STATE OF THE WORLD'S CITIES 2012/2013 Prosperity

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As suggested earlier, it is in the power of well-calibrated planning rules and interventions to help embed the five dimensions of shared prosperity across the length and breadth of any urban jurisdiction. Making more functional the city, preserving access to the commons and producing useful public goods can be achieved through five different, sustainable types of intervention: Increase population density to sustainable levels: More intense land occupation and activities result in sustainable population densities which contain or reduce urban sprawl and depletion of limited resources. Greater proximity will, in turn, facilitate supply and distribution of goods and services. An efficient layout (together with adequate land legislation and policies) can reduce the cost of infrastructure. On top of suburban densification and sprawl remediation, land use can be intensified through area redevelopment, planning for new areas with higher densities, ‘brownfield’ development (i.e., decontaminating and developing land previously used for industrial or certain commercial purposes), building conversions, and transit-oriented developments. Encourage social diversity and mixed land-use: Land planning can bring about clusters of land uses in appropriate locations, with the flexibility needed to adapt to the changing requirements of the population. Urban planning must facilitate the deployment of common spaces that allow encounter, interaction and dialogue between different socialethnic groups. Moreover, physical urban structure facilitates communication between economic activities and residential areas, providing employment and services on a neighbourhood scale, with positive repercussions on productivity, infrastructure, equity, quality of life and the environment. Urban design strengthens and Innovating to Support the Transition to the City of the 21st Century 113 POLICy Acting at the space level (form and function of the city), urban planning can steer the overall functioning of the ‘wheel’, modulating each dimension of prosperity and ensuring synergies between them in order to maintain overall balance and sustainable growth, regardless of city size or level of development. empowers structures through infrastructure and facilities (education, healthcare, commerce, manufacturing and culture/entertainment). Devise multimodal mobility strategies: Urban planning can provide alternatives to the current widespread dependency on private motorised vehicles and reinforce London, UK: the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics Stratford was constructed on brownfield sites in an area of East London that had been previously rundown. After the Olympic games, the site is to be used to accommodate low cost housing as well as leisure activities. © 2012 Alistair Laming/fotoLIBRA.com
State of the World’s Cities 2012/2013 use of public transport in combination with non-motorized modes and proper sidewalks. An integrated urban transport strategy generates immediate effects on productivity, including reductions in travel times. Improved transport systems come with environmental benefits such as better air quality due to reduced exhaust fumes. Accessibility for all potential users is essential to ensure equal mobility opportunities. Plan infill development and guided expansion: Urban planning must combine both of these for the sake of proper density and provision of affordable urban land. Infill development can revitalize dilapidated areas in the city. In those developing countries where urbanization continues apace, new areas must be developed for the benefit of newcomers if further slum expansion is to be avoided. Properly planned spatial patterns can reduce pressure on land, provide for urban services and alleviate the burden over existing infrastructure. In addition, forward-looking planning can put a halt to land speculation while facilitating access to affordable housing and urban services. Promote Livable public spaces and vibrant streets: Public spaces and streets must be seen as multifunctional areas for social interaction, economic exchange and cultural expression among a wide diversity of participants. It is for planning to organize for those public spaces, and for design to encourage their use, in the process enhancing a sense of identity and belonging. Safety and security are important dimensions to be considered in any such design, together with vital underground infrastructure (water, energy and communications). Empowering Laws and Institutions for Urban Prosperity The success of some of the cities as highlighted in this Report is based on specific combinations of laws, regulations, institutions and processes. In almost all cases, FACT As the proximate reflection of society’s values, and as an emanation of political and social relations, laws and institutions serve as the most powerful instrument available to shape urban development. 114 advances along the five dimensions of prosperity are either accelerated or impeded by existing bodies of laws and regulations, the strength of enforcement, as well as by the configuration, capacity and flexibility of the institutions responsible for steering urban development. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of policy reviews and scholarly studies striving to address the normative and organizational underpinnings of urban change. To paraphrase Amartya Sen’s dictum about nations and democracy, a city does not need to be deemed fit for a prosperity-oriented legal and institutional system; rather, it must become fit through such a system – which, again, is needed now, and for the city as a whole. 47 At a time when so many crisis-struck nations find that a fresh start on the path of prosperity depends more than ever on cities, these must mobilise their potential to the full. 48 More than ever, cities need empowering, not forbidding legal and institutional systems for their prosperity. Cities need such systems now − and they are at hand’s reach, if only public authorities found the political will (as this chapter will show, some do). The universal demand for justice, fairness and legitimacy transcends cultural barriers. Therefore, it can be met in a variety of ways through a variety of frameworks, as determined by local urban power functions. These form the hub that drives the ‘wheel of urban prosperity’, supplying the laws and regulations that support and shape the five ‘spokes’, adjusting them over time as conditions, needs and fresh risks may require. However, in all parts of the world, law and institutions have always been shaped by the complex interactions of sociocultural factors, with new forces constantly bringing their own influences to bear. 49 Business, academia, civil society – non-governmental and grassroots organisations, trade unions and professional associations, political parties, etc. − are all the legitimate expressions of POLICy the various forms which a city’s specific potential can take; and the needs to which these stakeholders give ‘voice’ relate to the preservation and further development of their respective potentials. Urban power functions – governance, urban planning, legal and Promoting prosperity involves deployment of proper laws, regulations and institutions which have a direct or indirect bearing on equity, productivity, infrastructures and living standards, and which extend across the length and breadth of the whole jurisdiction of the relevant urban authority.
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PRODUCTIVITY ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINA
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Copyright © United Nations Human S
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Foreword This is a time of crises.
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Acknowledgements CORE TEAM Director
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Chapter 1.1 Conceptualizing Urban P
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State of the World’s Cities 2012/
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Part Two
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Chapter 2.1 Productivity and the Pr
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STATE OF THE WORLD'S CITIES 2012/2013 Prosperity

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