The participatory process in the review of the Master Plan of Vitória (2014-2018)

The Federal Constitution of 1988 defined the Master Plan as a 'basic instrument' of urban development policy and subsequent legislation, which regulated the Urban Policy chapter (Estatuto da Cidade, Federal Law No. 10,257 / 2001), reinforced a set of participatory requirements in the availability and implementation of the corresponding policies. Based on this new institutional arrangement, this research paper analyzes a participatory structure in the process of reviewing the Master Plan for the municipality of Vitória, capital of Espírito Santo, in the period 2014-2018. The investigation took as an analytical parameter the participatory methodology proposed by the Ministry of Cities, whose distinguishing feature was the dissemination of democratic management instruments. The empirical analysis shows that several participatory mechanisms were implemented, such as public hearings of regional and social segments, thematic seminars, round tables, territorial assemblies, implementation of a collaborative website, involvement of the Municipal Council of the Urban Master Plan (CMPDU) and realization of the Municipal Conference on Urban Policy (Encontro da Cidade), in which the draft of the Master Plan bill was presented, discussed and voted on. Thus, the process incorporated the participatory methodology recommended by the Ministry of Cities and the corresponding legislation. The effectiveness of participation according to the guidelines of the City Statute is still an ongoing process, but the inclusion of democratic management mechanisms is a reality in Vitória, constituting an institutional advance.

Exploring the Institutional and Bottom-Up Actions for Urban Air Quality Improvement: Case Studies in Antwerp and Gdańsk

The article presents the results of qualitative studies concerning the presence of air quality management in the process of urban planning and in the public discourse in Antwerp, Belgium, and Gdańsk, Poland. We focused on the way urban planners, environmental experts, and stakeholders perceive the problem of air pollution, especially with respect to urban development policy, and whether they consider it one of the major factors determining the quality of the urban built environment. The analysis was empirically based on free, partially structured interviews with experts. With that aim, we referred to certain assumptions of the multidimensional concept of environmental protection and integrated urban planning, highlighting the knowledge gained through interview analysis, literature review, and comparative case study research. The approach brings to light the difference between the perceived and measured air quality and to what extent it is affected by the spatial conditions. The research reveals how the range of perceptions of air pollution is embedded in several sociological, urban planning, and cultural perspectives and how these perceptions differ between the different profiles of the stakeholders and experts.

Population growth and mobility in Australia: implications for housing and urban development policies

This research tracks Australia’s population growth over the period 2006–16 to examine how actual growth differed from projected growth. It also examined key drivers of population mobility in Australia to inform future urban development policy responses to demands on infrastructure and housing.

RETHINKING DENSITY IN URBAN PLANNING: POLICY DIRECTIONS IN THE POST-COVID-19 ERA IN MALAYSIA

Since the ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019’ (COVID-19) struck the world and Malaysia, the general attention of the media and leaders has been focused on the high population density areas that have high infection rates and deaths. This article aims to rethink population density in urban development policy, thus providing development for policy direction in the post-COVID-19 era in Malaysia. The available national development planning policies in Malaysia, i.e., the National Physical Plan and the National Urbanisation Policy, and scholarly articles related to the population density topic were investigated through a scoping literature review and a keyword analysis. The findings showed mixed results in terms of the relationship between dense areas causing higher rates of COVID-19 infection and death rates. This article argues that policies related to spatial urban planning should continuously advocate dense city planning in considering how to achieve economic, social, and environmental sustainability and human quality of life. To this extent, this article contributes to the densification topic in spatial urban planning policies in terms of their application in the post-COVID-19 era, which needs urgent direction and clarification.

Semi-Natural Areas on Post-Mining Brownfields as an Opportunity to Strengthen the Attractiveness of a Small Town. An Example of Radzionków in Southern Poland

The socio-economic and political changes of the end of the 20th century in Central and Eastern Europe had significant impacts on the transformation of urban spaces, especially in industrial and mining towns. The article attempts to explain the essence of these changes concerning the spatial development of—a small post-mining town in southern Poland. This article evaluates urban development policy in response to the significant land-use changes in the small post-mining city of Radzionków, with particular attention to the transformation of brownfield sites to semi-natural areas of regional importance. This issue is interesting for two reasons. First, this small city, located in a large European agglomeration, has to face competition focused on interesting regional projects. Second, there is a desire for reindustrialization as a remedy for job losses in mining and heavy industry. The successful establishment of a large botanical garden in this city provides a case study for discussing the future of small post-industrial cities and the development of land use policy regarding valuable natural areas located in post-industrial and post-mining areas. This study also indicates the vital role of the creative management factor.

How to Integrate the Data-based Strategies and Advanced Technologies into Efficient Air Pollution Management in Smart Cities?

Air pollution contributes to a critical environmental problem in various towns and cities. With the emergence of the smart cities concept, appropriate methods to curb associated with exposure to pollutants must have been a portion of appropriate urban development policy. This study presents a technologically driven air quality solution in smart cities to advertise energy-efficient and cleaner sequestration in these areas. It aims to address the issue of how to integrate the data-based strategies and artificial intelligence into efficient public sector pollution management in smart cities as a core part of the smart city definition. Exploratory research has been used in 152 smart cities, and environmental experts contributed to this study. It further addresses the technical criteria for implementing such a framework that the public administration uses to prepare the renovation of public buildings, minimize energy use and costs, and link these smart police stations to monitor air pollution as a part of integrated cities. Such a digital transition in resource management will increase public governance's energy performance, a higher standard of operation, and a healthier environment.

The concept of 15-minute city as the basis for the model of sustainable development of a megacity in terms of modern risks

The goal of this research lies in discussing the key provisions of Carlos Moreno’s concept of 15-minute city in the context of issues caused COVID-19 pandemic. Besides the original texts by C. Moreno, the article employs the following data: 1) publications in the international scientometric databases (Scopus, WoS2) dedicated to positive effects of implementation of the concept of 15-minute city and its analogues; 2) documents of international organizations (C40 Cities, OECD, UN-Habitat3 that recommend the key vectors of sustainable urban development policy to the national governments; 3) strategies of global megacities that embarked upon practical implementation of the concept of 15-minute city. The concept at hand is based on the idea of spatial-temporal hyper-proximity of all essential functions and services of the city. The concentrated infrastructure (place of residence, work, retail, education, health, and leisure) within micro-scale spatial structures contributes to the formation of more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable cities. The global COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated the urgent need for “upgrading” the local living conditions, stimulated the adoption of this concept on the level of international organizations and progressive foreign megacities, as well as interest of the Russian Federation in its implementation. The conducted analysis leads to the conclusion that the model of 15-minute city, which allows effectively counteracting the new risks (including the unexpected circumstances), can be adapted to spatial peculiarities of the particular cities and needs of the residents. This article is an invitation to a scientific discussion on the prospects of transformation of the Russian megacities into a network of 15-minute cities, as well as the search for methodological solutions in the research dedicated to differentiation of the quality of urban environment in the micro-spatial dimension.

The Relationship between Urban Vibrancy and Built Environment: An Empirical Study from an Emerging City in an Arid Region

Creating a vital and lively urban environment is an inherent requirement of urban sustainable development, and understanding urban vibrancy is helpful for urban development policy making. The urban vibrancy theory needs more empirical supplementation and more evidence for the effect of the built environment on urban vibrancy. We use multisource urban spatial information data, including real-time population distribution (RPD) data and small catering business (SCB) data; quantitatively measure urban vibrancy; and build a comparative framework to explore the effect of the built environment on the urban vibrancy of a northwestern emerging city in China. The results demonstrate that the two urban vibrancy metrics present a spatial distribution pattern that is high in the south and low in the north areas of the city with significant spatial aggregation. Land-use intensity and diversity have strong positive effects on urban vibrancy but present a different pattern of effects on the two vibrancy measures. The influences on urban vibrancy of distance to the district center and distance to the nearest commercial complex are spatially complementary in the study area, and the effect of accessibility factors is weak. Our findings suggest that a somewhat cautious approach is required in the application of these classical planning theories to Urumqi.