Urban Development Projects Research Articles

Inclusivity insights: two urban development projects in Johannesburg

Johannesburg, which is South Africa’s largest city and economic center, is still influenced by patterns of inequality of the past. Although spatial transformation has been rapid since 1994, spatial divisions along class lines are still prevalent long after the apartheid era. This is despite the fact that societal values such as inclusivity, spatial justice and equal access to resources have become the core goals of Johannesburg’s spatial and urban development. This is particularly true when addressing housing, public open spaces, transport and social infrastructure embedded in a suitable land-use mix. However, despite the adoption of numerous policies by government, this research indicates that even recent urban development projects such as Fleurhof and Waterfall are falling short in delivering those objectives. Based on a case study analysis, we show that significant dysfunctionalities become evident when evaluating these two projects, despite their meeting relevant indicators of spatial inclusion on paper. Tensions are identified between theoretical approaches and the implementation of societally relevant policy goals. These include inclusivity and spatial justice by mostly privatized provision of housing and services, and deficiencies in public maintenance of infrastructure. The research reveals, that ‘ticking-the-boxes’ behavior on policy and project level does not produce equitable, inclusive neighborhoods and urban spatial patterns, but rather reproduces spatial inequalities of the past. If these policies are to result in real spatial change and improvement in the lives of Johannesburg residents, a more proactive approach by the public sector at different levels will be necessary.

“Places you shouldn't go to”: (Im)mobility, violence and democracy in Brazil and South Africa

Pursuing the broader political effects of the relationship between violence, mobility, and inequality, the article describes some of the grounded political-economies (re)producing social inequalities in Brazil and South Africa, and a discontinuous experience of the urban space. This fragmented spatial experience is produced by the simultaneous operation of a discursive apparatus projecting a split ideal of “city”, and grounded social mechanics, in the intersection of values and power relations. In Johannesburg, South Africa, we’ve described the creation of Maboneng, a “urban development project”, to highlight the role of social mobility and growing class aspirations as powerful political vehicles for neoliberal markets reissuing old apartheid socio-spatial divisions. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, we’ve explored the relationship between the State and its margins to understand the production of the milícia as a violent anti-modern capitalist venture, aiming to control the circulation of people, capital and political support in the city.

An Integrated Picture Fuzzy Set with TOPSIS-AHP Approach to Group Decision-Making in Policymaking under Uncertainty

Group Decision-Making techniques have been applied to combine a group of decision maker’s preferences to deal with an evaluation of alternatives in a static environment. However, these conventional techniques are only concerned with an evaluation in a static environment. They cannot solve the policy evaluation problems in a dynamic environment or under uncertainty. This paper has presented a novel proposed model to handle the policy evaluation problems under uncertainty by integrating the Picture fuzzy set with the traditional TOPSIS-AHP model. The qualitative and quantitative factors are been quantified by using Picture fuzzy set to evaluate alternatives in order to make complex decisions in a dynamic environment. To validate the proposed model, a numerical example was illustrated meticulously. The experimental results also proved that the proposed method based on the indicator groups in the final urban development project in Vietnam combined with the expert's expertise and the decision-maker's preference gives the more confident evaluation result compared to the state-of-the-art works by applying the fuzzy decision point of the policy.

Awards and prizes as control devices: The case of urban development project awards

In the credential society, a sharp growth of the number of awards and prizes indicate an interest in assuming the authority to define quality, and to identify extraordinary accomplishments within certain jurisdictional domain. This ambition is associated not the least with ex ante awards, awards granted on basis of plans and documents that stipulate forthcoming material contributions, or other projected accomplishments. Drawing on actor network theory, the role of ex ante awards in the field of urban development is examined. Despite being epistemologically fragile entities, ex ante awards are organizationally significant as they operate as actants that provide a variety of benefits for equally award-winning agents and award-giving organizations, but also for the specific industry sector more generally. The article reports empirical data from two urban development projects in a major Swedish city, eventually receiving ex ante awards. Both projects were associated with desirable urban development qualities, boundary–spanning interests and objectives, and a recognition of shared social norms, and the awards given arguably served to strengthen the relationships between the actors included in the project work, at the same time as award-giving organizations advance their authority to define quality. The study contributes to the scholarly literature on awards by presenting an integrated analytical framework that shed light on the direct and indirect effects of formal awards. Awards and prizes are devices that enable control in credential societies, yet being undertheorized to date, and more research that examines how awards and prizes generate a variety of outcomes is welcome.

Multi-period planning of integrated underground logistics system network for automated construction-demolition-municipal waste collection and parcel delivery: A case study

Sustainable development goals of cities have long been threatening by the low efficiency and negative externalities of the truck-dominant forward and reverse physical distribution activities. Aiming at conquering the dilemma, this paper offers a novel integrated underground logistics system (IULS) solution that has good applicability to incorporate the wholesale automated operations of construction and demolition waste (CDW) collection, municipal solid waste (MSW) collection, and parcel deliveries. In line with a Chinese on-going new urban district development project, the prototypes of IULS including network topology, facility operations, handling workflows, and transport technical parameters are designed. An empirical-based method is proposed to estimate the demand flows of heterogeneous CDW and parcels for IULS planning. Based on a well-designed multi-period network expansion mechanism, a bi-objective dynamic programming model is established to characterize the optimal location-allocation-routing decisions of IULS network at minimal construction and operating costs. Given the computational complexity, a hybrid optimization approach combining variable neighborhood search based memetic algorithm, Kruskal's minimum spanning tree algorithm, and A-star algorithm is developed to obtain high-quality model solutions. Simulation based on real-world case is conducted to validate our planning techniques. Results show that the dual-use and multi-period expansion of IULS network can save millions of dollars of annual environmental governance expenditures for a satellite city with substantial rebuilding and distribution needs. By analyzing the facility configurations and cost-benefit performance of the optimized network solutions, a set of insights related to the best layout, economic feasibility, and long-term development for the prospective IULS network initiatives are disclosed.

HISTORICAL FORTIFICATIONS IN THE ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN PLANNING STRUCTURE OF LVIV (ON MARGINES DOCUMENTATION "HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL REFERENCE PLAN OF LVIV")

Ancient city fortifications are one of the specific types of defensive architecture. Along with the buildings of castles, blocks of urban residential development, monastery complexes and field defensive structures, they formed a special type of architectural and urban planning objects. During their construction, the skills of both an architect, builder, and military engineer were often combined. Not so many objects of urban defense architecture have come down to our time. Therefore, every fragment of the city's defensive walls and earthen fortifications preserved today, as a rule, is a valuable document of its era and needs careful protection and preservation. Urban fortifications (as opposed to fortifications of castles or fortresses) were the objects of priority liquidation in the process of urban development. There are very few of them preserved in Ukraine, so their preservation and study is a matter of extreme importance. Lviv is a unique city on the map of Ukraine in terms of the development of urban fortifications. The article analyzes the reflection of objects and monuments of defense construction in the scientific and design documentation "Historical and Architectural Reference Plan of the City of Lviv". Data on the stages of development of Lviv fortifications are highlighted. Special attention is paid to the remains of fortifications that have been preserved in the archaeological form. Their identification, conservation and identification is important task for modern urban development projects. The paper makes hypotheses about some hitherto unidentified elements of fortifications of the XVII-XVIII centuries. Special emphasis is placed on the need for a special scientific study on the detailed reconstruction of all stages of the development of defense belts around the city center and suburbs of Lviv

Introducing real estate led start-up urbanism: An account from Greater Paris

In the past few years, calls for innovative urban projects (CIUPs) have become the most mediatized symbol of the ongoing transformations within the public-led French urban development system. In the name of urban innovation, CIUP is a policy instrument that brings together, early in the design phase of urban development projects, extended teams of real estate developers and other actors who usually intervene downstream in the development process. We explore these calls as a form of real estate led start-up urbanism and analyse its modalities in Greater Paris, with the first edition of the Inventing the Greater Paris Metropolis (IGPM) call as a case study. We begin by tracing the genealogy of CIUPs and their particular articulation of urban innovation and urban development principles. In the remainder of the paper, we explore the implications of such urban innovation and spatial planning hybrids, by honing in on the relational work of real estate developers, i.e. the production of social relationships and networks that enables real estate developers adherence to the political ambitions during the bidding process. After establishing their centrality in the social networks defined by IGPM, we explore the apparent paradox between projects that are perceived as ordinary by call organizers and a visible effervescence of the urban planning milieu, including recruitment practices within real estate development firms, the emergence of small operators embodying imaginaries of urban innovation and the growing role of consultancies in supporting developers in responding to public authorities’ ambitions. In the final empirical section of the paper, we focus on real estate developers’ innovation strategies as a way of understanding the apparent contradiction between project content and the changing organizational landscape of the urban development milieu. In the concluding section, we bring these elements together through a discussion of the policy outputs and outcomes of CIUPs in general, and of IGPM in particular.

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.

Do You Remember When?: Apartment Space in the 1950s Te?vikiye-Ni?anta??

This essay examines the spatial reconfiguration of Istanbul through a case study of the Teşvikiye-Nişantaşı district between 1945 and 1960, a period during which the physical fabric of the neighborhood gradually transformed from traditional Ottoman konaks (mansions) to multi-story apartment buildings. It pays particular attention to the reorientation of traditional extended families within the context of the newly dominant mode of "apartment dwelling" in the 1950s as the government launched and developed a new spatial image, which aimed to fracture the traditional urban fabric and Ottoman social relationships in the city. Along with nostalgic stories of its inhabitants, I explore how residents of the neighborhood appropriated the space in these newly developed multi-unit buildings in the 1950s and how, they contested and adapted to state power in their efforts to launch urban development projects in and around the district.

Possibility of Urban Heat Island Formation by Lifting Green Belts: Focusing on the Cases of Busan Metropolitan City, Korea

We analyzed the temperature changes in cities and regions due to the lifting of the green belt in Busan Metropolitan City. The difference between the average temperature change in the summer surface due to the lifting of the green belt was analyzed in Local Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis (LISA) for the two points in 2000, when the green belt was fully preserved, and in 2018, when the recent record heatwave was recorded. Consequently, approximately 28.14% of the areas where the green belt was lifted from the cluster map became a hotspot. In Busan Metropolitan City, the changes in the soil quality, resulting from the development of new towns, creation of industrial complexes, reduction of green areas, and an increase in impervious areas due to largescale housing development projects following the lifting of the green belt, lead to the temperature rise in the city, thereby causing urban heat island phenomenon. This study contributes to the field by revealing that the urban heat island phenomenon can be affected in the long term depending on the urban development project involved in the lifting of the green belt. In addition to its original function of preserving the environment and preventing urban sprawl, the green belt can be a major urban planning tool for mitigating the rising urban heat island phenomenon caused by climate change, which demonstrates its policy implications.

A green sustainable architectural model for the suburbs

Abstract The Goal 11 <<make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable >> is crucial in the increasing Europe urbanization context. By altering cities and the surrounding countryside, urban growth is having several consequences on ecosystem and human health. The urban density alludes to the idea of the cities as a ‘sick bodies', now reemerging because of the recent climatic and health crises. This concept should be contrasted with the idea of the ‘city as a cure', that can limit the consumption of soil and energy, reducing our ecological burden on the environment. Recently, in Europe many urban development projects have been implemented according to sustainability principles as the Eindhoven demonstration case where, a central square was transformed into a small green oasis. Reforesting, even at the cost of demolishing to create large avenues for green area, is essential for air quality and for intervening on the climate. To intervene on abandoned urban canals by creating new waterways may redevelop entire areas and affect traffic and temperature. To contain the negative impact of the built space on the environment is in fact aimed at increasing the green space. However, recent studies demonstrate the criticalities of the fragmentation of landscapeto analyze the link between urban form and landscape heterogeneity to establish renewed relationships between the forms of architecture and the natural void and to devise urban projects to control building density and population. In particular, to develop models for redeveloping the suburbs by building new urban parts from scratch, with a view to urban polycentrism. The recomposition of ecological corridors and of the municipal, provincial and regional environmental network may connect to the great ‘green lungs' of natural parks and to areas with a high degree of naturalness in a progressive succession of habitats to mitigate ever new forms of overall mutations of natural and anthropised environments.

Grassroots mobilization in Brazil’s urban Amazon: Global investments, persistent floods, and local resistance across political and legal arenas

• We analyze how the urban poor mobilize against floods in the context of a major urban development project in Latin America. • We find a mix of optimism and skepticism regarding the potential changes brought by political and legal mobilization. • The judicialization of flood-related claims in the legal arena coexists with social mobilization in the political arena. • For grassroots movements, litigating against social-ecological injustices is a means to foster better urban governance. By the 1980s, the Brazilian Amazon was already an urbanized forest. A large portion of its population was living in non-rural areas attracted by better service provisioning and economic opportunities in fast-developing urban centers. Located at the Amazon Estuary-Delta, Belém is the Amazon’s largest metropolitan area, marked by informal urban expansion, and serving as an illustrative case of the opportunities and challenges with which urban populations deal in the region. Faced with significant pressures of absent infrastructure, high rates of poverty, precarious settlements, and ever more frequent flood events, already in the 1980s, Belém was home to the biggest urban reform project of its time in Latin America: The Macro-Drainage Project of the Una River Watershed. Costing over 300 million USD, the project was intended to have a multilevel governance system through which the Inter-American Development Bank and local government could coordinate project activities. Yet, due to the combination of poor infrastructure and changing rainfall patterns, about half a million people currently remain vulnerable to flood hazards and property damages. Our analysis uses a socio-legal approach to studying grassroots mobilization against the violation of social and environmental rights aggravated by floods. We also draw on Ostrom’s concepts of action arena and action situation to examine collective action across political and legal arenas within which individuals, grassroots organizations, and the state negotiate/contest flood-related issues. Conducting archival and ethnographic research, we find a story of conflict and cooperation between the civil society and political and legal actors, which accounts for a mix of optimism and skepticism regarding the improvement in the livelihood of the urban poor affected by this developmental program. This interdisciplinary lens contributes to understanding the limits and potentials of collective action to address, whether through political and/or legal mobilization, urban inequalities and social vulnerability to environmental and climate change.

Creative Cities and Knowledge Management Approach to Culture-Based Urban Regeneration in Slovakia: A Model

The term "Creative City" emerged in the 90s of the 20th century reflecting the trend of transforming post-industrial cities into new creative urban centres - bases for knowledge intensive firms, highly-skilled workers and major cultural assets. The concept of culture-based urban regeneration describes a scheme where culture is purposely employed as a vehicle for an overall urban and social revitalization. The paper addresses innovative processes within culture-based urban regeneration projects in three Slovak cities - Bratislava, Zilina and Kosice - under the concept of creative city. The focus is on the implementation of a tailor-made multi-factor knowledge management model with the aim of exploring the knowledge management practices in urban development projects dealing with the adaptive re-use of industrial and cultural heritage based on the non-profit bottom-up initiatives.

Translating ‘New Compactism’, circulation of knowledge and local mutations: Copenhagen’s Sydhavn as a case study

ABSTRACT The international circulation of urban design concepts often leads to their characterization as transferable ideals defined by a set of universalized ‘best practices’ that are simply implemented in new localities, as is typical of top-down approaches to planning. Recently, the compact city and New Urbanism have become trendy concepts informing the development of urban projects across geographies. This research draws on ANT sensitivities and policy mobilities studies to examine the regeneration of Copenhagen’s Southern Harbour (Sydhavn) wherein the compact city and New Urbanism ideals, together with a declared inspiration from Dutch architecture, were originally incorporated in the masterplan. Through the analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews, the paper illustrates how these ideals – merged as 'New Compactism' – were mobilized and re-intepreted by local actors in Sydhavn. It thus adds to our understanding of how the circulation of such ideals is not a matter of implementation, but a complex social process of translation that entails struggle and transformation.

Construction logistics in urban development projects – learning from, or repeating, past mistakes of city logistics?

PurposeThe construction industry is reluctant to utilize construction logistics centres (CLC). To understand why, the purpose of the study is to increase the understanding of drivers and challenges of CLC utilization.Design/methodology/approachAdopting an activity-based cost methodology, nine construction projects' CLC utilization in a Swedish urban development project is analyzed for a time period of three years (2013–2016).FindingsThere is a difference between drivers and challenges for implementing and utilizing CLCs, which are often implemented to reduce third-party disturbances. The drivers to utilize a CLC, however, stem from achieving efficient logistics. The authors identify two different utilization strategies; the CLC is used either for just-in-time (JIT) deliveries or as a consolidation point.Research limitations/implicationsThe study shows that construction logistics is to some extent repeating some mistakes of its big brother, city logistics. The study hypothesizes that there are differences between CLC implementation and utilization drivers and challenges that are often overlooked, which can explain the lack of CLC utilization.Practical implicationsThe study shows that it is crucial for construction projects to develop and formulate a logistics strategy for how to utilize the setup, i.e. deciding whether to use the setup as a consolidation point leading to fewer deliveries and more materials on-site, or as JIT, leading to more deliveries but fewer materials on-site.Social implicationsCLCs can reduce environmental impact and third-party disturbances. However, to make this come true, acceptance among the users is needed. The study provides understanding of drivers and barriers for CLC implementation and utilization that can increase acceptance among users (i.e. construction projects).Originality/valueThe current study is one of the first studies to analyze CLC utilization.

Planning: A Glue for Development Coalitions? State Actors' Agency and Power Relationships in Urban Development Projects in Milan and Brussels

In this paper, I combine urban regime analysis and financialisation scholarships to uncover the role of planning and question the role of state actors in urban development processes. Through an analysis of CityLife in Milan and Tour and Taxis in Brussels, I argue that state actors have a strong agency in decision making as they own a critical resource: planning. My investigation reveals that, in projects characterised by uncertainty and internal conflicts, planning functions as a glue of development coalitions. Local governments mobilise it to bring together private and public interests, in order to achieve their agendas. Nevertheless, this glue function plays out differently in Milan and Brussels. While in Milan local administrations used planning to facilitate the anchoring of capital, in Brussels local governments enacted planning to shift the balance of power between them. This outcome reveals contextual differences that ultimately depend on local governance settings and planning systems. The comparison depicts the making of two different development regimes. CityLife indicates a financialised turn in governance, in which planning choices are driven mainly by economic – and financial – imperatives. Tour and Taxis symbolises an experimental entrepreneurial urban regime, a sort of laboratory to test new governance and planning frameworks.

The Political Economy of a Collusive Urban Regime: Making Sense of Urban Development Projects in Rome

The relative hegemony of land rentiers and real estate developers over the process of urban socio-economic reproduction is a defining characteristic of the collusive of Rome. Through the analysis of a case study, we tried to establish if the realisation of Urban Development Projects in this regime favours the unequal distribution of the benefits deriving from urban development. Applying a neo-Gramscian lens to urban political economy, we identified an interpretative model for explaining the role of UDPs in the urban regime of Rome. First, UDPs are suitable occasions for realising accumulation strategies based on the capture of rent gaps and the valorisation of urban assets. Second, the actors involved in UDPs mobilise ideational and material resources for gathering consensus for a project, that rewards their specific interests, by framing their investment as the best solution for localised collective needs. UDPs in Rome, therefore, facilitate the concentration of benefits and the generalisation of costs of urban development. Our research contributes to the understanding of Rome's fragile trajectory of growth and offers insights on the mechanisms reinforcing unequal urban development.

Collaborative Governance in Land Acquisition and Aggregation Practices: The Impacts on Neighbourhood Functionalities in Tanzania

In urban development projects, the amount of land needs to be large enough to support not only the intended development but also the subsequent well-functioning of the neighbourhood through enhanced accessibility, service provision and liveability in general. Obtaining land for public goods and services at neighbourhood level may however be difficult especially in developing countries’ cities where the formal-informal continuum hampers the effective urban planning and development. This is attributed to the fact that a larger part of land in these cities is occupied and any public good or service provision initiative must be through either compulsory land acquisition or land aggregation approaches. In either approach there are pros and cons towards realising the well-functioning of the neighbourhood in terms accessibility, recreation, social services and other public amenities. Based on non-parametric tests of neighbourhood functionality differences across land access modalities, the survey data across wards in Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania it has been revealed that government action through compulsory acquisition of land may be justifiable in as much as the functioning of social and physical infrastructure is concerned but can limitedly be relied upon in making such facilities available in the first place. Voluntary contribution of land, open market purchase and even the voluntary contribution of cash are working better than compulsory acquisition of land for that purpose. Further evidence alludes to the fact that compulsory acquisition of land is not only detrimental to neighbourhood social networks but also can worsen neighbourhood level economic opportunities. As such alternatives to compulsory acquisition need be used in well-developed inner city neighbourhoods while some combination of compulsory or voluntary land and cash contributions are well suited in outskirt neighbourhoods.

Application of the INDI Model of the HQE²R Approach to Assess the Sustainability of a Neighbourhood: Case of Jijel City in Algeria

Increased interest in developing sustainable urban areas has become an important feature in recent urban development studies. In fact, the question of neighbourhood sustainability assessment is a major part of this interest. Accordingly, a number of methods and tools for evaluating sustainable development projects in the urban areas have emerged particularly at district level. However, the urban development in Algeria is far from having achieved a clearly defined frame. This work therefore aims to demonstrate the contribution of sustainability assessment to any development project as well as the importance of the district level as a lever for local sustainable development. For this study, the district of the “Beach” formerly known as “Casino” located Jijel city centre, in Algeria, is chosen as a case study. We will focus on the assessment of its current state in relation to the principles and objectives of sustainable development, through a shared diagnosis of the Heritage, environmental Quality, Diversity, Integration, social Link (HQDIL) method and the INDicators Impact (INDI) model of the High Environmental Quality (HQE2R) approach. Along the same lines, a comparison between its initial state and the proposed development project by the land use plan study was made. The results obtained enabled us to draw up a detailed representation of each indicator on a sustainability scale. This led to deduce the degree of sustainability of the “Beach” district, thus to define the weak points, the strong points and to lead to a reflection on the issues and the action plan to be taken into account during a sustainable intervention on the latter. This work provides an aid to decision-making for researchers and urban actors, in order to orient urban development or renewal projects towards sustainability

Is habitat heterogeneity effective for conservation of butterflies in urban landscapes of Delhi, India?

The present study which was conducted in 2015–16 and 2016–17 emphasizes the nine different types of habitats used by 40 listed butterflies in six different urban landscapes of Delhi. Assessment of flowerbeds, grasses, hedges/crops/bushes, artificial light, wet soil/damp patches/humus, trees, open spaces/grounds, bird droppings, and roads/pavements/concrete spaces in conserving butterfly diversity in highly urbanized landscapes by testing the hypothesis that diversity of butterflies across all the habitats are similar, was the focal point of the study. Except for the artificial light and the paved roads or concrete spaces, all other habitats were natural in surroundings. The families Lycaenidae and Nymphalidae had the largest habitat share (26%), whereas the family Hesperiidae had the minimum share (9%). Aravalli Biodiversity Park, New Delhi maintained the serenity of natural ones. Species richness and diversity was the highest at flowerbeds and lowest at the artificial light. The study highlights the choice of heterogeneous habitats by city butterflies to integrate the concept of the urban green spaces into a wide variety of urban development projects which in turn can help their own sustenance.