Local and Community Driven Development approach in the provision of basic facilities in Jos,Nigeria

Over the last decade, the government of Nigeria has introduced the concept of Local and Community Driven Development (LCDD) in the provision of physical and social infrastructure. The LCDD approach is adopted in Nigeria as a response strategy for tackling infrastructural deficiency in slum settlements. The use of this approach is becoming increasingly popular in Nigerian cities but there is limited empirical research to examine the key issues that influence project outcomes at the local level. This study fills this gap by presenting a case study from the experience of implementing physical and social infrastructure projects in the city of Jos. The project research adopts a case study strategy to examine the financial and administrative arrangement for the implementation of infrastructure projects. Primary data was collected through interviews with officers selected from the institutions that play relevant roles in urban development and housing provision in Jos. The interview data was then examined alongside the secondary source material collected. The findings suggest that: the decentralisation of administrative roles from central to local level impacted positively on the implementation of projects; the partnership between government and International Development Agencies promoted success in the funding of projects; and it is the political endorsement of the partnerships that gives the LCDD approach some legitimacy in Jos. However, the local bureaucratic system in Jos is side-lined in favour of newly created autonomous implementation agencies and the indigenous financial institutions are not involved. These flaws appear to create redundancy in the existing bureaucratic system and also threaten the sustainability of the LCDD in Jos. On the basis of these findings, recommendations for improvement are made.     

Multi-level integrated planning and greening of public infrastructure in South Africa

The South African government has named the transition towards a greener economy one of its priorities. Meanwhile it has developed a new multilevel integrated planning process, and announced a massive public infrastructure investment plan. The converging point of these three dynamics should be the integration of green infrastructure principles into the different plans as the foundation of the green transition. This paper uses a policy integration analytical framework to assess whether this convergence is in fact taking shape. It analyses the level of integration of green infrastructure principles into the different plans and suggests options to move the green infrastructure agenda forward.     

INTEGRATED TEACHING AND PRACTICE: GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING AND GREEN ROOF PERFORMANCE IN A SEMI-ARID CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT,USA

This paper presents an integrated education and research program that involves extensive participation from stakeholders on campus and beyond. The resultant water conscious design proposal promotes efficient stormwater management on Utah State University’s campus, situated in the semi-arid Intermountain West. Utah State has adopted various “green” solutions for stormwater management, such as directing most campus runoff to recharge groundwater. Yet, there is no comprehensive plan that lays out its sustainable practices, and little quantitative assessment of the design performance has been performed. In accord with the University Campus Master Plan of 2011 and Campus Sustainability Plan 2013-2020, this paper addresses this gap and proposes a series of green infrastructure strategies that make use of rain as a resource, and that can be implemented across campus in three phases. A built green roof project is part of the Phase I master plan. Pilot performance data are presented regarding stormwater runoff and temperature reduction on a green roof surface versus an adjacent test-bed asphalt roof. In summary, the paper provides a holistic approach toward adopting green infrastructure designs and assessing green infrastructure performance in the less evaluated semi-arid climatic conditions, and it serves as an example of research through design process.     

The Father of the House: An Interview With Tom Uren

Tom Uren was the Minister for Urban and Regional Development in the Whitlam government, and Minister for Local Government and Administrative Services in the first and second Hawke governments. After the July 1987 election, he decided he no longer wanted a ministerial position and now is an active backbencher in the third Hawke government. He has been a prinicpal architect behind serveral significant changes in intergovernment relations in his periods in office. He was Australia's first federal minister for local government. He has long been an advocate for regional cooperation amongst local councils, and an enhanced role for local government in providing services. Local government now has guaranteed funding from the federal level. As the minister for DURD he led the most profound review of the commonwealth's role in urban and regional planning. Growth centres, National Heritage, improved urban infrastructure and social equity became key elements of urban and regional planning in the 1970s.     

Section 94 developer contributions and marginal cost pricing

Abstract Developer contributions for infrastructure are a major feature of the development scene in New South Wales. They are enabled under s. 94 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. The second edition of the Section 94 Contributions Plans Revised Manual has now been in operation for three years. Although it incorporates important additional material compared to the first edition, it still does not address the problem of the efficient pricing of infrastructure through properly calculated s. 94 developer contributions. This paper sets out the case for using marginal cost pricing to determine the magnitude of developer contributions. It argues that the efficient pricing of local government service infrastructure should be viewed as part of the larger process of microeconomic reform in local government.     

The Stuttgart Region's Landscape Park – an efficient concept for the development of open spaces – an integrated approach to an attractive and resilient metropolitan landscape

This article focuses on the Stuttgart Region's Landscape Park concept, which is an instrument for the balanced development of open spaces within a densely populated region. The Stuttgart Region covers 5 counties and 179 independent municipalities over an area of 3650 square kilometres in the southwestern part of Germany. The competences of the Verband Region Stuttgart cover not only (mandatory) regional planning and spatial development, but also the construction and operation of the regional railway system, economic development and marketing.

In this context, the Landscape Park has been introduced to enhance the ecological quality and recreational value of open spaces. By now, it has become a successful instrument which helps local institutions to develop green infrastructure as an important locational factor.     

The Provision of Social Infrastructure in New Urban Development in Three Australian States

Improvements in the planning and provision of social infrastructure in new urban development in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney have been implemented over the last decade. The main focus of attention has been on improved ‘metropolitan coordination systems’ or ‘urban development programs’. The systems operating in the three states are examined with particular reference to the origin of the initiatives, the bureaucratic and financial arrangements which are in place, and the respective roles of local and state governments. Major issues for the future are identified, inparticular the importance of establishing standards and costings of human services, the role of local government, the significance of funding issues and the need to explore alternative sources of financing.     

A hierarchy of measures for infrastructure resilience – learning from post-disaster reconstruction in Christchurch,New Zealand

Recent research into the concept of resilience has shown that it helps key players in urban development to assess and set priorities for resistance and recovery for disaster risk management. However, a competing issue within post-disaster recovery is managing the trade-offs between quickly restoring infrastructure services versus taking time to consider and consult on alternative options. Through an examination of the post-earthquake reconstruction in Christchurch, New Zealand, this paper considers infrastructure resilience by using a hierarchy of measures. This hierarchy shows how infrastructure resilience needs to be considered as a series of interventions in response to different levels of damage. It elucidates the varying nature of resilience measures, the decision-making processes required to implement them and constraints, chiefly in funding, that prevent wider application of such measures. This is an important consideration for defining and acting upon the opportunity for change created by a disaster. Furthermore, a broader examination of resilience in disaster risk management highlights that clarification is needed over what constitutes an appropriate response for community involvement in post-disaster infrastructure reconstruction.     

Inequities in the broadband revolution

Residential broadband options such as cable and digital subscriber lines are growing in popularity. However, evidence suggests that urban areas are receiving the majority of infrastructure investment, thereby leaving many rural locations with few options for broadband access. With access to telecommunication infrastructure becoming an increasingly important component to local economic development, issues of infrastructure equity are significant. This paper explores telecommunication equity and its effect on economic development by addressing the impact of geography on infrastructure investment and growth. A comprehensive database of broadband service providers and data from the Ecom-Ohio project (http://www.ecom-ohio.org), are used to explore broadband access options in the state of Ohio by examining the characteristics of market demand that are driving cable and digital subscriber line infrastructure investment. In addition, this paper develops an explanatory framework for identifying key market characteristics indicative of demand for residential broadband services through the use of statistical models and a geographic information system. Results suggest that income, education, age, location, and competition from alternative broadband platforms influence digital subscriber line infrastructure investment. Received: November 2001/Accepted: September 2002     

Green Economy: A Strategy to Alleviate Urban Poverty and Safeguard the Environment? KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

The global failure to develop in a sustainable manner has led to attempts to adopt green economy approaches in the context of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Given South Africa’s high carbon footprint and other negative environmental externalities, the government, in partnership with civil society and the private sector, is taking steps to green its economy. The efforts range from large-scale solar installation projects to small-scale grassroots level projects where green jobs are created for the poor, predominantly women, by paying them for environmental services. This paper addresses if and how green economy can be used to alleviate poverty and protect the environment at a grassroots level. In a project under the management of a local environmental non-governmental organisation (ENGO), poor urban women in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, are utilising the concept to generate income, improve their livelihoods and contribute to environmental sustainability. Green economy is in some ways addressing the gendered social and environmental externalities of urbanisation, wherein women are differentially poor and the environment is neglected in economic development. Left with few other options, the urban poor are using an ENGO and its green economy programme as a mechanism to lift themselves out of poverty, while indirectly managing the environment.     

DEVELOPER CONTRIBUTIONS: AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SECTION 94 OF THE NSW ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT ACT OF 1979

Reduced funding from higher levels of government to local authorities for infrastructure has induced an increased emphasis on user pays financing techniques, such as Section 94 in NSW. However, an analysis of 1993 data on Section 94 contributions demonstrates that some small local authorities cannot use Section 94 to levy developers in an efficient manner. It is argued that alternative methods of raising funds from developers, like ad valorem taxes, should be employed instead by these councils.     

生态系统服务评估在美国城市绿色基础设施建设中的应用进展评述

城市绿色基础设施提供着雨洪管理、空气净化、气候调节、能耗节约、提供生态栖息地以及文化功能等重要的生态系统服务。近年来,在美国国家环保局、美国风景园林基金会等相关组织机构的倡导下,生态系统服务监测和评估被结合到城市绿色基础设施的规划建设之中。本文分析了城市绿色基础设施生态系统服务的研究进展和评估方法,并归纳了现今美国生态系统服务评估在绿色基础设施建设中的应用方式,包括为政策制定提供量化依据、为项目认证提供评价标准、以及为项目建设提供收益分析3种类型。最后,本文探讨了对我国绿色基础设施建设的相关启发,包括加强城市绿色基础设施生态系统服务研究和实践的结合,重视城市绿色基础设施生态系统服务的整体性和协同性,以及完善基于生态系统服务的城市绿色基础设施绩效监测体系3个方面。     

Urban sprawl and municipal budgets in Spain: A dynamic panel data analysis

Urban sprawl has recently become a matter of concern throughout Europe, but it is in southern countries where its environmental and economic impact has been most severe. This low‐density, spatially expansive urban development pattern can have a highly marked impact on municipal budgets. Thus, local governments may see sprawl as a potential source of finance, in terms of building‐associated revenues and increased transfers from upper tiers of government. At the same time, sprawl leads to increased levels of expenditure, as it may raise the provision costs of certain local public goods and requires greater investment in extending basic infrastructure for new urban development. What, therefore, is the net fiscal impact of urban sprawl? Do local governments consider the long‐run net fiscal impact of new urban growth or do they simply focus on its short‐term benefits, ignoring future development costs? This paper addresses these questions by analysing the dynamic relationship between urban sprawl and local budget variables. To do so, we estimate a panel vector autoregressive model using data for 4,000 Spanish municipalities for the period 1994–2005. Computed generalized impulse response functions show: (i) that sprawl considerably increases demand for new infrastructure; (ii) that the capital deficit generated by this new infrastructure is covered in the main by intergovernmental transfers and, to a lesser extent, by revenues linked to the real estate cycle; and (iii) that sprawl leads to a short‐term current surplus, as the increase in current revenues offsets the increase in current expenditures due to public service provision for new developments. Overall, these findings point to a moral hazard problem for local governments in which inordinate intergovernmental transfers and development revenues encourage excessive urban sprawl.     

From dysfunctional to destitute: the governance of regional economic development in Newfoundland and Labrador

On 22 May 2012, the federal government announced that it was discontinuing the funding for all regional economic development (RED) organizations in Atlantic Canada, including the regional economic development boards (REDBs) in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). Shortly after the federal announcement the provincial government in NL also withdrew its financial support, which led to the demise of the REDBs across the province. In this paper, we critically explore the governance of RED in NL and examine the REDB approach and its subsequent demise using Stoker’s five propositions of governance. While the REDBs were conceived as a fundamentally ‘new regional economic development approach’, they were never granted the level of autonomy, support, and resources that was envisioned in this new approach. However, we argue that the demise of the REDBs has shifted the governance of RED from dysfunctional to destitute. These changes are also situated within a ‘retreat from rural’ policy agenda and devolved responsibilities to local levels of government across Canada and in NL.     

A note on the use of developer charges in Australian local government

A pronounced degree of vertical imbalance in Australian fiscal federalism has placed increasing financial pressures on lower levels of government, including local government. This has led local government to seek additional ways of financing infrastructure development through developer charges. Due to the lower priority the Australian Bureau of Statistics has accorded local government statistics in recent years, it has been difficult to gauge the extent of use of developer charges as a revenue source. This paper attempts to review the evolution of developer contributions policy and describe the increasing importance of these charges in Australian local government, with special emphasis on New South Wales.     

Books Received

Problem: In 1997, the State of Maryland adopted a bold new approach to growth management based on a novel instrument: priority funding areas (PFAs). PFAs contain growth by directing state spending to areas designated by local governments and reviewed by the state government. Despite widespread acclaim and subsequent imitation, little is known about whether PFAs effectively contain urban growth.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to evaluate the adoption, implementation, and performance of PFAs in Maryland in order to provide planners and policymakers with insights into their efficacy as instruments for managing growth.

Methods: First, we describe the statutory definition and mandated role of PFAs in state funding. Then, we describe the process used to create PFAs, the resulting pattern of targeted growth areas, the relationship between PFAs and local comprehensive plans, and the extent to which PFAs altered state spending. Finally, we examine the effects of PFAs on residential development patterns.

Results and conclusions: We find that PFAs have fallen short of expectations. The criteria used to establish PFAs produced boundary configurations that vary widely and are in many cases not ideally suited to managing urban growth. Ten years after their official designation, PFAs are not well integrated in land use decision making processes in many local jurisdictions. Finally, state agencies have not altered budgetary systems to monitor and guide the spatial allocation of funds and there is little evidence that after 10 years they have had any effect on development patterns.

Takeaway for practice: Targeting state funds to promote compact growth is a conceptually sound approach to urban growth containment, as land is less likely to be developed if it is not served by public infrastructure. But, as with other planning tools, the key is effective implementation. If states want to contain growth by targeting state spending, they must change budgeting processes to ensure that funds are spent appropriately and that the level of state spending is large enough to make a difference.

Research support: None.     

The Single European Market and Land Development

The Single European Market could conceivably make a deep impact on established practices of land development. Changes to the explicit and implicit rules that have hitherto governed the land market will re-shape the actions of agencies. Rules on state aid and public procurement are particularly pertinent to land development. European regulations on state aid have ended the system of gap funding for the regeneration of brownfields in the United Kingdom and public procurement rules may put an end to land-development contracts in which owners provide the local government with infrastructure in kind.     

我国政府投资项目管理的制度变迁

我国投入了大量财政资金进行基础设施建设,但政府投资项目管理中却存在比较严重的超支、质量和腐败问题,这与管理制度不健全有很大关系。我国政府投资项目管理模式随经济体制改革经历了一个复杂的变迁过程,可被分为三个阶段:在计划经济阶段主要采用自建模式、国有企业模式和工程指挥部模式,体制转轨阶段出现了项目法人制,市场经济初期出现了政府采购模式、代建制和私人融资模式。这些模式的运作机理各不相同,适用的项目类型和管理效果也有显著差异。对这些模式的比较分析表明,政府投资项目管理模式改革应遵循资金来源合理、政府职能合理、采购透明、节约管理成本、积累管理经验、制约腐败六项原则。随着市场经济体制的不断完善,应允许代建制、政府采购模式、私人融资模式、项目法人制等共存,并应根据项目具体情况合理选择管理模式。     

A Sustainable Funding and Financing Strategy for Urban Infrastructure Renewal in China

In a relatively short time, many of China’s cities have become major industrial, shipping, and financial hubs. To support this unprecedented growth and economic development, China has invested enormous sums to provide transportation, power, communications, sanitation, and other basic infrastructures. Although much of this investment has been in newer urban districts, old districts within existing cities still add value to the economy and are often repositories of China’s considerable cultural heritage. Maintaining compatibility between the old and the new is always challenging but the renewal of older infrastructure systems often lags behind due to a shortage of capital and difficulties in raising sufficient revenue to support replacement and upgrading of basic systems. This paper will examine the range of funding and financing options that are in use throughout the world to see what mix of public and private approaches might be most suitable for Chinese cities to adopt as part of a funding and financing strategy that will support enduring and sustainable renewal and redevelopment of older urban districts.     

Infrastructure networks and red–green patterns in city regions

Landscape ecology challenges the urbanisation processes and the activities of the infrastructure sectors. Infrastructure networks have a strong impact on the development of cities and landscapes. This impact is often positive in an economic sense but can be negative in respect of natural or recreational functions of city and countryside. The challenge for spatial planning is to locate infrastructure lines in order to safeguard the conditions for the less dynamic functions in and around the urban regions. This paper analyses the impact of network patterns on urban development patterns and on green patterns, taking the history of the Randstad Holland as an example. In history the central peat area of this region was hardly accessible. This fact has led over the course of time to a unique spatial pattern: the major infrastructure lines and the major urban settlements are situated on the rim of a Green Heart. This creates a high-quality setting for the economy and the urbanisation of more than 6 million people as well as for natural and agricultural functions. Such a combination of urban elements and infrastructure around a green core can also be found on other scale levels and in other regions. Constraints on access often correlate with restricted urbanisation and with a sustainable position for the green elements. In those cases that such a restraint is chosen deliberately, often five phenomena are visible: (1) Polarity: a spatial polarity between less dynamic and more dynamic functions. (2) Decentrality: a side position of the main infrastructure and urban centres and a central position for the green functions. (3) Equality: equilibrium in extension of urban and rural elements. (4) Continuity: the green areas are part of larger scale networks. (5) Formality: planning policies couple the planning of infrastructure and dynamic urban activities to the development of the less dynamic, green functions.Together, these five elements create a special approach of spatial planning that can be applied on various scales. It is possible to use these elements as a concept, a design tool to create sustainable conditions for the ‘green’ functions in and around city regions. Based on some examples, suggestions are made for a strategy for urban-rural (re-)development aiming at high-quality urban life and for the natural environment, in and around urban regions. Sustainable spatial patterns demand a planning approach that combines the planning of infrastructure and urban activities with the planning of their green counterpoint.