A Time Like No Other: Charting the Course of the Next Revolution - A Summary of the Boston Indicators Report 2004-2006

Summarizes findings from the Boston Indicators Project, a long-term research study of the city's economic, social, and technical progress across ten sectors

Big Cities. Big Water. Big Challenges: Water in an Urbanizing World.

This paper applies the water footprint methodology to six megacities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to explore the effect of urbanization on water use and demand and determine what measures need to be taken to meet this demand. Key threats to water resources in many or all of the cities studied include: water stress or scarcity, pollution and decreasing water quality, and vulnerability to extreme weather caused by climate change

The Critical Role of Public Charging Infrastructure

Editors: Peter Fox-Penner, PhD, Z. Justin Ren, PhD, David O. JermainA decade after the launch of the contemporary global electric vehicle (EV) market, most cities face a major challenge preparing for rising EV demand. Some cities, and the leaders who shape them, are meeting and even leading demand for EV infrastructure. This book aggregates deep, groundbreaking research in the areas of urban EV deployment for city managers, private developers, urban planners, and utilities who want to understand and lead change

Mass transit options

Choices on public transit options are choices about a city's future. Will there be congestion? Will there be high levels of air and noise pollution? Will transport be affordable? Will services be available to all? The type of public transit system will have a big impact on the answers to these questions. This module aims to provide policy-makers in developing cities - and those advising them - with guidance on choosing appropriate Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) systems. The module begins by briefly describing some basic concepts and defining features of MRT in developing cities. Current applications of each of the main MRT options are then described, focusing on applications in developing cities. Since Metros and Light Rail Transit are still relatively uncommon in low income developing cities, most of this discussion focuses on the recent development of Bus Rapid Transit systems throughout the world

Payment for Environmental Services: First Global Inventory of Schemes Provisioning Water for Cities

In the perspective of the World Water Day 2011 - "Water for Cities" (March 22, 2011), the Natural Resources Land and Water Division (NRL) of FAO has launched an inventory of environmental schemes provisioning water to cities. Up to date there have been several studies addressing the payment for watershed services around the world, conducted by various UN agencies, NGOs, etc. None of these studies so far has focused on the PES schemes providing the water supply for cities and industries, i.e. urban areas. In that sense this inventory is unique. The report offers a very useful inventory of identified PES - "water for cities" schemes around the world. The report can be used as basis for further pursuit of information and analysis of the most relevant cases at least, and possible replication of these cases, primarily in East Africa that has become an area of interest lately for the potential development of this market based scheme in order to address the water issues of the region

Current use of Spatial Information Technology in Megacity Management

One objective of FIG Commission 3 focuses on promoting the use of Spatial Infrastructure Management (SIM)-tools at different administrative levels for decision makers and citizens to support the goals of participatory democracy. In this context FIG Commission 3 has set up the Working Group WG3.2 Spatial Data Infrastructures in Mega cities, which aims at identifying relevant spatial tools to support development and use of spatial data infrastructure (SDI) by city authorities in the world’s largest cities. The strategy of the work program emphasizes key problems of mega cities by reviewing SDI developments in existing mega cities, documenting case studies, including lessons learned about solutions for problems and should finally lead to a toolkit for use of best practises in SDI for managing mega cities. To complement the results of direct correspondence with administrations of mega cities one important part of this project concentrates on a background research of existing sources about overall use of SDI in mega cities. The objective of this paper is to discuss the results of an internet search concerning the use of Spatial Information Technology in the world’s currently existing mega cities. The search starts from a nationwide view on the execution and the progression status of SDI’s in the home countries of mega cities and zooms in to the specific aspects of spatial data management in the metropolitan areas of special interest. As a result we come to the conclusion, that current SDI development in mega cities covers the whole range from first stage conceptual ideas up to an almost complete operational SDI availability

Innovative Tokyo

This paper compares and contrasts Tokyo's innovation structure with the industrial districts model and the international hub model in the literature on urban and regional development. The Tokyo model embraces and yet transcends both industrial districts and international hub models. The paper details key elements making up the Tokyo model-organizational knowledge creation, integral and co-location systems of corporate R&D and new product development, test markets, industrial districts and clusters, participative consumer culture, continuous learning from abroad, local government policies, the national system of innovation, and the historical genesis of Tokyo in Japan's political economy. The paper finds that the Tokyo model of innovation will continue to evolve with the changing external environment, but fundamentally retains its main characteristics. The lessons from the Tokyo model is that openness, a diversified industrial base, the continuing development of new industries, and an emphasis on innovation, all contribute to the dynamism of a major metropolitan region.Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Innovation

Global Trade Impacts: Addressing the Health, Social and Environmental Consequences of Moving International Freight Through Our Communities

Examines freight transportation industry trends; the impact of global trade on workers, the environment, and health in both exporting and importing countries; and organizing strategies and policy innovations for minimizing the damage and ensuring health

On the road to prosperity? The economic geography of China's national expressway network

Over the past two decades, China has embarked on an ambitious program of expressway network expansion. By facilitating market integration, this program aims both to promote efficiency at the national level and to contribute to the catch-up of lagging inland regions with prosperous Eastern ones. This paper evaluates the aggregate and spatial economic impacts of China's newly constructed National Expressway Network, focussing, in particular, on its short-run impacts. To achieve this aim, the authors adopt a counterfactual approach based on the estimation and simulation of a structural "new economic geography" model. Overall, they find that aggregate Chinese real income was approximately 6 percent higher than it would have been in 2007 had the expressway network not been built. Although there is considerable heterogeneity in the results, the authors do not find evidence of a significant reduction in disparities across prefectural level regions or of a reduction in urban-rural disparities. If anything, the expressway network appears to have reinforced existing patterns of spatial inequality, although, over time, these will likely be reduced by enhanced migration