Urban Policy Makers Research Articles

The \u201cGray Spacing\u201d of Market Vendors and Their Associations and Vendors\u2019 Collective Agency in the Zambian City of Kitwe

Market vendors are often marginalized in urban spaces—they may be harassed, face threats to their workplace security, or lack opportunities to influence urban policy-making. Associations of market vendors have been identified as a potential means to represent vendors’ interests, offering vendors possibilities to improve their working conditions. Fieldwork has been conducted in 2013, 2016, and 2018 to understand the struggles of market vendors and those of their associations in the Zambian city of Kitwe. The paper explores how both market vendors and their associations are positioned in a “gray space” between legality and illegality, unaware if their existence will be approved or sanctioned by the (local) government. The paper argues that the “gray space” in which many market vendors are positioned is a consequence of a lack of suitable alternative and more secure marketspaces. Associations are considered in relation to the political environment in which they operate and their future existence is particularly threatened by a regulation criminalizing them. Not only has this led to the abolishment of a well-known association, but it has also protected some associations whereas others are sidelined. Findings indicate that “gray spacing” and the accompanied changes in the associations jeopardize market vendors’ efforts to organize more autonomously and have isolated their struggles from attempts to organize all informal economy workers under a Zambian umbrella association.

Assembling Accra through new city imaginary: Land ownership, agency, and relational complexity

Land ownership is given little attention in scholarly accounts of how and why new city visions are mobilised and implemented in Africa. In this paper we examine the evolution of Accra City Extension Project (ACEP) — an urban strategy to modernise and respond to urbanisation pressures in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. We trace the origins and rationale of the ACEP, the actors involved, resources, institutional capacities and their relations. Drawing on the concept of relational complexity and urban policy mobilities literature, we argue that the emergence of ACEP can be explained in two ways: as a consequence of the desire to improve the qualities of an urban area at the local level and as a product of multiple interactions and relations, which produce knowledge, specific interests, resources and constraints. The findings suggest that contemporary urban policymaking in specific places is a complex and emergent socio-political process that draws on both local and learned ideas from ‘elsewhere’. Therefore, we submit that it is more helpful to transcend the focus on what is circulating (a policy and the networks through which it is set in motion) and instead, examine how policymakers in specific contexts ‘arrive at’ their ideas through multiple influences. The project brings together diverse actors such as local and central governments, international planning consultants, UN Habitat and traditional authorities, with varying degrees of expertise, power and agendas. We find that issues around land ownership significantly structured and limited the range of visions that could be implemented.

Understanding the transport and CO2 impacts of on-demand meal deliveries: A London case study

The rise of the on-demand economy has led to a rapid increase in the delivery of meals from restaurants and fast food outlets by delivery drivers (DDs) using bicycles, mopeds and cars, with newly-established platform providers handling order and payment processing and, in many cases, the co-ordination of these deliveries. Little is currently understood about the collective transport impacts of such activity in urban centres and to what extent this poses challenges for transport policymakers. The paper provides an international review of market growth in this sector together with insight into key topics associated with its freight delivery operations in urban areas. Using a substantial database of meal deliveries made in London by a major platform provider, this paper quantifies the operational performance of these deliveries and their transport and environmental impacts. On average, 9.6 deliveries were undertaken by a DD daily, with each taking 25 min from pickup to delivery with an average trip length, from restaurant to customer of 2.2 km (1.4 miles) a DD travelling 41.3 km (25.7 miles) in total per day, The analysis of the case study indicates the relative transport inefficiency of these on-demand meal deliveries compared to other forms of urban road freight (with a meal delivered by car being responsible for approximately 1300 times the distance travelled by an articulated HGV operation per tonne delivered). It also highlights the far greater GHG emissions and transport intensity associated with meals deliveries by cars and petrol mopeds compared to bicycles (emitting 5 and 11 times more GHGs per meal delivered than bicycles, respectively).The transport and GHG emissions intensity of these meal deliveries raises important policy issues, especially given therapid growth in the provision of, and demand for, these services internationally, Based on the review and analysis, the paper provides a discussion of the key issues that urban policymakers around the world need to take account of in relation to this fast-growing sector including vehicle fuel sources, road safety, trip generation rates and their impacts on local residents, together with recommended actions.

Built environment, life events and commuting mode shift: Focus on gender differences

Considerable attention has been paid to the determinants of commuting mode shift patterns. However, the literature provides little evidence on the impacts of changes in the built environment (BE) on commuting mode shift, and few studies shed light on the gender differences in the impacts of influential factors. Based on longitudinal data from China, this study explores how life events and changes in the BE influence commuting mode shift and whether the impacts differ between household couples. The results identify significant differences in the impacts of the influential factors between household couples. Most life events show significant impacts on the spouses’ commuting mode shift, whereas changes in the BE characteristics are more influential on the wife’s modal shift behavior. These findings suggest that urban planners and policy makers should better understand the gender differences to develop gender-equal transportation systems when implementing urban planning and transportation strategies.

Mainstreaming resilience in urban policy making? Insights from Christchurch and Rotterdam

Despite the burgeoning popularity of resilience as an urban policy narrative, we know little about how policymakers and planners approach the challenge of operationalising urban resilience or what problems they face. Although their ultimate goal is presumably to integrate resilience goals into sectoral policy and decision-making as well as to dissolve policy silos, the concept of mainstreaming has received relatively little attention in urban resilience literature so far. To address this void, we use the concept of mainstreaming to analyse the two cities of Christchurch and Rotterdam, both participants in the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Programme. We identify three main challenges that are apparent in both cities despite their contextual differences. The first is to make resilience a top priority for policymaking and planning because it competes with other urban development agendas for political commitment. Secondly, institutionalising cross-sector governance constitutes a challenge because participation in 100 Resilient Cities brings few incentives for institutional reforms. The third challenge – to actively engage decision-makers from public and private sectors – arises because urban policymakers and planners are not sufficiently equipped to convince them to invest additional resources in terms of personnel, time and money and to dissolve conflicts of interest between them. In the light of these challenges, we argue that participating in 100 Resilient Cities is a relevant but not sufficient first step towards mainstreaming urban resilience in Christchurch and Rotterdam. In addition to developing a resilience strategy and appointing a Chief Resilience Officer, formal changes (for instance in procedural law and national policymaking) are required, to address the challenges identified.

Upscaling Household Survey Data Using Remote Sensing to Map Socioeconomic Groups in Kampala, Uganda

Sub-Saharan African cities are expanding horizontally, demonstrating spatial patterns of urban sprawl and socioeconomic segregation. An important research gap around the geographies of urban populations is that city-wide analyses mask local socioeconomic inequalities. This research focuses on those inequalities by identifying the spatial settlement patterns of socioeconomic groups within the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (Uganda). Findings are based on a novel dataset, an extensive household survey with 541 households, conducted in Kampala in 2019. To identify different socioeconomic groups, a k-prototypes clustering method was applied to the survey data. A maximum likelihood classification method was applied on a recent Landsat-8 image of the city and compared to the socioeconomic clustering through a fuzzy error matrix. The resulting maps show how different socioeconomic clusters are located around the city. We propose a simple method to upscale household survey responses to a larger study area, to use these data as a base map for further analysis or urban planning purposes. Obtaining a better understanding of the spatial variability in socioeconomic dynamics can aid urban policy-makers to target their decision-making processes towards a more favorable and sustainable future.

Public Participation in Smart-City Governance: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Public Comments in Urban China

Public participation is crucial in the process of urban governance in smart-city initiatives to enable urban planners and policy makers to take account of the real public needs. Our study aims to develop an analytical framework using citizen-centred qualitative data to analyse urban problems and identify the areas most needed for urban governance. Taking a Chinese megacity as the study area, we first utilise a web-crawling tool to retrieve public comments from an online comment board and employ the Baidu Application Programming Interfaces and a qualitative content analysis for data reclassification. We then analyse the urban problems reflected by negative comments in terms of their statistical and spatial distribution, and the associative factors to explain their formation. Our findings show that urban problems are predominantly related to construction and housing, and most frequently appear in industry-oriented areas and newly developed economic development zones on the urban fringe, where the reconciling of government-centred governance and private governance by real estate developers and property management companies is most needed. Areas with higher land prices and a higher proportion of aged population tend to have fewer urban problems, while various types of civil facilities affect the prevalence of urban problems differently.

Toxicity travels in a changing climate

Climate change is imposing substantial consequences across physical and social infrastructures. The extent of social disruption and risk to human health are, however, potentially much broader than these general consequences, taken individually, would suggest. To address this gap, we assess the distribution of contaminated sites in the United States (US) and then estimate the impact that flood hazards in urban areas will have on these contaminated sites. Using these measures, we draw inferences about the risk of contamination from climate-impacted extreme weather events, climate adaptation at the local level, social risk and how it is distributed, and a broader understanding of the potential global consequences of climate change. In this paper we address three critical points: 1) the role classification of contaminated sites on our understanding of risk due to climate change; 2) the relationship between contaminated sites and flood risk; and 3) the potential for climate adaption strategies to mediate this risk. We estimate that of the roughly one-third of the US population living in urban areas, up to 3,338,518 people, are living in high-risk flood zones near contaminated sites. Our results suggest severe potential implications for estimates of the negative consequences from climate change and contamination and provide critical insights into the relationship between climate change and the built environment for urban planners and environmental policy makers and managers alike.

The Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence: An Urbanistic Viewpoint from the Lens of Smart and Sustainable Cities

The popularity and application of artificial intelligence (AI) are increasing rapidly all around the world—where, in simple terms, AI is a technology which mimics the behaviors commonly associated with human intelligence. Today, various AI applications are being used in areas ranging from marketing to banking and finance, from agriculture to healthcare and security, from space exploration to robotics and transport, and from chatbots to artificial creativity and manufacturing. More recently, AI applications have also started to become an integral part of many urban services. Urban artificial intelligences manage the transport systems of cities, run restaurants and shops where every day urbanity is expressed, repair urban infrastructure, and govern multiple urban domains such as traffic, air quality monitoring, garbage collection, and energy. In the age of uncertainty and complexity that is upon us, the increasing adoption of AI is expected to continue, and so its impact on the sustainability of our cities. This viewpoint explores and questions the sustainability of AI from the lens of smart and sustainable cities, and generates insights into emerging urban artificial intelligences and the potential symbiosis between AI and a smart and sustainable urbanism. In terms of methodology, this viewpoint deploys a thorough review of the current status of AI and smart and sustainable cities literature, research, developments, trends, and applications. In so doing, it contributes to existing academic debates in the fields of smart and sustainable cities and AI. In addition, by shedding light on the uptake of AI in cities, the viewpoint seeks to help urban policymakers, planners, and citizens make informed decisions about a sustainable adoption of AI.

Spatializing authoritarian neoliberalism by way of cultural politics: City, nation and the European Union in Gdańsk’s politics of cultural policy formation

This paper develops perspectives which seek to spatialize authoritarian neoliberalism through arguing for greater engagement with the politics of urban cultural policy formation in the neglected context of post-socialist East and Central Europe. Through analyzing the politics of urban cultural policy-making in Gdańsk, Poland, the paper spatializes authoritarian neoliberalism by exploring how relations between the urban and the national, and between the urban and the supranational, shape urban cultural policy, drawing upon literatures on political economy, policy mobilities, cultural policy research, and the concepts of authoritarian neoliberalism and the relational-territorial nexus. Gdańsk is a liberally run city, strongly aligned with the European Union (EU), opposed to the authoritarian neoliberal national level politics in Poland. The paper analyses urban-national tensions and relationships between Gdańsk and the EU to unpack the contested spatial nature of authoritarian neoliberalism.

Informing urban climate planning with high resolution data: the Hestia fossil fuel CO2 emissions for Baltimore, Maryland

BackgroundCities contribute more than 70% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and are leading the effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through sustainable planning and development. However, urban greenhouse gas mitigation often relies on self-reported emissions estimates that may be incomplete and unverifiable via atmospheric monitoring of GHGs. We present the Hestia Scope 1 fossil fuel CO2 (FFCO2) emissions for the city of Baltimore, Maryland—a gridded annual and hourly emissions data product for 2010 through 2015 (Hestia-Baltimore v1.6). We also compare the Hestia-Baltimore emissions to overlapping Scope 1 FFCO2 emissions in Baltimore’s self-reported inventory for 2014.ResultsThe Hestia-Baltimore emissions in 2014 totaled 1487.3 kt C (95% confidence interval of 1158.9–1944.9 kt C), with the largest emissions coming from onroad (34.2% of total city emissions), commercial (19.9%), residential (19.0%), and industrial (11.8%) sectors. Scope 1 electricity production and marine shipping were each generally less than 10% of the city’s total emissions. Baltimore’s self-reported Scope 1 FFCO2 emissions included onroad, natural gas consumption in buildings, and some electricity generating facilities within city limits. The self-reported Scope 1 FFCO2 total of 1182.6 kt C was similar to the sum of matching emission sectors and fuels in Hestia-Baltimore v1.6. However, 20.5% of Hestia-Baltimore’s emissions were in sectors and fuels that were not included in the self-reported inventory. Petroleum use in buildings were omitted and all Scope 1 emissions from industrial point sources, marine shipping, nonroad vehicles, rail, and aircraft were categorically excluded.ConclusionsThe omission of petroleum combustion in buildings and categorical exclusions of several sectors resulted in an underestimate of total Scope 1 FFCO2 emissions in Baltimore’s self-reported inventory. Accurate Scope 1 FFCO2 emissions, along with Scope 2 and 3 emissions, are needed to inform effective urban policymaking for system-wide GHG mitigation. We emphasize the need for comprehensive Scope 1 emissions estimates for emissions verification and measuring progress towards Scope 1 GHG mitigation goals using atmospheric monitoring.

Walkable Urban Environments: An Ergonomic Approach of Evaluation

Background. The salutogenicity of urban environments is significantly affected by their ergonomics, i.e., by the quality of the interactions between citizens and the elements of the built environment. Measuring and modelling urban ergonomics is thus a key issue to provide urban policy makers with planning solutions to increase the well-being, usability and safety of the urban environment. However, this is a difficult task due to the complexity of the interrelations between the urban environment and human activities. The paper contributes to the definition of a generalized model of urban ergonomics and salutogenicity, focusing on walkability, by discussing the relevant parameters from the large and variegated sets proposed in the literature, by discussing the emerging model structure from a data mining process, by considering the background of the relevant functional dependency already established in the literature, and by providing evidence of the solutions’ effectiveness. The methodology is developed for a case study in central Italy, with a focus on the mobility issue, which is a catalyst to generate more salutogenic and sustainable behaviors.

TRANSITION OF LULC AND FUTURE PREDICTIONS BY USING CA-MARKOV CHAIN MODEL (A CASE STUDY OF METROPOLITAN CITY LAHORE, PAKISTAN)

Land use and land cover transition is continue process due to various anthropogenic activities and altering the landscape pattern of the metropolitan area of Lahore over the last two decade. LULC has been emerging masses of environmental problems including land use issues for the inhabitants, city planners, and managers. This research has been focused on the LULC change from 1998 to 2018 and their impact to forecast the landscape pattern of 2023 and 2028 in metropolitan area of Lahore. Numerous satellite imageries including land sat 5 TM and landsat 8 OLI has been undergone by supervised classification for the preparation of LULC map, land change moderler MCL to calculate the transition in LULC and CA-Markov model for predicting upcoming transitions. Results have validated by transition matrix, Google Earth data and kappa statistics. Derived results has depicted the decreased in water bodies 2.70% to 0.60%, vegetation 24.90% to 22.60% and barren land 42.50% to 35.70% and increased in built up area 29.80 % to 41% between 1998 to 2018. Finding clearly represents the loss of ecological and barren landscape over the last two decade and therefore urban expansion will likely to continue the change in landscape. This study will provide a baseline reference to urban planners and policymakers to make informed decision for management of land resources, urban land planning and for maintain sustainable land development.

ANALYSIS OF MICRO LEVEL DISPARITIES IN URBAN FACILITY-UTILITY SERVICES: A STUDY ON BARASAT CITY, WEST BENGAL, INDIA

The regional disparity is a challenging issue to the urban planners, policy makers, academicians, bureaucrats and technocrats in the developing countries. In India, wide range of socio-economic disparities are commonly evident even in Class-I cities. Such an undesirable phenomena reflects on the spatial variation of quality of life, level of living as well as well-being and welfare of the inhabitants. Moreover, it is against the constitutional law of equity and social justice. The present study is based on the empirical observation focused on ward-wise variation of availability of and accessibility to socio-economic and utility services in Barasat city of West Bengal. On the basis of ‘Cronbach’s Alpha’ and ‘Principal Component Analysis’, entire set of data have been arranged into six factors of which first three factors have been considered to examine the dimension of socio-economic disparities and level of development in the city.

Fringe more than context: Perceived quality of life in informal settlements in a developing country: The case of Kabul, Afghanistan

Investigations of the quality and satisfaction of urban life in informal settlements remain largely overlooked in the existing literature especially in developing countries. About one-fifth of Afghanistan population is living in urban areas, however, the trend is changing very fast and the country observes now one of the highest urbanization rates in the world. Two principal reasons for rapid urbanization are the return of Afghan immigrants from other countries after a period of relative peace and domestic rural-urban migration. Kabul, the capital city, is the most attractive destination for all immigrants. Around 80 percent of the population of the city lives in informal and illegal settlements. To investigate the perceived quality of life (QoL) of citizens living in these settlements, a survey was administered to 400 households in informal areas of Kabul. Statistical treatment of the results, including regression and factor analysis, showed a general dissatisfaction with the quality of life components related to transportation, leisure, and governance. Material deprivation regarding basic services (water, energy, etc.) was also widespread. On the other hand, less tangible components such as sense of community and family scored higher. Still, informal settlements constitute a fundamental part of Kabul and authorities should seek to improve quality of life especially in what concerns the provision of urban public goods. The findings of this study attempt to provide basic results for managers, planners and urban policymakers to facilitate a reasonable evaluation of the current state of the city in order to take action in addressing planning problems and achieving urban sustainability.

Population Density and Spatial Patterns of Informal Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

The widespread informal settlements in Nairobi have interested many researchers and urban policymakers. Reasonable planning of urban density is the key to sustainable development. By using the spatial population data of 2000, 2010, and 2020, this study aims to explore the changes in population density and spatial patterns of informal settlements in Nairobi. The result of spatial correlation analysis shows that the informal settlements are the centers of population growth and agglomeration and are mostly distributed in the belts of 4 and 8 km from Nairobi’s central business district (CBD). A series of population density models in Nairobi were examined; it showed that the correlation between population density and distance to CBD was positive within a 4 km area, while for areas outside 8 km, they were negatively related. The factors determining population density distribution are also discussed. We argue that where people choose to settle is a decision process between the expected benefits and the cost of living; the informal settlements around the 4-km belt in Nairobi has become the choice for most poor people. This paper ends with suggestions for urban planning and upgrading informal settlements. The findings will increase our understanding of urban population distribution in underdeveloped countries.

Modeling and Analysis of Dynamic Charging for EVs: A Stochastic Geometry Approach

With the increasing demand for greener and more energy efficient transportation solutions, electric vehicles (EVs) have emerged to be the future of transportation across the globe. However, currently, one of the biggest bottlenecks of EVs is the battery. Small batteries limit the EVs driving range, while big batteries are expensive and not environmentally friendly. One potential solution to this challenge is the deployment of charging roads, i.e., dynamic wireless charging systems installed under the roads that enable EVs to be charged while driving. In this paper, we use tools from stochastic geometry to establish a framework that enables evaluating the performance of charging roads deployment in metropolitan cities. We first present the course of actions that a driver should take when driving from a random source to a random destination in order to maximize dynamic charging during the trip. Next, we analyze the distribution of the distance to the nearest charging road. This distribution is vital for studying multiple performance metrics such as the trip efficiency, which we define as the fraction of the total trip spent on charging roads. Next, we derive the probability that a given trip passes through at least one charging road. The derived probability distributions can be used to assist urban planners and policy makers in designing the deployment plans of dynamic wireless charging systems. In addition, they can also be used by drivers and automobile manufacturers in choosing the best driving routes given the road conditions and level of energy of EV battery.

Pathways to the ‘Good Life’: Co-Producing Prosperity Research in Informal Settlements in Tanzania

Residents of informal settlements in urban centres in Africa are known to suffer disproportionate burdens of environmental and socio-economic inequalities and are often excluded from macro-level visions and policies that seek to make cities safer and prosperous (Birkmann, 2007; da Silva & Braulio, 2014; Dodman et al., 2013). This tension undermines the validity of orthodox, ‘expert-led’ visions, policies and measures of prosperity that are distant from the lived-experience of marginalised urban residents. Based on new empirical work with communities in three informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this article argues that novel methodological and theoretical approaches to co-producing context-specific policy-relevant knowledge about pathways to prosperity (translated by the communities as maisha bora, ‘the good life’) creates inclusive spaces for both community participation in processes of urban knowledge production and critical social enquiry that can lead to grounded theory building. By co-producing both an agreed and relevant methodological approach for the study, and its subsequent documentation and analysis, this work contributes valuable empirical insights about the capacities and capabilities of local communities to shape and influence urban policy-making and in this way speaks to calls for a global urbanism (Ong, 2011; Robinson, 2016) that brings diverse voices and geographies to urban theory to better account for the diversity of urban experiences and processes found in twenty-first century cities.

Behaviors of seniors and impact of spatial form in small-scale public spaces in Chinese old city zones

Small-scale public spaces in old city zones are important places for seniors to participate in city life and can often be neglected. Street-corner small-scale public spaces are fairly typical in this case. This study randomly selected 74 street-corner small-scale public spaces in Tianjin, China as sample spaces, and the daily behaviors of seniors were continuously observed and periodically photographed for data collection. The duration of observation for each sample space was no less than 4 h. Based on the extraction of the collected data, the characteristics of seniors' behaviors in terms of the percentage and frequency of occurrence were quantitatively analyzed. Subsequently, combined with the data of the spatial form indexes, using communication as an example, the impact of spatial form on the frequency of occurrence for seniors' behaviors were explored. It was found that the width of the adjacent street, the average height of surrounding buildings, the number of seats, and the average noise level have statistically significant impacts on the frequency of seniors' communication. This study will provide a significant basis with scientific evidence and quantitative method to urban designers and policy makers for the urban age-friendly regeneration of small-scale public spaces in old city zones.

A time-use perspective of out-of-home activity participation by older people in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Promoting active aging has emerged as a key objective of urban planning and policymaking globally. Our study aims to provide new insights from a time-use perspective. In this paper, we use Hong Kong as a case study to investigate how people aged 60 and older allocate their time in various out-of-home activities. We analyse how personal and household characteristics affect the duration of out-of-home activities among older adults using two decennial time-use surveys. We focus on the influence of employment status and age because of policy relevance, particularly since the Hong Kong Government is considering extending the retirement age from 60 to 65. Comparison of time-use and activity participation between 2002 and 2013 suggests that employment status is positively associated with the duration of out-of-home activities and travel in both cross-sections; it also explains change over time. Findings also underscore the role of gender, age, education, type of housing, tenure of accommodation, household size, and income in determining older people’s activity–travel patterns. Our study shows that government policies to increase the share of employed people in the 60-years-and-older cohort and changes in the sociodemographic makeup of older people owing to various economic or societal forces could alter older people’s time-use and out-of-home activity patterns. Our study suggests that Hong Kong and other cities in the Asian region and beyond must aim at creating inclusive, age-friendly communities with adequate access to various activity opportunities in order to enhance quality of life in an aging society.