scholarly journals Access or Accessibility? A Critique of the Urban Transport SDG Indicator

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Brussel ◽  
Mark Zuidgeest ◽  
Karin Pfeffer ◽  
Martin van Maarseveen
Keyword(s):  
Transport System ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Urban Transportation ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Substantial Variation ◽  
Urban Sector ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The City

Progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is being evaluated through the use of indicators. Despite the importance of these indicators, the academic community has done little in terms of a critical reflection on their choice, relevance, framing and operationalization. This holds for many SDG domains, also for the urban sector domain of target 11. To partially address this void, we aim to critically review the UN methodology for the urban access indicator, SDG indicator 11.2. In discussing its conceptual framing against the background of paradigm shifts in transportation planning, we argue that this indicator has a number of shortcomings. The most important one is that it is supply oriented and measures access to transportation infrastructure, rather than accessibility to activity locations. As an alternative, we develop two accessibility indicators that show substantial variation in accessibility across geographical areas. We implement all indicators for the city of Bogotá in Colombia, using a geo-information based approach. Our results show that SDG indicator 11.2 fails to represent the transport reality well. Its supply oriented focus neglects transport demand, oversimplifies the transport system and hides existing inequalities. Moreover, it does not provide useful evidence for targeting new interventions. The proposed accessibility indicators provide a more diverse, complete and realistic picture of the performance of the transport system. These indicators also capture the large spatial and socio-economic inequalities and can help to target improvements in urban transportation.

scholarly journals Soil-Related Sustainable Development Goals: Four Concepts to Make Land Degradation Neutrality and Restoration Work

Land ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saskia Keesstra ◽  
Gerben Mol ◽  
Jan de Leeuw ◽  
Joop Okx ◽  
Co Molenaar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Water System ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Economic Point ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Awareness Raising

In the effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to food, health, water, and climate, an increase in pressure on land is highly likely. To avoid further land degradation and promote land restoration, multifunctional use of land is needed within the boundaries of the soil-water system. In addition, awareness-raising, a change in stakeholders’ attitudes, and a change in economics are essential. The attainment of a balance between the economy, society, and the biosphere calls for a holistic approach. In this paper, we introduce four concepts that we consider to be conducive to realizing LDN in a more integrated way: systems thinking, connectivity, nature-based solutions, and regenerative economics. We illustrate the application of these concepts through three examples in agricultural settings. Systems thinking lies at the base of the three others, stressing feedback loops but also delayed responses. Their simultaneous use will result in more robust solutions, which are sustainable from an environmental, societal, and economic point of view. Solutions also need to take into account the level of scale (global, national, regional, local), stakeholders’ interests and culture, and the availability and boundaries of financial and natural capital. Furthermore, sustainable solutions need to embed short-term management in long-term landscape planning. In conclusion, paradigm shifts are needed. First, it is necessary to move from excessive exploitation in combination with environmental protection, to sustainable use and management of the soil-water system. To accomplish this, new business models in robust economic systems are needed based on environmental systems thinking; an approach that integrates environmental, social, and economic interests. Second, it is necessary to shift from a “system follows function” approach towards a “function follows system” one. Only by making the transition towards integrated solutions based on a socio-economical-ecological systems analysis, using concepts such as nature-based solutions, do we stand a chance to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030. To make these paradigm shifts, awareness-raising in relation to a different type of governance, economy and landscape and land-use planning and management is needed.

Urban equality and the SDGs: three provocations for a relational agenda

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (0) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Stephanie Butcher
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Global South ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Significant Potential ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Equitable Outcomes ◽  
The City

We live in an increasingly urban, increasingly unequal world. This is nowhere more evident than in cities of the global South, where many residents face deep injustices in their ability to access vital services, participate in decision-making or to have their rights recognised as citizens. In this regard, the rallying cry of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ‘leave no one behind’ offers significant potential to guide urbanisation processes towards more equitable outcomes, particularly for the urban poor. Yet the SDGs have also faced a series of criticisms which have highlighted the gaps and silences in moving towards a transformative agenda. This article explores the potentials of adopting a relational lens to read the SDGs, as a mechanism to navigate these internal contradictions and critiques and build pathways to urban equality. In particular, it offers three questions if we want to place urban equality at the heart of the agenda: who owns the city; who produces knowledge about the city; and who is visible in the city? Drawing from the practices of organised groups of the urban poor, this article outlines the key lessons for orienting this agenda towards the relational and transformative aims of urban equality.

scholarly journals Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals Through the Lens of Urban Resilience: Lessons and Learnings from 100 Resilient Cities and Cape Town

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Croese ◽  
Cayley Green ◽  
Gareth Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Rockefeller Foundation ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Global Development ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Paris Climate Agreement ◽  
The City

Urban resilience is increasingly seen as essential to managing the risks and challenges arising in a globally changing, connected, and urbanized world. Hence, cities are central to achieving a range of global development policy commitments adopted over the past few years, ranging from the Paris Climate Agreement to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, knowledge of the ways in which cities are going about implementing resilience or of how such efforts can practically contribute to the implementation of global agendas is still limited. This paper discusses the experience of cities that were members of the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) network, an entity pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation. It reviews the resilience strategies developed by 100RC members to show that 100RC cities are increasingly aligning their resilience work to global development policies such as the SDGs. It then draws on the case of the city of Cape Town in South Africa to illustrate the process of developing a resilience strategy through 100RC tools and methodologies including the City Resilience Framework (CRF) and City Resilience Index (CRI) and its alignment to the SDGs and reflects on lessons and learnings of Cape Town’s experience for the global city network-policy nexus post-2015.

City Profile: Manila, Philippines

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-358
Author(s):  
Mark Anthony M. Gamboa ◽  
Ryan Randle B. Rivera ◽  
Mario R. Delos Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Significant Implication ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Urban Conditions ◽  
The City

Manila is a primate city with national and international significance. Unlike any other city in the Philippines, Manila has the mandate of serving not just its local constituents, but also a clientele of national and even global scale. Recognizing that the localization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at sub-national levels is a key element in meeting the targets by 2030, it is important to look at how cities have been confronting local challenges relating to the development goals. Focusing on SDGs 3, 4 and 11, this city profile shows that Manila has performed reasonably well against key national and regional benchmarks on health, education and urban sustainability. However, as the city continues to lag behind many of its regional counterparts, key reforms must be undertaken in the areas of local policymaking, targeting of resources, scale of public participation and engagement of national government agencies. Heading into the first four years of the SDGs, the aim of this profile is to recognize and contextualize Manila’s existing urban conditions, best practices and pressing challenges—which would all have a significant implication on how Manila stands to attain SDGs 3, 4 and 11.

A Discussion of Taiyuan’s Urban Master Planning (2010-2020)

2013 ◽  
Vol 295-298 ◽  
pp. 2557-2563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Ma ◽  
Jian Bin Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Planning ◽  
Urban Transportation ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Master Planning ◽  
Passenger Transport ◽  
Organization Mode ◽  
Transport Organization ◽  
Chemical Companies ◽  
Transport Problems ◽  
The City

This paper presents theoretical comments on the “Taiyuan’s Urban Master Planning (2010-2020)” mainly in the aspects of the city's orientation, functions, urban transportation and eco-environmental planning. It can be seen that the master planning have a new scientific orientation of the city of Taiyuan by perceiving it as “a historic ancient capital of culture"; sufficient attention is paid to the relocation, renovation and update of TISCO, TCIGO and other heavy chemical companies; the newly designed urban public transit passenger transport organization mode is utilized to settle the increasingly prominent urban transport problems; tourism development is promoted under the premise of the protection of ecological environment as well as historical and cultural heritages; a number of shortcomings and recommendations for improvement are also proposed, trying to provide decision-making references for further adjustments and improvements of Taiyuan’s urban planning.

scholarly journals Urban Management as a Pedagogical Tool. San José De Cúcuta: Causes, Phenomena and Impacts on Urban Growth

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-20
Author(s):  
Luz Karime Coronel-Ruiz ◽  
Erika Tatiana Ayala García ◽  
Magdiel Daviana Tami Cortes
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The City

In this article the transformation of the territory of San José de Cúcuta, Norte de Santander- Colombia, borderarea with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela during the last twenty years was studied, from a territorialand pedagogical approach based on the analysis of the physical dimensions -environmental, social-culturaland economic-normative, and phenomena such as: scarcity of developable land, limited urban planning andcontrol strategies, migration, informality of the land and risks due to socio-natural phenomena as input in orderto propose aspects and significant strategies for solving problems present in the territory. A mixed inductiveanalyticalmethod was used, by source of documentary data collection. It was found that the city shouldprioritize interventions focused on property sanitation and land formalization. In addition, that with respect tothe physical- environmental and social-cultural dimensions, it is necessary to establish mechanisms for urbanplanning and management in response to the Sustainable Development Goals proposed for Latin Americancities by the United Nations and contemplated in the agenda. 2030 for sustainable development.

scholarly journals CREATING SUSTAINABLE CITIES THROUGH DISASTER RESILIENCE IN TURKEY

2018 ◽  
Vol XLII-3/W4 ◽  
pp. 23-28
Author(s):  
E. Alarslan
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Disaster Mitigation ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Dense Population ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Principles And Standards ◽  
The City

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> By 2050, almost 66 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban areas. While the urban settlements provide better living opportunities for people, they are also tremendously exhausting natural resources. Thus, as one of the 17 sustainable development goals, “sustainable cities and communities” is promoted by the United Nations. Over the course of the last 70 years, Turkey has experienced one of the most significant urbanization experiences in the world. Recently, cities accommodate over 75 percent of the country’s population. Furthermore, they are prone to high disaster risks due to their dense population and construction in Turkey. Of note, the two perilous earthquakes in 1999 (Izmit &amp;amp; Duzce), provided Turkey significant experiences. They gave rise to reviewing the entire disaster mitigation system. Nevertheless, the earthquake in the City of Van (24.10.2011) revealed some deficiencies in the process of implementing disaster mitigation measures. To remedy these deficiencies, the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization (MoEU) prepared a new law on “Transformation of Areas under the Disaster Risks” (Law No. 6306). The law sets out principles and standards of disaster mitigation and process and procedures with respect to areas prone to disaster risks as well as buildings at risks in and out of disaster prone areas. In this paper, the aforementioned experience of Turkey will be reviewed in terms of sustainable cities and communities goal. Furthermore, the relevant implementations will be reviewed with a view to creating better solutions as well as decreasing undesired consequences such as compulsory displacement of people and degradation of urban environment.</p>

scholarly journals Prioritisation and Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Challenges and Opportunities for Bulawayo

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Vinnet Ndlovu ◽  
Peter Newman ◽  
Mthokozisi Sidambe
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Distribution Systems ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

Cities are engines of socio-economic development. This article examines and provides insight into the extent of localisation of the UN&rsquo;s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using the City of Bulawayo (CoB), in Zimbabwe, as the case study. The key question posited is &lsquo;Does Bulawayo demonstrate potential for sustainable development?&rsquo;. Bulawayo is a strange case study as in the period of the Millennium Development Goals Zimbabwe had a massive increase in death rates from 2000 to 2010 due to the HIV pandemic, political chaos and economic disintegration of that period. Coming out of that period there was little to help cities like Bulawayo grasp the opportunity for an SDG-based development focus. However, after the paper creates a multi-criteria framework from a Systematic Literature Review on the localisation of the SDG agenda, the application to Bulawayo now generates hope. The city is emerging from the collapse of the city&rsquo;s public transport and water distribution systems, once the envy of and benchmark for many local authorities in the country, and has detailed SDG plans for the future. Bulawayo now serves as a planning model for localisation of sustainable development goals.

scholarly journals Is India Financing Urban Transport in the Right Direction?

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11S) ◽  
pp. 292-297
Keyword(s):  
Transport System ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Transport Modes ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Transport issues in urban centers are rising at an exponential rate and are characterized by congestion, high motorized vehicles growth, vehicular and noise pollution, road accidents and parking space constraints. Present public transport and Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) modes are inefficient and do not cater to the needs of 31.23% of urbanized population in India, which is poised to grow up to 71% by 2031 (MoUD, 2015). Lack of accessibility in public transport and NMT has compelled commuters to opt for private transport modes such as twowheelers and cars, in order to have access to work, education and other leisure activities. The paper aims to assess the finances allocated to urban transport system in the city of Pune under the jurisdiction of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The authors intend to critically review the city budget and its contribution to sustainable modes of urban transport. The key research questions are: - a) whether the budget distributes enough revenue to enhance the efficiency and accessibility of public transport modes and NMT as guided in the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) of 2006? b) does the local government continue to invest in temporary urban transport solutions catering to the needs of private modes of transportation? The results further show that PMC’s budget allocation is not favoring sustainable modes of transport as much as it is catering to other urban transport infrastructure and utilities. The paper concludes with recommendation on ways of innovative financing methods to make public transport sustainable and discusses various case studies of best practices followed globally pertaining to sustainable urban transport system.

scholarly journals Is India Financing Urban Transport in the Right Direction

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 142-147
Keyword(s):  
Transport System ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Sustainable Transportation ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Transport Modes ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Transport issues in urban centers are rising at an exponential rate and are characterized by congestion, high motorized vehicles growth, vehicular and noise pollution, road accidents and parking space constraints. Present public transport and Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) modes are inefficient and do not cater to the needs of 31.23% of urbanized population in India, which is poised to grow up to 71% by 2031 (MoUD, 2015). Lack of accessibility in public transport and NMT has compelled commuters to opt for private transport modes such as two-wheelers and cars, in order to have access to work, education and other leisure activities. The paper aims to assess the finances allocated to urban transport system in the city of Pune under the jurisdiction of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The authors intend to critically review the city budget and its contribution to sustainable modes of urban transport. The key research questions are: - a) whether the budget distributes enough revenue to enhance the efficiency and accessibility of public transport modes and NMT as guided in the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) of 2006? b) does the local government continue to invest in temporary urban transport solutions catering to the needs of private modes of transportation? The research is based on secondary budget data of the year 2016-17 and the data so collected, has been analyzed on various financial parameters. The results show that PMC’s budget allocation is not favoring sustainable modes of transport as much as it is catering to other urban transport infrastructure and utilities. The study thereby suggests sufficient allocation of the city’s budget towards the creation of sustainable transportation. Lastly, the paper concludes with recommendation on ways of innovative financing methods to make public transport, sustainable and discusses various case studies of best practices followed globally pertaining to sustainable urban transport system.

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