Urban Reconstruction Projects Research Articles

Spillover Effect of Urban Reconstruction from Announcement to Completion on Residential Prices: Application of Two-Stage Spatial Quantile Regression

This study analyzed four urban reconstruction projects in Taipei City (Zhufeng Tianmu, Huaku Sky Garden, Leqin Sanxi, and Yongde Yanyan) that were completed in 2016 based on data released by the Urban Regeneration R&D Foundation. The housing transaction data spanned from January 2008 to December 2017. The difference-in-difference method was used in conjunction with quantile regression to analyze the spillover effects of urban reconstruction projects on neighboring areas during the various phases of these projects. The empirical results showed that, during the planning and announcement phase, the effect on housing prices was negative and statistically significant for mid-to-low-priced units but positive and statistically significant for high-priced units. During the construction and post-completion phases, the effect was negative and statistically significant for low-priced, mid-to-low-priced, and mid-priced units, with low-priced units being the most affected group.

Study on the relationship between post‐disaster operating status of establishments and urban reconstruction projects and regulations in tsunami‐affected urban areas: Analysis of establishments affected by tsunami due to the Great East Japan Earthquake by individual panel data from Economic Census

AbstractWhile urban reconstruction projects and land use regulations were implemented in each area affected by the tsunami following the Great East Japan Earthquake, concerns were raised regarding the impact of these projects and regulations on the industry sector. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between business recovery and post‐disaster urban planning, such as urban reconstruction projects and disaster risk area designations. We developed chronological panel data of establishment units before and after the disaster using individual data from Economic Census, inundation range data, urban reconstruction project zone data, and disaster risk area data. Cross‐tabulation tables and independence tests were conducted using the panel data. The results indicate that for establishments inundated to a depth of at least 1 m located outside the disaster risk area, the survival rate was significantly lower for those inside the urban reconstruction project area. For establishments outside the urban reconstruction project area, the survival rate was significantly lower for those inside the disaster risk area, for both nonflooded and flooded depths of at least 1 m. The results revealed that besides inundation damage, industry sectors, and numbers of employees, urban reconstruction project implementation and disaster risk area designation were some factors impeding survival.

도시재생과 연계한 학교시설 복합화 영향 요인 분석*

This study performs an empirical analysis of the effects of school facilities complexation, based on urban regeneration experts, who are major stakeholder in school facilities complexation projects. The purpose of this study is to propose a plan to improve effectiveness of school facilities complexation projects, together with providing basic data for such projects. To achieve the goal, the study conducts an empirical analysis based on literature review and survey. The findings found by structural equation models are as followed; First, capability of people related to urban reconstruction projects has significant positive effects on implementation of a school facilities complexation project. Second, the intent of people related to urban reconstruction projects has no significant effect on implementation of a school facilities complexation project. Third, implementation of a school facilities complexation project has significant effects on activation of a school facilities complexation project. According to the findings of empirical analysis, the following measures should be done to improve effectiveness of a school facilities complexation project. First, it is important to build a cooperation system between governing bodies, a city and a school to prepare a long-term joint plan. Second, It is necessary to increase cooperation and participation of stakeholder and enhance capabilities of urban regeneration experts to identify characteristics of a school, a public facility and a local community. This study can be used as basic data for urban regeneration experts who need to implement a school facilities complexation project, as a part of Living SOC projects. It also can show a school how to play a role as a pivot of local community by enhancing roles and functions as a living SOC project, which provides necessary public service to local residents.

A Cultural Governance Coalition in Regeneration. A Case Study of Historical Quanzhou City

Compared with the gradual and long exploration processes typical of European and American countries, China experienced a period marked by extremely high-speed modernisation and urbanisation, following the Land Reform. This is exemplified by a great number of urban reconstruction projects which have changed the traditional fabric of most cities. Yet, following the trend of cultural consumption since the late 1990s, numerous integrated restoration projects for historic districts were implemented to promote tourism as a promising industry to sustain economic growth. As a consequence of growth-oriented urban entrepreneurship, public spaces in these historic urban areas have also been perceptibly privatised. To a large extent, the capital and the authority of the local government directs the future prospect of the historic urban landscape in Chinese cities. On the other hand, development-oriented urban construction stimulates a rise in awareness of the need for protection strategies to conserve historic urban fabric. On a global scale, the public sector has begun to introspect on urban governance under the spirit of entrepreneurship. The urban renewal has now been extended to urban regeneration and the previous public-private partnership has been substituted with a multi-sectoral cooperative model. In recent years, the Chinese central government has proposed the core concept of “Seeing people, Seeing things, Seeing life”, which is re-orientated towards historic-city regeneration as a way of promoting “Micro-renewal and Micro-disturbance”. Among such activities, the use of exhibitions as a strategy for simultaneous spatial transformation and activation has gradually formed a common path, encouraging many cities to regenerate historic urban areas. This article is based on on this reorientation, taking Quanzhou as an example, making a critical observation on the new form of public space it has produced, and digs into the operational mechanism behind it as well as the possibility for publicness.

Minimizing the carbon footprint of urban reconstruction projects

Abstract Reconstruction projects in the aftermath of events such as natural disasters require proper allocation of scarce resources to multiple projects that need to run concurrently according to a planned schedule. Project deadlines are specified based on the urgency and importance of the infrastructure being rebuilt. Construction companies within the locality of the site may have insufficient capacity to cope with all the reconstruction projects. In such cases, external construction companies from other regions supplement local reconstruction efforts. Use of such external resources incurs environmental penalties (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions) due to the transport of heavy equipment, material supplies, and workers, over greater distances. It is necessary to assign companies suitably to minimize the carbon footprint of accomplishing the tasks. A multi-period source-sink model is developed to optimize the assignment of construction companies to multiple projects along a planned time horizon, using earliest finish time during reconstruction campaign. The model is formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Program whose objective function is to minimize total carbon footprint during reconstruction while taking into account company size and classification, as well as project deadlines. A case study on urban reconstruction in the southern Philippines is solved using the model.

Social Capital and Residential Agency in Pujiang New Town, Shanghai

Although it barely registered in social media and current news in North America, the Shanghai 2010 World Expo was the most expensive urban reconstruction project in Chinese history and also caused the largest human relocation project in Shanghai history. To make way for the Expo, over18 000 families- an estimated 55 000 people- were relocated to the outskirts of Shanghai, away from their homes, communities, social connections and basic services. Of these residents, 25 000 were relocated to Pujiang new town: a brand new town constructed for this occasion by the Shanghai government. Although the government and contracted urban planners built the town, it is the relocated residents who are building the community. Using personal interviews that I and my Shanghainese partner conducted with the residents of Pujiang new town, we aimed to find out how residents are regaining the “social capital” that was lost during their forced relocation, and how their “individual and collective agency” prevents them from being seen as victims of a strong centralized government. In order to understand how this unique case of urban development was created, I will also be explaining the historical causes of the project, and it’s social and political consequences. However, it is the overarching question of “how does China see urban development, and why?” that I wish to answer

The Relationship Between Urban Reconstruction Projects and the Role of Electricians in Order to Realize the Low-Carbon Economy

The Relationship Between Urban Reconstruction Projects and the Role of Electricians in Order to Realize the Low-Carbon Economy

Planning support system for climate adaptation: Composing effective sets of blue-green measures to reduce urban vulnerability to extreme weather events

The risk of pluvial flooding, heat stress and drought is increasing due to climate change. To increase urban resilience to extreme weather events, it is essential to combine green and blue infrastructure and link enhanced storage capacity in periods of water surplus with moments of water shortage as well as water availability with heat stress. ‘Blue-green measures’ is a collective term for sustainable green and blue infrastructure that utilises underlying ecosystem functions to deliver multiple benefits: for example, cooling via evapotranspiration, water storage for heavy rainfall events, discharge peak attenuation, seasonal water storage, and groundwater recharge. Measures contribute most to climate adaptation when implemented in combinations. Such packages of blue-green measures capitalize upon the synergistic interactions between ecosystem functions and hence enhance multiple vulnerability reduction capacities. Moreover, combining blue-green measures enables using their unique potential at different spatial scales and establishing hydrologic connectivity. This paper proposes a framework for a planning support system and a tool to select adaptation measures to support urban planners in collaboratively finding site-specific sets of blue-green measures for a particular urban reconstruction project. With the proposed framework users can evaluate appropriateness of specific adaptation measures for a particular location and compose effective packages of blue-green measures to handle flooding, drought and heat stress. It is concluded that the framework: 1) enables incorporating knowledge on urban climate adaptation and ecosystem services in a communicative urban planning process, 2) guides the selection of a coherent and effective package of blue-green adaptation measures.

Control Measures for High-Rise Building Operation Safety Management

In the market economy reform of new period, large quantities of high-rise buildings have began to flood into the urban reconstruction project, and also have changed into the mainstream trend of the construction industry gradually. From another point of view, high-rise buildings are the symbols for the prosperity and development of the economy in cities and the comprehensive improvement of peoples living environment. However, high-rise buildings have their own inherent risks. In this paper, the risks of high-rise buildings, the control measures for high-rise building operation safety management, and other contents about construction site safety management are introduced successively. Hopefully, this paper will be helpful for the follow-up studies.

Misplaced Ekistics: Islamabad and the politics of urban development in Pakistan

Islamabad – Pakistan's purpose-built new capital city at the foothills of the Himalayas – was one of the most significant urban reconstruction projects of the twentieth century. It marked the coming together of two historical events: on one side, the takeover of power of General Ayub Khan and his need to prove to his nation and the world at large that he was better at doing ‘development’ than any previous administration; and on the other, the rise to promise of a global discourse of developmental urbanism, epitomized by Islamabad's chief designer, the Greek architect and development consultant Constantinos A. Doxiadis. Drawing on new and not previously used primary material from Doxiadis's company archives, this article offers a historical contextualization and an interpretation of the Islamabad project. The commission to build a new city did not fall into Doxiadis's lap as a stand-alone project, but marked the culmination of years of lobbying work in Pakistan, in which international players like the Ford Foundation were closely involved. Moreover, the ‘meaning’ of Islamabad cannot be properly evaluated without seeing it in conjunction with its ‘sister’ project – also a Doxiadis creation – the refugee resettlement township of Korangi in Karachi. This article argues that Islamabad's design is best understood as a case of ideological ‘displacement’. This is to say that it was not just another example of how top-down planning inevitably ‘failed’ in the Third World, even though Doxiadis's trademark approach of Ekistics easily lends itself to such an interpretation. Rather it was a case of deploying a planning methodology designed to make future megacities ‘safe’ to an urban space that was in no danger of ever becoming such a megacity. Islamabad's closest equivalent in the planning history of South Asia was in fact the colonial Hill Station, an idealized mountain ‘village’ from where the most striking features of urbanity had been deliberately removed.

Money, Mobility, and Commodified Bodies: The Politics of Gentrification in German City Films of the Late 1990s

In the late 1990s Hamburg and Berlin launched large‐scale urban reconstruction projects, the HafenCity Masterplan in Hamburg and the Planwerk Innenstadt in Berlin. Both projects triggered debates among politicians, activists, and journalists about the future of German/European cities, and spaces for creativity, art, and alternative cultures within increasingly commercialized and gentrified cityscapes. After an overview of these debates, this article discusses two German city episode films, Sönke Wortmann's St. Pauli Nacht (1999) and Andreas Dresen's Nachtgestalten (1998), in the context of discussions about the politics of the neoliberal city. The films offer different perspectives on how bodies and money circulate in the shadow spaces of neoliberal cityscapes. The cinematic depictions of these economies, however, can be commodified into marketable fantasies of “edgy Berlin” and “seedy Hamburg.”

A Study on Non Professional Volunteer Activities for Support to communicate the residential activities for Urban Reconstruction Projects

There are several volunteer activities for the promotion of the reconstruction of damaged communities as well as for their the revitalization, and various cares for sufferers after the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The purpose of this paper is aimed to discusses the issues the various activities of private organizations and volunteers group. We analyzed the newsletters, as well as the document, interviewd the various activities of private organizations and volunteers group in order to clarify its organization characteristics and activities. As a result, they have supported activities and dynamism recovery of residential activities, not only through informational aspect and financed assistance, and also by helping the earthquake's victims mentally.

The importance of community involvement in a successful construction noise control program

The Central Artery/Tunnel Project in Boston is generally recognized as the largest and most ambitious urban reconstruction project ever undertaken in the United States. The most politically charged of the required mitigation programs is to successfully control construction noise. Toward this end, the importance of the Project’s active interaction and relationship-building with the affected communities cannot be overstated. The CA/T Project’s construction noise control program attempts wherever possible to be proactive to avoid noise complaints. Part of the proactive strategy is to fully inform the affected neighborhoods through regularly scheduled community meetings. These meetings are organized by the Project’s Community Liaison Group, with support from applicable technical staff. All interested parties are encouraged to attend. A statistical analysis has been performed for all noise-related complaints received by the Project for the time period of May 1994 through November 1999. The trends show that the ‘‘rate’’ of noise complaints has remained relatively steady even though construction activities have increased some fourfold over this time period. The good news is that through the lessons learned and precedents set by the CA/T Project, large-scale urban construction projects can be advanced and noise can be successfully mitigated to the extent necessary to satisfy the affected communities