Urban policy and environmental regeneration in two Scottish peripheral housing estates

Summary In the UK, particularly post-Second World War, urban renewal and decongestion programmes created peripheral housing estates. From the beginning these estates were not endowed with any sustaining social and economic life. Moreover, most of the residents were in the lower percentile of the urban poor, as well as being disadvantaged from a multiple perspective. Over the years, these estates have deteriorated socially, environmentally and economically. A number of limited efforts made in the past to improve the general well-being of the residents have not achieved appreciable success.In recent times, it has been recognised that only by a comprehensive approach can the peripheral estates be regenerated (or generated?). The New Life for Urban Scotland programme is aimed at doing this. This paper attempts to evaluate the impact of the programme of environmental improvement in Castlemilk and Ferguslie Park, both peripheral housing estates on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland. The impact areas studied are: land-use pattern and environmental quality; retail and shopping facility development; leisure and recreation; roads, streetscape and local transport services; environmental improvement expenditure. Some possible improvements in the programme are proposed for the future.Dr Sam C. Ofori undertook this study as part of a Master's Thesis with the School of Planning at the University of Central England.     

Amsterdam: planning and policy for the ideal city?

Is Amsterdam the “ideal city?” Many of the social, economic, and environmental problems facing Amsterdam are considerably less than those in cities in the USA, and in most cases, Western Europe. Amsterdam, at this moment in history, might be the world's greatest city because of its ability to ensure basic necessities, freedom, and creativity. Tolerance of drugs, sexual freedom, along with the integration of different races helps reduce many of the “social problems” faced by most cities. We have compared, on a per capita basis, differences between Amsterdam/Holland and the USA. The Netherlands is a tiny country, and comparisons are made on a city and per capita numbers at the national level. Our data show that Amsterdam has lower crime, murder, rape, drug usage (cocaine, marijuana), teenage pregnancy, diabetes, obesity, suicide, abortion rates, infant mortality, dependence on fossil fuels, and homelessness, and racial segregation is considerably less. People live longer because of Amsterdam's walkability and bike usage and access to parks. Indeed, the Netherlands leads both Western European and the USA in the proportion of trips made walking and bicycling, with significantly reduced car dependency. Ghettos are nearly non-existent compared with the segregation in the 1940s/1950s. Quality housing is supplied to everyone that gives pride of place compared with the stark, cold, and institutional “projects” provided by the US federal government. Amsterdam leads Western Europe by 35% in social housing, compared with runner-up UK, which has significantly less. The modernism of the 1960s where the poor were warehoused is nearly all gone. People living in Amsterdam seem more tolerant, secure, happier, and healthier compared with citizens in the USA. Great cities provide opportunities for all citizens to enhance their lives and ensure an unrivalled level of freedom. We demonstrate that social and environmental justice are tied together. Amsterdam is by no means perfect, but in comparison with many other democratic industrial cities, it is a far better place for citizens of all races, religions, and incomes.     

A Scottish approach to training for the unemployed: work‐start Ltd., Dundee

This article discusses the structure and performance of Work‐Start Ltd., a company located in Dundee and providing training for the unemployed. The company has attracted national and international attention by its innovative approach. Set up to meet the specific problems of peripheral housing estates, it is now responding to rapid changes in the local labour market.     

Housing association and local authority provision in rural housing markets: a Mid‐Wales case study

Over the last decade or so, rural housing problems in Britain have become an important focus of attention both for researchers and planners. Inaccessibility to adequate housing is a significant component of the more all‐embracing problems of rural deprivation. The rented sector is of particular relevance to the amelioration of these problems, but the supply has been increasingly restricted both in the private and in the public sector. Great stress has therefore been laid on the ability of housing associations to provide rented sector housing. This paper investigates the work of one particular housing association in Mid‐Wales — Cymdeithas Tai Dyffryn Teifi (CTDT) and assesses the degree of complementarity achieved with housing provision by the local councils operating in the same rural locality. The particular areas of effectiveness of a housing association in this context are thereby evaluated.     

Choice or coercion: dilemmas of sustainable social housing. A study of two developments in Kent

Social housing in the UK is currently required to meet higher levels of sustainability than new private housing, but since social tenants have little choice about their housing, this poses important issues about the possible coerced consumption of sustainable housing. The article examines residents' responses to two social housing developments in Kent in which the housing association concerned took advantage of government subsidies to incorporate sustainability features. The similarities and differences between residents' responses in the two estates are outlined, and are attributed to the types of tenants involved and to the particular technical and administrative features of the innovative features. It is concluded that, given the potential coercive character of the consumption of sustainability features, housing associations need to adopt a sensitive and realistic approach to such innovations and their possible benefits.     

Land development and employment creation on landed estates in the Northern Highlands

The landed estates may be divided into four groups according to land use and use intensity: crofting, sheep, sporting, mixed use. While sheep and mixed use estates have held sheep numbers constant, other estates have shown dramatic declines. All estates, and in particular sporting estates, have increased deer culls. Many sporting estates are supported by external private finance which makes land development unnecessary. Private enjoyment is an important ownership motivation on many estates. This, rather than lack of profitability or lack of finance, prevents development. However, significant employment creation can come only through extensive land developments beyond those on even the more productive estates. Such a strategy would require a development plan and a challenge to existing property rights.     

Towards sustainable development? The evolution of environmental policy in Malaysia

Over the last five decades, Malaysia has undergone rapid economic, social and environmental change, a process which is still continuing. The pursuit of socio‐economic progress has been accompanied by an unprecedented rate of change in the natural environment. In parallel to this development, governmental responses have also adapted over time to address emerging environmental situations. This article views the recent history of Malaysia's evolving policy response to development needs and environmental change as consisting of four distinct stages. Despite an impressive array of policy statements and strategies to implement sustainable development, many challenges remain today. A clear articulation of normative principles of sustainable development is of paramount importance, as is the monumental task of policy implementation. The article argues that the trajectory of Malaysia's policy on natural resources and environmental issues bears the characteristics of path‐dependent evolution.     

Assessment of public–private–NGO partnerships: Water and sanitation services in slums

The Self‐Employed Women's Association (SEWA) is a trade union founded in 1972 to organize women in the informal sector in the western Indian state of Gujarat for better working conditions and social security provisions. The Gujarat Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) and the SEWA Bank are independently registered SEWA sister organizations that facilitate self‐employed women's access to housing and financial services, respectively. This paper seeks to document and critically analyze the experiences of MHT and SEWA Bank in partnering with the state, the private sector, funding agencies, urban local bodies and other NGOs in developing and delivering housing, water and sanitation programs for low‐income urban families living in slums. Using MHT as a case study, this paper will shed light upon challenges and opportunities NGOs may face while collaborating with partners with different core philosophies, motivations, working styles, strengths and constraints. The paper also makes recommendations that would enable different actors to play an optimal role in partnerships designed to improve the living and working conditions of the poor.     

Smart Growth and Sustainable Development: Challenges,solutions and policy directions

In this paper, we focus on the issues related to development densities that emerged from our study of sprawl and development issues in three regions of British Columbia, Canada. We chose to focus on this aspect of the Smart Growth agenda because, while many of its other elements enjoy wide support across social interests, the goal of achieving a higher density urban fabric is highly controversial. We proceeded by collecting data on development densities and 13 indicators of community sustainability in 26 municipalities. The results suggest that the density of communities is associated with efficiencies in infrastructure and with reduced automobile dependence, with the ecological and economic implications which flow from that. However, it does not necessarily correlate with greater affordability of housing or more access to green space. In fact, if anything, we discovered a negative relationship between housing affordability and green space per capita and higher land-use densities. In a second stage of the research, we conducted a qualitative analysis of a subset of six municipalities and identified key policy issues for moving ahead with the Smart Growth agenda. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy issues that emerged from these case studies.     

Recent debates and developments in British regional policy

This paper reviews the latest regional policy changes in Britain against the background of recent political and academic debates over the nature of and appropriate response to regional economic problems. It puts forward a critique of the current government's position on regional policy, as set out in the 1983 White Paper Regional Industrial Development, and examines the options for more broadly‐based approaches to regional development planning.     

Heat as emergency,heat as chronic stress: policy and institutional responses to vulnerability to extreme heat

Increasingly commonplace in cities, extreme heat events introduce multi-stress vulnerability, affecting people’s health and well-being, financial situation, mobility, social relations, and access to basic services. Planning to reduce heat vulnerability has become part of government business and to some extent community-level responses, cutting across a number of sectors including public health, emergency management, social services, critical infrastructure, and housing. This planning is often framed around heat as an emergency, focusing on preventing loss of life and severe health impacts, yet a vulnerability perspective also draws attention to the chronic and persistent impacts of heat. Our research, based on interviews and desktop research in Melbourne, Australia, found tensions between addressing heat as an emergency and heat as a source of chronic stress, with emergency responses taking precedence over responses addressing the chronic dimensions of heat. Each approach results in different but nonetheless related programmatic priorities for reducing vulnerability. In complex institutional settings, improving relations between policy and programme managers, non-government organisations, and vulnerable people themselves would enable the multiple stresses associated with extreme heat to be more effectively addressed. Policy and institutional responses that better appreciate the interconnections between the emergency and chronic aspects of heat would likely reduce vulnerability and contribute to more just approaches to urban sustainability.     

Dilemmas and advances in corporate social responsibility in Brazil. The work of the Ethos Institute

This article discusses the development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Brazil from the perspective of the Ethos Institute of Business and Social Responsibility. The Institute is a not‐for‐profit, non‐governmental organization, that has played a leading role in the Brazilian CSR effort. In Brazil, CSR initiatives have a long tradition of philanthropy, a consequence of the country's great social inequalities. The increased attention to corporate social responsibility has paralleled growing concern about sustainable development and the intensifying activities of pressure groups (consumers, customers, investors, NGOs, labour unions, the media, among others) that have been increasing since the 1990s as natural resources are progressively becoming exhausted, social tensions rising and environmental conditions deteriorating worldwide. This article identifies problems and obstacles to the growth of corporate social responsibility in Brazil, as well as advances and alternatives for CSR and towards creating conditions for the country to be internationally competitive and sustainable in the financial, social and environmental areas.     

Evidence of the impacts of the national housing programme on the accessibility of the low‐income population in Rio de Janeiro

The Brazilian shift from a primarily rural to a more urban society has created major challenges that public policies must address. One of the most relevant challenges is deep social exclusion in urban areas, especially in terms of adequate housing and access to urban opportunities (e.g., jobs, housing, and services). In this context, land use and transport planning play a critical role in the sustainable development agenda. The work presented here analyses the accessibility of low‐income dwellings licenced under the Brazilian housing programme to the low‐income population. To evaluate the accessibility of the programme's target population, a case study was conducted in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where 58,000 homes licensed under the programme were analysed using GIS tools in terms of the present public transport network and the location of the homes. The amount of time it takes to access public transport on foot and the homes’ locations in relation to major urban opportunities were also analysed. Finally, the same analysis was performed for the future transport network, and the results of the two analyses were compared to identify the scope of the legacy generated by investments in preparation for the 2016 network.     

Environmental quality and council house sales: A case study of North Tyneside,UK

Summary The residential environments in British urban areas are divided between those dominated by public sector (local authority) housing and those properties which are owner-occupied. It is widely recognised that the environmental quality of local authority housing estates varies considerably. It may be expected, therefore, that the United Kingdom 1980 Housing Act, which encouraged the tenants of public sector housing to purchase the dwellings they rented from local authorities, would have a differential impact, according to the environmental quality of those estates. However, this relationship has not been previously explored. Most studies have related sales to a range of socio- economic variables. Whilst these may effectively indicate ability to buy they do not necessarily indicate willingness to buy. It is argued that the latter may be more closely related to factors such as the quality of the local environment. Findings from the North Tyneside area in northern England suggest that the spatial pattern of sales is more closely related to an index of environmental quality than one composed largely of socio-economic variables. Some of the implications of this finding for policy in relation to public sector housing are then discussed. It is suggested that if the ultimate objective of the Housing Act is to promote a larger private sector, then initially this may require a considerably larger public sector involvement in environmental improvement.Dr Michael Barke, is the senior author, Principal Lecturer in Geography and Acting Head of the Department of Environment at Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic. He has published a number of articles on aspects of urban change in North-East England. Ms Julie Rowlands is a graduate in Environmental Studies from the same Polytechnic and currently studying for professional qualifications in urban and regional planning in Perth, Western Australia.     

Transforming open mining pits into fish farms: Moving towards sustainability

The legacy of mining activities has typically been land ‘returned to wildlife’, or, at some sites, degraded to such an extent that it is unsuitable for any alternate use. Progress towards sustainability is made when value is added in terms of the ecological, social and economic well‐being of the community. In keeping with the principles of sustainable development, the innovative use of flooded open pits and tailings impoundments as commercial, recreational or ornamental fish farms should be considered in some locations, as it could make a significant contribution to the social equity, economic vitality and environmental integrity of mining communities. This article highlights the growing significance of aquaculture and explores the benefits and barriers to transforming flooded pits and impoundments into aquaculture operations. Among other benefits, aquaculture may provide a much‐needed source of revenue, employment and, in some cases, food to communities impacted by mine closure. Further, aquaculture in a controlled closed environment may be more acceptable to critics of fish farming who are concerned about fish escapes and viral transmissions to wild populations. Despite the potential benefits, aquaculture in flooded pits and impoundments is not without its complications — it requires a site‐specific design approach that must consider issues ranging from metals uptake by fish, to the long‐term viability of the aquatic system as fish habitat, to the overall contribution of aquaculture to sustainability.     

Social disruption,mine closure and housing policy: evidence from the Free State Goldfields,South Africa

The creation of mine settlements became a common practice between 1950 and 1980. These mining towns were seen as places of permanent settlement. This permanency, together with the privatisation of mine‐owned houses (mid‐1980s) increased place attachment. Mine decline thus brought with it some form of social disruption. Whereas mining companies in Australia have attempted to minimise the social disruption caused by mine closure by introducing fly‐in‐fly‐out arrangements, the post‐apartheid housing policy in South Africa has focused on asset building in mining areas. We completed 180 interviews with representatives of households. The survey formed part of a panel survey and further included a control group and 15 qualitative interviews. Our results indicate that though members of the mining community have housing units that are larger than those of the control group, incomes are lower in the mining community, real income is in decline, smaller numbers of household members are contributing to income, self‐assessments of wealth are characterised by lower ratings, household assets increase at a slower pace, and there is a stronger preference to continue to reside in the area. All of the above serves to illustrate the consequences of the asset‐based strategies embedded in South African housing policy. The social disruption associated with mine closure further tends to lock households into locations, and thus inhibits mobility.     

A Perspective on Nonstationarity and Water Management1

Hirsch, Robert M., 2011. A Perspective on Nonstationarity and Water Management. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(3):436‐446. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00539.x Abstract: This essay offers some perspectives on climate‐related nonstationarity and water resources. Hydrologists must not lose sight of the many sources of nonstationarity, recognizing that many of them may be of much greater magnitude than those that may arise from climate change. It is paradoxical that statistical and deterministic approaches give us better insights about changes in mean conditions than about the tails of probability distributions, and yet the tails are very important to water management. Another paradox is that it is difficult to distinguish between long‐term hydrologic persistence and trend. Using very long hydrologic records is helpful in mitigating this problem, but does not guarantee success. Empirical approaches, using long‐term hydrologic records, should be an important part of the portfolio of research being applied to understand the hydrologic response to climate change. An example presented here shows very mixed results for trends in the size of the annual floods, with some strong clusters of positive trends and a strong cluster of negative trends. The potential for nonstationarity highlights the importance of the continuity of hydrologic records, the need for repeated analysis of the data as the time series grow, and the need for a well‐trained cadre of scientists and engineers, ready to interpret the data and use those analyses to help adjust the management of our water resources.     

The Carbon Dioxide Reduction Workshop: Dutch Experiences with a Participatory Approach

This paper investigates the potential of a method for participatory policy making in the field of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) reduction in housing: the CO 2 reduction workshop. This innovative method aims to involve relevant actors at an early stage of urban development and to formulate common ambitions for CO 2 reduction. Special attention is paid to the inputting of information about options for CO 2 reduction. The workshop was organized and evaluated in two planning processes for new housing estates in the Netherlands. The evaluation addresses the design of the workshop, the utilization of knowledge in the process, the effects of the workshop on the commitment and knowledge of the participants and the effects on the wider planning process.     

How has a shortage of census and geological information impeded the regularization of artisanal and small‐scale mining?

There is growing consensus that a combination of laissez‐faire policies, ad hoc regulation and debilitating support services has perpetuated socio‐economic and environmental deterioration in the artisanal and small‐scale mining (ASM) industry. However, a lack of anthropological and geological information on ASM prevents many governments both from improving the policy environment of the industry, and from providing more robust extension services to its operators. This article aims to examine more precisely how a deficiency of baseline census and geological data has inhibited industry formalization and undermined many of the measures implemented to address pressing problems at ASM sites. Specifically, it is argued that insufficient knowledge of artisanal mining populations — including their demographic structure — and of areas suitable for ASM activities affects the ability of a government to regularize, as well as to improve, the organization of this largely informal sector of industry. Case studies of Ghana and Zimbabwe are used to illustrate how the undertaking of low‐budget projects in areas of geological prospecting and population analysis could improve the efficiency of ASM assistance.     

Is Denser Greener? An Evaluation of Higher Density Development as an Urban Stormwater‐Quality Best Management Practice1

Abstract: A simple spreadsheet model was used to evaluate potential water quality benefits of high‐density development. The question was whether the reduced land consumed by higher density development (vs. standard suburban developments) would offset the worse water quality generated by a greater amount of impervious surface in the smaller area. Total runoff volume and per acre loadings of total phosphorous, total nitrogen, and total suspended solids increased with density as expected, but per capita loadings and runoff decreased markedly with density. For a constant or given population, then, higher density can result in dramatically lower total loadings than more diffuse suburban densities. The model showed that a simple doubling of standard suburban densities [to 8 dwelling units per acre (DUA) from about 3 to 5 DUA] in most cases could do more to reduce contaminant loadings associated with urban growth than many traditional stormwater best management practices (BMPs), and that higher densities such as those associated with transit‐oriented development could outperform almost all traditional BMPs, in terms of reduced loadings per a constant population. Because higher density is associated with vibrant urban life, building a better city may be the best BMP to mitigate the water quality damage that will accompany the massive urban growth expected for the next several decades.