One city's ‘urban cosmography’

Illustrations of urban scenes naturally describe the physical characteristics of the places depicted. These representations also express implicitly broader beliefs which tie the spatial order of the surrounding world to local systems, institutions, and human actions. Images of a city embody, therefore, an ‘urban cosmography’, a concept inspired by early modern artisans' attempts to chart the contours of the world, both known and unknown. Seen from this perspective, historical graphics such as maps, posters, and birds-eye views document a city's position within a continually evolving universal order. This paper will review graphics drawn from the history of one city in particular: Baltimore, Maryland. Like other cities on the eastern seaboard of the US, Baltimore has been represented by diverse visual arts for more than two centuries. With the advent of digital and social media, Baltimore's development will depend even more upon the city's local and global interrelationships. ‘Urban cosmography’ is, therefore, a useful conceptual prism through which one may perceive the link between the city's historical legacy and contemporary urban challenges. One consequence is that visual tropes for traditional urban polarities – ‘growth’ versus ‘decay’, for instance – may be superseded by new symbols that incorporate both.     

Rural–urban migration and multinational firms

In this paper, we re-examine the analysis on multinational firms and the theory of international trade and investment in the set-up with urban unemployment. A great majority of the recipient (host) countries are developing economies that are characterized by rural–urban migration in the face of urban unemployment. Thus, they have relatively developed urban sectors and less developed rural sectors. In this context we explore the implications of tariffs and taxes on the urban unemployment rate and national income.     

Transnational urban policies: ‘relocating’ Spanish and Brazilian models of urban planning in Buenos Aires

This article examines the transnationalization of urban policies by analysing the adoption of two ‘foreign’ models of participatory urban planning in the city of Buenos Aires. Both schemes are modelled on internationally acclaimed experiments: Barcelona's Strategic Plan and Porto Alegre's Participatory Budget. In Buenos Aires, however, these policy transfers have failed to produce the remarkable results for which their Spanish and Brazilian exemplars have been internationally praised. Traditional accounts of policy transfers ponder on the institutional compatibility between imported schemes and host environments. The author argues that these works tend to overlook the significance of the stochastic conditions presiding over the adoption of particular policy models in different cities. She proposes to deviate from traditional approaches by seeking an explanation for the poor results of the schemes in Buenos Aires in (a) the contextual conditions framing their adoption in the Argentine capital, and (b) the circumstances surrounding their emergence in Barcelona and Porto Alegre.     

Transnational urban spaces and urban environmental reforms: analyzing Beijing’s environmental restructuring in the light of globalization

In this era of globalization, ‘transnational spaces’ are being created within urban settings, providing a direct connection between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’. Corporate headquarters, hotels, shopping malls, and airports are typical examples of such spaces, which while located within an urban territory, are often conceived by foreign designers, developers, and manufacturers, as well as maintained by multinational companies and banks. Such local–global interconnection is giving urban management a new shape, as urban management practices are now frequently intertwining with global construction and property management approaches. This paper argues that, at the same time, a set of new mechanisms that may help to tackle problems related to the urban environment and infrastructure is unfolding. Starting with a conceptual discussion of the role of globalization in urban environmental restructuring, this paper subsequently explores the context of Beijing and the environmental management possibilities introduced in this city by global actors (through the examples of World Tower, IBM Tower, and ABN AMRO and ING head offices). Beijing, due to China’s recent economic opening process, provides an intriguing backcloth to demonstrate how transnational urban spaces—standing in-between the local and the global—may canalize environmental innovations from the ‘global’, putting globalization at work for a better urban environment.     

Ambivalent landscapes—wilderness in the urban interstices

This paper explores the origins and development of ambivalent responses to particular contemporary urban landscapes in historical ideas about human relationships with nature and wilderness, and suggests that post-modern wilderness may be found in the urban interstices: in woodland, abandoned allotments, river corridors, derelict or brownfield sites and especially areas in which the spontaneous growth of vegetation through natural succession suggests that nature is in control. We propose that these interstitial wilderness landscapes have numerous important functions as well as being rich repositories of meaning with implications both for theorizing nature–human relationships and for urban landscape planning and design.     

Resilient urban drainage – Options of an optimized area-management

There is a need for an integrated approach for all involved stakeholders to adapt urban infrastructures to climate change effects and to take into account uncertainties of future developments. By integrating all relevant planning disciplines, a first step towards implementation of resilient technical and social infrastructures can be achieved. With the major goal of optimizing area-management as part of water sensitive urban design, the water sector and its area requirements build the main focus of this study. After identifying local flood hazards and potential surficial retention areas, the additional usage of decentralized stormwater management facilities for flood protection is tested in selected sectors. The results of the study confirm that the combined usage of decentralized facilities for pluvial flooding is a first step to protect urban infrastructure. It shows that decentralized facilities are more flexible than centralized facilities and, thus, have a higher adaptation capacity which is needed considering the various effects of climate change.     

Climate change and China’s mega urban regions

China’s mega urban regions are focal points of economic development and environmental concerns. This paper positions four mega urban regions (i.e., the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Bohai Bay Area, and the South-eastern Fujian Province) along China’s coast into the national economy and elaborates their development challenges and planning innovations. Mega urban regions in China are spatial consequences of rapid economic transition. They deserve close scrutiny and demands for innovative planning responses in order to maintain their key role in driving economic growth but limiting their greenhouse gas emission.     

What may culture contribute to urban sustainability? Critical reflections on the uses of culture in urban development in Oslo and beyond

Culture and capital play vital roles in urban change. This paper provides a discussion of the relation between culture and capital, followed by a discussion of their relation in the urban context, including an empirical example from Oslo, Norway. Emphasis will be put on the role of culture in the creative city thesis and how culture relates to the concept of urban sustainability. A critique of neoliberal and instrumental uses of culture in the creative city thesis is also undertaken. Policies on culture-led urban regeneration often pay more attention to economic motives than to culture itself. The paper calls for establishing a reflective cultural policy that is not subsumed to economic sustainability, and for the need to escape the anthropological conception of culture as a whole way of life.     

Production and transport of urban wet weather pollution in combined sewer systems: the “Marais” experimental urban catchment in Paris

An experimental catchment area was set up in the centre of Paris (France) so as to follow up the quality of wet weather flows from the entry to the exit of a combined sewer network. The distinctive characteristic of this site is its location in a town centre and the extent of the equipment used to monitor the water pollution over the whole length of its course through the catchment area. The results obtained show a change in quality between the runoff entering the sewer network and the combined storm water flow at the sewer's outlet, which cannot be explained only by the mixture with domestic wastewater. In particular, an increase was observed in the concentrations of suspended solids (SS), VSS, COD, BOD and Cu, in the proportion of pollutants linked to particles and in the characteristics of the particles. A calculation of the total masses going in and out of the sewer network during a rainfall event shows that the erosion of in-sewer pollution stocks is the main source of particles and of organic matter in wet weather flows, whereas heavy metals loads originated from roof runoff, due to the corrosion of metallic roofs. Particles eroded from the sewer sediments during rain events were found to be quite different from the particles of type A deposits and organic biofilms. Nevertheless, they have mean organic and metallic loads that are of the same order of magnitude as the particles of the organic layer at water sediment interface. A change in the chemical form of heavy metals was noticed during the transport in the sewer and it is suspected that a fraction of the dissolved metals from the runoff is adsorbed on sewer sediments.     

Do urban casinos affect nearby neighbourhoods? Evidence from Canada

We analyse the effect of new casinos on nearby neighbourhoods using data from casinos opened in Canada between 1986?2007. We find no evidence linking casino openings to nearby population growth or changes in residents' income, composition by age, gender, marital status, and home ownership status. We find evidence of negative casino effects on the growth of housing values and rent. The effect is substantial near casinos, a nearly 8 percentage‐point loss in the growth of home values over 5 years, but has limited influence and dissipates quickly over distance. The estimated effect on housing rents is comparable in terms of standard deviation.     

Path-dependency in public–private partnership in French urban renewal

Public–private partnership in urban renewal in France concerns mainly housing, transport infrastructure and large public facilities. The distinction between public, private and civil actors does not concern social and economic development. This situation tends to limit the integration of different issues and approaches in renewal projects. Also, French urban renewal projects do not produce a new type of partnership between public and private actors and the regulatory framework. These projects remain publicly dominated policy-making procedures because of the uneven distribution of resources and assets and despite a policy discourse emphasising the need for a new division of work between state, market and civil society. The current French situation cannot be understood without bearing in mind the history of urban planning policies in France. Using a historical analysis and the path-dependence approach, we highlight the resilience of inherited structures of interaction between public and private actors.     

Okun’s law and urban spillovers in US unemployment

Using data for 2002–2010 from 358 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), we estimate Okun’s law which accounts for national shocks and spatial spillovers in urban areas. Our scale of measurement is changed to the state level, allowing us to capture a different source of spatial dependence on unemployment. Our main finding is that MSA-specific growth has a small effect on MSA unemployment rate, implying that in a well-integrated labor market like the USA, unemployment at an urban level is highly dependent on neighboring and national labor market conditions. Our results also show that the driving forces behind the behavior of unemployment for MSAs are different than those for states.     

Spanish urban law,changes after Aznar´s law

It is common to blame 1998 urban law, promoted by the president Aznar, the present Spanish urban situation defined by the unnecessary construction of housing units. But the analysis of the Aznar´s urban law requires to briefly describing the Spanish urban law development, at least since the 1956 urban law. In 2007, after that ´marvellous decade´, and along with the real estate bubble burst, Spain went through a major change on urban law model which ended in the 2013 3R Act, the law for the urban sustainable development and the existing city intervention.     

Futurescapes of urban regeneration: ten years of design for the unfolding urban legacy of London’s Olympic Games, 2008–2018

ABSTRACT

Much of the literature on the urban legacy of the 2012 Olympics Games emerging in recent years has emphasized the form that development has taken and the ways in which this aligns (or not) with specific promises made in terms of regeneration before the Games. Though plenty of discussion of planning procedure has occurred in this context, less emphasis has been placed on how the process, rather than the products, of urban change has been envisioned through legacy planning and urban design, and the significance of this for regeneration. Given that London’s much-heralded ‘regeneration legacy’ was, from the early days of the Olympic bid, portrayed as a long-term process aimed at addressing historical issues of socio-economic disparity in East London, and that planning and urban design would play key roles in anticipating it, this contribution to the literature is timely. The paper focuses on the period from 2008 to 2018, beginning with the launch of the what was called the Legacy Masterplan Framework. Drawing on empirical analysis of documents describing the main stages of legacy planning and design between these years, it then examines how regeneration as a ‘futurescape’ encompassing numerous aspects of timing and temporality has been anticipated, planned and evolved.     

Exploring the urban system of von Thünen's isolated state

Although von Thünen is probably best known for his model of agricultural location, he also provided a tantalizingly brief account of an urban system. After outlining his system, it is shown that this can be broadened in several important directions. Such an elaboration of the von Thünen urban system is extended with the introduction of a hierarchy. The spatial structure of this extended system is then examined in terms of the locational arrangement of centres as well as their frequency, trade-area characteristics, spacing, and size (population). The paper concludes with a discussion of the historical context of von Thünen's work and its wider significance in urban and regional analysis.     

Where is urban food policy in Switzerland? A frame analysis

Food is increasingly included on the urban agenda in many countries, and comprehensive food policies have been developed in several cities, but the development of articulate urban food policies is still in its infancy in Switzerland. The goal of this paper is to explore the ways in which food is framed in official policies in Switzerland and thereby gain a better understanding of the potential for the development of urban food policies. The analysis is based on a case study approach focusing on the formal frames of food: reconstructed from official policy documents on agriculture, food, health, environment, and planning, at the federal and the local level. The results show that ‘urban food’ is not a major topic in most policy documents and that the dominant frame of food is economic. There is a clear distinction between the rural and the urban, and there were no frames integrating (rural) food production and (urban) consumption, across the city’s departments, or between the local and the federal level. We can conclude that there is not yet a comprehensive urban food policy in Switzerland. The analysis further allows the nomination of two possible pathways to guide the development of coherent and integrative urban food policies.     

The urban landscape as affordance for adolescents’ everyday physical activity

This study explores factors in the physical outdoor environment of the urban landscape that promote or hinder adolescents’ physical activity (PA). The analysis was inspired by Gibson’s affordance concept. The study combines actual use with potential affordances in neighbourhoods to generate special classes of actualised affordances. Two Norwegian school districts and their local neighbourhoods in different landscapes were selected as case areas. The patterns of adolescents’ everyday leisure-time activity were recorded using ‘children’s tracks’ methodology. Landscape characterisation connected the activity patterns to the physical structure of the landscape. Our study suggests that urban landscape structure is associated with PA patterns and adolescents’ choice of activity types. Our results confirm previous studies as regards the importance of neighbourhood design and facilities for PA in promoting such activity.     

Urbanizing villages: informal morphologies in Shenzhen’s urban periphery

The phenomenon of urban villages in China has received much scholarly attention in recent years, mostly about their socio-economic aspects and its role in accommodating rural migrants. While the link between the socio-economic functioning and the morphology of urban villages has been recognized, detailed spatial research, and morphological research in particular, is limited. Morphological research has generally focused on either rural villages or centrally located urban villages and much of the peri-urbanity that constitutes the majority of informal development in China remains under-researched. This paper explores the morphologies of urbanizing villages in Shenzhen’s urban periphery, with a particular focus on the distinctions between the old village core and newly built expansions. The paper opens up a series of questions about the morphology and morphogenetic processes of these villages and establishes a framework for future enquiry. How do we understand the informalized planning mechanisms in urban villages? How do we explain the morphological variation of urban villages? Are the processes that characterize urban villages restricted to the Chinese context or is there scope for regional comparison?     

Does urban form matter in solo and joint activity engagement?

This research examines how the residential built environment relates to residents’ solo versus joint engagement in shopping, dining, and recreational/fitness activities. Using data from the 2006 Greater Triangle Travel Survey in North Carolina, individual activity engagement is innovatively measured using two indicators: total time spent alone and total time jointly spent with household members on a specific non-work activity type. The impact of the built environment on non-work activity engagement is then estimated using Heckman sample selection models along with a seemingly unrelated estimation system. We find that residents living closer to parks and department stores on average are more likely to participate in out-of-home recreation and shopping activities. A comparison of coefficients in solo versus joint engagement models shows that park accessibility is much more important to household joint participation than to solo participation in recreational activities. The research generates new knowledge on how the built environment may influence solo versus joint activity engagement differently. The findings are useful to urban planners who are interested in reviving local economy and promoting active living/social interaction.