Recent Urban Policy Research Articles

지방 소도시 도시재생사업 추진방안 연구

This study reviewed the system and policy direction of the urban regeneration project currently being promoted, and analyzed the residents' perception of the urban regeneration project in small local cities.
 Although the recent urban regeneration policy is in the direction of avoiding non-physical software projects such as resident capacity building, the purpose of urban regeneration projects is to revitalize the region through integrated promotion of non-physical projects along with physical projects such as maintenance projects. If the software business is completely excluded and the regeneration business is promoted, it is thought that there will be many difficulties in actual regional revitalization through the business.
 In addition, in the case of local eup/myeon units, the conditions for promoting urban regeneration projects in many aspects, such as the number of local populations and aging, are very different from those in the metropolitan area and urban areas. It is considered that it should be applied somewhat differently.
 Therefore, this study tried to find out the parts that need to be supplemented when promoting local regeneration projects by reviewing the current urban regeneration project promotion method from an institutional perspective such as legal guidelines. In addition, through an empirical analysis of residents' perceptions of the Hapcheon-eup urban regeneration project district, we analyzed the matters that should be applied differently from the urban regeneration project in the metropolitan area when promoting the urban regeneration project in the local area, and thus for the future urban regeneration policy of small local cities. It is intended to be presented as a reference.

Evaluating the sustainability of urban renewal projects based on a model of hybrid multiple-attribute decision-making

Sustainable urban renewal has received tremendous academic attention and has been put into wide practice around the world. In order to avoid unsustainable renewal projects, the evaluation of the sustainability of urban renewal has become a critical procedure. However, there is an insufficient number of relevant studies on ex-ante evaluation compared to a large amount of literature focusing on ex-post evaluation. Most literature does not fully consider the interdependency between the dimensions/criteria of evaluation. How to utilize this to evaluate real cases is shortage. Hence, this study presents an ex-ante decision-making model for evaluating the sustainability of urban renewal projects based on hybrid multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) from a government perspective, and includes three classical dimensions: economic (D1), social and cultural (D2), and environment (D3), as well as 13 relevant criteria. A case in Taiwan is used to evaluate the potential performance of sustainability and explore improvement strategies. Empirical results from the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) reveal that the social and cultural (D2) dimension impact the environment (D3) and economic (D1) dimensions, with the economic (D1) dimension being the most impacted by other dimensions. Enhancing transportation (C5), strengthening the accessibility of various public facilities (C4), preserving local culture (C9), increasing greening and open space (C10), and improving land-use efficiency (C3) are the criteria in the “cause” position, among which strengthening the accessibility of various public facilities (C4) and improving land-use efficiency (C3) are considered to be the core of urban renewal project sustainability based on DEMATEL and the DEMATEL-based analytic network process (DANP). The modified VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method indicated that the social and cultural (D2) and the environment (D3) dimensions have poor performance. Thereafter relevant improvement strategies and paths are suggested based on an influence network relation map (INRM). The results imply that recent urban renewal policy reform in Taiwan represents a step toward sustainable development.

From Livable Communities to Livable Metropolis: Challenges for Urban Mobility in Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal).

Urban mobility plays an important role in addressing urban livability. The complexification and dispersion of travel due to the improvement of transport and the multiplication of our daily living places underline the relevance of multilevel territorial planning, recognizing that the knowledge of local differences is essential for more effective urban policies. This paper aims (1) to comprehend conceptually how urban mobility contributes to the urban livability from the local to metropolitan level and (2) to assess the previous relation toward a livable metropolis based on the readily available statistics for the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Hence, a triangulation between conceptual, political/operative, and quantitative/monitoring approaches is required. The methodology follows four steps: (1) literature review focusing on the quantification of urban mobility within the urban livability approach; (2) data collection from the Portuguese statistics system; (3) data analysis and results, using principal component analysis (PCA) followed by cluster analysis (CA); (4) discussion and conclusions. In Portugal, although it is implicit, consistency is evident between the premises of recent urban mobility policies and respective planning instruments, such as the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP), and the premises of urban livability as an urban movement. Focusing on the national statistics system, the available indicators that meet our quality criteria are scarce and represent a reduced number of domains. Even so, they allow identifying intra-metropolitan differences in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) that could support multilevel planning instruments. The results identified five principal components related to commuting at the local and intermunicipal level, including car use as well as social and environmental externalities, and they reorganized the 18 LMA municipalities into eight groups, clearly isolating Lisbon, the capital, from the others. The identification of sensitive territories and respective problems based on urban livability principles is fundamental for an effective urban planning from livable communities to livable metropolis.

The real estate market in Rebouças avenue axis: Application of the Urbanistic Guidelines for the Urban Structuring Zones of the São Paulo’s Strategic Master Plan from 2014

This article adresses the history of the configuration of the Rebouças Avenue axis, considering the strategies of urban development by contextualizing the inflection periods of São Paulo planning, resulting from the political, economic and social (re)orientations, through urban legislation. applied especially from the 1970s focusing on the recent verifiable real estate development in the area. The highlight, however, is on the most recent urban policy, defined by the Strategic Master Plan of 2014 and the Land, Use and Occupation Law of 2016, that defined qualifying urban parameters in which applications are mandatory or encouraged. The Rebouças avenue axis, as it is currently classified as an Urban Structuring Zone, represents a good perspective for analyzing the application of such parameters, because, besides promotes a constructive and demographic density, it also seeks to articulate the territory in benefit of local economic dynamism, pedestrian scale, public transport and intra-urban relations.

Politicising the debate on urban sprawl: The case of the Lyon metropolitan region

The fight against urban sprawl has become an international motto for planners. However, recent urban policies promoting ‘smart growth’ and ‘new urbanism’ are the subject of growing criticism from various scientific disciplines. This paper goes beyond the debate for or against sprawl to examine the political and social issues behind anti-sprawl policies. We show how and why urban compaction can be perceived as a burden or a resource, depending on the different sub-metropolitan territories concerned. These issues are discussed in the case of the second largest metropolitan area in France, the region of Lyon. The paper analyses how the national legislation on urban sprawl and the ‘compact city’ is implemented in the very diverse territories within Lyon’s metropolis and how some of those territories use it to their advantage. It reveals that the resulting compromises are deceptive and raise spatial justice issues. It also shows how compaction or densification are negotiated in the suburbs to preserve the status quo in wealthy municipalities.

An Accessible City is a Healthy and People-Centred Smart City

Accessibility for all is an inspiring issue for future urban agendas. In European cities, the ageing of urban population and the growth of social and economic disparities call for interdisciplinary reflection and practice on the relations between well-being and inclusion and the organization and upgrading of public facilities. The challenge is to ensure the usability of urban spaces to the largest extent of persons, according to their different capabilities. Based on research developed at the University of Trieste (Italy), and taking the region Friuli Venezia Giulia as its main study context, the article questions a variety of recent urban tools and policies in order to show their level of innovation and the obstacles that still oppose their more effective integration. The aim is to highlight possible fields for public action and the need to rethink planning instruments and technical skills in the frame of a user experience and smart design approach.

Santo Domingo: City profile of the Caribbean's metropolis

As the oldest city of the New World, Santo Domingo has undergone major institutional, political, economic and urban restructuring in five centuries of urban history. This city profile article investigates first the historical urban development of the city and then scrutinizes contemporary urban policies and projects that respond to challenges of rapid growth, inequality, and vulnerability to climate change. The article highlights how centralized policies initiated by divergent political regimes have resulted in a segregated city where Presidents used urban space to leave their legacies without adhering to planning mechanisms. The article also uncovers how rapid growth and absence of urban planning have produced two city making approaches, the “formal” and the “informal” cities converging parallel to each other. Furthermore, as the capital city of a Small Island Developing State, Santo Domingo's recent urban policies are embedded in global frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement; in this line, inequality and climate change vulnerabilities continue to be the city's main challenges in the 21rst century.

Explorando el espacio vial: Un mapeo preliminar de los factores que influyeron en la capacidad de regulación y fiscalización del transporte urbano de la Municipalidad Metropolitana de Lima durante el período 2007-2014

This article aims to identify the different factors that have affected the recent urban transport policy of the local government of Lima, through the analysis of the Urban Transport Office (GTU) of the municipality of the metropolitan area of Lima (MML) during the period 2007-2014. The preliminary results emphasize the role of the sectorial and territorial governance of the urban transport, the urban transport stakeholders and the capacities of the governmental local agency dedicated to the inspection and regulation of the transport system in the city.

Is Urban Planning in Australia Hindered by Poor Metropolitan Governance?

There are many calls for urban planning in Australia to be reformed, although often in contradictory ways. For example, some argue it should be capable of delivering greater certainty to developers while others call for more flexibility in processes of urban development regulation; some would like to roll back its regulatory impact while others argue for a renewal of planning’s commitment to promoting social and spatial justice. The Australian planning system is also held to be hindered by a comparative lack of planning at and for the metropolitan scale. This is connected to the absence of well-developed structures of metropolitan governance in what is a three-tier federal system, with most power over planning concentrated at the State and Territory government scale. The paper explores this putative hindrance by considering three important issues in Australian urban policy debates about the efficacy of contemporary multi-level governance arrangements: spatial scale; identity and legitimacy; and efficiency and effectiveness. It includes some analysis of the case made for a more explicit and rigorous national urban policy and how this might relate to lower level planning regimes. The paper focuses on recent urban policy and planning initiatives in South East Queensland, one of Australia’s fastest growing metropolitan regions, and concludes that while incremental but nonetheless significant improvements in planning policy and practice are possible, these are unlikely to satisfy those calling for more radical changes to improve the Australian planning system.

Beyond the School Fence: Rethinking Urban Schools in the Twenty-first Century

Schools have traditionally been black-boxed in urban planning, in Australia and elsewhere. During the twentieth century, the shaping of a “community within a community” that informed liberal educational thought materialised in campus-style schools that were exempted from local planning laws, contributed to sprawl and car dependency, and duplicated facilities provided by local authorities. Advocacy of compact city forms underpinning recent urban policy calls for a rethink by education and planning authorities of how schools engage with their urban surrounds. Focussing on Melbourne, Australia, this article discusses some challenges for the provision of schools and schooling in twenty-first century cities.

The new towns around Paris 40 years later: New dynamic centralities or suburbs facing risk of marginalisation?

Launched in the middle of the 1960s, the Paris region master plan (SDAU de la région Parisienne) deeply changed the structure of the largest French agglomeration: five new towns were created in order to solve various problems in terms of urban amenities and economic development. Located in the urban fringes, they were supposed to help reorganise the whole agglomeration following a polycentric model. This decision was a strong break with the past for this very monocentric city of Paris. At first, the success of the project depended directly on State support. After that, the new towns became more autonomous, generating their own attractiveness. Forty years later, even if the process is not yet totally finished, it is possible to evaluate the consequences of this vast scheme. To begin with, the demographic weight of the new towns is not as important as initially expected: in 2010, they represented 7.9% of the population of the whole agglomeration. Their economic weight is similar, representing less than 7.7% of the agglomeration. Nevertheless, the new towns concentrate a large quantity of diversified jobs and they succeed in attracting firms in different activity sectors, even if each of them does not present the same advantages. These elements tend to show that the new towns have partly reached their initial goals. Consequently, the new towns have contributed in improving the socio-spatial organisation of the Paris suburbs. However, the recent urban policy for the Paris agglomeration called the ‘Grand Paris’ does not integrate the new towns, and this raises many questions for the future of these territories.

Urban civic pride and the new localism

Civic pride relates to how places promote and defend local identity and autonomy. It is often championed as a key value and aspiration of local government. This paper argues that civic pride has been under‐examined in geography, and in particular the emotional meanings of pride need to be better understood. In response, I present an emotional analysis of civic pride and discuss its role in British cities, particularly in the context of urban regeneration and the UK's new localism agenda. In the latter part of the paper I provide a case study of Nottingham in England, where I employ a discourse analysis of recent urban policy and local media to examine how civic pride is being mobilised and contested in the city. Examining civic pride is important because it shapes and reflects the political values that local governments stand for and provides a basis for thinking about how emotions are used strategically (and problematically) in urban policy. This paper complements and challenges existing literature on cities by showing how civic pride shapes, but also obscures, the ideological politics of local government and how, as geographers, we might consider more seriously the ways forms of power, identity and inequality are reproduced and contested through emotions such as pride.

Electric Vehicles and Urban Noise Control Policies

Abstract Limited Traffic Zone (LTZ) is a planning strategy that is more and more adopted by municipalities in Europe to improve their environmental conditions. It consists in the prohibition for traditional vehicles to circulate in specific areas. Although the main aim is to tackle air pollution problems, positive effects are registered in terms of reduction of noise annoyance and in terms of improved “quality of life” if specific conditions are respected. On the other side under the drive of the global market, the number of circulating electric vehicles in urban sites is also increasing. In the next years we expect to experience a new and not well-known urban soundscape. In this paper is presented an overview of recent urban projects and policies that deal with noise control and how these experiences will match into the next years with the sound characteristics of new electric vehicles for private and public transportation.

The Widespread Hotel: New Hotel Model for Business Tourist

The territories are in competition among them for attract human, economic and financial resources. The attractiveness has become the target of recent urban policies. In fact, the constant appeals to events, be they even simple events or events lasting more days, or real places built for the occasion and adaptable to multiple uses, all linked to recreational activities, are a proof. In the tourism field this situation is particularly intense. The local areas can lose the competitive play against the great areas. They must think of diversification of their supply. Therefore, in the dynamic environment of business tourism, the requirements of customers about service quality and location landscape are getting harder than in the past. The widespread hotel model represents one of the possible solution to that needs and recently it is increasing its importance. The model is able to stimulate economic and social value development through the management of several critical success factors. The analysis of a case study “Hotel Chateau Le Cagnard” permits to underline the key factors of success of the widespread hotel for business tourism.

サンフランシスコ日本町のまちづくりにみるエスニック都市空間の保存と経済再建

This study discusses the history, transitions, governance, and planning of an ethnic urban neighborhood, as exemplified by San Francisco’s Japantown in the United States. It presents a variety of challenges in urban ethnic neighborhood governance, including gentrification, redevelopment, heritage preservation, and the participatory public planning process. In response to economic neoliberalization, recent urban planning policies have inspired a diverse network of urban actors, including individuals, private corporations, and nonprofit community organizations to banded together to preserve their community’s cultural heritage in the face of market-driven redevelopment and perceived gentrification. In San Francisco, recent movements have aimed to preserve the ethnic and cultural heritage of the city’s Japantown. While the community has nurtured and been enriched by many different cultural and ethnic groups, San Francisco’s Japantown has historically been represented by primarily Japanese American community organizers and postwar Shin Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrants) business owners and residents, marking it as a culturally diverse space. However, partly because of this diversity, recent community discussions on preserving Japantown have been divisive. While the general agreement is that the neighborhood’s heritage should be preserved, many disagree as to how to balance preservation efforts with economic revitalization to ensure the community’s sustainability. Using interviews and field observation, this study analyzes the strengths and challenges of one such movement, the Japantown Better Neighborhood Plan. Analysis of the campaign’s implementation reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the plan and makes recommendations for future community governance.

A mobilidade urbana: uma agenda inconclusa ou o retorno daquilo que não foi

O texto apresenta um resgate histórico das políticas de mobilidade urbana no Brasil, demonstrando como o tema foi tratado conforme o contexto político nas últimas décadas. O foco recai no período de redemocratização até os dias atuais, apresentando os avanços e desafios do setor, ilustrados nas demandas da sociedade e nas respostas governamentais. São estabelecidos os vínculos das pressões populares com a criação de marcos institucionais, estruturas administrativas e instrumentos financeiros em prol da melhoria da oferta dos serviços de transporte público coletivo, bem como os sucessos, fracassos e incompletudes das soluções criadas para suprir os anseios sociais. Com base nessa análise são sugeridas algumas direções, entendidas como contribuições ao recente retorno do tema à agenda decisória dos governos.

The eventification of place: Urban development and experience consumption in Berlin and New York City

Recent urban and economic development policies put much emphasis on the promotion of experiences. Within the experience economy, the production and consumption of products and places is transformed into “theater.” The organization of international festivals highlights that trend. However, festivalization has also infiltrated urban and economic development on a much smaller scale and turned into an overall eventification. In addition, producers and marketers of cultural products simultaneously apply this concept to advance their market positions. Hence, eventification provides shared interests for local stakeholders and producers and marketers of cultural products and opportunities to further include the latter in urban growth coalitions. This paper demonstrates how eventification fosters new relationships between local urban developers and individual artists in Berlin-Wedding and the South Bronx, New York City. It explores the benefits and disadvantages of experience planning through eventification including social exclusion and arts-led revitalization. Ultimately, eventification not only embraces an accelerating logic of ever more experience schemes and thus raises questions about its sustainability, but also features a process in which urban space, itself, is transformed into staged experiences of event consumption.

Urban regeneration in China: Policy, development, and issues

Urban regeneration in China has attracted vast attention around the world in recent decades. This article discusses several critical issues in China’s recent urban regeneration policies, including how residents and communities are affected and how their economic and social rights are protected, the role of governments and developers, and the interaction between main participants in a broad Chinese socio-political context. The article introduces Guangdong Province’s new master plan to revive its urban areas and examines how it intends to engage the government, developers, and communities in urban regeneration. The findings are drawn from reviewing government documents, interviewing government officials and urban residents, and conducting fieldwork investigation.

Constructing the creative neighborhood: Hopes and limitations of creative city policies in Berlin

Recent urban development policies have put much emphasis on the establishment of creative cities. The creative city promises to be a new city, a transformative shift from the existing and conventional ways of urbanization to one that includes creativity and livability for all. Yet, this goal is often not achieved nor is it even necessarily pursued. The dominant creative city policies are not different from the current system of urban entrepreneurialism and growth-driven urban development. The paper presents the development of Kolonie Wedding in Berlin as an example of the promise and limitations of creative city initiatives. Here, guided art walks were introduced to revitalize the local economy and property market and re-imagine the neighborhood as creative and lively. However, the initiative reinforces social and ethnical boundaries, enhances exclusion and advocates for gentrification instead of challenging these practices. The paper calls for an overhaul and revision of the creative city model in which equality, and not growth and centrality, stand at its center. Such an approach includes the enactment of creativity not as an urban development strategy but as a human right.

The market and the plan: Housing, urban renewal and socio-economic change in London

► Through examining the interaction of market agents and urban policy, the paper considers how housing and regeneration policies have affected a case study neighbourhood in London. ► It presents the notion of ’gentrification without displacement’ as a way to understand contexts where in-migration of higher income residents has not resulted in significant out-migration of long-term residents. ► However, despite the case study appearing to embody the mixed community ideals of recent urban policy, micro-level segregation of consumption spaces and amenities suggests that income and tenure mix is distinct from social mix in inhabitants’ everyday experiences. This article examines recent processes of urban renewal and housing provision in London, led by market agents and shaped by the 2004 London Plan . Against the backdrop of housing and regeneration policies in London over the last three decades, the discussion analyses the socio-economic and physical transformation of Bermondsey in inner London as a case of ‘gentrification without displacement’, via the conversion of industrial and commercial building stock to housing, together with new-build or in-fill gentrification. The London Plan ’s emphasis on densification, and the re-positioning of local government from an oppositional to entrepreneurial stance in respect of private development, has helped promote the conditions for such physical and socio-economic changes characterised less by the displacement of lower-income populations than by patterns of micro-segregation in housing and consumption spaces. In this context, Bermondsey offers one version of the mixed income and mixed tenure ‘communities’ that are central to current urban and housing policies.