Urban design theory and practice aimed at sustainability. The Liverpool Study Cases in the United Kingdom planning system

Urban design is the most traditional field of physical planning which focuses more on the physical design of places and deals with fine-tuned design approaches (John Lang, 2005). It is founded upon the social, environmental, political, aesthetic and economical sector, but public realm is also important factor for the urban design, to serve the public interest and to provide opportunities and cultural dimensions. In present, urban design challenges are very different from the past. In contemporary situation the cities have been facing environmental, social and economic challenges that demand to devise new planning approaches. At the same time, the cities also have been suffering the lack of policies to resolve these problems, and any singular approach is not sufficient to address the new challenges. The design theories applied to city planning are traditional- which are not capable to meet the demand of the growing complexity of the world. To cope up with the urban design challenges, the main contributions of this thesis are detail evaluation of the urban design methods, analysis of applying these methods in real life practice. The main questions are: What are the theoretical approaches for the urban design for sustainable changes? And how to react with the sustainable changes in theory to practices? Firstly, I describe the urban design land-use plan and policies, application fields, participating actors, different types of urban projects, considering related issues and methods for implementation process. Secondly, I have done a case study of contemporary practices in the United Kingdom, specially the Liverpool city's urban regeneration planning approaches toward sustainable developments. In this case study, I analyze the land-use plan and planning rules, urban projects and their context, local and transit oriented development, the decision making and the implementation process. After detail analysis of urban design methods, this thesis bridges the gap between theory and practice, by focusing on how to improve the theoretical approaches and how to use these approaches in contemporary planning practic

Urban design theory and practice aimed at sustainability. The Liverpool Study Cases in the United Kingdom planning system

Urban design is the most traditional field of physical planning which focuses more on the physical design of places and deals with fine-tuned design approaches (John Lang, 2005). It is founded upon the social, environmental, political, aesthetic and economical sector, but public realm is also important factor for the urban design, to serve the public interest and to provide opportunities and cultural dimensions. In present, urban design challenges are very different from the past. In contemporary situation the cities have been facing environmental, social and economic challenges that demand to devise new planning approaches. At the same time, the cities also have been suffering the lack of policies to resolve these problems, and any singular approach is not sufficient to address the new challenges. The design theories applied to city planning are traditional- which are not capable to meet the demand of the growing complexity of the world. To cope up with the urban design challenges, the main contributions of this thesis are detail evaluation of the urban design methods, analysis of applying these methods in real life practice. The main questions are: What are the theoretical approaches for the urban design for sustainable changes? And how to react with the sustainable changes in theory to practices? Firstly, I describe the urban design land-use plan and policies, application fields, participating actors, different types of urban projects, considering related issues and methods for implementation process. Secondly, I have done a case study of contemporary practices in the United Kingdom, specially the Liverpool city’s urban regeneration planning approaches toward sustainable developments. In this case study, I analyze the land-use plan and planning rules, urban projects and their context, local and transit oriented development, the decision making and the implementation process. After detail analysis of urban design methods, this thesis bridges the gap between theory and practice, by focusing on how to improve the theoretical approaches and how to use these approaches in contemporary planning practice

Development of Theory and Methodologies to Assess Adaptive Resilience in Infrastructure Systems

With the growing frequency, intensity, and consequences of disasters, developing resilience in infrastructure systems is increasingly recognized as critical to maintaining and enhancing system performance. Evolving trends in climate change, population growth, and urbanization make it essential to build adaptive capacity as a critical element of resilience, to enable systems to re-organize or adapt to changing future conditions. This research focuses on answering two questions: (1) What capabilities of transportation systems foster adaptive resilience, how are they connected to system goals, and how can they be incorporated in planning for more resilient systems? (2) How can we evaluate the benefits of applying adaptive resilience approaches in planning for transportation systems? The overall research methodology follows a mixed-methods sequential approach, where qualitative methods are applied to identify, define, and categorize the adaptive resilience capabilities of transportation systems, followed by a quantitative methodology developed to assess the benefits of adaptive resilience initiatives over the life cycle of infrastructure systems. An Adaptive Resilience Capability Maturity Model (AR-CMM) is developed using a quasi-grounded theory approach, involving iterative literature reviews and expert interviews to identify the adaptive resilience capabilities of transportation systems and their connections with system goals. The AR-CMM assesses the maturity level of any transportation agency on 16 identified adaptive resilience (AR) capabilities of transportation systems. The capabilities are categorized into three themes and assessed over a five-level maturity scale. To enable benefits quantification of initiatives that can enhance the maturity levels of the identified AR capabilities, a Modified Resilience Triangles (MRTs) approach is developed, which can be used to evaluate the long-term benefits of adaptive resilience investments in infrastructure systems under future uncertainty. The application of the MRTs approach is demonstrated using three case studies, where investments have focused on different aspects of adaptive resilience enhancement in various infrastructure systems. The results from all three case studies demonstrate the increasing benefits of adaptive resilience strategies over a long time frame due to deep uncertainty, ongoing learning, and the evolving nature of resilience strategies. This research expands existing infrastructure resilience theory by developing a portfolio of capabilities of transportation systems that enable adaptive resilience in the systems; and by developing the Modified Resilience Triangles approach, thereby extending the theory on resilience assessment to include impacts of adaptive resilience on the long-term resilience of infrastructure systems. The AR-CMM provides a framework for transportation agencies to evaluate and enhance their adaptive resilience maturity levels. Application of the MRTs approach provides practitioners in any infrastructure field with an enhanced approach for assessing the value of resilience investments, thereby offering a tool that can be used to demonstrate the business case for adaptive resilience to uncertain future conditions. The AR-CMM along with the MRTs approach can be used to incorporate adaptive resilience formally in transportation system planning frameworks, enabling more reliable and cost-effective performance.Ph.D

Smart city : How smart is it actually?

The global megatrends of population growth and fast urbanisation are negatively impacting the life in the cities. Smart city is the high-level concept by which the cities try to address the need to improve their social, economic and environmental sustainability. This thesis studies how the smart city concept is defined, what are the underlying hypotheses and assumptions on which the smart city research is based on, what are the latest results and innovations of the smart city research, how the smart city initiatives are meeting their objectives, and how the hypotheses and assumptions may vary between the smart city initiatives. The objective of this study is to critically review the smart city research paradigm to find possible pitfalls, conflicting results and topics for further study and improvement. This research is conducted as a traditional critical literature review, covering the current academic literature on the smart city topic, the websites presenting the smart city initiatives around the world, and the latest popular literature for contrasting views. A qualitative comparison of the smart city initiatives in selected cities – Helsinki, Singapore and London – complements the literature review. The research strategy in this study approximates the grounded theory, utilising inductive reasoning to generate arguments and conclusions about the form, validity and future of the smart city. This study produced the following key findings: there are many different and overlapping definitions of smart city; the smart city development is mostly seen as the responsibility of smart ICT implementations, while simultaneously demanding for a more focused human viewpoint; the smart city initiatives form complex, multidisciplinary platforms that require holistic evaluation; the current evaluation methods and rankings of the smart cities vary considerably, making the evaluation of the success of the smart cities difficult; some of the existing smart city elements and proposed solutions are ineffective or even counterproductive for the smart city objectives. The main conclusions of this study were that the complex nature of the smart city initiatives and the conflicts and interdependencies of the smart city objectives are not fully addressed in the current smart city research, and that the current smart city research is not adequately multidisciplinary in nature. For the future, this research argues for the increased utilisation of research methods used in information systems science for their ability to address socio-technical and multidisciplinary problems. Also, the need for a future research on the efficacy of the multidisciplinary research of smart cities is identified.Väestönkasvu, siitä aiheutuva muuttoliike ja nopea kaupungistuminen ovat maailmanlaajuisia megatrendejä, jotka usein vaikuttavat kielteisesti elämisen ja asumisen laatuun kaupungeissa. Älykaupunki on ylemmän tason konsepti, jonka avulla kaupungit yrittävät muokata sosiaalista, taloudellista ja ympäristönsä kehitystä kestävämmälle pohjalle. Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellaan, miten älykaupungin konsepti on määritelty, mitkä ovat ne taustaolettamukset ja perusteet, joiden varaan älykaupunkien tieteellinen tutkimus pohjautuu, mitkä ovat älykaupunkitutkimuksen viimeisimmät tulokset ja innovaatiot, miten älykaupunkihankkeet saavuttavat tavoitteensa ja miten niiden perusteet ja taustaolettamukset vaihtelevat älykaupunkien välillä. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on kriittisesti tarkastella älykaupunkien tutkimusparadigmaa ja löytää mahdollisia sudenkuoppia sekä ristiriitaisia tutkimusaiheita ja -tuloksia, joita voitaisiin käyttää älykaupunkien jatkotutkimukseen ja -kehittämiseen tulevaisuudessa. Tämä tutkimus on toteutettu perinteisenä kriittisenä kirjallisuustutkimuksena. Lähdeaineistona on käytetty älykaupunkien viimeisimpiä akateemisia tutkimustuloksia ja julkaisuja, älykaupunkihankkeiden omia nettisivustoja ympäri maailman sekä kontrastin vuoksi myös viimeisimpiä populaarin lähdekirjallisuuden käsittelemiä aiheita ja ilmiöitä. Kirjallisuustutkimusta on täydennetty kvalitatiivisella älykaupunkivertailulla, jossa Helsingin, Singaporen ja Lontoon älykaupunkihankkeita on vertailtu keskenään. Työn tutkimusstrategia muistuttaa ankkuroitua teoriaa, jossa induktiivisen päättelyn avulla pyritään lähdeaineistosta löytämään ja luomaan väitteitä, perusteluja ja johtopäätöksiä älykaupunkien muodosta, olemassaolon oikeellisuudesta ja tulevaisuudesta. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin seuraavat pääkohdat: älykaupunki voidaan määritellä usealla, myöskin samanaikaisesti päällekkäisellä tavalla; älykaupunkien kehittäminen nähdään yleensä tieto- ja viestintäteknologisten innovaatioiden kehittämisenä, vaikka samanaikaisesti usein vaaditaan myös inhimillisemmän näkökulman korostamista; älykaupunkihankkeet muodostavat monitahoisia, monia tieteenaloja koskettavia alustoja, jotka vaativat nykyistä kokonaisvaltaisempaa tarkastelua ja arvi-ointia; nykyiset älykaupunkien menestyksen mittarit ja arviointitavat vaihtelevat huomattavasti, jolloin älykaupunkien älykkyyden ja onnistumisen yhteismitallinen arviointi on vaikeaa; jotkut havaituista älykaupunkien ominaisuuksista ja ratkaisuista ovat tehottomia tai jopa kielteisesti älykaupunkien tavoitteisiin vaikuttavia. Tässä tutkimuksessa päädyttiin seuraaviin johtopäätöksiin: älykaupunkihankkeiden monimutkaisen ja ristiriitaisen luonteen takia nykyinen älykaupunkitutkimus- ja kehitys ei täysin pysty vastaamaan näiden ristiriitaisuuksien ja keskinäisriippuvuuksien tuomiin haasteisiin; nykyinen älykaupunkitutkimus ei myöskään ole tieteellisesti riittävän monialaista. Tämän tutkimuksen pohjalta voidaan suositella, että tulevaisuudessa älykaupunkien kehitys voisi pohjautua enemmän tietojärjestelmätieteiden tutkimusmetodologioiden hyödyntämiseen, jolloin älykaupunkien vaatimat sosiotekniset ja monitieteelliset näkökulmat saataisiin paremmin havaittua, katettua ja arvioitua tutkimustuloksissa. Tulevaisuudessa tarvitaan myös tutkimusta siitä, kuinka tehokkaasti monitieteellinen älykaupunkitutkimus onnistuu

Comparative assessment of effectiveness of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems of Johannesburg and Tshwane

Abstract: Transport remains connected to our indigenous habitat, wellbeing and monetary thriving which rely upon good transport frameworks that provides effectiveness, comfort, fairness as well as affordability. Public transport is often framed as key component of building sustainable cities. Nonetheless, present estimations recommend that transport development is unjustifiable. Transport intimidates the social, economic, and our environmental future. Modifying as well as overseeing patterns of transport shows a critical issue which necessitates collaboration from participants at all governmental spheres. The study presents the critical review of literature of the relationship between public transport and sustainability with the purpose to comparatively assess the effectiveness of BRT systems of Johannesburg and Tshwane metropolitan cities. The study identifies the impacts, status quo, and benefits of this bus system, as well as its integration to other modes of transport. The study contributes to transport domain by identifying the key problems associated with sustainability of transport based on the perceptions and discussions of significant literature on transport. The attention is on connection amongst sustainable transport division and the sustainable development within South African setting...M.Ing. (Sustainable Urban Planning and Development