Showing papers on "Urban density published in 1984"

The early city in West Africa: towards an understanding

Abstract: The dominating paradigm of urbanism in West Africa is steadily shifting from the city-centric to the dynamic consideration of the city's function within a wider settlement hierarchy. The authors appraise these theoretical positions and discuss the methodologies appropriate to each. Following the thematic framework developed in the theory and method sections, we then consider what research at the major early town sites has to date revealed about the chronology, course, and circumstances of urbanism in West Africa. Data available from the several sites considered is highly uneven. Analysis, even when quality data are available, has in some cases been hindered by a limiting theoretical approach. Although urban investigations in West Africa are only in their infancy, it is clear that cities are but one of several institutions indicating the early, indigenous emergence of hierarchically-ordered societies. With the recent demonstration that at least some West African towns represent indigenous processes of urbanization, the comparative study of factors contributing to urban growth and alternative urban paths becomes imperative.

Two Types of Planning in Neighborhoods

Abstract: This paper distinguishes between &dquo;subarea planning&dquo; in which central planning agencies deconcentrate facilities or functions to subareas, and &dquo;neighborhood planning&dquo; in which community residents and organizations develop plans and programs for themselves This distinction is overdue and not trivial, for little of the growing discussion of neighborhoods carefully discriminates among alternative meanings Yet each type of planning has different ends, and much of what passes today as neighborhood planning is actually subarea planning in disguise. This paper draws on a review of research and practice on planning in neighborhoods concerned with housing rehabilitation, economic development, physical improvement, and social services It analyzes each type of planning, its objectives and methods, major participants and obstacles, and impacts and factors influencing practice It concludes that these are distinct movements important to separate, each motivated by distinct ends and values, each implying distinct roles for planners, planning, and planning education and research

The evolution of land values in the context of rapid urban growth : a case study of Bogota and Cali

Abstract: The influence of rapid urban growth upon land values in two Colombian cities is examined. Land values have responded to the rapid growth of these cities much as they might be expected to in a market economy. Growth in land values has been greatest in the periphery of these cities and least at the center. Furthermore, land values in poor areas have increased as fast as land values in rich areas. These results are somewhat surprising in the presence of a widespread impression in Colombia, as in other developing countries, that land prices in cities have been growing at undesirably high and unwarranted rates. Furthermore, urban land is probably one of the few assets to which the poor have relatively better access. Thus, if access to shelter for the poor is an important policy concern, policy measures should address such access directly. Rather than hindering rising land prices, policy should be directed at providing subsidized or free access to land in the form of a squatters rights policy.

Urban Growth Models Revisited: Cities as Self-Organizing Systems

Abstract: Spatial patterns seem to be very stable in Los Angeles, the most volatile of all US metropolises. Processes suggested by the classical growth models to explain these patterns have ceased to be applicable over the last fifty years or so, and have probably never played any important role in Los Angeles.A new conceptual model is proposed to integrate the rapidity of urban change and the persistence of spatial patterns. Urban forms and their content should be considered as independent of each other. Urban change appears as a dialectical process, whereas the spatial order of a city seems to be a geometrical and topological phenomenon with a logic of its own. Urban forms persist because a city is a self-organizing system. Such systems, analyzed by biologists such as Atlan, are able to absorb random perturbation while conserving their order. This model is applied to some examples in the USA, Europe, and Algeria.

Urban Planning, Public Health, and the Human Costs of Economic Change:

Abstract: The thesis of this article is that the interests of both urban planning and public health will be served by developing a common understanding of the health effects of increased mobility of capital and labor. It is argued that practical and theoretical developments make this understanding more possible and important now than at any time in the recent past The major substantive and methodological components of a common research agenda and curriculum reform are also

Technology assessment of productive conservation in urban transportation

Abstract: The 6 papers in this report deal with the following areas: projection of urban household automobile holdings and new car purchases by type; projection of typical characteristics of automobiles and transit vehicles for policy analysis; energy-conservation strategies and their effects on travel demand; sketch-planning model for urban transportation policy analysis; technology assessment of productive conservation in urban transportation: an overview; and, selection of case study cities and expansion to national urban totals.

Development of the U.S. Urban System

Abstract: At least since the North-Tiebout debate of the 1950s there has been a tradition of cross-fertilizaton between regional science and economic history to the benefit of both fields. Although numerous landmark studies mark this symbiosis, one specific study deserves particular mention: Regions, Resources and Economic Growth by Harvey S. Perloff, Edgar S. Dunn, Jr., Eric E. Lampard, and Richard F. Muth (The Johns Hopkins Press, 1960). That book, by combining a massive data collection and refinement effort with the then emerging shift/share technique of regional science, provided a comprehensive picture and causal examination of variations in U.S. regional growth patterns between 1870 and 1954. It represents a direct harbinger of Edgar S. Dunn, Jr.'s twovolume study presently under review. At the most superficial level, The Development of the U.S. Urban System extends the earlier work into the 1940-1970 time frame by applying shift/share analysis to decennial census regional/industrial employment statistics. This study, however, seeks to accomplish much more for, as Dunn points out in his preface to Volume 1, "[e]xplanation is always rooted in the conceptual images we bring to a field of study [and i]n the field of urban and regional development . .. the literature offers only a highly fragmented and disassociated set of concepts" (p.xv). The goal of the study is therefore to provide a unifying framework with which to analyze spatial growth patterns and to apply the conceptual apparatus developed to a period of rapid change in the U.S. economy. As such the study is more than an exercise in quantitative economic history; it also presents a new methodology and attempts to reorient the way we look at urban systems. In keeping with these objectives, Part I of Volume 1 (consisting of four chapters) aims at modifying our approach to urban and regional development. Although it is impossible here to capture all of the nuances of Dunn's approach, several salient features can be highlighted. The author prefers to view the urban system in a relational (versus classificational) manner. The urban structure is seen as a complex set of overlapping and intersecting informationand physical-processing networks. It follows that, although regions should be defined in a behavioral/relational manner, our penchant for adopting classification schemes results in imperfect network closure. Arguing against the reality and efficacy of classical general equilibrium and central place theories, Dunn contends that the underlying transaction networks still result in both a hierarchical and systemic urban pattern. In investigating the sources of urban change (in Dunn's view modern society contains no nonurban relational activities) an important distinction is made between growth and development. Growth is defined as " . . . those adaptations to environmental change made within the context of established ways of behaving . . . " (p.14). It is a scalar

Urban System Theory, and Urban Policy and Expenditures in England and Wales*

Abstract: Urban systems theory offers a useful and potentially powerful way of analysing public policy and service expenditures, a research field which, in the past, has lacked in general theory and good empirical results. It is hypothesized that just as cities which play an important role in the national urban system provide a wide range of specialized and expensive goods and services in the private sector, so also will they tend to spend heavily on a range of public services and amenities. Following recent theoretical developments, the presence of the headquarters of major companies is used as a measure of the importance of English and Welsh cities in the national urban system, and this measure is related to service expenditures. The results strongly support the hypothesis, and suggest that levels of service expenditure, particularly on what are termed indivisible services, are related to the general characteristics of an urban system, rather than directly to the concentration of business headquarters.

Urban Agriculture: Urban Planning and the ahmedabad Experience

Abstract: Cities all over the world are growing rapidly and the manifestations of the Urban Crisis in a variety of areas, viz., environment, food, health, energy, landuse, are quire evident. Urban landuse patters are changing dramatically due to the pressure of population and the role of agriculture in supplying food, fuel, forage and forest products has declined considerably. The urban poor’s access to food has become worse and they have to pay higher prices for food and fuelwood, while their incomes are growing more slowly. The food subsidies and public distribution systems for essential commodities defuse and contain the crisis in the short term but do not address the needs of the poor in the long term. The paper looks at the experience of Ahmedabad, an Indian city and the historical transition of urban food system and develops alternatives for urban planning what focus on urban agriculture. The current urban development programmes systematically ignore the basic needs of the urban poor and their social ecology. They largely concentrate on creating physical structures (roads, housing, water supply, sewage disposal etc.) involving new investment, benefiting some area and some groups. The possibilities of utilising existing urban physical resources (land, water idle production capacity, wastes) and social resources (state, market, household and collective nonmarket community institutions) more effectively to produce and distribute the basic needs of food and energy, are very promising. Urban agriculture can increase food self-reliance and security in cities, be environmentally sustainable and increase the democratic control of the urban poor in meeting their basic needs. There is very little understanding of this issue among decision makers, professionals and citizens. Historical experience and current practice in India cities (and elsewhere in Asia) show that it is possible for them to produce as high as 60 per cent of their basic food needs. There are several social, political and economic constraints, however, in promoting urban agriculture. This paper will discuss the planning issues involved in urban agriculture in India, review the specific case studies and experiments in Ahmedabad, based on an ongoing study, and generate public policy options for urban agriculture.

Urbanization and the Changing Location of Aggregate Production

Abstract: In this article we are concerned with the mining of building materials, primarily with sand and gravel, but also with clay and volcanic cinder. Admittedly, mining activities are seldom considered "urban." Yet, despite their omission from most texts on urban geography, we feel the importance of our concern with mining activities, that is, with aggregate production in and near urban areas deserves attention for at least two reasons. Our approach employs basic models in urban geography asbuilding blocks around which we generate a reasonable explanation of the locational pattern of aggregate production in an urban area. This essay not only demonstrates the utility of applying basic models to help understand urban spatial arrangements, but also explores a neglected topic of both economic and urban geography.