereby states’ spatial and scalar restructuring takes place in urban development projects (UDPs) within China’s political economic contexts, and in turn how UDPs act as critical lenses for viewing the changing nature of state spatial strategy in China, through a case study of the Lingang New Town in Shanghai. The major findings are: UDPs in China function as tools not just for land value extraction but also for scale-making to cater to the state’s pursuits of place-specific competitiveness in the global economy; the restructuring of the state apparatus and regulatory frameworks is driven by place-specific tensions and crises triggered by earlier rounds of state rescaling; the state chose state-agents rather than market-agents to reinforce its power, and thus the state space expands through development of UDPs; through developing UDPs, China’s spatial strategies have explicitly and officially engaged with the discourse of globalisation while implicitly engaging with geographically variegated practices of neoliberalisation. At the theoretical level, this article facilitates an investigation of how China’s state spatial strategy, characterised by geographically and chronologically variegated engagement with neoliberalism, is actualised through UDPs. It also demonstrates how, despite being a socialist polity, pragmatic market measures and downscaling are taken as transient measures in times of need.