Roles of Cities in Creating Healthful Food Systems

Over the past several decades, cities worldwide have attempted to reconfigure their food systems to improve public health, advance social justice, and promote environmental resilience using diverse municipal policies, often with the support of stakeholder-led governance mechanisms such as food policy councils. This article reviews the roles that cities have played in creating healthful urban food systems and the effects of those policies on public health. It explains that despite wide-ranging policy initiatives, disparities in food insecurity and malnourishment persist. It concludes by describing several promising pathways for urban food policy: engaging in food-focused urban planning to create equitable food environments; treating policies to address inequality and social justice as upstream food policies; considering the effects of new business models such as online food retail in urban food policy making; and using food procurement as a lever to influence regional, national, and global food systems. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 43 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Inclusion of Renewable Energy Sources in Municipal Environmental Policy—The Case Study of Kraków, Poland

This article reviews the evolution of local environmental policy in the context of energy transition and particularly the implementation of RES. The study concerns Kraków, whose policy has been compared with other cities and metropolises and was analysed in a timespan of about 30 years. It was hypothesised that, until recently, RES were treated in the city with reserve concerning their feasibility in local environmental and economic conditions, but since RES have been appreciated as a viable means to effectively combat low-stack emissions, the local air quality targets have been integrated with global decarbonisation goals. This launched a dedicated subsidy stream for RES installations and contributed to the sharp increase in the number of installations. Trend analysis techniques have been used to study environmental indicators in relation to the evolution of municipal policies, the expenditures, and their effects. The review confirms that the implementation of RES had not been a priority for Kraków but a complementary measure to those aimed at improving air quality. The recent integration of the environmental and RES policies has been the next step that is now helping to pursue both the city’s strategic goals: further air quality improvement and climate neutrality by 2050. Kraków may serve as an example of a city that has treated RES in a manner adequate to local conditions and capabilities, thus achieving the intended goals.

Cities, Migration and the Historiography of Post-war Europe

The role of municipalities in migrant integration in post-war European history has largely slipped below the radar in previous migration research. Our special issue presents case studies on how Bristol, Dortmund, Malmö, Mannheim, Stuttgart and Utrecht managed migrant influxes from the mid-1940s to 1960s. Following interdisciplinary advances in local migration studies, our urban histories take a diversity of approaches, present diverse temporalities, and uncover municipal responses that range from generosity to indifference and to outright hostility. In all six cities, despite such diversity in local attitudes and municipal policies, municipal authorities had significant impacts on migrants’ lives. The introductory article explores how our urban perspectives contribute to scholarship on reconstruction and the post-war boom; welfare; democracy and citizenship; and European integration. Using local migration as a lens into postwar European history, we argue, provides important new insights for the historiography of postwar Europe.

National and subnational outcomes of waste management policies for 1718 municipalities in Japan: development of a bottom-up waste flow model and its application to a declining population through 2030

Japan has been promoting 3R (reduce, reuse, and recycle) policies for several decades, but the recycling rate of the whole country has leveled off, and more effective policies are needed. At the same time, municipalities have been implementing measures for municipal waste management considering their specific regional conditions, but the relationship between the municipalities’ policy inputs and national policy output is unclear, which causes difficulties in setting national targets and identifying effective policies. We, therefore, developed the Municipal Input and National Output Waste (MINOWA) model, which represents the municipal waste flows of all 1718 municipalities in Japan. The model enables users to establish various 3R measures at the municipal level and estimate their effects at the national level. Using the model, we estimated the flows under business-as-usual (BaU) and additional-measure scenarios that extended the use of conventional policies to 2030. The results revealed differences in the policy effects between areas with different populations. In addition, the results showed that the extension of conventional measures will be insufficient to achieve national goals. The developed model links municipal policies, regional characteristics, and national policy and goal-setting in an integrated framework, and supports ways to find more effective policies.

Implementing concept of smart city in Russian regions (case of Volgograd region)

The article presents the analysis of the key directions for developing a smart city concept through the prism of perception by residents participating in the strategic guidelines in the context of digitalization and a changing economic space. There has been considered the problem of implementing the concept of smart city and low awareness of residents about the regional policy on digitalization of urban space. Trigger spheres of the economy are proposed, whose digitalization should be carried out in the first place. The actual scenarios for building a smart city are presented, and their prospects for the Volgograd region are determined. A model for the development of smart urban space is proposed. The necessity of a direct financial support for advanced technological solutions for the development of urban systems through subsidies, as well as indirect tax incentives is determined. A smart city requires unconventional solutions and flexibility in municipal policies. Principles are proposed that can contribute to the sound management of sustainable smart cities. The obtained results of the study can be used by local governments to implement the most acceptable scenario for the transition to the concept of a smart city in accordance with the current level of development and preparedness of urban space for digitalization. The main advantage of the transformation of urban space and the use of digital technologies is an increase in the quality of services provided to residents, saving financial resources, time and energy required for the city functioning

IMPACTOS DA COVID-19 NO SETOR CULTURAL PORTUGUÊS: como é que os 308 municípios reagiram à pandemia?

O POLOBS encontra-se a desenvolver uma pesquisa que visa identificar e analisar alguns dos impactos da COVID-19 no setor cultural português. O projeto, que conjuga uma abordagem qualitativa com uma abordagem quantitativa, e integra instrumentos e técnicas diversificadas, iniciou-se a 16 de março de 2020 e vai decorrer até 31 de março de 2021.No presente artigo vamos lançar um olhar sobre seis meses de notícias nos 308 municípios portugueses. A análise efetuada permite-nos afirmar,ainda que provisoriamente, queo fluxo de notícias nos websites dos municípios está em linha com o pouco peso estratégico que a cultura tem em muitas das dinâmicas das políticas municipais, tendo sido possível identificar um número residual de medidas das autarquias locais para a mitigação, a curto e médio prazos, dos impactos negativos nas organizações e profissionais do setor cultural.IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON THE PORTUGUESE CULTURAL SECTOR: how did the 308 municipalities react to the pandemic?AbstractPOLOBS is conducting a research that focuses on the identification and examination of some of the impacts of COVID-19 on the Portuguese cultural sector. Beginning on the 16th of March 2020 and ending on the 31st of March 2021, this project combines qualitative and quantitative approaches and accommodates different tools and techniques. In this article we are going to take a look at six months of news in the 308 Portuguese municipalities. The analysis carried out allows us to affirm, even provisionally, that the flow of news on the websites of the municipalities is in line with the little strategic weight that culture has in many of the dynamics of municipal policies, and it was possible to identify a residual number of measures of the local authorities to mitigate, in the short and medium term, the negative impacts on organizations and professionals in the cultural sector.Keywords: COVID-19. Culture. Impacts. Portuguese municipalities

Development of Strategies to Promote Circular Economy in the Management of Construction and Demolition Waste: A Case Study in Manaus, Brazil

Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) cause environmental impacts in a worldwide scale. The existing international concern regarding the adequate management of CDW is justified by the large amount of this waste produced in a daily basis, together with its potential hazardous effects on ecosystems and human health. In countries with growing economies, like Brazil, it is of the utmost importance to promote sustainability-oriented practices that can co-exist with economic development. In this scope, the present research proposes strategies regarding the management of CDW based on the Circular Economy principles, focusing the case study of the municipality of Manaus, in the centre of the Amazon Forest. The characterization of the reference situation regarding CDW management in Manaus revealed several deficiencies, namely the lack of reuse and recycling opportunities, the unsupervised disposal of CDW in illegal landfills, together with insufficient surveillance procedures and inadequate policies from regional authorities like the Manaus City Hall and the Amazon’s Regional Council of Engineering and Agronomy (CREA-AM). The acknowledgement of these problems led to the identification of improvement opportunities and to the development and operationalization of Circular Economy promotion strategies: valorisation of CDW through the enhancement of reuse and recycling opportunities, operationalized through a mobile phone application; inclusion of sensibilization and surveillance practices regarding professional activities related to CDW management on the CREA-AM inspection plan; and the proposal of alterations in the municipal policies regarding CDW disposal in the public landfill. These strategies have been implemented in the Manaus municipality, but are easily adaptable to other Brazilian municipalities and even to other countries’ realities.

Stormwater management: municipal policies in Ontario for managing rain where it falls through green infrastructure

This research explores the state of practice for managing rain where it falls in southern Ontario through green infrastructure policies. A literature review and first hand experience from municipalities provided the understanding of the issues to wide‐spread adoption. Stormwater runoff is a significant issue within urban settings, contributing to localized riverine and/or basement flooding that impacts municipal infrastructure, residences, and environmental quality of waterways. Traditional grey infrastructure, an engineered approach of collection and treatment facilities, addresses concerns with combined sewer overflow (CSO), but is not an effective system for Stormwater Management (SWM), evident by the increase in flooding and pollution from intensified rain events, with climate change. Supported by evidence in published literature over the last decade, Low Impact Development (LID) principles have demonstrated effective results for cold climates, provided life costs‐analysis, and a planning framework to determine suitable placement for installations. Co-benefits of Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) are especially valued such as building great communities to live in with "high functioning" urban green spaces. This evidence suggests that managing stormwater runoff locally is a more cost effective and sustainable than end‐of‐pipe solutions. The study revealed best practices and lessons learned from municipalities implementing GSI for the Right‐of‐Way (ROW) though “Green Streets” and on private lands through LID to manage rain where it falls. In Ontario, GSI is at an early adoption stage. The findings support a planning rationale for a coordinated approach to implement, finance, and operate GSI programs for both private lands and in the public ROW for SWM.

Barriers To Mid-Rise Development in Suburban Communities in the Greater Toronto Area

Well designed mid-rise developments are generally recognized for their ability to contribute to intensification goals while at the same time being pedestrian friendly, human scale and compatible with low density neighbourhoods and historic districts. Despite these benefits, mid-rise residential developments between four and twelve storeys are comparatively rare in Greater Toronto Area suburban communities. To assess this disparity, interviews were conducted with municipal planning staff and development industry stakeholders to investigate the financial, regulatory and housing market variables that impact development of mid-rise projects. Building code, parking requirements, land costs and municipal policies and processes were all identified as contributing to high development costs for mid-rise. The market for mid-rise consists largely of affluent households without children that prefer neighbourhoods with good transit connections, vibrant street life and a wide range of amenities. These factors limit the number of locations where mid-rise can be profitably developed in suburban communities. Keywords: Mid-rise housing, smart growth, suburban communities, municipal policy