National Urban Policy Research Articles

Transformative Local Governments: Addressing Social Urban Challenges by Bringing People and Politics Together

As the tier of government closest to people, local government plays a key role in answering local needs and aspirations. However, local governments are often under-resourced, leaving them inadequately responsive to many of these critical local demands. Moreover, accountability to their citizens, which is the core of a well-functioning local democracy, is often lacking because the necessary formal laws and informal norms do not enable citizens to influence the decision-making process in a collaborative, creative, and evidence-based process that promotes collective learning. Through innovative case study analyses from around the world, the 12 contributions in this thematic issue delve into the multifaceted ways in which local governments can bridge the gap between people and politics, offering innovative perspectives on participatory governance, co-creation, and collaborative decision-making for inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities. The cases showcase innovations and challenges in the urban environment, capturing different ways to bring people and politics together in an attempt to co-create solutions for a sustainable and resilient urban future. The insights provided by this plethora of cases provides lessons that can help revolutionise international, national, and local urban policy to empower local authorities and their local communities to address the increasingly urgent challenges faced by municipalities around the world, ensuring an inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable future for the generations to come.

The Practice of Urban Planning In Managing Urban Expansion: The Case of Level-I Towns in Southern Ethiopia

The world’s urbanization continues to grow rapidly occurring in developing regions. The rapid pace of urbanization without equivalent economic growth causes uneven spatial dispersion, land speculation, urban sprawl, ecological damage, and socio-cultural chaos. Urban planning is a key tool in managing such urbanization and particularly urban expansion challenges through several strategies. The objective of this study is to evaluate the practice of urban planning in managing urban expansion by applying both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The first-hand data was collected by a structured questionnaire survey, interview, and physical observation, whereas secondary data was analyzed from spatial and non-spatial data of the study towns, national urban policy and strategy documents, and the national urban development spatial plan. Descriptive analysis, principal factor analysis, spatial trend analysis, and content analysis techniques were applied with the help of the SPSS and GIS analysis tools to reach the findings. The practices of urban planning in managing the urban expansion of the study town were evaluated on the basis of factors including urban spatial growth management, community engagement, economic change, and peri-urban communities’ understanding of urban planning. The major findings indicated that these variables are poorly practical, and their failure has been collectively posing significant obstacles to the effectiveness of urban planning. This implies that the urban planning practice in managing urban expansion was insignificant in the study towns. Therefore, it is best to use the alternative expansion area planning strategy, that promotes planned spatial growth, community inclusivity, mixed economic activity, environmental sustainability, and the community’s awareness of expansion areas.

Flood risk reduction and resilient city growth in sub-Saharan Africa: searching for coherence in Accra's urban planning

Urban resilience experts have highlighted that frequent extreme weather events are a result of rapid, unplanned development and climate change. To ensure coherent urban planning, effective land governance has been a priority since the introduction of the national urban policy in 2012. However, despite implementing this policy for over a decade, poor land governance continues to negatively impact city development, yet this subject has received limited academic attention. Our study focuses on Santa Maria, a community historically neglected by planning officials and currently facing unregulated urbanization and increasing flood risks. We used qualitative research methods, including key informant interviews and document reviews, to unpack land ownership and management complexities. These complexities have led to “planning by the commons,” the creation of green space deserts, and challenges related to residents' mobility and livelihood. Our study affirms that auto-constructed communities like Santa Maria reflect a form of tenacious urbanism that should be acknowledged and respected. Incorporating its logic into proposals for consolidation, informed by the opinions and desires of the residents themselves, can help integrate “planning by the commons” into the urban planning process of Accra. Rather than being viewed as a problem to be cured, this approach should be incorporated into the planning process, incorporating locally specific social functions and traditional structures to ensure equitable and just urban societies. The public sector must recognize that building on local capacity, skills, and expertise is essential in the quest for a resilient city. The experience from Santa Maria provides a great opportunity to nurture local development, fulfill the growing demand for solutions and services without biases, and provide an excellent opportunity for inclusive growth.

Consideration of Young People's Active Travel in National Urban Policy Documents in Asia: A Documentary Analysis.

Active travel to school faces challenges in urbanized and car-centric Asian regions. The UN-Habitat supports global governments in formulating National Urban Policies (NUPs) for sustainable urban development. This study examined how young people's active travel is discussed in NUP documents in selected Asian countries. Framing analysis using thematic coding was applied to NUP documents from Asian countries. NUP documents were identified via the UN-Habitat's Urban Policy Platform website. A theory-based framework, using both inductive and deductive coding, was employed to identify discussions on key themes related to young people's active travel (active travel, transport, physical activity, young people, and school). A semiquantitative heat map visualized theme patterns coverage (presence; degree of policy-relevant detail discussed). NUP documents from 15 (of 47) Asian countries were retrieved. Transport promotion was acknowledged in 11/15 countries. Discussions on young people's active travel were limited (7/15 featured detailed discussion). Main themes (active travel, physical activity, young people, and school) were treated as secondary considerations, with active travel framed as a utilitarian solution rather than a well-being promoter. Additional contextual considerations (sustainability, natural disaster risk, pollution, and urban congestion) were identified through inductive analysis. NUPs inadequately incorporate active travel, especially in relation to young people. NUPs focus on transport and sustainability while neglecting physical activity, schools, and youth. A more intersectoral approach, tailored to each country's priorities, is necessary for enhanced policy development. Leveraging active travel as a double-duty intervention allows policymakers to tackle health and sustainability challenges along with concerns about traffic congestion and pollution.

Determination of Indicators for Livable Communities in Malaysia's Sustainable Development

Emerges since the 1950s, the livability concept has gained significant attention internationally and locally. In Malaysia, albeit the growing recognition of the livable community or livable development, for that matter, however, the definitive criteria of what constitutes livable remain ambiguous, particularly from the angle of community and sustainable development. With this in mind, this exploratory paper was designed to identify the livable community indicators related explicitly to Malaysia as a case study and has a substantial nexus to sustainable development. To do that, the paper employs a qualitative method or content analysis or, to be precise, a technique to identify the livable criteria. In this sense, this research identifies the livable keyword and its synonymous terminologies. This study examined official national documents, namely the Twelfth Malaysia Plan (RMK12), Fourth National Physical Plan (RFN4), National Community Policy (DKN), National Urbanization Policy 2 (DPN2), National Rural Physical Planning Policy 2030 (DPF Desa Negara 2030), Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (WKB2030) and Rural Development Policy (DPLB). Eight indicators in assessing livability in Malaysia are infrastructure, health, housing, air quality, education, public participation, transportation, and recreation/leisure. Besides expanding our knowledge horizon concerning livability criteria to the community in the context of sustainable development, this paper offers society's contribution via baseline variables essential for community sustainability.

Towards an Integrated Approach to Solid Waste Management in Ghanaian Cities

Solid Waste Management (SWM) in cities has become a theme of utmost importance in urban geographycompared to studies in rural areas which have smaller population sizes and limited consumption optionsthat are relatively more manageable. Existing studies reveal that integration of formal and informal SWMactors is the needed mechanism to overcome SWM challenges. Integration is also at the heart of the 2012Ghana National Urban Policy, yet urban spaces are zoned under public-private partnership (PPP)arrangement with private formal SWM actors. How to integrate the burgeoning numbers of privateinformal SWM service providers still remains unaddressed owing to a host of disparate institutional,political, and socio-economic factors. Using field-based data collected in three open-air markets in Accra,this paper examines the integration pathways used to include informal SWM actors in the context of PPPand thence argues for the need to rethink current SWM approaches in a participatory manner since mostGhanaian cities are facing limited financial and infrastructural resources, growing inequalities andincreasing informality regarding urban metabolism flow.

The Role of Time in the Localisation of Global Urban Policy. A Comparative Analysis of Ecuador and Bolivia

Since the 2016 Habitat III conference, the global urban policy framework based on the New Urban Agenda and the related Sustainable Development Goals (SDG11) has been adopted in an increasing number of countries worldwide. Through a comparative methodological approach, the paper analyses the making process of the Ecuadorian National Urban Agenda and the Bolivian National Urban Policy from the perspective of the involved international agents, to reflect upon the role of the time dimension in the localisation of global urban policy and its relationship with the policy transfer space. In doing so, the analysis sheds light on the role played by sequence and timing in influencing the outcomes of the localisation process.

Town Planning and Development for Disaster Prevention: Insights from Gokwe Town, Zimbabwe

An increasing number of disasters across the globe have prompted the creation of strategies for disaster risk reduction and resilience to save lives and property in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda (NUA). The 2030 Agenda calls for all development planning to simultaneously tackle disaster risk reduction and inclusiveness. This paper aims to remold urban planning for upcoming new towns in developing countries so that planners can be able to include indigenous knowledge systems in urban planning. The study was conducted in a new town, Gokwe, Zimbabwe, with a population of 8,118 from which a sample size of 229 was drawn using Cochran’s sample size determination formula and the 30% rule. A mixed-methods analytic case study was conducted to evaluate the potential of the town’s planning processes in preventing natural and human-induced disasters. The study used questionnaires, semistructured interviews, desktop sources, focus group discussions, and remote sensing. It analyzed the strategies, scope, and relevance of Gokwe town disaster risk-reduction strategies and their integration into town planning and development using six wards, from 1992 to 2020. The Urban Disaster Reduction Index (UDRI) model was applied based on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction indicators to measure the extent to which the town council’s development planning can help to reduce disaster and foster sustainable development. The UDRI was calculated for the four Sendai Framework priority areas and proved that the council’s disaster management is weak. The chief cause was found to be the town’s development control regulations and the national urban councils act that excludes contributions from local communities and leadership, placing new town planning in the hands of bureaucrats, technicians, and politicians only. It was concluded that for disaster management to improve requires local DRR and national urban development policies reformulation.

Enabling urban systems transformations: co-developing national and local strategies

Transformative urban development is urgent to achieve future sustainable development and wellbeing. Transformation can benefit from shared and cumulative learning on strategies to guide urban development across local to national scales, while also reflecting the complex emergent nature of urban systems, and the need for context-specific and place-based solutions. The article addresses this challenge, drawing on extensive transdisciplinary engagement and National Strategy co-development processes for Australia. This includes generation of two frameworks as boundary objects to assist such transdisciplinary strategy development. An ‘enabling urban systems transformation’ framework comprises four generic overarching transformation enablers and a set of necessary underpinning urban capacities. This also built cumulatively on other sustainability and urban transformation studies. A complementary ‘knowledge for urban systems transformation’ framework comprises key knowledge themes that can support an integrated systems approach to mission-focused urban transformations, such as decarbonising cities. The article provides insights on the transdisciplinary processes, urban systems frameworks, and scoping of key strategies that may help those developing transformation strategies from local to national scales.Science highlights• Transdisciplinary national urban strategy development is used to distil generic frameworks and strategy scopes with potential international application.• The frameworks also build on other published framings to support convergent, cumulative and transdisciplinary urban science.• The ‘enabling transformations’ and ‘urban knowledge’ frameworks include the perspective of those developing sustainable urban systems strategies.• The enabling framework also informs ‘National Urban Policy’ and ‘Knowledge and Innovation Hub’ strategies, and prevailing power imbalances.• The knowledge framework can help frame urban challenges, missions and knowledge programs.Policy and practice recommendations• An urban ‘transformation imperative’ and ‘strategic response’ can be co-developed from local to national scales.• Local initiative is crucial to drive urban strategies, but sustained national leadership with coherent policy across sectors and scales is also key.• Diversity in engagement participation and processes generates whole-of-urban-systems and local-to-national perspectives.• Urban solutions are context-specific but generic frameworks can help collaborative issue framing and responses.• Collaborative issue framing informed by generic frameworks can bring broader perspectives to context-specific and contested policy and practice issues.

Developing a smart tool for integrated climate action planning (ICLAP 2050) in Asia-Pacific Cities

In light of the growing global environmental challenges, smart cities need to serve as testing workshops or labs to smartly tackle complex cross-sectional issues like jobs, seamless mobility, safety and security, sustained growth, while responding to the impending climate change too. This necessitates for developing a smart model or tool that integrates such varied but crucial climate concerns of a city into its direct decision-making and long-term planning. In this research, we conduct a literature review to have an overview of the state-of-the-affairs on urban climate planning in Asia-Pacific Cities covering China, Japan, India, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. This is followed by an intensive theoretical understanding on the need of having a smart tool in urban climate action planning. This includes the study of recent urban climate metrics and tools, their different typologies based on key purpose, method, sectoral and geographical scope, and challenges and gaps in formulating smart urban climate tools. We then introduce the conceptual framework for integrated climate action planning (ICLAP) tool that transects spatial, statistical and bibliometric methods. We establish applicability of ICLAP in case of Indian cities by discerning climate vulnerabilities, GHG trends and relevant urban climate solutions. The paper eventually culminates with major scientific findings and policy recommendations, essentially underscoring more intensive and wider application of ICLAP like smart urban climate tools in local decision making and national urban policies duly supported by international scientific collaborations.

Sustainability assessment of a slum upgrading intervention in Ghait El Enab, Alexandria, Egypt.

A sustainable city is largely related to how well the infrastructure is developed which is important to encourage economic progress and decrease poverty. In 2012, UN-Habitat has established the City Prosperity Index (CPI) as a multi scale sustainability measurement tool extending from national urban policies to sub-cities. This article demonstrates the use of the City Prosperity Index (CPI) to measure what has changed in the infrastructure dimension of the Bashayer El Khair 1 (BK1) project in the Gheit El Enab area in Alexandria before and after upgrading.

Evaluation of Egypt’s National Urban Policies and their Role in Addressing Urban Poverty

The absence of Egypt’s adoption of clear urban policies has exacerbated urban development issues, including urban poverty. Drawbacks witnessed during the implementation of such policies emphasized the inevitability of their assessment within what Egypt is currently adopting as part of its national urban policy preparations. The research overviews the various aspects related to this issue based on analytical and descriptive methods to evaluate the Egyptian and selected worldwide experiences in this field, according to a set of principles and criteria that contribute to drawing conclusions to deal with the repercussions of this phenomenon and its impact on urban and economic dimensions, etc., In order to formulate basic considerations for the formulation of Egypt's urban development policies to deal with urban poverty, to ensure the formulation of adaptive mechanisms and urban governance. Future research in this article will examine how to achieve coordination and complementarity among the concerned organizations in the formulation of urban policies in order to overcome the constraints related to the implementation and implementation of policies. One of the most important innovations in this area is the initiation of work on the formulation of urban policies on specific development issues such as urban poverty... and other issues and challenges facing Egypt's urban development.

(Neo-)segregation, (neo-)racism, and one-city two-system planning in Windhoek, Namibia: What can a new national urban policy do?

Namibia’s urban problems are traceable to the colonial-era planning system — a system that was based on spatial and racial segregation to the disadvantage of local communities. This article presents ideas on what planning authorities can do to ensure that its capital city, Windhoek, becomes inclusive for all residents. Through visual analysis, the article illustrates the Windhoek planning structure reflecting a one-city two-system (OCTS) approach. The more socio-economically viable amenities are still found east of the city’s western bypass. The segregation is now based more on the economic rather than racial lines. This implies racism currently manifests itself in new forms (neo-racism) and does not necessarily adhere to the concept of a hierarchy of races. The manifestation of neo-racism reflects in the current planning approaches as they still maintain the historical precedence. Following these concerns, the authors explore the role of Namibia’s forthcoming urban policy in addressing this OCTS concern in Windhoek. They argued ways to desegregate the OCTS for inclusivity in Windhoek. Some of their outlined measures include conducting legislative reviews to decolonise apartheid-era legislation/policies, engaging in inclusive urban land/housing delivery, enforcing tenure security for informal settlements, introducing (re)education initiatives in urban planning, and institutionalising citizens’ engagement in developing a new structure plan for Windhoek.

A Framework for National Urban Policy-Making Evaluation Methodology: Challenges of Natural Resources Sustainability in Egypt

The national urban policies (NUP) adopted by Egypt during the period from the sixties to the second decade of the 21st century failed to address the challenges of sustainable urban development (SUD), as a result of some orientations affecting the mechanisms of policy-making and planning decisions in Egyptian urban areas. One of the most affected policies is preserving natural resources (land - water), resulting in the loss of many of these resources. The research hence addressed repercussions of this problem on policy-making methodology to deduce its weaknesses and strengths, by adopting a critical analysis method within three stages; overview and analysis of the research problem, then assessed policy-making mechanisms and planning decisions within the framework of evaluation methods deduced from experiences. Finally, it proposed a framework to develop an evaluation methodology that can function as an adaptive tool for development issues and urban governance in Egypt.

Global urban development frameworks landing in Latin America: Insights from Ecuador and Bolivia

SummaryMotivationThe global urban development frameworks defined by the United Nations are circulating worldwide and a race towards their domestic adoption has arisen since the approval of the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Their institutionalization at the domestic level is favoured by the rather aseptic “urban paradigm shift” that these documents present. However, the process according to which this happens is subject to path‐dependent logics and varies from one context to another.PurposeStemming from the policy mobilities literature, the article explores the role that “pasteurized” urban narratives play in the domestic institutionalization of the global urban development frameworks. At the same time, it analyses how domestic institutional configurations have influenced their differential implementation in two Latin American countries.Methods and approachThe article details the cases of the Ecuadorian National Urban Agenda and the Bolivian National Urban Policy, employing a mixed methodology that includes participant observation, consultancy activities, desk‐research, and semi‐structured interviews.FindingsThe analysis findings show that, on the one hand, the “comfortable landscape” offered by the “pasteurized concepts” that comprise the global urban development frameworks served as a “coalition magnet” favouring the building of consensus among stakeholders with rather different positions. On the other hand, however, this may result in a “fast‐track institutionalization” that prevents the concrete engagement of local governments in the process, in turn undermining the relevance of the results achieved.Policy implicationsWhereas further comparative research on the institutionalization of global urban development frameworks in Latin America and beyond is certainly needed, to further understand the hidden pitfalls of their domestic adoption, the evidence presented may contribute to inform the action of policy‐makers and practitioners dealing with their implementation at all levels.

Assessing how rural-urban migration is incorporated in Ghana’s national urban policy: a qualitative content analysis

ABSTRACT Urbanisation is increasingly recognised as one of the pressing global issues. As a result, managing contemporary and future urban processes to produce sustainable outcomes has become a preoccupation of policy analysts, academics, and urban planners. Urbanisation can either produce positive or negative outcomes depending on how authorities and stakeholders at all levels manage it. In African context, several national governments have formulated and implemented National Urban Policies (NUPs) as a way of curbing urban challenges associated with urbanisation. This paper provides a content analysis of Ghana’s NUP. The objective of this paper is two-fold: to evaluate the (a) dominant themes that are covered in Ghana’s NUP and why the emphasis on those themes; and (b) the extent to which rural–urban migration is factored into the policy document. The latter is more critical because in Africa’s context, besides natural population increase and reclassification of rural settlements as urban areas, rural–urban migration is one of the fundamental drivers of urbanisation. Our analyses revealed that the dimension of rural–urban migration is ignored in the policy document. This neglect, we argue, is problematic because rural–urban migration is one of the drivers of urbanisation in Ghana. Policy recommendations, including the need to minimise the push and pull causes of rural–urban migration, the need to give proper meaning to the decentralisation concept, and the need for the government to focus on rural development interventions are proffered to strengthen the overall goal of Ghana’s NUP in the context of urbanisation.

The Greek Urban Policy Reform through the Local Urban Plans (LUPs) and the Special Urban Plans (SUPs), Funded by Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)

The lack of defined land uses in most parts of Greece (80%) has led to multiple environmental problems and phenomena of informal (arbitrary) construction with secondary side effects, such as a lack of basic technical and environmental infrastructure, unfair competition among private investors, the strengthening of climate change (increase in the number of urban diffusion) and the decline of natural and cultural resources. The Greek urban policy, over the last 100 years, has not succeeded in limiting these problems and for that reason the new Law 4759/2020 is expected to promote the development of a more efficient spatial planning system reform implemented through the Local Urban Plans (LUPs) and the Special Urban Plans (SUPs) that are funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). These programs will contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage and to the development of productive activities at both local and national levels, especially on the sectors of renewable energy sources, the circular economy, and the construction of “green” materials, digital applications and products etc. LUPs and SUPs are related to the holistic reform of the national urban policy and the relevant planning system that horizontally affects a wide range of policy areas such as: environmental protection and adaptation to climate change (for natural ecosystems and biodiversity; agriculture; forestry; fisheries; water resources; coastal zones), built environment and development, protection of historic sites and buildings, allocation of the public infrastructure, allocation of investments etc. The General Secretariat of Spatial Planning and Urban Environment Ministry of Environment and Energy has the main responsibility for the implementation procedures of all the proposed actions that will start in 2022 and will end in 2026. This paper focuses on the analysis of the current urban policy reform in Greece and the reasons that this reform is considered an immediate necessity in the current Greek urban legislative framework and the expected outcomes of LUPs and SUPs, which are examined in the literature for the first time, contributing to research on the present EU planning systems.

Monitoring and Analysis of Urban Sprawl Based on Road Network Data and High-Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery: A Case Study of China's Provincial Capitals

The primary prerequisite for sustainable urban development is to accurately grasp the development of the city. The dynamic changes in the urban area can reflect the urban expansion process and spatial development model. Carrying out urban expansion monitoring and extracting urban areas is of great importance for grasping the law of urban development and promoting the sustainable development of cities. However, the related research reveals several problems such as insufficient accuracy and low intelligence of urban boundary extraction. In response to these problems, this paper proposes a new method for urban area extraction based on the progressive learning model. By combining prior knowledge and image features, the number of training samples required for machine learning is reduced, and the problem of using high-level semantic information expression in the process of urban areas is avoided by using the classification method, and thus the accuracy of urban area extraction is improved. The method uses urban road network data to divide the city into blocks. It applies the scene classification method to extract the urban areas and uses the pyramid layer-by-layer to carry out the space constraint method to integrate the urban extraction principle into the machine learning process, which can be obtained and kept artificial under a small sample condition. Extracting the effect of the urban area is very close, greatly reducing the workload and providing a new solution for high-precision automatic extraction of urban areas. Through the analysis of urban expansion, the following results were obtained: (1) from 2000 to 2015, China's provincial capital cities maintained a high-speed growth trend with a total area increased by 90%; (2) urban expansion showed significant regional differences. The eastern expansion rate gradually slowed down, the western and northeast regions accelerated their expansion, and the central region expanded steadily; (3) 61% of the provincial capital cities expanded exponentially; (4) the development of China's provincial capital cities was highly correlated with national urban development policies and regional development strategies.

Debolina Kundu, Remy Sietchiping and Michael Kinyanjui: Developing National Urban Policies: Ways Forward to Green and Smart Cities

Debolina Kundu, Remy Sietchiping and Michael Kinyanjui: Developing National Urban Policies: Ways Forward to Green and Smart Cities

Preparing Australia for a potential surge in environmental migration

ABSTRACT Projections for the number of people displaced by climate change globally are startling and vary from 100 million to 1 billion; however, a widely repeated prediction is for 200 million by the mid-twenty-first century. Although difficult to estimate, some proportion of these people will cross borders and end up in Global North countries. This paper offers a provocation on the implications for Australian cities. It reviews Australia’s significant strategic planning policies in light of a possible mid-future surge in environmental migrants and considers how such policies could better prepare Australian cities. The paper concludes that a National Urban Policy could strengthen strategic preparedness for environmental migration.