Urban Update 15 November 2022
Built Environment
Developing a 15-minute city policy? Understanding differences between policies and physical barriers - Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
This paper looks at different policy and practical approaches to 15 (or x) minute cities, assessing different schemes in Canada.
Physical features such as highways, railways, and large parks often reduce the likelihood of achieving 15-minute city goals, though the extent of the impact depends on the policy used. Established neighbourhoods in Saskatoon, perform better under 15-minute city policies due to better proximity to amenities. Newer areas labelled as "complete communities" often fail to meet 15-minute city criteria under various policies, highlighting a need for better planning. The paper recommends that planners should work with communities to add missing amenities and improve connections, ensuring accessibility for diverse population groups.
The paper talks about policies. Perhaps future studies might go beyond policy to address funding and implementation, and ongoing operation, and extend beyond planners to the broader range of people who make neighbourhoods the living places the public need.
BBC News: What's so wrong with Right To Buy? >>>>
This article explores the history of right to buy. In the late 1960s, about a third of England's population lived in council housing. This has dropped to 16% (four million people) by 2024 due to policies like RTB. Since its introduction in the 1980s, two million council homes have been sold at discounted prices, reducing social housing stock significantly and fuelling concerns about a housing crisis. Deputy PM Angela Rayner plans restrictions on buying newly built council homes and aims to give councils full control of RTB proceeds to boost social housing construction. Funds from RTB sales have generally been insufficient to build replacement social homes, exacerbating waiting lists which now total 1.3 million. Critics highlight RTB’s failure to achieve a one-for-one replacement ratio, contributing to a severe housing shortage and record temporary accommodation levels. Deputy PM Angela Rayner plans restrictions on buying newly built council homes and aims to give councils full control of RTB proceeds to boost social housing construction.
‘They look like homes for rich people’: why Britain should look to Europe for its council housing revolution >>>>
This article by Rowan Moore, draws on examples of social and cooperative housing from across Europe.
Office for Place closed and subsumed into MHCLG >>>>
As well as the closure, the ministerial statement details plans include updating the National Design Guide and Model Design Code in Spring 2024, alongside a £46 million capacity-building package to recruit and train 300 planners and fund urban design expertise through Public Practice.
The statement also refers to the creation of quarterly Steering Boards on design and placemaking, ensuring that "our work is guided by those with relevant professional and practical expertise".
The strange death of the Office for Place >>>>
An article by Nicholas Boys-Smith reflecting on a journey involving the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission with Sir Roger Scruton, and an interest in policies that would align development with public preferences, culminating in the creation of the Office for Place, a public body based in Stoke-on-Trent, aimed at supporting councils in improving design and planning processes.
Boys-Smith writes that the office was unexpectedly shut down, and laments the closure. He concludes, emphasizing the importance of balancing the drive for more housing with maintaining quality and public trust, and hopeful that the mission to create healthy, beautiful, and resilient communities will continue.
Schemes
Developer builds balcony at Kent block of flats around street lamppost >>>>
‘In China, builders don’t look at drawings’: the architect challenging his country’s rampant urban obsession >>>>
Initial ‘Major Urban Park’ plans for Whitecliffe development at Ebbsfleet Garden City approved >>>>
Humans, Health, Society
Towards social sustainability in urban communities: exploring how community parks influence residents’ social interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
There has been limited research on how parks affect social interaction during the pandemic, especially qualitative studies. This research focused on community parks in master-planned Sydney communities: Breakfast Point and Liberty Grove. Sixteen residents were interviewed during the pandemic in 2022. Three key themes influencing park-related social interaction were identified:
- Park quality (e.g., recreation spaces, playgrounds, sports facilities, nature areas).
- Pedestrian integration (e.g., well-connected and distributed park networks).
- Pedestrian connectivity to surrounding areas.
Green Spaces and Mental Health in the Context of Materialism: A Comparative Analysis Before and During the COVID-19 pandemic - Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
March 2017 (Pre-Pandemic): Green spaces around residential areas showed a positive correlation with mental health up to 50% green coverage. Beyond this, a negative correlation was observed.
March 2021 (During Pandemic): The positive correlation with mental health for up to 50% green coverage continued, and was similar to 2017, but no negative correlation was found beyond this threshold.
The authors observe that people became less materialistic over this time, and the change in attitude may have further increased the positive attitude towards green environments.
‘They want to get rid of us by all means’: A critical analysis of policy and governance responses and their implications for street traders’ access to urban space in Harare, Zimbabwe - Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space
This paper suggests that the urban authorities in Harare have “become obsessed with defending modernity” and want to stop or formalise street trading. It is an issue that has affected most societies over the centuries.
Evolutionary anthropologist presents hypothesis about why humans are dominating the world over other animals >>>>
The way that animals think about what they're doing constrains the way that their cultures can evolve. This paper presents a new hypothesis: that humans dominate and are special because of "open-endedness"—our ability to communicate and understand an infinite number of possibilities in life.
Followers of the COP process and attempts to address climate change will probably be baffled by this hypothesis and its positive assessment of human abilities.
Natural Environment
Financing Urban Nature-Based Solutions (NBS): a literature review from funders’ perspective” - Nature-Based Solutions
Financing urban NBS remains a significant barrier, hindering their widespread implementation. Understanding how to attract co-finance from stakeholders who benefit from NBS is crucial for their expansion. The study conducts a systematic review to identify barriers and strategies for financing NBS from a funder's perspective.
- Key tools for overcoming financing barriers include knowledge sharing, innovative financing models, and promoting collaboration for co-financing.
- Public sector budget shortfalls can be alleviated by leveraging private sector funding.
- There is a future role for specific stakeholders including as corporations, the insurance sector, real estate, and water utilities. These stakeholders' contributions could play a key role in scaling up NBS implementation.
Making the mos(s)t of nature? Cleantech, smart nature-based solutions, and the ‘rendering investable’ of urban moss - Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
This paper looks at how nature-based solutions (NBS) use plants and ecosystems to help solve urban environmental problems, and particularly "Smart" Nature Solutions which use digital sensors and automated systems to support plants. Unfortunately it is a difficult read, eg: “..we draw on scholarship on the bioeconomy to show how the commodification of moss in this case is predicated on discursive arguments which depict moss as at once inherently productive and regenerative, but also fragile and scarce in urban environments.”
How water butts are helping to protect rivers >>>>
Interactive "muckmap" >>>>
New housebuilding held back by rapid rise of factory farms that pollute rivers, study finds >>>>
Map of England identifies rivers with excess nutrient levels.
Exposure to constant artificial light alters honeybee sleep rhythms and disrupts sleep - Scientific Reports
Energy and Climate Change
Locally optimized urban form reduces carbon dioxide emissions >>>>
Urban areas can potentially reduce CO2 emissions by optimizing their urban form, but this relationship is context-dependent. But existing research on energy-optimized urban forms is limited, focusing mainly on macro-scale urban forms and a small set of factors. This study, by scientists from Hiroshima, Shiraz, and Northern Arizona universities used detailed methods to assess urban form’s effect on CO2 emissions in three U.S. cities: Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Los Angeles.
The study applied the Local Climate Zones (LCZ) framework, which classifies urban forms (e.g., low-rise, high-rise) and natural zones, using remote sensing data. Three cities were selected for their differing climates and population densities: Baltimore (high density, humid), Los Angeles (dry, low density), and Indianapolis (cold, humid). CO2 emissions were calculated using Hestia Project data, which calculates the total amount of fossil-fuel CO2 released from all sources (including transport) in individual cities at street and building-level scales on an hourly basis.
The study revealed that urban open and green spaces are paramount and that without adequate provision of open and green spaces, compact urban development will have limited capacity to mitigate urban CO2 emissions.
Full paper >>>>
UN climate talks 'no longer fit for purpose' say key experts >>>>
The slow-moving COP process is “no longer fit for purpose” in dealing with a fast-moving climate crisis, and unable to force countries to act.
Energy inefficiency as a ‘poverty premium’ - Energy Research & Social Science
The poverty premium is used to explain how the poor pay more in various sectors, and the paper applies this to energy inefficiency. Concepts like energy poverty, vulnerability, and justice highlight uneven access to energy but don’t fully capture the additional costs caused by inefficiency.
The Earth underwent a massive, rapid melting period after the last global ice age, new study suggests >>>>
'Doomsday' Antarctic glacier melting faster than expected, fueling calls for geoengineering >>>>
