A case for urban liveability from below: exploring the politics of water and land access for greater liveability in Kampala,Uganda

ABSTRACT

Improving urban liveability and prosperity is commonly set as a priority in urban development plans and policy around the world. Several annual reports produced by international consulting firms, media, and global agencies rank the liveability of cities based on a set of indicators, to represent the quality of life in these cities. The higher is the ranking, the more liveable is the city. In this paper, we argue that such quantitative approaches to framing and addressing urban liveability challenges leave little room to reflect on people's experiences of this liveability, which cannot be expressed through numbers. To illustrate our argument, we draw on empirical evidence of urban liveability challenges in access to water and land in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, ranked recently as the most liveable East African city by various global agencies and media outlets. By showing that increasing the number of water connections does not guarantee improved access to water and sanitation in the long run, first, we demonstrate how urban liveability challenges are tightly linked with land-title issues in the city. Second, we highlight the political game-playing between the central government, the opposition, the traditional leadership, and the slum dwellers in governance processes of service delivery. Finally, by arguing that urban liveability can be enhanced by broadening political participation in city development planning, we discuss some of the strategies that can be used by communities to make collective claims towards improving their quality of life and the environment.     

Planning and Creating Eco-cities: Indicators as a tool for shaping development and measuring progress

Eco-cities strive to become more liveable, enjoyable, and healthy. Indicators can be an effective mechanism for understanding people's values, needs, concerns, and expectations; guiding development decisions; evaluating progress and making revisions; and gaining support for desired actions. This Viewpoint describes how sustainability indicators can be developed to measure a community's environment, economy, quality of life, and governance. Five helpful hints are offered to guide this process.     

Sustainability versus liveability: an investigation of neighbourhood satisfaction

Recent years have witnessed an increasing emphasis placed on planning systems in most advanced capitalist societies to develop a more sustainable urban development pattern, resulting in policies to increase residential densities. Although belief in the virtues of the compact city approach is now widespread among the policy community, questions remain relating to the ‘sustainability versus liveability’ implications of compact city environments. In this regard, while the public may support sustainability principles, there is a perception that high-density development poses too great a cost on individuals' quality of life. Combining both quantitative and qualitative research data, this paper evaluates the relationship between high-density living and neighbourhood satisfaction within the central city. Findings suggest that, in many instances, it is not high density per se that is the source of dissatisfaction for respondents, but rather other related factors such as environmental quality, noise, lack of community involvement, traffic and lack of services and facilities.     

Implicating waterfronts in regional sustainability

Advocates of sustainable urban development often privilege the region as a scale for coordinated action and investment. However, discourses of sustainability institutionalised through regional planning, and conflated with notions of liveability, lend themselves to recruitment by competing, and opposing, development interests. To be regionally sustainable, an individual land development should, both on-site and through its connections to other sites, contribute to overall sustainability of the region. Using examples of industrial waterfront redevelopment in metropolitan Vancouver, we show how particular urban spaces are misrepresented as lynchpins of regional sustainability. In a plan for residential redevelopment, it is claimed that sustainable redevelopment will reunite citizens with “their waterfront”, reframed as liveable, pure, clean, ecologically vital and non-industrial. At an adjacent site, it is claimed that waterfront industrial land should be protected to combat industrial sprawl. Yet, in both cases the developers have lobbied for the expansion of road transportation making the claims of regional sustainability doubtful.     

The multifunctionality of urban farming: perceived benefits for neighbourhood improvement

Urban farming – a type of urban agriculture focused on entrepreneurial food production – serves multiple functions in neighbourhoods; yet these are not well delineated. Expectations for urban farming often centre on traditional measures of economic development, potentially overlooking other benefits. Through a qualitative case study conducted in Baltimore, Maryland, we sought to understand community perceptions regarding the ways in which urban farms can benefit cities. Interviews with residents, neighbourhood leaders, and urban farmers in three residential neighbourhoods with urban farms revealed the pathways by which community members view farms as improving neighbourhoods. Benefits stemmed from four primary changes urban farms made to study neighbourhoods: creation of public projects welcoming involvement, physical improvement of degraded space, production of local food, and creation of new businesses. These changes led to multiple perceived benefits including increased social connectedness, a transformed physical landscape, improved neighbourhood reputation, increased access to fresh produce, and educational, youth development, and employment opportunities. Our findings demonstrate the importance of a multifunctional paradigm that accounts for social and educational functions in assessing the value of urban farming and bring empirical evidence to the concept of multifunctional agriculture. Urban farms with strong social aims may appear to contribute little to economic development if measured using traditional indicators of success such as job creation or fiscal impacts, but provide numerous other benefits for community development.     

Neighbourhood - Open Space Relationships in Metropolitan Planning: A look across four scales of concern

New Urbanism and other metropolitan planning strategies may discount the importance of neighbourhood - open space relationships when dealing with some types of open spaces, particularly in city centre and urban fringe areas. In this paper I review a series of studies I have carried out over the past decade looking at people's perceptions and uses of urban open space. This research examined neighbourhood - open space relationships in the metropolitan area of Chicago, Illinois, USA at four scales of concern: quasi-public space within an immediate neighbourhood; a public park that spans different neighbourhoods; regional greenways; and a metropolitan bioreserve. In all of this work, my findings show how adjacent neighbourhoods are critical to the success of these open spaces, regardless of their scale. Lessons are drawn from each scale for how neighbourhood - open space relationships might be improved.     

Creating Defensible Space in the Wildland–Urban Interface: The Influence of Values on Perceptions and Behavior

We examined the effect that value orientation to forests and wildland fire management has on an individual’s decision to create defensible space around his or her residence in the wildland–urban interface. Using data from a mail-back questionnaire, respondents in north central Minnesota were clustered by basic value–laden beliefs toward forest and wildland fire management and compared across a number of perceptions and behaviors related to creating defensible space around residences. Value orientation groups differed in attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control toward creating defensible space. In addition, relative effects of these perceptions on intention to create defensible space differed across groups. Implications lie in (a) understanding differences in motivations and reasons for support of strategies for managing fires near the wildland–urban interface, (b) developing information designed to address the perspectives of different groups related to creating defensible space, and (c) contributing to an improved integration of land management and public concerns and interests.     

Social influences on expressed willingness to pay: results of a deliberative monetary valuation study in Colombia

Deliberative monetary valuation (DMV) methods can support environmental decision making by enabling the exchange of arguments and information to produce more democratic outcomes. The product of a valuation may be an array of expressions of willingness to pay (WTP) by individuals or a collectively agreed monetary value. Concerns have been raised, however, as to whether this product is an outcome of thoughtful and independent decision-making or influenced by social pressures to conform. Our study examines this issue and addresses concerns about the use of DMV, based on a public deliberation of forest conservation in Colombia. We analyzed the impacts of social conformity on WTP under two different decision scenarios: individual and collective. The results suggest that the impacts of social conformity are greater when a collective decision is required. These findings indicate that tensions between the differing goals of DMV could undermine its democratic promise.     

Tyrannical Spaces: Young people,bullying and urban neighbourhoods

We consider the street experiences of a group of urban children living in a large East Midlands town in the UK. Our attention focuses upon an issue that has seldom been examined, neighbourhood bullying. We highlight how some children, through their propinquity within neighbourhood spaces, clash and collide to such an extent that their experiences of a locality become severely blighted. For these unfortunate young people local environments are tyrannical spaces, defined in terms of 'no-go areas', danger and threat. These are not remarkable geographies, however, and we suggest that like many school environments, where bullying has increasingly been recognised and disclosed, within many localities there is a 'hidden' geography of fear waiting to be uncovered. The paper is organised into five parts: first, we briefly examine the concept of bullying, particularly in relation to young people in schools; secondly, we extend these ideas into a neighbourhood context drawing upon recent ideas of 'self', 'other' and microgeographies; thirdly, we outline the research project from which this article emerges; fourthly, we look at some empirical evidence from an urban case study that draws attention to the form and consequences of neighbourhood bullying; lastly, we discuss the relevance of these findings to future policy and practice, particularly in relation to the management of neighbourhood spaces. We propose that systematically applied local strategies to tackle bullying within neighbourhoods are needed, particularly those which engage young people and adults together through a whole community approach.     

The ecological context of student achievement: School building quality effects are exacerbated by high levels of student mobility

National reports along with numerous statewide studies indicate that the physical infrastructure of American schools is crumbling. At the same time there is emerging evidence that school building quality matters for children's academic achievement. We integrate two separate literatures that have demonstrated that low school building quality as well as high rates of student mobility each contribute to reduced academic achievement by showing that these two variables statistically interact. Elementary school children in 511 New York City public schools have lower achievement scores if they attend schools of poor structural quality and with high rates of student mobility. The significant main and interactive effects of school building quality and student mobility on standardized test scores occur independently of socioeconomic and racial composition of the school.     

Perceived landscape impacts of mobile telecommunications development in the Peak District National Park,England

This study explored the public perceptions of mobile telecommunications development – new landscape elements installed to deliver new technology – in a protected area. It examined: (1) the perceived landscape impacts of such development; (2) the importance attached to the socio-economic value of mobile telecommunications; and (3) the factors underlying the perceived landscape impacts of mobile telecommunications development. A postal questionnaire survey was conducted in the Peak District National Park, England with 420 respondents drawn from National Park residents and visitors, urban dwellers and members of environmental organisations. The study suggests that: (1) there was a prevailing antipathy towards the landscape impacts of mobile telecommunications development in the National Park; (2) apart from emergency uses, the other socio-economic benefits of mobile telecommunications technology were thought to be relatively unimportant in the National Park; and (3) rather than socio-demographic characteristics, it was respondents' understandings of protected areas' needs for the technology and potential health risks that had significant effects on the perceived landscape impacts. Overall, this study suggests that the significance of National Park landscapes is respected by the public, even when setalongside the convenience of modern technology, which has substantial implications for landscape planning and management in protected areas.     

New York City Environmental Justice Alliance Waterfront Justice Project

This paper reviews key challenges and opportunities addressed by the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance's (NYC-EJA) Waterfront Justice Project, a citywide campaign to promote climate resilience and sustainability in urban industrial waterfront communities of New York City. NYC-EJA is a non-profit membership-driven network linking grassroots organisations from low-income neighbourhoods and communities of colour in their struggle for environmental justice. The Waterfront Justice Project is documenting community vulnerability in the context of climate change impacts, sources of industrial pollution, and demographic and socio-economic trends. This campaign is enabling community-based organisations, environmental justice communities, city planners, local and state government agencies, local business-owners, and other stakeholders to work in partnership to achieve community resilience while advocating for local jobs and promoting best practices in pollution prevention. New York City's waterfront policies ease the siting and clustering of public infrastructure, water pollution control plants, waste transfer stations, energy facilities, and heavy manufacturing uses in six areas designated as Significant Maritime and Industrial Areas (SMIAs). The SMIAs are located in environmental justice communities, largely low-income communities and communities of colour, in the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. New York City's local waterfront land use and zoning policies create cumulative risk exposure not only to residents and workers in the host waterfront communities, but also, in the event of storm surge or sea-level rise, to neighbouring, upland communities.     

Space for equity: socioeconomic variations in the provision of public parks in Hermosillo,Mexico

This article examines the intersection between globalisation and allocation of open public space by testing the spatial equity hypothesis in Hermosillo, Mexico, a regional city impacted directly by global processes. Availability and accessibility of public parks were examined using a geographic information system and neighbourhoods were stratified into quintiles based on socioeconomic status. Overall, the analysis shows that the amount of public park space in Hermosillo is substandard and its distribution reveals a pattern of spatial inequity affecting primarily residents of poor neighbourhoods. We argue that as the economy of the city grows increasingly integrated into global circuits, the global-to-local connection materialises in an unequal competition between globalised spaces and local public space. This, in turn, leads to further relegation of neighbourhoods that are already on the margins of urban equity regarding access to public parks. This study extends prior research conducted in developed countries to a city in a developing nation and fills a vacuum of information that potentially can contribute to a more equitable development in Hermosillo.     

Traffic noise and executive functioning in urban primary school children: The moderating role of gender

The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between noise and school children's executive functioning (EF). The study included 311 children (146 boys and 165 girls) aged 7–11 years, who lived in the center of Belgrade. Teachers rated children's EF on a standard scale evaluating their ability to work independently in a focused manner to achieve an end goal as well as children's ability to follow directions carefully. Residential noise exposure was estimated in three daytime intervals, one evening interval and two nighttime intervals in the middle of the streets where children lived. School noise exposure was measured on three different school days in front of children's schools. Socioeconomic status (mother's highest level of education and family income) was used as a statistical control. There were no significant main effects of ambient noise levels on EF, however, a significant interaction indicated adverse noise impacts on boy's EF. We discuss possible reasons for male EF vulnerability to noise.     

Development of a scale of perceived environmental annoyances in urban settings

The construction and validation of an original scale was pursued to measure perceived environmental annoyances in urban settings. This scale included all the potentially aversive situations encountered in the daily lives of city-dwellers. The answers of 926 French respondents to our initial 68-item scale were first analysed. Using statistical techniques, the number of items was reduced to 51 from which the factorial structure was extracted. Seven principal dimensions emerged: feelings of insecurity, inconveniences associated with using public transport, environmental annoyances and concerns for global ecology, lack of control over time related to using cars, incivilities associated with the sharing of public spaces between different users, lack of efficiency resulting from the density of the population, and an insecure and run-down living environment. We also examined these dimensions of perceived environmental annoyances in urban settings according to the sex, age, occupational category and geographical location of respondents. The validated multidimensional scale constitutes a promising instrument for urban research that could usefully be employed in the emerging field at the interface between health psychology and environmental psychology.     

Putting the ‘E’ into LSPs: Representing the Environment within Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in the UK

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study with residents living in six deprived neighbourhoods in the UK and the front-line workers and local policymakers responsible for the renewal of these areas. The study was an attempt to raise awareness of local environmental concerns in the context of a national and local policy agenda, which has, until recently, largely overlooked the impacts of degraded environments on the lives and activities of the people who live in them. A key aim for the study was to raise people's concerns with local decision-makers and examine how far these might be addressed through the existing financial, administrative and legislative arrangements for neighbourhood renewal in the UK, namely Local Strategic Partnerships. The research was designed to provide practical lessons and policy recommendations for others wishing to raise the profile of environmental justice in the context of neighbourhood level regeneration projects, in both the UK and elsewhere in the ‘developed’ world.     

Disparities in the provision of public parks in neighbourhoods with varied Latino composition in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area

ABSTRACT

This article examines the provision of public parks in Latino and non-Latino neighbourhoods in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Though previous research has examined the socio-spatial distribution of urban parks, few have analysed both accessibility and variations in park features associated with the Latino composition of neighbourhoods. In this study, geographical information systems were employed to assess the availability and accessibility of neighbourhood parks, and Google Earth was used to audit their natural and built environmental features. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Games-Howell post hoc test was applied to examine the hypothesis that park resources are not equitably distributed across neighbourhoods, and that Latino places are disproportionally affected by a suboptimal provision of park space and services. The analysis points to invariance across neighbourhoods in terms of quantity and features of public parks, so the expected systemic pattern of inequality affecting Latino neighbourhoods in Phoenix Metro was not found. The study suggests, however, some areas wherein cities in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area could act to improve the allocation of public park resources and engage the diversity of local populations.     

“The Lucky country”? A critical exploration of community gardens and city–community relations in Australian cities

Urban agriculture (UA) has the potential to expand beyond the grassroots level to meet the social, cultural, economic and food needs of urban dwellers. At its core, UA represents an alternative use of urban space that occurs with or without government support or approval. The experiences of community gardeners and their views of, and engagement in, community gardens as a form of UA, or local “alternative food networks”, is a focal point of this paper. Relying on Australian city case studies, this paper explores community gardens, using critical urban approaches concerning “rights to the city” and diverse economies. Findings from this study reveal how community gardeners understand and participate in diverse economies and extended local food networks. They also identify respondents’ views of local councils as barriers to the emergence of community gardens, and other forms of UA, as a local response to growing concerns over impacts of the global food chain on food security. In contrast to other Western cities, effective city–community relations for community garden growth have yet to emerge in Australian cities, as key policy areas for urban sustainability and social cohesion.     

Local sustainability at school: a political reorientation>

My main purpose in this paper is to consider ways to reorient the school community towards a culture of sustainability. Education for sustainability (EfS) is generally regarded as learning how to make decisions and take action that consider the long-term future of the environment, economy and social justice of communities (UNESCO, Education for Sustainability. From Rio to Johannesburg: lessons learnt from a decade of commitment, 2002). Education for sustainability is usually and was historically applied in schools through an environmental education approach. My research is significant because the goal of transformation towards sustainability is considered from the perspective of school governance. In this paper I present three case studies: Forest School, a small independent rural school; Riverdale School, a small independent regional city school; and Oakfield School, a large government school situated in a regional city (all school names are pseudonyms). The research has concluded in the small schools and is in progress at Oakfield. In the literature, it is generally accepted that small schools have the potential for sustainability (for example, Sterling, Sustainable Education: re-visioning learning and change, Green Books, 2001, pp. 48, 69; Carnie, 'Educating on a Human Scale', Resurgence, 204, 2001). In the literature, there is no consensus on the potential for sustainability of medium or large schools. The ongoing Oakfield School project is particularly significant because of the issue of school size. In the Oakfield project, the intention is to document progress towards a culture of sustainability in a large school. In this paper, I conclude that a focus on the development of a participative democracy is conducive to cultural change for sustainability in a small school. I suggest that this will also be the case in a larger school, but that more complex structures for decision making as the basis for transformative learning are required.