scholarly journals Romania’s urban policy in the context of COVID-19 pandemic time

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-102
Author(s):  
Daniela Antonescu
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Inclusive Growth ◽  
Territorial Development ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Decision Factors ◽  
Planning Framework ◽  
The Future ◽  
Local Body

Under the conditions of frequent changes, of some edifying transformations and perpetual challenges, urban policy undergoes changes/adjustments/updates over certain time intervals. These changes generate increasingly more complex requirements that impose drafting a flexible multidisciplinary framework able to support the future development of a territory. In full debate-process, the new urban policy of Romania promotes sustainability, resilience and inclusive growth, on the background of a critical period under the dominance of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. This new policy brings around the discussion table experts from relevant fields: decision factors, urbanists, economists, architects, citizens, civic initiative groups, etc. The national urban policy must address all categories of urban areas (defined as a city area considered as the inner city plus built-up environs, irrespective of local body administrative boundaries), being fundamental in implementing the goals set by the New EU Urban Agenda, approved in the framework of the Habitat III conference of the United Nations (2016) and the new provisions of the New Leipzig Charter (2020). Urban policy must ensure a single planning framework that would support the implementation of the programs and projects financed from European and national funds, preparing thus the financial exercise 2021-2027. Considering the above mentioned, the present paper aims to review the important and strategic elements of the future urban policy from Romania and its role in promoting and supporting balanced territorial development under the conditions of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic crisis which is far from over.

scholarly journals Electric Mobility in Cities: The Case of Vienna

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 217
Author(s):  
Amela Ajanovic ◽  
Marina Siebenhofer ◽  
Reinhard Haas
Keyword(s):  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Road Transport ◽  
Electric Mobility ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
The Future ◽  
Historical Developments

Environmental problems such as air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are especially challenging in urban areas. Electric mobility in different forms may be a solution. While in recent years a major focus was put on private electric vehicles, e-mobility in public transport is already a very well-established and mature technology with a long history. The core objective of this paper is to analyze the economics of e-mobility in the Austrian capital of Vienna and the corresponding impact on the environment. In this paper, the historical developments, policy framework and scenarios for the future development of mobility in Vienna up to 2030 are presented. A major result shows that in an ambitious scenario for the deployment of battery electric vehicles, the total energy demand in road transport can be reduced by about 60% in 2030 compared to 2018. The major conclusion is that the policies, especially subsidies and emission-free zones will have the largest impact on the future development of private and public e-mobility in Vienna. Regarding the environmental performance, the most important is to ensure that a very high share of electricity used for electric mobility is generated from renewable energy sources.

scholarly journals Taking Implementation Seriously in the Evaluation of Urban Growth Management Strategies: “Safeguarding the Future” of the Antwerp City-Region

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Clemens de Olde ◽  
Stijn Oosterlynck
Keyword(s):  
Urban Growth ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Growth Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Land Values ◽  
Implementation Phase ◽  
The Future ◽  
Urban Growth Management

Contemporary evaluations of urban growth management (UGM) strategies often take the shape of quantitative measurements of land values and housing prices. In this paper, we argue that it is of key importance that these evaluations also analyse the policy formulation and implementation phases of growth management strategies. It is in these phases that the institutions and discourses are (trans)formed in which UGM strategies are embedded. This will enable us to better understand the conditions for growth management policies’ success or failure. We illustrate this point empirically with the case of demarcating urban areas in the region of Flanders, Belgium. Using the Policy Arrangement Approach, the institutional dynamics and discursive meanings in this growth instrument’s formulation and implementation phase are unravelled. More specifically, we explain how the Flemish strategic spatial planning vision of restraining sprawl was transformed into one of accommodating growth in the demarcation of the Antwerp Metropolitan Area, epitomised by two different meanings of the phrase “safeguarding the future.” In conclusion, we argue that, in Antwerp, the demarcation never solidified into a stable policy arrangement, rendering it largely ineffective. We end by formulating three recommendations to contribute to future attempts at managing urban growth in Flanders.

scholarly journals The Awareness of and Input into Cultural Heritage Preservation by Urban Planners and Other Municipal Actors in Light of Climate Change

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 726
Author(s):  
Paul Carroll ◽  
Eeva Aarrevaara
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Heritage Preservation ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
The Future ◽  
Cultural Heritage Preservation

Future climate conditions need to be considered in planning for urban areas. As well as considering how new structures would best endure in the future, it is important to take into account factors that contribute to the degradation of cultural heritage buildings in the urban setting. Climate change can cause an increase in structural degradation. In this paper, a review of both what these factors are and how they are addressed by urban planners is presented. A series of inquiries into the topic was carried out on town planning personnel and those involved in cultural heritage preservation in several towns and cities in Finland and in a small number of other European countries. The target group members were asked about observed climate change impacts on cultural heritage, about present steps being taken to protect urban cultural heritage, and also their views were obtained on how climate change impacts will be emphasised in the future in this regard. The results of the inquiry demonstrate that climate change is still considered only in a limited way in urban planning, and more interaction between different bodies, both planning and heritage authorities, as well as current research on climate change impacts, is needed in the field.

scholarly journals The effects of global changes upon regional ozone pollution in the United States

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1125-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Chen ◽  
J. Avise ◽  
B. Lamb ◽  
E. Salathé ◽  
C. Mass ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Ozone Pollution ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
Voc Emissions ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Case

Abstract. A comprehensive numerical modeling framework was developed to estimate the effects of collective global changes upon ozone pollution in the US in 2050. The framework consists of the global climate and chemistry models, PCM (Parallel Climate Model) and MOZART-2 (Model for Ozone and Related Chemical Tracers v.2), coupled with regional meteorology and chemistry models, MM5 (Mesoscale Meteorological model) and CMAQ (Community Multi-scale Air Quality model). The modeling system was applied for two 10-year simulations: 1990–1999 as a present-day base case and 2045–2054 as a future case. For the current decade, the daily maximum 8-h moving average (DM8H) ozone mixing ratio distributions for spring, summer and fall showed good agreement with observations. The future case simulation followed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) A2 scenario together with business-as-usual US emission projections and projected alterations in land use, land cover (LULC) due to urban expansion and changes in vegetation. For these projections, US anthropogenic NOx (NO+NO2) and VOC (volatile organic carbon) emissions increased by approximately 6% and 50%, respectively, while biogenic VOC emissions decreased, in spite of warmer temperatures, due to decreases in forested lands and expansion of croplands, grasslands and urban areas. A stochastic model for wildfire emissions was applied that projected 25% higher VOC emissions in the future. For the global and US emission projection used here, regional ozone pollution becomes worse in the 2045–2054 period for all months. Annually, the mean DM8H ozone was projected to increase by 9.6 ppbv (22%). The changes were higher in the spring and winter (25%) and smaller in the summer (17%). The area affected by elevated ozone within the US continent was projected to increase; areas with levels exceeding the 75 ppbv ozone standard at least once a year increased by 38%. In addition, the length of the ozone season was projected to increase with more pollution episodes in the spring and fall. For selected urban areas, the system projected a higher number of pollution events per year and these events had more consecutive days when DM8H ozone exceed 75 ppbv.

From Impasse to Improvisation: Grand Paris Express as a Negotiation Agent in a Fragmented Metropolis

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-95
Author(s):  
Lara Belkind
Keyword(s):  
Future Development ◽  
Global City ◽  
The Other ◽  
Territorial Development ◽  
Regional Council ◽  
Institutional Transition ◽  
Metropolitan Planning ◽  
Local Stakeholders ◽  
The Future

This article examines a conflict between two narratives for the future development of Greater Paris – the 'just city' versus the 'global city' – embodied in two competing regional rail proposals, one put forward by the Regional Council and the other by the French State. The first, Arc Express, was developed by Regional Council to reduce existing territorial inequity. A counterproposal, the Grand Huit, was formulated by the French state to serve a network of new economic clusters. A political impasse between these conflicting plans, though a prelude to broader institutional transition, empowered new actors in the negotiation of metropolitan planning. It also engendered experimental tools, such as collective territorial development agreements, with which local stakeholders leveraged the state's agenda to achieve their own objectives and gained greater metropolitan citizenship.

A Positive Urban Policy for the Future

1983 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. S. Savas
Keyword(s):  
Urban Policy ◽  
The Future

scholarly journals Characterization of European cities’ climate shift – an exploratory study based on climate analogues

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-452
Author(s):  
Guillaume Rohat ◽  
Stéphane Goyette ◽  
Johannes Flacke
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Climate Shift ◽  
European Cities ◽  
The Future

Purpose Climate analogues have been extensively used in ecological studies to assess the shift of ecoregions due to climate change and the associated impacts on species survival and displacement, but they have hardly been applied to urban areas and their climate shift. This paper aims to use climate analogues to characterize the climate shift of cities and to explore its implications as well as potential applications of this approach. Design/methodology/approach The authors propose a methodology to match the current climate of cities with the future climate of other locations and to characterize cities’ climate shift velocity. Employing a sample of 90 European cities, the authors demonstrate the applicability of this method and characterize their climate shift from 1951 to 2100. Findings Results show that cities’ climate shift follows rather strictly north-to-south transects over the European continent and that the average southward velocity is expected to double throughout the twenty-first century. These rapid shifts will have direct implications for urban infrastructure, risk management and public health services. Originality/value These findings appear to be potentially useful for raising awareness of stakeholders and urban dwellers about the pace, magnitude and dynamics of climate change, supporting identification of the future climate impacts and vulnerabilities and implementation of readily available adaptation options, and strengthening cities’ cooperation within climate-related networks.

scholarly journals Present challenges for future water sustainable cities: a case study from Italy

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-166
Author(s):  
L. Bonzanigo ◽  
G. Sinnona
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
The Future ◽  
Italian Context ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The global population is increasingly concentrated in cities. Cities and urban areas face many challenges – economic, social, health and environmental – which are often exacerbated by an increase in the frequency of natural disasters. Together, these challenges call for a shift towards sustainable cities which reduce their impact on the surrounding environment, whilst at the same time succeeding to make resources available to their increasing number of inhabitants. This article explores the state of the art of water management practices of the highly urbanised Northern Italian region and plans and scope for the future development of water management. Although the region is at present not under severe water stress, recently some cities faced water scarcity problems and were forced to implement water rationing. We assessed the vulnerability of Parma and Ferrara to a water crisis, together with the regular and emergency adaptation measures already in place, and the forecast for the near future. In two workshops, the authors adapted the Australian concept of Water Sensitive Urban Design for the Italian context. Although the population remains generally unaware of the impact of the two latest severe drought events (2003 and 2006/7), many adaptation measures towards a more sustainable use of the water resource are already in place – technically, institutionally, and individually. Water managers consider however that the drastic and definite changes needed to integrate the urban water management cycle, and which minimise the ecological footprint of urban spaces, lay far in the future.

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