Evolving planning systems in Madrid,Rome, and Athens

Although possessing ancient and distinguished histories, the recent urbanization and planning approaches of Madrid, Rome and Athens are relatively unknown to English-speaking planners and urban geographers. This paper reviews the development of each city from the mid-19th century to the present. Special attention is given to the planning instruments developed in each city to guide growth. Each city experienced rapid growth over the past century because of its capital city functions. As a result of strong growth pressures, city planning policies were frequently subverted by private sector interests. Only in the latter part of the 20th century have planning measures become effective in controlling and directing urban growth.     

Water and power networks and urban fragmentation in Los Angeles: Rethinking assumed mechanisms

Los Angeles is often described as the epitome of urban fragmentation, a notion which in this context is frequently connected to, or even conflated with urban sprawl. At the same time, the city features integrated water and power networks which have been under public ownership for over 70 years. We thus have an apparent paradox in the context of the debate on ‘splintering urbanism’, between socio-spatial fragmentation and the integration of networks. In discussing the idea that deregulation of infrastructural networks exacerbates urban fragmentation, the authors use the case of Los Angeles in order to highlight the central role of private interests in management decisions concerning infrastructure networks. The authors carry out their analysis in an historical perspective, revealing that network integration and universal access can often serve private interests more than the public good. Urban fragmentation in Los Angeles, they conclude, is the result of a complex process of instrumentalisation of network development and management.     

Service sector employment in Merseyside

This paper reports the results of an analysis of service sector employment trends in Merseyside. The main data source was the Census of Employment covering the period 1971–1975; comparisons are made between Merseyside and national trends. The paper contains analyses of changes in industrial and male and female employment, tertiary and quaternary sector services, growth and declining industries, public and private sector employment, office employment and the components of employment change. Particular attention is paid to differences between the Inner City and Outer Areas of Merseyside. Employment decline was widespread in the service sector, as was also the case in manufacturing. Employment decline is likely to continue because of a number of adverse factors affecting the local economy. The paper concludes by describing a number of initiatives the public sector could take in association with private sector interests to promote the further development of service industries which are already established in Merseyside.     

The new equine sector and its influence on multifunctional land use in peri-urban areas

The equine sector is increasingly influencing land use, especially in peri-urban areas where the demand for land is already high. The sector not only influences traditional farming and land use, but also social, legal and economic development, and thus demands new interpretations of rural and urban. However, there is currently a lack of information on the consequences of this sector at landscape, social and economic level. This study examines the influence of the equine sector on the development of multifunctional land use in peri-urban areas, using data and examples from Sweden. It also examines specific features of the associated growing area of research and the positioning of the issue within the broader context of land use and planning. The methods used were a case study of a municipality, together with interviews and analyses of statistical material at regional level in the context of multifunctional land use, planning and sustainable development. It was found that the structure of the equine sector varies at both national and local level due to local conditions, but that there are also common features that need to be further studied using a broad interdisciplinary starting point.     

The perfect way to ending a painful past? Makuleke land deal in South Africa

This article presents a discussion of one of the first large-scale community based rural land claims in South Africa. The Makuleke land claim was highly contentious, as it involved more than 20 stakeholders: government departments, local communities and their chiefs, NGOs, mining companies, commissions and task teams, and individuals; all pursuing vested and conflicting interests. [According to the former Chief of the Defence Force, General George Meiring, “the whole area (was) riddled with claims. Many of the claims came from people who visited (the area) once in a blue moon” (WildNet Africa, 1997. News File, May 9)]. Moreover, the greater part of the claim lies within the Kruger National Park, thus, drawing statutory environmental conservation policies into the ambit of land reform. The analysis presented here juxtaposes historical material and trajectories of restitution in order to shed light on the contestation between national goals and community interests.     

上海经营性土地储备制度及机制完善

土地储备是政府为筹集城市建设资金和加强宏观调控,主动进行的制度创新。上海土地储备制度在探索实践中完成了从＂市场主导＂模式向＂政府主导、市场运作＂模式的过渡,而全市开展的土地储备规划和计划编制则在引领城市发展、规范土地市场运作、提升土地调控能力方面发挥了重要作用。为加强土地储备制度落实,需在政策、资金、计划、市场、规划等方面进一步完善工作机制。     

Planning regional development: Promoting small settlements in a trans-frontier situation

Under communism local authorities tended to be largely passive bystanders in a regional development process which emerged through the central planning process through the spatial allocations of investment by government ministries. Attention was given to physical planning, but comparatively little material entered the public domain on location policy and spatial priorities generally, apart from the objective of greater equality between regions and a commitment to backward areas generally. Now that much investment is down to private enterprise and government has become more decentralised and accountable, there is a need for concepts and strategies to coordinate public sector investment and provide guidelines for the evaluation of private development proposals. At the same time, there is an open competition for investment which requires communities to promote themselves in terms of their identity and development potential. This paper offers an overview by taking two countries - Hungary and Romania - where progress can be compared and where the focus can be placed on a common frontier which is diverting attention from conventional regional planning to cross-border cooperation. In both contexts however, attention is given to the ways in which planning can divert investment away from the main centres to the peripheral areas, including action to strengthen the role of small towns and also to improve cohesion among functionally-related groups of settlements and communes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Progress in the study of the geography of retailing and wholesaling in Britain

Geographers have devoted a considerable amount of attention to the distributive sector. In part this has arisen because this sector provides an excellent testing ground for techniques. Substantive research, despite the needs of decision makers in both the public and private sectors, has been inbalanced. It has tended to focus on shoppers' behaviour and the factors controlling supply, at least equally important, have been relatively neglected. The paper indicates the significance of these factors and demonstrates how they need to be integrated into different modelling and theoretical approaches if research is to provide really useful insights for decision makers. It outlines how the focus of geographical study has shifted from examining the distributive trades as indicators of other facts of urban systems to the examination of spatial variations which are of substantial operational significance. Such studies do, however, fit readily into a wider frame-work of a geographical environment which is continuous but partitioned, limited but expanding and organised but diversified. Fruitful research can thus adopt both a spatial and an ecological perspective. The importance of the sector in the economy is sufficient reason for such research to be conducted.     

Profitability and the poor: Corporate strategies, innovation and sustainability

Based on empirical evidence, the article looks at the implications of private sector participation (PSP) for the delivery of water supply and sanitation to the urban and peri-urban poor in developing countries, with particular reference to Africa and Latin America. More precisely, the article addresses the impact produced by multinational companies’ (MNCs) strategies, in light of the pursuit of profitability, on the extension of connections to the pipeline network. It does so by questioning the assumptions that greater private sector efficiency and innovation, together with contract design, will enable the sustainable extension of service coverage to low income dwellers. The strategies of the major water MNCs are considered both in relation to the global expansion of their operations and the adjustment of local strategies to commercial considerations. The latter might result in identifying profitable markets, modifying contractual provisions, attempting to reduce costs and increase income, reducing risks and exiting from non-performing contracts. The evidence reviewed allows for re-assessing the relative roles of the public and private sectors in extending and delivering water services to the poor. First, the most far reaching innovative approaches to extending connections are more likely to come from communities, public authorities and political activity than from MNCs. Secondly, whenever MNCs are liable to exit from non-profitable contracts, the public sector has no other option than to deal with external risks affecting continuity of provision. Finally, market limitations affecting MNCs’ ability to serve marginal populations and access cheap capital do not apply to well-organised, politically led public sector undertakings.     

Multi-objective, multiple participant decision support for water management in the Andarax catchment, Almeria

Water management in the Andarax river basin (Almeria, Spain) is a multi-objective, multi-participant, long-term decision-making problem that faces several challenges. Adequate water allocation needs informed decisions to meet increasing socio-economic demands while respecting the environmental integrity of this basin. Key players in the Andarax water sector include the municipality of Almeria, the irrigators involved in the intensive greenhouse agricultural sector, and booming second residences. A decision support system (DSS) is developed to rank different sustainable planning and management alternatives according to their socio-economic and environmental performance. The DSS is intimately linked to sustainability indicators and is designed through a public participation process. Indicators are linked to criteria reflecting stakeholders concerns in the 2005 field survey, such as fulfilling water demand, water price, technical and economical efficiency, social and environmental impacts. Indicators can be partly quantified after simulating the operation of the groundwater reservoir over a 20-year planning period and partly through a parallel expert evaluation process. To predict the impact of future water demand in the catchment, several development scenarios are designed to be evaluated in the DSS. The successive multi-criteria analysis of the performance indicators permits the ranking of the different management alternatives according to the multiple objectives formulated by the different sectors/participants. This allows more informed and transparent decision-making processes for the Andarax river basin, recognizing both the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of water resources management.     

Some views on land ownership in urban planning and housing production in Sweden

Urbanisation is a functional change in land utilisation which requires a high degree of coordination in time and space. Swedish society has not considered it possible to entrust this coordination to the free market forces. A number of measures was introduced during the latter part of the sixties with a view to coordinating housing development by means of local authority-land ownership and preventing land speculation. In a recently published report of a Government Commission it is proposed that dwellings receiving Government housing loans (more than 90 % of building construction) shall only be built on land which is owned by the local authorities. The local authorities may then be assumed to be the only purchasers of land for housing development purposes. Their housing policy can be given a more short-term character and can be better adapted to urban planning. Urban development in Sweden during recent decades is characterised by a struggle between the two groups of our mixed-economy society, i. e., a social democratic government, and capitalistic enterprise. As far as the private individual is concerned, both parties are remote decision makers. The important question is whether an improvement in town environment may be expected before the private individual has been given a chance to influence planning. The relationship between housing development and land ownership in some Swedish towns over the period 1950–1970 is presented as an example of the realization of land policy.     

中国土地制度改革的方向与途径

2013年12月2日下午,上海市地质调查研究院副总工程师李勤奋教授与上海市地质调查研究院总工程师办公室副主任兼《上海国土资源》编辑部主任龚士良教授专程赴北京拜访了国务院发展研究中心农村经济研究部副部长刘守英研究员,并代表《上海国土资源》期刊作了专题访谈。刘部长对十八届三中全会审议通过的《中共中央关于全面深化改革若干重大问题的决定》中土地制度改革等内容作了全面深入的解读和诠释,指出以往的土地制度为我国工业化、城市化发展做出了重大贡献,但要保障下一个战略机遇期中国经济社会的可持续发展,需要统筹考虑农民权益保障、发展空间规划、土地增值收益的公平分配、土地利用效率提升等因素,对土地制度进行全面改革。十八届三中全会将建立城乡统一的建设用地市场作为今后我国加快完善现代市场体系的重要内容,体现出中央对土地制度改革的重视,也明确了土地制度改革的方向。允许集体经营性建设用地进入市场,不仅有利于保护农民利益,而且有助于缩小征地范围。刘部长同时对生态保护红线与耕地保护红线的相互关系作了阐述。     

Conservation planning in the west, problems, new strategies and entrenched obstacles

The United States is often considered the progenitor of conservation planning in the world, the first to establish a vast public domain, for example. But with continued population growth, conservation planning on private lands—rural and at the urban fringe—continues to be a substantial challenge due to a tradition of local home rule in land use planning and strong private property protection afforded by the US Constitution. New “bottom-up” collaborative approaches, as well as other innovative strategies seem to be emerging. How effective these will be given pressures for growth and high property values remain to be seen without a rethinking of ideas of nature, a rebalancing of the role of property in American local fiscal regimes, and of private property rights.     

新时期市级国土空间总体规划编制认识与思考——以福建省宁德市为例

新时期市级国土空间总体规划具有开拓性和创新性,是我国国土空间规划体系的重要组成部分,既要起到承上启下的传导作用,又要解决前期各类空间规划体系、时限、标准、成果形式等矛盾,实现"一张图"。以福建省宁德市为例,基于新时期国土空间规划的新属性,明确了国土空间规划的基本内容,提出本轮宁德市国土空间总体规划中存在的主要问题为:土地资源紧缺,城镇拓展空间受限;城区量级较低,联动效应不强;综合配套不足,港口建设优势不明显;生态安全尚存风险,城市韧性有待加强。基于宁德市发展使命和目标,认为新时期宁德市国土空间总体规划的发展策略为:做好生态优先、绿色发展理念下的空间要素配置,完善以人民为中心的城乡人居环境规划,实施公共政策属性导向下的空间规划治理。建议市级国土空间规划,要以"三调"为抓手、以问题为导向、以底线为约束,立足全域,建立国土空间格局,探索构建形成一张层次传导、统筹、动态的"蓝图",有助于提升国土空间规划及空间治理能力。     

No longer working for the state: residual state sector versus private sector

The paper is concerned with decreasing state ownership in post-communist Eastern Europe and a concomitant decline in the proportion employed in the state sector. Many individuals have shifted into private sector employment, self-employment or unemployment. The literature on sectoral shifts in employment in Eastern Europe is summarised, and from this it is argued that there will be a growing differentiation between private sector employees and state sector employees in economic, social and political terms. Data is then analysed based on a survey in 1995 of around 1000 households in each of four cities – Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and Krakow. Similar patterns emerged in the four cities. Consistent differences in working conditions and rewards are already evident between the self-employed, private sector and state sector. These conflicting economic interests are reflected in contrasting attitudes to the economy and polity amongst those employed in different sectors. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

L'organisation capitaliste du territoire et le problème du logement en Italie

The capitalistic organization of territory and the housing problem in Italy.This paper provides the first results of a research programme regarding the selective and spatially differentiated use of the Italian territory by private capital in the housing sector.According to the 1971 census, in Italy there were 63,8 million rooms for 53,2 million inhabitants. As regards the 1951 census the increase of rooms has been of 26,5 million, i.e. of 70.9%, as against an increase of 15,6% of the population. In this period the investment in dwelling-houses has represented about 30% of total fixed investments which is more than in the other E.E.C. countries.The Italian building stock (with a medium average of 1.2 rooms per inhabitant), is theoretically sufficient to satisfy the population needs. This ratio, however, drops to 1.06 if we exclude the 7.6 million rooms in non-inhabited houses (“holiday houses”, new unsold houses, abandoned homes because of emigration or because of their poor conditions).Moreover, more than one third of the Italian population lives in overcrowded conditions (less than one room per person) and poor standard houses are 40% of the total.This is not only due to the fact that public investments in the housing sector have been insignificant (6% in the last ten years), or to the unequal social distribution of revenue, but also, moreover, to the speculative character of the building activity.The economic analysis shows that between 1951 and 1971, in the expansive stages of housing production, net incomes of the building and land sector have increased more rapidly than the total earned incomes and that they have been higher than the amount of investments in the sector. So, building and land estate rent have been among the main components of the Italian capitalistic accumulation through the exporpriation of a prominent share of wages. At the same time, the ever increasing growth in housing prices both for sale and for rent has forbidden the fulfilment of the needs of the lower classes, extending in an abnormal way the production of luxury and “holiday houses” to satisfy the requirements of the higher classes. This is the cause of the above mentioned contradiction between the amount of the unused or subused building stock and the existence of a large number of sub-standard and/or overcrowded houses.This mechanism of accumulation-expropriation worked because of a specific spatial structure. Its main character consists in a strong geographical concentration of the basic activities and of the population. 53.3% of 1960–1971 housing production has concentrated in 4.7% of the Italian communes with more than 20,000 inhabitants.The analysis carried out on a stratified sample including 1,524 communes allowed us to reach the following results: 1. We find situations of greater unsatisfaction of the needs in the largest industrial metropolitan north-western areas and in the underdeveloped southern communes with strong emigrations. 2. We have had the highest offer for houses, as regards the needs, in the communes with less than 5,000 inhabitants, in the communes with less than 250,000 inhabitants, with prevalently tertiary functions, and in the districts where development is more equilibrated, from a territorial point of view (i.e.: north-eastern Italy). 3. The mechanism of accumulation-expropriation worked mainly in the industrial areas and it grows at the ever increasing growth of agglomerations and urban overcrowding, determined by strong migratory flows. 4. Building activity of tertiary communes has been led, mainly, by the higher-class expansion of consumptions. 5. The same kind of demand has given rise to the strong increase of “holiday houses” which interests large periurban, coastal and Alpine areas. 6. The housing sector becomes in this way a component of territorial disequilibriums, caused by the industrial and tertiary polarization and it is inclined to enlarge them by the artful increase of urban rent. 7. This use of territory has the aim to encourage incomes removal among different social classes and to contribute in this way, to the process of capitalistic accumulation. But, by doing this, it causes a kind of growth, in the housing sector, which is unable to satisfy lower-class needs for houses. 8. The attainment of this last purpose would, therefore, mean an efficient regional planning and the elimination of urban rent, conditions which are in opposition to the maintenance of the present economic and social structure of the Italian economy, of which speculative building and rent sectors are, nowadays, essential components.     

An institutional perspective on local capacity for source water protection

Provision of safe drinking water is one of the global challenges of the 21st century. Effective water treatment is a key aspect of drinking water safety. However, just as important is ensuring that sources of drinking water such as rivers and aquifers are protected from contamination. In that context, source water protection is recognized as the first barrier in a multi-barrier approach to drinking water safety. Source water protection occurs at the local scale, and involves numerous local actors with varying capabilities. Consequently, institutional arrangements (IAs) for land use planning and water management are key determinants shaping local capacity for source water protection. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the extent to which existing IAs enhance or constrain the capacity of local governments to protect source waters. An evaluation framework, developed around four core elements drawing from functional and relational perspectives on capacity and capacity building, was applied to the Oldman River basin, Alberta. Results showed that local capacity for source water protection is constrained by existing IAs that do not encourage the generation of a locally relevant technical knowledge base and which assign legal authority for regulating intensive livestock operations to the provincial government. Formal mechanisms for integrating land use planning and water management, which could help overcome these functional constraints and provide opportunities for broad public involvement, have yet to be developed in Alberta. Meaningful participation can provide local governments with an ability to encourage source protection on private lands and enhance their leverage when confronting public land and livestock production issues. However, if local capacity is to be facilitated through IAs that encourage interaction among local governments, stakeholders and residents, then capacity building initiatives should also take into consideration how existing IAs help to maintain and to reproduce local power differentials.     

Growth and decline in the Canadian urban system: the impact of emerging economic,policy and demographic trends

The Canadian urban system was first shaped by exogenous demand for staples and, subsequently, by the dichotomy between an industrial heartland and a resource based hinterland. Presently, transformations affecting the economy, policy-making and demography herald profound changes in the future configuration of the Canadian urban system. One possible scenario is a revival of the staples economy as economic globalization raises demand for commodities. Another scenario would entail a concentration of growth in large urban centres, by virtue of their attractiveness to specialized and high-order service occupations, two rapidly expanding economic sectors, and their strong pull on immigrants. In the case of either scenario, we can expect further polarization between growing and shrinking portions of the urban system (parts of the heartland in the first case and small urban areas in the second) in a neo-liberal policy context that is unfavourable to regional economic development interventions. The evolution of the Canadian urban system between 1971 and 2006 and present distributions of factors of growth and decline point to the second scenario, a growing large city-small city dichotomy. The article closes by discussing likely consequences of the resulting urban system configuration on labour market adjustments and public sector expenditure.     

Agrarian development and conflicts of land utilization in the coastal plains of Calabria (South Italy)

In the Mediterranean area modern economic development is concentrating more and more on the favourably situated coastal plains. The coastal plains of Calabria, which are examined on the basis of land utilization mapping, form, in this backward S Italian region, individually characteristic areas of different levels of agrarian development. Areas with insufficient aid and stagnating development and those with a strong initial developmental impulse and hesitant further development, stand face-to-face with areas with a continuous upward trend. The latter fit into the ranks of those consolidated agricultural regions of S Italy in which government aid and private initiative are multifariously intertwined and together support the process of development. Up to now, however, the different non-agricultural interests have impeded the continuing progress of the process more and more and given rise to awkward land utilization conflicts. Through settlement expansion, the building of transport facilities and ports for industrial zones as well as tourism, the use of land for agriculture is, to an increasing extent, being taken away so that regional planning seems imperative.     

The urban land debate in the global South: New avenues for research

The global ‘land grab’ debate is going urban and needs a specific conceptual framework to analyze the diverse modalities through which land commodification and speculation are transforming cities across the globe. This article identifies new avenues for research on urban land issues by drawing on an extensive body of academic literature and concrete cases of urban land transformations in Asia, Latin America and Africa. These transformations are analyzed by focusing on three types of urban investments – investments in property, investments in public space and public services, and investments in speculation, image building and ‘worlding’ – and the way these investments are intermingled with and enhanced by processes of gentrification and speculative urbanism. Addressing real estate and infrastructure investments, speculation and gentrification through a land-based lens allows us to deepen the discussion on urban land governance in the global South. We argue that urban land acquisition cannot be thoroughly understood in isolation from the workings of urban real estate markets, public policies, and displacement processes. The urban land grab debate needs to consider the dialectic interplay between land use change and general socio-spatial transformations both in central – or recentralized – and peripheral areas. This is why we plea for a kaleidoscopic perspective on urban land governance by uncovering the complex patchwork of urban land acquisitions and their diverse temporalities and spatialities, their hybrid character in terms of actors involved, and the multiple and often unpredicted ways in which urban dwellers try to gain control over and access to urban land.