Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Measuring Socially Sustainable Urban Regeneration in Europe

by Andrea Colantonio and Tim Dixon

Previous research on sustainability has been mainly limited to environmental and economic concerns. However in recent years social sustainability has gained increased recognition as a fundamental component of sustainable development, beginning to receive political and institutional endorsement within the sustainable development agenda, and the sustainable urban regeneration discourse. Indeed, in the 1980s, regeneration projects focused mainly on the physical and economic renewal of degraded inner-city areas. However, since the 1990s across the EU, this approach to urban regeneration emphasising the environmental and economic spheres of regeneration has been replaced by a more integrated approach to urban redevelopment, which linked the stimulation of economic activities and environmental improvements with social and cultural elements.
The delivery of sustainable urban development has moved to the heart of European urban policy through the development of several policy documents and agreements, including the 1998 document “Urban Sustainable Development in the EU: A Framework for Action”, the 2005 “Bristol Accord” and the 2007 “Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities”. Although a growing recognition of social sustainability has spurred an emerging body of research and policy literature, our understanding of this concept is still fuzzy and limited by theoretical and methodological constraints stemming from its context and disciplinary-dependent interpretations. Furthermore, at a practice level, tools, instruments and metrics to foster sustainable urban development currently available are biased toward environmental and economic sustainability. As a result, there is a clear need for further research on both social sustainability and its measurement in the context of sustainable urban regeneration.

Porto Palazzo, Torino

more about urban sustainability:

Green Alley Programs: Planning for a sustainable urban infrastructure?

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

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

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

MESSAGE FROM TRADITIONAL SETTLEMENTS FOR FUTURE CITIES

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

Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities: Design Strategies for the Post-Carbon World

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

by Geetam Tiwari,

A sustainable transport system must meet the mobility and accessibility needs of people by providing safe and environmentally friendly modes of transportation. This is a complex and difficult task in the mega-cities of developing countries because the needs of people belonging to various income groups are not only different, but also often conflicting in nature. For example, if a large section of the population cannot afford to use motorized transport – private vehicles or public buses – they have to either walk to their place of work or use bicycles. Providing a safe infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians means either physically segregating road space for cyclists and pedestrians from motorized traffic, or, if that is not possible, reducing the speed of motorized traffic. Both measures imply restricting the mobility of car users to ensure the mobility of bicycle users.
In this paper we show that pedestrians, cyclists and non-motorized rickshaws are the most critical elements in mixed traffic. If infrastructure design does not meet the requirements of these three all modes of transport operate in sub-optimal conditions. It is possible to redesign existing roads to provide a safe and convenient environment for non-motorized modes of transport. This also results in the improved efficiency of public transport vehicles and an enhanced capacity of the transport corridor when measured in number of passengers per hour per lane.

more about sustainable transportation:

Integrating Transport, Land-Use Planning and Environment Policy in European Countries

Dynamic GPS-position correction for mobile pedestrian navigation and orientation

Opportunities for transport mode change: an exploration of a disaggregated approach

A STUDY ON INTEGRATING PARATRANSIT AS A FEEDER SYSTEM INTO URBAN TRANSPORTATION AND ITS EFFECTS ON MODE CHOICE BEHAVIOR: A STUDY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

A “STEP” TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT: A CASE STUDY OF PENANG, MALAYSIA

Public Transport Research Challenges in India

Transportation and Sustainability Best Practices Background

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Green Alley Programs: Planning for a sustainable urban infrastructure?

by Joshua P. Newell, Mona Seymour, Thomas Yee, Jennifer Renteria, Travis Longcore, Jennifer R. Wolch, and Anne Shishkovsky

Revitalization of urban alleys, underway in cities and towns in North America, Europe, and other regions, can be seen as a manifestation of a broader movement among city agencies, planners, and community groups to expand green urban infrastructure and promote sustainability. This article analyzes alley greening programs in seven cities in the United States using the lens of sustainability planning. Study results indicate that most alley greening programs are narrowly oriented toward stormwater management. An in-depth exploration of the alley greening program in the city of Los Angeles illustrates how a more robust commitment to sustainability – through the adoption of goals related to environmental protection, economic development, and social equity – might be actualized in the context of alley greening efforts. The article also considers the role of collaboration in developing integrative sustainability programs around alleys.

more about sustainable city:

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

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

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

PLANNING SUSTAINABLE CITIES: POLICY DIRECTIONS GLOBAL REPORT ON HUMAN SETTLEMENTS 2009

Transportation and Sustainability Best Practices Background

The eco-city: ten key transport and planning dimensions for sustainable city development

Friday, April 26, 2013

8th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability

3 – 5 December 2013, Putrajaya, Malaysia

The Conference aims to address the many inter-related aspects of the urban environment from transport and mobility to social exclusion and crime prevention. The meeting will build on the contributions made in previous conferences, which successfully managed to provide an international view of the problems facing modern cities and their solutions.

The Sustainable City 2013 follows seven very successful meetings held in Rio (2000); Segovia (2002); Siena (2004); Tallinn (2006); Skiathos (2008); A Coruña (2010); and Ancona (2012). The Conferences attracted a large number of contributions from participants from different backgrounds and countries. The variety of topics and experiences is one of the main reasons behind the success of the series. This series of conferences addresses the multidisciplinary aspects of urban planning, a result of the increasing size of the cities, the amount of resources and services requested and the complexity of modern society. Urban areas produce a series of environmental challenges arising from the consumption of natural resources and the subsequent generation of waste and pollution, contributing to the development of social and economic imbalances. All these problems, which continue to grow in our society, require the development of new solutions. The challenge of planning sustainable contemporary cities lies in considering the dynamics of urban systems, exchange of energy and matter, and the function and maintenance of ordered structures directly or indirectly supplied and maintained by natural systems. The task of researchers, aware of the complexity of the contemporary city, is to improve the capacity to manage human activities, pursuing welfare and prosperity in sustainable cities.

more conferences:

6th International Urban Design Conference, Sydney, Australia, 9th-11th of September, 2013

The 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT (ICRD) 2013 "Sustainable Development: Conceptual Progress and Practical Challenges"

International research conference: planning / conflict - cities and citizenship in times of crisis Lisbon, October 9-11, 2013

Thursday, April 25, 2013

6th International Urban Design Conference, Sydney, Australia, 9th-11th of September, 2013

"Three-quarters of Australians live in our 18 major cities (that have populations over 100, 000). While Australians are fortunate to enjoy some of the most liveable cities in the world, our cities face a number of long term challenges: the need to improve productivity growth; provide affordable and accessible housing; create safe community spaces; meet the needs of a growing and ageing population; ensure an inclusive and cohesive society; and address the implications of climate change. The way our cities develop to accommodate future growth and change will be critical to maintaining their status as some of the best cities in the world". - See more at: http://urbandesignaustralia.com.au/index.html#sthash.a9GKj7iB.dpuf

The 6th International Urban Design Conference will be held at the Novotel Sydney Olympic Park from Monday the 9th to Wednesday 11th of September 2013. - See more at: http://urbandesignaustralia.com.au/index.html#sthash.EeOrsnIc.dpuf

Confirmed &Keynote Presenters

Mrs Lucy Hughes Turnbull AO - Businesswoman and Company Director, Turnbull & Partners Limited, NSW (Confirmed)
Mr Henry Ergas - Senior Economic Adviser, Deloitte Australia & Professor of Infrastructure Economics, SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong, NSW (Confirmed)
Professor Peter Newman – Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University and Director of CUSP, WA (Confirmed)
Ben Hewett - South Australian Government Architect and leads the Office for Design and Architecture SA (ODASA) (Confirmed)
Mr Gordon Price – Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, CANADA (Confirmed)
Mr Kobus Mentz – Director, Urbanismplus, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND (Confirmed)

- See more at: http://urbandesignaustralia.com.au/index.html#sthash.gSdMiZPT.dpuf

Politicians

The International Urban Design Conference was established in 2007. Since then over 500 presenters have shared their knowledge in developing a range of themes including, Opportunistic Urban Design 2012, Resilience in Urban Design 2011, Designing the Future 2010, Waves of Change - Cities at Crossroads 2009 and Survival: implementing tomorrow's city 2007. - See more at: http://urbandesignaustralia.com.au/index.html#sthash.a9GKj7iB.dpuf

Important Dates

Call for Abstracts Open: 28th November 2012 (NOW OPEN)
Call for Abstracts Close: 14th May 2013
Notification to Presenters: 29th May 2013
Presenters Acceptance Close: 6th June 2013
Full Papers for Peer Review: 18th July 2013
Acceptance/Modification of full paper: 15th August 2013
Final academic-refereed papers due: 29th August 2013

The 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT (ICRD) 2013 "Sustainable Development: Conceptual Progress and Practical Challenges"

International research conference: planning / conflict - cities and citizenship in times of crisis Lisbon, October 9-11, 2013

Call for papers: T2M's 11th conference: 2013 Kouvola/St. Petersburg – Transport and borders

Call for papers: Global climate change, biodiversity and sustainability: challenged and opportunity, April 15-18, 2013, Egypt

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT (ICRD) 2013 "Sustainable Development: Conceptual Progress and Practical Challenges"

Scholars, researchers, development practitioners, and students are invited to submit papers to be presented in The Second International Conference on Regional Development, “Sustainable Development: Conceptual Progress and Practical Challenges” which will be conducted in Semarang – Indonesia on 20 and 21 November 2013.

Selected papers may then be developed into chapters in edited book/s or articles in Tataloka Journal (nationally accredited by Dikti; ISSN: 0852-7458) or in the special edition of The Indonesian Journal of Planning and Development (ISSN: 2087-9733) after double blind-peer reviewing process. The book/s and the journal will be published in the post-conference stage.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to the followings:

A.    Climate change and natural disaster issues
B.    Inequality and poverty alleviation
C.    Environmental and spatial justice
D.    Trans-border and global issues
E.    Infrastructure and economic development

Important Dates:

6 July 2013 : Due Date of Abstract Submission

20 July 2013 : Final Day of Notification of Accepted Abstracts

6 September 2013 : Due Date of Full Paper Submission

20 September 2013 : Final Day of Notification of Accepted Full Papers

International research conference: planning / conflict - cities and citizenship in times of crisis Lisbon, October 9-11, 2013

Call for papers: T2M's 11th conference: 2013 Kouvola/St. Petersburg – Transport and borders

Call for papers: Global climate change, biodiversity and sustainability: challenged and opportunity, April 15-18, 2013, Egypt

International research conference: planning / conflict - cities and citizenship in times of crisis Lisbon, October 9-11, 2013

The conference invites contributions focusing on (although not necessarily limited to):

the changing features of urban development policies and their impacts on local societies and communities;
the changing nature of urban planning practices and their influence on public opinion formation, including forms of protest and social mobilization in opposition to planned developments;
the effectiveness and legitimacy of established planning practices in responding to protest and social mobilization and in dealing with possibly resulting conflicts;
the transformative potential that may be entailed in reflexively addressing protest and social mobilization and in dealing with conflicts;
the potential integrative and innovative contribution of political agonism and social conflict to the democratization of urban policy and planning.

Key Dates
15th of June - Deadline for the submission of abstracts.
30^thof June – Notification of acceptance.
1^st of September - Deadline for the submission of full papers.

read more

more calls for papers:

Call for papers: T2M's 11th conference: 2013 Kouvola/St. Petersburg – Transport and borders

Call for papers: Global climate change, biodiversity and sustainability: challenged and opportunity, April 15-18, 2013, Egypt

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

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

by Hamed Olfat, Abbas Rajabifard, Faisal Masood Qureshi, and Seyyed Abdolhadi Daneshpour

Integrated and sustainable management of cities is one of the most important challenges facing many countries. In this critical societal challenge context, spatial data is key for decision making, planning and management of cities. Thus, in order to have sustainable management and planning there is a need for managers and planners to have access to reliable, seamless and accurate spatial data. However, the current situation regarding availability, integration, sharing and its effective application by planners and decision makers is not very promising in many jurisdictions worldwide including Iran and Pakistan- the two countries under study by authors. Based on current situation, in urban management in Iran there is a need for anagreed platform that facilitates access to and sharing of spatially related data, services and other resources among different disciplines within any jurisdiction. This platform should also address characteristics such as standards and specifications for data collection, management, maintenance and distribution of spatial data. Having said that, in order to facilitate this situation and respond to the needs, many countries are developing Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) which is a concept for facilitating and coordinating of sharing and integrating of data through different political and administrative levels. SDI can be developed at different levels ranging from local to state/provincial, national, regional and global. SDI as a platform can help to reduce the duplication and save resources in data collection which usually occur due to unknown information about availability of datasets among different urban organizations. In addition, organizations involve in urban planning can have access to a comprehensive dataset of the interested area like a city to achieve sustainable urban planning. This paper discusses the importance and benefits of developing SDI as an enabling platform for urban planning and management based on a case study, namely Tehran Municipality in Iran by exploring challenges and is sues in accessing and sharing spatial data in this jurisdiction. The paper then presents and discusses the process and experiences of developing an SDI Roadmap for this m unicipality.

more about urban studies in Iran:

A GIS-based Traffic Control Strategy Planning at Urban Intersections

Development Guidelines for Disast er Risk Management in Tehran

The impact of modernization on traditional Iranian cities the case of Kerman

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

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

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

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

Socio-spatial Obstacles of Urban Sustainability in Historic Center of Cities in Iran

Development Guidelines for Disaster Risk Management in Tehran

by K. Amini Hosseini and M. K. Jafari

Tehran is located in a seismic prone zone, surrounded by some active faults and experienced several destructive earthquakes in its history. Seismologists, based on the probabilistic and deterministic evaluations, believe that a strong earthquake would occur in or around the city in foreseeable future. Furthermore, the vulnerability of the structures, in frastructures and old urban areas in Tehran is quite considerable. Weak buildings, old structures, vulnerable lifelines, insufficient emergency infrastructures and roads, lack of sufficient evacuation places at some districts, etc. are some of the key parameters of earthquake vulnerability of the city. In order to evaluate and improve the present condition, a multidisciplinary project has been carried out by the International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES) for Tehran Municipality for considering earthquake risk in master plan of Tehran. In that project the seismic and geotechnical hazards in Tehran have been evaluated and then the vulnerability of buildings, lifelines and urban structures has been studied. In the third step the disaster management urban elements including rescue and relief stations, health and medical services, emergency roads and evacuation places have been evaluated and a preliminary guideline for development of the city of Tehran has been prepared based on the existing condition. In this paper a summery about the results of evaluation on existing condition for emergency response facilities would be presented and some of the guidelines developed in this field will be explained.

More about Tehran: