Economic Impacts of Adopting a Sustainable Transport System in Beirut

By Mazen Omran, Johnny Ojeil, and Youssef Fawaz

The proposed Beirut Master Plan aims to put the city back on the international map as a hub for trade and investment, a place to work, and a destination for leisure. The execution of this plan has started with major construction works taking place in the Beirut Central District (BCD) and its planned natural extension on reclaimed land known as the New Waterfront District (NWD).
However, this proposed Master Plan may not achieve its main economic objectives due to the lack of transport infrastructure and multi-modal systems, i.e. transport is lagging behind. Congestion levels are currently unacceptable and will get worse in the future as a result of these development proposals. The key missing link is that Beirut is lagging on the sustainable public transport front and therefore it will not be able to economically compete in a strong manner with other cities in the region. 

The work carried out in this paper demonstrates the economic benefit of a sustainable transport system. It compared a scenario with and without such system, and calculated loss time as a result of being held up in congestion during key peak hours mainly due to relying entirely on the private car. The work demonstrates that in addition to reducing congestion levels a sustainable transport system will generate benefits related to travel time, accident costs, vehicle operating costs, carbon emissions, environmental impacts, wellbeing of individuals, attraction of international companies to locate in Beirut with reduced congestions levels prevailing, positive effect on business efficiency, and wider labor catchment in terms of penetration of non-car owning communities thus improving labor mobility and accessibility.
Qualitative and quantitative analyses were carried out to determine the impacts of adopting a sustainable transport system on the economy. The results were alarming for the ‘Do Nothing Scenario’, i.e. remaining reliant on the private car as a sole means of transport. The analyses showed that without a road map adopting a sustainable transport system, Beirut will reach an economic standstill. Therefore, Beirut will have to develop a multi-modal transport system to become resilient and to be able to meet the economic growth that is being pursued by stakeholders and interested parties alike.
A broad but critical Action Plan was produced as part of the work that set the key functions required to move transport into a full multi-modal system that will give people a real choice to choose based on policy changes and traffic management initiatives including parking control.

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More about the Middle East:

Drivers of urban sprawl in two large Middle-eastern countries: literature on Iran and Egypt

 A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF DENSITIES WITHIN THE PEDESTRIAN SHEDS AROUND METRO STATIONS: THE CASE OF TEHRAN

URBANIZATION TRENDS AND URBAN PLANNING STRATEGIES IN THREE MAJOR MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: IRAN, EGYPT, AND TURKEY

URBAN PATTERNS FOR A GREEN ECONOMY: LEVERAGING DENSITY

Facilitating Urban Management Through Local SDI Case Study: The Municipality of Tehran 

URBAN SPRAWL IN IRANIAN CITIES AND ITS DIFFERENCES WITH THE WESTERN SPRAWL

A new approach to the Iranian urban planning, using neo-traditional development

A critical review of new mobility services for urban transport

By Maria Kamargianni, Weibo Li, Melinda Matyas, and Andreas Schäfer

The growing pressure on urban passenger transport systems has increased the demand for new and innovative solutions to increase its efficiency. One approach to tackle this challenge has been the slow but steady shift towards shared mobility services (car-, bike-sharing etc.). Building on these new modes and the developments in information and communication technologies, the concept of “Mobility as a Service” (MaaS) has recently come to light and offers convenient door-to-door transport without the need to own a private vehicle. The term Mobility as a Service (MaaS) stands for buying mobility services based on consumer needs instead of buying the means of mobility. In recent years, various MaaS schemes have been arisen around the world. The objective of this paper is to review these newly existing mobility services and develop an index to evaluate the level of mobility integration for each based on the assumption that higher level of integration is more appealing to travellers. The review presented in this paper allows a comparison among the schemes and provides the background and the key points of MaaS systems that the research community could use for designing surveys. It also provides significant insights to transport operators and authorities on the elements they should take into account to apply an attractive MaaS scheme that could effectively shift demand away from private vehicles.

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More studies on public trasnportation:

Urban Travel Behavior in Large Cities of MENA Region: Survey Results of Cairo, Istanbul, and Tehran

Promoting Schoolchildren's Physical Activity by Change in Transport to School Behavior: Statistical Analysis

Longitudinal correlations of car ownership with socio-economics, urban form, and transport infrastructure in Latin America: Example from Ensenada, Mexico 

A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF DENSITIES WITHIN THE PEDESTRIAN SHEDS AROUND METRO STATIONS: THE CASE OF TEHRAN

What shapes local public transportation in Europe? Economics, mobility, institutions, and geography

Transforming the Land Public Transport System in Malaysia

Ten Principles for Successful Development Around Trans

Urban Travel Behavior in Large Cities of MENA Region: Survey Results of Cairo, Istanbul, and Tehran

By Houshmand E. Masoumi, Amr Ah. Gouda, Lucia Layritz, Pia Stendera, Cynthia Matta, Haya Tabbakh, Sima Razavi, Houshiar Masoumi, Betül Mannasoğlu, Özlem Kılınç, Ashraf M. Sharara, Mahmoud Elnably, Ahmad Alhakeem, Sherzad Ismail, Erik Fruth

The present discussion paper summarizes an urban mobility survey as a part of the project “Urban Travel Behavior in Large Cities of MENA Region” (UTB-MENA) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) undertaken in summer and autumn 2017 in Tehran, Istanbul, and Cairo. This data collection was conducted in 18 neighborhoods located in different urban forms related to three different eras: traditional urban form, in-between (transitional) urban form, and new developments. The survey instrument included 31 questions organized in six different sections. As a result of face-to-face interviews with residents as well as quantification of several land use indicators, a database of 8284 validated subjects (Cairo: 2786 , Istanbul: 2781 , Tehran: 2717) was created by the research team based in Berlin, Tehran, Istanbul, and Cairo. The results of 46 variables (24 continuous and 22 categorical) are presented in this paper. The neighborhood-level precision of the findings is 4.5% to 4.7% for individual variables and 1.8% to 2.4% for household variables. These findings make the data representative for the case-study neighborhoods. These data are expected to provide a reliable sample for researchers of the region for the purpose of strengthening human-oriented urban transportation planning and research against the mainstream of transportation engineering by bringing in disaggregate individual urban mobility data into urban transport research of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

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More about urban transport and urban planning in the Middle East:

Drivers of urban sprawl in two large Middle-eastern countries: literature on Iran and Egypt

A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF DENSITIES WITHIN THE PEDESTRIAN SHEDS AROUND METRO STATIONS: THE CASE OF TEHRAN

URBANIZATION TRENDS AND URBAN PLANNING STRATEGIES IN THREE MAJOR MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: IRAN, EGYPT, AND TURKEY

Drivers of urban sprawl in two large Middle-eastern countries: literature on Iran and Egypt

By Houshmand E. Masoumi, Maryamsadat Hosseini, and Amr Ah. Gouda

This paper reviews the relevant literature of Iran and Egypt as two large countries of the region and concludes that four phenomena are common between the two countries and are accountable for sprawling, namely (1) wholesale land selling to the lower economic class, (2) defciencies of planning systems in controlling development plans, (3) fast and uncontrolled increase in urban population, and (4) rural-urban migration. These drivers are categorized in two classes of demographic and planning-related trends. Besides, there is a number of peculiar trends that have nationwide causes but are uncommon in Iran and Egypt. The authors of this paper consider that the demographic drivers or sprawl addressed by the Middle Eastern scholars are not actual causes but only consequences, or there is a correlation between the demographic factors and sprawl. More in-depth historical and socioeconomic studies are needed to fnd the associations between sprawl and unstudied phenomena like change in technologies, culture, and lifestyle.

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More about urban sprawl in developing countries:

URBANIZATION TRENDS AND URBAN PLANNING STRATEGIES IN THREE MAJOR MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: IRAN, EGYPT, AND TURKEY

Urban Sprawl: A view from developing and developed Countries

The Status of Urban and Suburban Sprawl in Egypt and Iran

Evaluation of Urban Sprawl Speed and Intensity Based on International Urbanization. Example from a Mexican City

URBAN SPRAWL AND CLIMATIC CHANGES IN TEHRAN

Monitoring and modeling the urban growth of mid-size cities in Iran by Markov model: the case study of Zanjan City

Promoting Schoolchildren's Physical Activity by Change in Transport to School Behavior: Statistical Analysis

By Houshmand E. Masoumi

During the past decade, a number or researchers have focused on the interdisciplinary topic of active transport to school (ATS) and children’s health and wellbeing including their body weight and Body Mass Index (BMI). Most of the recent studies are focused on a handful of high-income societies, leaving other countries less researched. Thus, this study targeted both high-income and less-studied contexts within the European context. The aim was to provide reliable inter-contextual data for facilitating comparative studies as well as undertaking preliminary analyses on the contextual differences in children’s walking to school, relationships between parent’s commuting mode choice and that of their children, the associations of built environment with ATS and BMI, and finally noteworthy points for interventions for promoting children’s school-based physical activity. Using the results of surveys undertaken in nine European cities in 2016, statistical analyses were conducted, which led to preliminary results confirming strong significant associations of the built environment with children’s ATS as well as strong and significant associations of parents’ commute mode choice with that of their children. These preliminary results do not confirm significant differences between walking to school in different European contexts. It is probable that these differences exist regarding biking to school, but this may be tested in future research. This study underlines the circumstances of planning a more active school commuting behavior in the future of European societies: activation of 9-12-year-old European children’s school commuting is recommended to be done by changing the parent’s commute mode choices as well as integrating urban planning, transportation planning, and school site selection in future urban plans. Awareness of policy makers, families, and also children may be essential in planning more active school commuting. Applying the results of the surveys done during this project, future research will target inter-contextual differences between factors such as physical activity, ATS, and BMI, correlations between the perceptions of children and parents regarding school commuting and neighborhood and the associations with physical activity and BMI, the possible importance of city size in determining all the above factors regardless of the national context, and the differences between the tendencies and phenomena influencing school commuting-related physical activity and BMI in emerging European countries compared to high-income countries.

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More about children's active commuting to school:

Children’s Travel to School and their Body Weight; Results of a Survey in Seven European Countries: Technical Report

Active Transport to School and Children's Body Weight: A Systematic Reivew

Active transport to school and the risk of obesity

Systematic Review of Active Commuting to School and Children’s Physical Activity and Weight

Walking, Cycling, and Obesity Rates in Europe, North America, and Australia

Societal trends, mobility behaviour and sustainable transport in Europe and North America

A comparative study of the morphological characteristics of residential areas in San Francisco

By Mehmet TOPCU and Michael SOUTHWORTH

This study compares residential neighborhoods with different gridiron patterns in terms of some morphological properties. Nine different gridiron street patterns of San Francisco neighborhoods were chosen to assess the livability of residential areas in terms of several morphological evaluation criteria including accessibility (local and global spatial integration), intelligibility, density, livability index and time period. When measuring these criteria, the focus was on the street-block and building-lot relationships using several different methods. Accessibility and intelligibility values were measured by the ‘space syntax’ method which evaluates the street system of urban form. Density measures were calculated by the ratio of total built area within sample areas to the total sample area and by the ratio of private open spaces of sample areas to the total built area. In addition, a livability index was calculated by the ratio of pedestrian area to total built area. The contribution of time in the process of city building is also an important part of the morphology of cities. Therefore, in this study time period was used to analyze the historical background of the city. All the findings were evaluated according to these criteria by using GIS. In conclusion, based on the findings, this study stresses that the criteria of accessibility, intelligibility levels and density are inversely proportional with the degree of livability in the study areas. Therefore, we hypothesize that accessibility, density and livability index are the important inputs for making better designs for urban residential space and city design as a whole.

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More about urban form:

Longitudinal correlations of car ownership with socio-economics, urban form, and transport infrastructure in Latin America: Example from Ensenada, Mexico

Children’s Travel to School and their Body Weight; Results of a Survey in Seven European Countries: Technical Report

The Role of the Built Environment in Human Life. Selected Issues

REDUCING CRIME BY SHAPING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT WITH ZONING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF LOS ANGELES

Evaluation of Urban Sprawl Speed and Intensity Based on International Urbanization. Example from a Mexican City

A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO CAPABILITIES OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN FORM IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

Sustainable Urban Growth Management Using What-If?

Urban Design and the Changing Context of Urban Regeneration in the Netherlands

By Paul STOUTEN,

Urban design schemes accompanied by avant-garde design of space have been an outcome of economic growth of cities and countries in many periods of time. At the beginning of the 21st century, Nieuw Crooswijk in Rotterdam was the largest area involved in nationally launched policies. Many times the conflicts surrounding the plan were in the news, particularly concerning the aim to attract higher incomes. Gentrification, with displacement of present and original residents forms a central issue and the discussions in Nieuw Crooswijk fit within the more general urban landscape and language of urban regeneration in Europe.

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More about the Netherlands:

Photos of bike lanes in Amsterdam, Netherlands (1)

Residential self-selection and travel: The relationship between travel-related attitudes, built environment characteristics and travel behaviour

The World's 7 Most Bike-friendly Cities

Graffiti photos of Rotterdam, Netherlands

BEST PRACTICE IN FACILITATING AND PROMOTING ACTIVE TRAVEL

Longitudinal correlations of car ownership with socio-economics, urban form, and transport infrastructure in Latin America: Example from Ensenada, Mexico

By Daniela Roque & Houshmand E. Masoumi

Car-orientated modal splits represent problems for the city in economic, environmental and social terms. The implementation of policies and other measures can fail if the causes are not well recognized. Mid-sized cities in Mexico are not well-represented in studies where only the capital and other bigger cities are studied. This research aims to recognize those causes focusing on northern mid-sized cities in Mexico. The approach involves numerical work (linear regression) complemented with a descriptive analysis of the city. The analysis takes on such areas of consideration as socio-economic factors, land-use variables and the street network of the city. Of the 16 variables, almost all presented a relationship with car ownership levels, but not all behaved as expected. The final part of the research is a reaction to the previous studies and recommendations to change the city from car-orientated to one with a sustainable modal split.

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More about urban planning in Mexico:

An Analysis of Car Ownership in Latin American Cities: a Perspective for Future Research

Evaluation of Urban Sprawl Speed and Intensity Based on International Urbanization. Example from a Mexican City

Skyline photos of Mexico City (1)

Hopeful Footsteps in Mexico City’s Centro Histórico

Mexico’s Proposed 2012 Budget Fails to Allocate Adequate Funding for Climate Change

MEXICO: Capital Badly in Need of Urban Regeneration

Children’s Travel to School and their Body Weight; Results of a Survey in Seven European Countries: Technical Report

By Masoumi, Houshmand, E.; Zanoli, Gabriele; Papageorgiou, Athanasios; Smaga, Soultana; Miloš, Ana; Van Rooijen, Martin; Łuczak, Monika; Komorek, Joanna; Çağan, Birol; Calabrese, Carla; E. Jamerson, Gordon; Patsakas, Georgios; Parisopoulos, Georgios; Meimaridis, Ioannis; Anagnostaras, Konstantinos; Perrostis, Andreas; Dessi, Eleni; Družeta, Toni; Udović, Tatjana; Daams, Ingmar; Drużek, Paweł, and Dalcı, Ahmet 

Problem: A number or researchers have recently focused on the interdisciplinary topic of active transportation of children and adolescents, their physical activity, and their body weight as an important aspect of their health. Such studies have been dominantly undertaken in a specific geographical context. Lack of contextual studies necessitates data collection with samples covering different countries and/or regions applying a uniform methodology. Such a lack of data is observed in both Europe and overseas.
Objective: This survey attempts to collect dissaggregate data about the travel behaveior of children of 9-12 years of age and their parents, children’s body specifications, and their households characteristics as well as aggregate data about the built environment of their school.
Method: direct questioning based on a standard questionnaire consisted of 26 questions was conducted in spring and summer of 2016 in nine cities in seven European countries (Foggia, Italy; Berlin, Germany; Thessaloniki, Greece; Rijeka, Croatia; Utrecht, The Netherlands; Łódź, Poland, Konstantynow, Poland; Malatya, Turkey, and Doğanşehir, Turkey).
Results: Out of 2735 children handed out the questionnaires, the parents of 1424 schoolchildren filled out the questionnaires, 1304 of which were validated and kept for analysis. This makes an overall response rate of 52.07 percent. In this report, the researchers of M.A.P.S. project have provided detailed descriptive findings separately for each case-study citiy as well as for the whole cities together as one sample.

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More about urban planning and children's health:

Active Transport to School and Children's Body Weight: A Systematic Reivew

Active transport to school and the risk of obesity

Systematic Review of Active Commuting to School and Children’s Physical Activity and Weight

Walking, Cycling, and Obesity Rates in Europe, North America, and Australia

Societal trends, mobility behaviour and sustainable transport in Europe and North America

The Role of the Built Environment in Human Life. Selected Issues

By Mariusz Lamprecht,

Creation of the built environment and research in this field pose a particularly difficult challenge nowadays. The pace of social and technological change does not allow for evolutionary development of cities and the formation of their land use according to current conditions. Creating spatial solutions that are unmatched in their contexts is becoming not only possible, but very probable (see Alexander, 1964). The development of the built environment involves not only art, technology, history, economics and law, but also philosophy, culture, medicine, psychology, sociology and many other spheres in which human life is manifested. However, only a relatively small number of disciplines such as spatial planning, urban design, urban planning, etc. (ignoring at this point the differences in the meaning of the concepts) in their application layer are meant to create space and bear responsibility for it. Also society has certain requirements of practical nature towards them.

This article attempts to outline the nature of research on space urbanised by people and to determine the four main fields of research aimed at the problems of man and the built environment. In the next part, particular attention is paid to issues related to the impact of the built environment on the life of its residents in order to highlight the particular role and complexity of this area of research. This study, acting as a kind of test of the research, cannot be considered representative. Nevertheless, the analysis prompts several reflections on the current and future role of the built environment in the development of our civilisation, as well as further challenges related to it.

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more about urban sustainability:

Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies

A Review of Urban Sustainability Assessment Methodologies

Sustainable Urban Development and the Chinese Eco-City: Concepts, Strategies, Policies and Assessments

Transportation and Sustainability Best Practices Background

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM: PLANNING FOR NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES IN CITIES

Active Transport to School and Children's Body Weight: A Systematic Reivew

By Houshmand E. Masoumi,

Because of decreasing physical activity of children, they are becoming more obese. Moreover, commuting to school has become more passive during the past decades. The objective was to update the previous systematic reviews by narrowing down the topic to body mass index of children (3-12 years) as a representative of body composition. Applying search terms such as active transport to school, body mass index, childhood obesity, and so on in four online databases: PubMed, ScienceDirect, WorldCat, and Google Scholar. Peer reviewed English journal papers published between 2005 and 2015 presenting empirical quantitative studies were eligible studies to be reviewed. 310 journal papers were screened, 27 of which were reviewed by studying the full text. The final 13 papers were limited to those that focused only on active commuting to school and body mass index of children and adolescents. Out of 13 final studies, 3 found conclusive associations, three indicate partial associations in subgroups or societal or geographical limitations, and seven show no correlations. The existing literature are still inconsistent, so this study suggests conducting surveys with larger samples on less-studied contexts and applying more complex statistical methods for adjusting some of the variables. It is also argued that this topic can be culturally and contextually specific.

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more about children's mobility and active transportation:

Active transport to school and the risk of obesity

Systematic Review of Active Commuting to School and Children’s Physical Activity and Weight

Walking, Cycling, and Obesity Rates in Europe, North America, and Australia

Societal trends, mobility behaviour and sustainable transport in Europe and North America

REDUCING CRIME BY SHAPING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT WITH ZONING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF LOS ANGELES

By JAMES M. ANDERSON, JOHN M. MACDONALD, RICKY BLUTHENTHAL & J. SCOTT ASHWOOD

The idea of using law to change the built environment in ways that reduce opportunities to commit crimes has a long history. Unfortunately, this idea has received relatively little attention in the legal academy and only limited rigorous empirical scrutiny. In this Article, we review the considerable literature on the relationship between zoning, the built environment, and crime. We then report the results of two empirical studies on these relationships. First, we conducted a study of the effect of zoning on crime using 205 blocks selected in eight different relatively high crime neighborhoods in Los Angeles that have similar demographic characteristics but different forms of zoned land use. We find that mixed commercial- and residential-zoned areas are associated with lower crime than are commercial-only  zoned areas. Second, we matched neighborhoods undergoing zoning changes between 2006 and 2010 with neighborhoods that underwent no zoning changes during this period but had similar preexisting crime trajectories between 1994 and 2005. The primary zoning change in these neighborhoods was to convert parcels to residential uses. We find that neighborhoods in which there was a zoning change experienced a significant decline in crime. Our results suggest that mixing residential-only zoning into commercial blocks may be a promising means of reducing crime.

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 more about built environment:

Urban Transformations of the Mediterranean Cities in Light of Developments in the Modern Era

Urban Sprawl: A view from developing and developed Countries

A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO CAPABILITIES OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN FORM IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

Liveable Neighbourhoods: Street Layout, Design and Traffic Management Guidelines

Applying a CA-based model to explore land-use policy scenarios to contain sprawl in Thessaloniki, Greece

A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF DENSITIES WITHIN THE PEDESTRIAN SHEDS AROUND METRO STATIONS: THE CASE OF TEHRAN

By HOUSHMAND E. MASOUMI and MARYAM SHAYGAN

Evaluation of spatial accessibility to public transportation has a weak background in many emerging countries, including Iran. Transit-Oriented Development is of great interest among Iranian planners and academics, but little is known about transit orientation provided by major public transport systems exemplified by the Tehran Metro. Statistical difference tests and polynomial regression done in this study show how residential densities within walking distances of metro stations established at different times after 1998 are significantly different. Both population and employment densities have decreased in more recent stations compared to those opened between 2005 and 2010. Moreover, one-way T-Tests comparing the population and densities of older lines with those of newer lines reveal that, in most cases, densities within walking distances of stations of older lines are higher. The paper concludes that lack of proper site selection and failing to locate new stations near job centers and highly populated areas threatens the transit-friendliness that emerged in the early years after establishing the first metro station in 1998.

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More about urban planning and mobility in the Middle East:

URBANIZATION TRENDS AND URBAN PLANNING STRATEGIES IN THREE MAJOR MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: IRAN, EGYPT, AND TURKEY

TENSIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE MASTER PLANNING PROCESS OF ISTANBUL

Upgrading informal settlements in Egypt towards a sustainable urban development

Facilitating Urban Management Through Local SDI Case Study: The Municipality of Tehran 

THE IDENTITY OF OPEN SPACE: ADAPTING FROM THE MODEL OF TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER

Impact Assessment of Sustainable Public Transportation System on Quality of Life in Tehran

Changes in population settlement pattern in urban system of Tehran province (1966 to 2006)

Studying the effects of urban sprawl of metropolis on tourism - climate index oscillation: A case study of Tehran city

URBANIZATION TRENDS AND URBAN PLANNING STRATEGIES IN THREE MAJOR MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES: IRAN, EGYPT, AND TURKEY

By MARYAMSADAT HOSSEINI, AMR AH. GOUDA, HOUSHMAND E. MASOUMI

Rapid urbanization has turned into a problematic phenomenon laying negative effects on the Middle Eastern cities and their peripheries. Although fast increase in urban population of the countries of the region has been well-researched, the connections to urban development strategies and patterns are being neglected. This paper examines the time coincidence of some of the dominant planning trends of the past decades that are considered to be associated with the intensive urban population changes. The paper attempts to discuss over the points in which the three countries witnessed significant increase and decrease in fertility rates. For that, the data of the World Bank have been applied. The graphs seen in this paper have been produced by the Google public data from the World Bank website, which provides the possibility of separating urban and rural populations. The descriptive analysis of this study shows that these vigorous changes of population growth rates have been more powerful in Iran and Turkey and steadier in Egypt. Examples of weak planning in the three target countries of this study, Iran, Egypt, and Turkey, such as failure in new city planning in Egypt, extensive sprawl in Turkish cities, rural-urban migration in Iran and Turkey, and the policy of wholesale land selling in Iran depict uncontrolled and vis-à-vis urban planning taking the wrong route. It is concluded that controlling urbanization trends in emerging countries, like the Middle Eastern states, requires a strong and strict urban planning system that avoids trial and error.

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More about cities and urban planning in the Middle East:

Urban Transformations of the Mediterranean Cities in Light of Developments in the Modern Era

TENSIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE MASTER PLANNING PROCESS OF ISTANBUL

Upgrading informal settlements in Egypt towards a sustainable urban development

The Status of Urban and Suburban Sprawl in Egypt and Iran

A REGIONAL ANALYSIS OF URBAN POPULATION AND TRANSPORT ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Urban Sprawl Pattern Recognition Using Remote Sensing and GIS – Case Study Shiraz City, Iran

A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO CAPABILITIES OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN FORM IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

The Study of Land Use Changes in the Tehran Metropolitan Area by Using MOLAND Model

What shapes local public transportation in Europe? Economics, mobility, institutions, and geography

By Daniel Albalate and Germà Bel

This paper analyzes factors explaining supply and demand of local public transportation. Together with variables related to traditional economic factors and mobility, we consider variables reflecting institutional characteristics and geographical patterns. Being a political capital increases supply and demand of local public transportation, inequality is associated with higher supply, and contracting out reduces supply. Furthermore, our regional analysis allows us capturing the effect of geographical characteristics and different traditions of government intervention. In all, we provide first evidence on the role played by institutional and regional characteristics useful to achieve a better understanding of local public transportation supply and demand.

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mroe about sustainable urban transportation:

Policies for Sustainable Accessibility and Mobility in Urban Areas of Africa

Toward an understanding of children’s perceptions of their transport geographies: (non)active school travel and visual representations of the built environment

Smart Growth and Transit- Oriented Development at the State Level: Lessons from California, New Jersey, and Western Australia

Bicycling as a Way of Life: A Comparative Case Study of Bicycle Culture in Portland, OR and Amsterdam

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM: PLANNING FOR NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES IN CITIES

An Analysis of Car Ownership in Latin American Cities: a Perspective for Future Research

Urban Transformations of the Mediterranean Cities in Light of Developments in the Modern Era

By Bakr Hashem Paumey Ahmed Alashwal

The urban transformation processes in its framework and its general significance became a fundamental and vital subject of consideration for both the developed and the developing societies. It has become important to regulate the architectural systems adopted by the city, to sustain the present development on one hand, and on the other hand, to facilitate its future growth.
Thus, the study dealt with the phenomenon of urban transformation of the Mediterranean cities, and the city of Alexandria in particular, because of its significant historical and cultural legacy, its historical architecture and its contemporary urbanization.
This article investigates the entirety of cities in the Mediterranean region through the analysis of the relationship between inflation and growth of these cities and the extent of the complexity of the city barriers. We hope to analyze not only the internal transformations, but the external relationships (both imperial and post-colonial) that have shaped Alexandria city growth from the nineteenth century until today.

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More about urban cities of the Middle East:

Upgrading informal settlements in Egypt towards a sustainable urban development

The Status of Urban and Suburban Sprawl in Egypt and Iran

A REGIONAL ANALYSIS OF URBAN POPULATION AND TRANSPORT ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Urban Sprawl Pattern Recognition Using Remote Sensing and GIS – Case Study Shiraz City, Iran

URBAN SPRAWL IN MID-SIZED CITIES OF MENA, EVIDENCE FROM YAZD AND KASHAN IN CENTRAL IRAN

A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO CAPABILITIES OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN FORM IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

TENSIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE MASTER PLANNING PROCESS OF ISTANBUL

 By James STEELE and Rania SHAFIK,

Istanbul has been described as a city on the edge, of Europe, of modernization, of fundamentalism, of the future. But it would be more accurate to describe it as a city in between: split between Europe and Asia, modernization and tradition, poverty and wealth, an industrial and post-industrial ethos and financial system, secularism and spirituality, past, present and future. It also spans one of the largest and most active tectonic plates on earth, between the Eurasian and Anatolian plates. This interstitial condition is most legible in the physical layers of city growth, clearly documented, in the modern period, in an incremental series of urban plans that convey the social, cultural and religious values of its inhabitants. Istanbul has a unique Eurasian character due its location on two continents; the western side of Istanbul is in Europe, while the eastern side is in Asia. However, there are lots of arguments regarding the western influence in architecture, the consumption based projects around the city and the increase of gated communities in the European side, which have been invading the socio economic and the ethnic character in the city fabric. Today, Istanbul faces many challenges in its development process where global and regional influences compete with the needs and demands of diverse local groups (IMM, 2009).

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More about Istanbul:

Modeling street connectivity, pedestrian movement and land-use according to standard GIS street network representations: A Comparative Study

TRADITIONAL SHOPPING: A Syntactic Comparison of Commercial Spaces in Iran and Turkey

De-spatialized Space as Neoliberal Utopia: Gentrified İstiklal Street and Commercialized Urban Spaces

Globalisation, Cleaner Energy and Mega-Cities: Options and Messages for Turkey/Istanbul

THE EFFECTS OF PROPOSED BRIDGES ON URBAN MACROFORM OF ISTANBUL: a syntactic evaluation

Implications of an Urban Renewal Based State-Led Gentrification Process in a Roma Neighborhood in Istanbul

Policies for Sustainable Accessibility and Mobility in Urban Areas of Africa

By SSATP-Africa Transport Policy Program

Addressed to policy- and decision-makers, this paper proposes a set of policies which aim to improve accessibility and mobility in urban areas of Africa.
Large and small, urban areas of Africa are currently experiencing the fastest population growth in the history of the planet. As a result, policy- and decision-makers face enormous challenges in meeting the needs of current and future urban
dwellers.

Drawing from specific data collection and analysis for selected cities in Africa, as well as from insights gained through consultations with stakeholders and through an extensive literature review, this paper:

- Gives the reader an overview of the main accessibility and mobility issues faced by African urban areas, namely stemming from benchmark analysis among representative urban areas selected across the continent;

- Provides the reader with an overview of the lessons stemming from international experience over the past twenty years; and

- Proposes a conceptual framework and a set of policy recommendations meant to improve accessibility and mobility conditions in urban areas of Africa.

As a first step, the diagnosis is structured around ten specific and interrelated key issues that bear on accessibility and mobility in urban Africa, namely:

- four key issues related to urban transport governance: organization, human resources, financing, and land use.

- three key issues related to the urban transport system itself: public space, transport services, and transport infrastructure.

- three key issues related to the main impacts and externalities of urban transport: road safety, environmental quality and resources, and travel cost and time for users (i.a. affordability and inclusiveness).

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more about urban transportation:

Toward an understanding of children’s perceptions of their transport geographies: (non)active school travel and visual representations of the built environment

Smart Growth and Transit- Oriented Development at the State Level: Lessons from California, New Jersey, and Western Australia

Bicycling as a Way of Life: A Comparative Case Study of Bicycle Culture in Portland, OR and Amsterdam

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM: PLANNING FOR NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES IN CITIES

An Analysis of Car Ownership in Latin American Cities: a Perspective for Future Research

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGES IN CAR OWNERSHIP PATTERNS

URBAN PLANNING: CHALLENGES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

By Mila Freire,

The advent of 2007 marks the year when, for the first time in the history of humanity, half the world’s population will be living in cities. Urban populations are expected to increase by 1.5 billion over the next 20 years, while the number of megacities will double. By 2015 the UN predicts that there will be 358 "million cities" with one million or more people and 27 "mega-cities" with ten million or more. Much of this growth will happen in developing countries.
The scale and pace of urbanization is opening up unforeseen possibilities. Large concentrations of people and goods provide increased opportunities for creativity, larger labor markets, and higher levels of productivity, not to speak of the cultural and political opportunities associated with urban life. Urban explosion also poses daunting challenges. It can result in unemployment and insufficient investment in basic services with the resulting environmental and social problems. 

This paper discusses some of the challenges associated with urbanization in developing countries. It uses examples from industrialized countries to extract useful insights. We begin by discussing how globalization impacts city management and continue with five specific aspects of urban growth: Metropolitan management, urban growth and environmental impact, urban development in disaster-prone sites, Property rights vs. public appropriation, and urban development added value and institutional strengthening. We conclude by summarizing the future challenges of urban planning/management in developing countries.

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More about urban policy in emerging countries:

Urban Sprawl: A view from developing and developed Countries

Upgrading informal settlements in Egypt towards a sustainable urban development

Facilitating Urban Management Through Local SDI Case Study: The Municipality of Tehran 

Sustainable Urban Development and the Chinese Eco-City: Concepts, Strategies, Policies and Assessments

Cairo’s Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials

Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies

By UN

Indicators perform many functions. They can lead to better decisions and more effective actions by simplifying, clarifying and making aggregated information available to policy makers. They can help incorporate physical and social science knowledge into decision-making, and they can help measure and calibrate progress toward sustainable development goals. They can provide an early warning to prevent economic, social and environmental setbacks. They are also useful tools to communicate ideas, thoughts and values.
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 recognized the important role that indicators could play in helping countries make informed decisions concerning sustainable development. At the international level, the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) approved its Work Programme on Indicators of Sustainable Development in 1995. The first two sets of CSD Indicators of Sustainable Development (henceforth CSD indicators) were developed between 1994 and 2001. They have been extensively tested, applied and used in many countries as the basis for the development of national indicators of sustainable development.
The new revised edition of the CSD indicators has been developed in response to decisions by the CSD and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, which encouraged further work on indicators at the country level in line with national conditions and priorities and invited the international community to support efforts of developing countries in this regard. Since the publication of the previous set, knowledge of and experience with sustainable development indicators of countries and organizations has increased significantly, as has the emphasis on measuring progress on achieving sustainable development, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), at the national and the international levels. By incorporating these developments, the revision of the CSD indicators gives vital support to countries in their efforts to develop and implement national indicators for sustainable development.
This publication presents the revised, third edition of the CSD indicators. It also provides a synopsis of their foundation. The presentation of the indicator
set explicitly addresses their relation to Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the outcomes of the major international conferences on sustainable development in 1992 and 2002, as well as their relation to the MDG Indicators. The publication also provides guidance on applying and adapting the CSD indicators for the development of national indicator sets. The role of indicator frameworks is briefly discussed, and a succinct description of all indicators is included. Detailed methodology sheets for each indicator are included in an accompanying CD-ROM. These methodology sheets are also available on the indicators section of the webpage of the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/) and will be regularly updated.

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more about sustainability:

A Review of Urban Sustainability Assessment Methodologies

Transportation and Sustainability Best Practices Background

Towards a Sustainable Urban Form in Chiang Mai

Tackling eco-urbanity: Housing and placemaking at the urban edge

MESSAGE FROM TRADITIONAL SETTLEMENTS FOR FUTURE CITIES