scholarly journals Can Depopulation Create Urban Sustainability in Postindustrial Regions? A Case from Poland

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Runge ◽  
Iwona Kantor-Pietraga ◽  
Jerzy Runge ◽  
Robert Krzysztofik ◽  
Weronika Dragan

Many towns and cities in the world experience the process of urban shrinkage. This may be observed in localities of different types and of all sizes, including a large group of post-industrial towns and cities of Central and Eastern Europe. One of the districts affected by the urban shrinkage process is the Katowice conurbation in Poland, which may serve as a good example to consider the potential for introducing the idea of sustainable development. In this perspective, sustainability is considered as a specific challenge within the progress of regional transformation, but also a target concept for a large urban region to be followed throughout the evolution and at particular stages of the change. In the discussed region it is all the more important because it is followed by phenomena related to post(industrialism), relatively high pollution levels compared with the European average and a polycentric system of settlement. This paper states that the current urban policy implemented in the Katowice conurbation does not seem to have any palpable effect reversing the trend of depopulation in the region, which seems to stem from the fact that numerous initiatives undertaken in the area are ‘illusory’ and often unnecessary and unjustified. This also applies to activities embracing and fostering the idea of sustainability. With regard to the latter issue, the main concern refers to overinvestment and wasting the measures to reduce low emissions and to make savings in the heat supply system for residential buildings. The Authors proposed a new vision for the transformation of the region. It will respond to the current and expected needs of the residents, while making allowances for multidimensional sustainable development, particularly in terms of housing policy and spatial development. This concept primarily focuses on a new balance between the areas covered by low-rise and high-rise buildings and the reorganisation of the structure of the local economy.

1994 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Healey

The impact of public policy on the opportunities available for property development in an urban region and the effect of such policy on the institutional organisation of the property-development sector are examined. Also explored are the problems of generating autonomous private-sector development capacity in a fragile local economy (Tyne and Wear in North East England) experiencing decline in its traditional industrial base, within which active property markets may only exist with respect to certain types of properties and locations. The tension between a financial orientation and a production orientation towards property development is highlighted. During the 1980s, planning and urban policy in Britain promoted the former orientation, but the needs and opportunities of the local economy emphasised the latter. The importance of understanding the specificities of local property-development organisation and relations for the design and evaluation of public policy directed at the property sector is stressed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4654
Author(s):  
Javier Orozco-Messana ◽  
Milagro Iborra-Lucas ◽  
Raimon Calabuig-Moreno

Climate change is becoming a dominant concern for advanced countries. The Paris Agreement sets out a global framework whose implementation relates to all human activities and is commonly guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which set the scene for sustainable development performance configuring all climate action related policies. Fast control of CO2 emissions necessarily involves cities since they are responsible for 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) is clearly involved in the deployment of SDG 13 (Climate Action). European Sustainability policies are financially guided by the European Green Deal for a climate neutral urban environment. In turn, a common framework for urban policy impact assessment must be based on architectural design tools, such as building certification, and common data repositories for standard digital building models. Many Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools have been developed but the growing availability of open data repositories for cities, together with big-data sources (provided through Internet of Things repositories), allow accurate neighbourhood simulations, or in other words, digital twins of neighbourhoods. These digital twins are excellent tools for policy impact assessment. After a careful analysis of current scientific literature, this paper provides a generic approach for a simple neighbourhood model developed from building physical parameters which meets relevant assessment requirements, while simultaneously being updated (and tested) against real open data repositories, and how this assessment is related to building certification tools. The proposal is validated by real data on energy consumption and on its application to the Benicalap neighbourhood in Valencia (Spain).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4099
Author(s):  
Ann-Kristin Mühlbach ◽  
Olaf Mumm ◽  
Ryan Zeringue ◽  
Oskars Redbergs ◽  
Elisabeth Endres ◽  
...  

The METAPOLIS as the polycentric network of urban–rural settlement is undergoing constant transformation and urbanization processes. In particular, the associated imbalance of the shrinkage and growth of different settlement types in relative geographical proximity causes negative effects, such as urban sprawl and the divergence of urban–rural lifestyles with their related resource, land and energy consumption. Implicitly related to these developments, national and global sustainable development goals for the building sector lead to the question of how a region can be assessed without detailed research and surveys to identify critical areas with high potential for sustainable development. In this study, the TOPOI method is used. It classifies settlement units and their interconnections along the urban–rural gradient, in order to quantify and assess the land-uptake and global warming potential driven by residential developments. Applying standard planning parameters in combination with key data from a comprehensive life cycle assessment of the residential building stock, a detailed understanding of different settlement types and their associated resource and energy consumption is achieved.


1993 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
K. P. Moseley ◽  
Ann Seidman ◽  
Frederick Anang

Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (11) ◽  
pp. 2263-2281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Montero

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is marked by the consolidation of sustainability as a key guiding principle and an emphasis on cities as a potential solution to global development problems. However, in the absence of an agreement on how to implement sustainable development in cities, a set of urban policy solutions and ‘best practices’ became the vehicles through which the sustainable development agenda is spreading worldwide. This article shows that the rapid circulation of Bogotá as a model of sustainable transport since the 2000s reflects an increasing focus of the international development apparatus on urban policy solutions as an arena to achieve global development impacts, what I call the ‘leveraging cities’ logic in this article. This logic emerges at a particular historical conjuncture characterised by: (1) the rising power of global philanthropy to set development agendas; (2) the generalisation of solutionism as a strategy of action among development and philanthropic organisations; and (3) the increasing attention on cities as solutions for global development problems, particularly around sustainability and climate change. By connecting urban policy mobilities debates with development studies this article seeks to unpack the emergence, and the limits, of ‘leveraging cities’ as a proliferating global development practice. These urban policy solutions are far from being a clear framework of action. Rather, their circulation becomes a ‘quick fix’ to frame the problem of sustainable development given the unwillingness of development and philanthropic organisations to intervene in the structural factors and multiple scales that produce environmental degradation and climate change.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dayong Nie ◽  
Elena Panfilova ◽  
Vadim Samusenkov ◽  
Alexey Mikhaylov

E-learning brings new dimensions to traditional education. This especially affects countries that, due to many factors, have historically been considered the “talent pool” for the world community. In this study, a model for financing e-education has been developed that is applicable to Russian realities. The model was built around the balance between demand (global politics, economics, and principles of sustainable development) and supply (sources of direct financing). As a result, a key challenge of improving the e-learning financing methodology and models, specifically the efficiency of government spending and private investing, demands the use of new approaches and mechanisms. To improve e-learning financing, a clear understanding of the applied purpose of public and private means is required. Responsibilities for the e-learning outcome of institutions that receive financing are linked to their status. An unclear understanding of these issues is more likely associated with the issue of transparency of financing than with inefficiency. The proposed model allows transforming the “standards” of financing both in the field of e-education and Russian education in general and presents a new vision of participants’ interaction in the educational process, taking into account a set of restrictions and market features.


Author(s):  
I. Smyrnov

Rural tourism is now seen as an important direction of development of the regional economy. From the perspective of sustainable development rural tourism affects the economic, social and environmental aspects of the regional and local economy. Rural tourism is closely linked with agrotourism, eco-tourism, natural tourism and so on. Sustainable rural tourism can be realized by applying logistic, geographic and marketing approaches as components of sustainable development strategies. Logistics approach is determined by logistic potential of resource base of rural tourism and appropriate tourist flows regulation. In this context in the article the concept of tourism capacity or capacity of the resource base of rural tourism is used. The problem of the definition of tourism pressure on the resource base of rural tourism, particularly in natural landscapes is disclosed. Unlike environmental and recrealogical sciences, which stop at the capacity definition of the resource base of tourism, tourism logistics compares this figure with the existing tourist flows and accordingly determines the safe way of tourism management to ensure its sustainable nature. It was shown that these strategies boil down to two basic types – the further development of tourism in a particular area or limit such activities to conserve the resource base of tourism. Recreational (travel) load is the indicator that reflects the impact of tourism on the resource base of tourism (especially landscape complex), expressed by the number of tourists or tourists-days per area unit or per tourist site for the certain period of time (day, month, season year). There are actual, allowable (the maximum) and destructive (dangerous) types of travel load. The latter can lead recreational area or resource base of rural tourism to destruction. Thus, depending on the intensity of tourism resource base using in rural tourism it may change – according to tourist consumption. Large number of tourists affects the entire range of recreational destinations and their individual components. The most vulnerable part of the environment in this sense is vegetation, except that significant changes may occur with soil, water bodies, air and so on. The geographic dimension of the problem of rural tourism sustainable development includes the concept of zoning, ie the division of the territory, offering to develop rural tourism in several zones with different modes of travel usage – from a total ban (in protected areas) for complete freedom with transitional stages, involving various limit degrees in the development of rural tourism. Marketing approach reflects the application of the curve R. Butler to the stages of development of rural tourism destinations with the release of such steps as: research, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation (also called “saturation”), revival or decline. Shown the models that link the stage of resource base tourist development (under “Curve Butler”), strength of tourism consumption the magnitude of such effects (eg weak (disperse) impact in large scale, strong (concentrated) impact in large scale, strong (concentrated) impact in small scale, weak (disperse) impact in small scale), dynamics of tourism development at the territory.


Author(s):  
Tetiana Zheliuk

Introduction. One of the main directions of ensuring the sustainable development of the national economy and its regions is the reform of the energy sector, which can take place through the modernization or innovation of its components. An important component of these reforms is to provide the population with the environmentally friendly and socially safe thermal energy. At the present stage of management, the heat supply is the most costly branch of public utilities, which is supplemented by the problems of the inefficient fuel balance structure; worn-out infrastructure and low energy efficiency. This highlights the need to study the management of modernization of the heat supply system in the region in view of the declared vectors of the long-term development. Object of research is the process of managing the modernization of the heat supply system in the region. Subject of the research is a set of scientific approaches and practical mechanisms of modernization of the heat supply system of the region in the context of ensuring its sustainable development. Objective. The conceptual foundations of modernization of the heat supply system of the region in the context of its sustainable development through the introduction of the innovative technologies both in the management process and in the energy sector itself is substantiated in the paper. Methods. The following general scientific methods were used during the research process: system, structural analysis, grouping, when studying the structural elements and isolation of problems of development of the heat supply system of the region; historical analysis, when considering the scientific principles and institutional mechanism of modernization of the region’s heat supply system; comparative analysis in assessing the possibilities of the green transition of the heat supply system of the region and also when considering the features of the use of grant resources in the modernization of the heat supply system of the region; economic analysis in assessing the current state of the district heating system, etc. results. The essential determinants of the heat supply system of the region are analyzed, the objective need, organizational and economic mechanisms for managing the modernization of the heat supply, taking into account the need for the balanced development of the energy sector of the region are verified. The scientific novelty of the obtained results lies in the substantiation of the conceptual approaches to the management of modernization of the heat supply system of the region by innovating the forms and methods of managerial influence on the heat supply system of the region. The conclusion is made about the following effective approaches in managing the modernization of the district heating system: planning of the sustainable development of the energy sector, development of programs for modernization of the district heating, implementation of the infrastructure and soft projects, implementation of the international projects, motivation of households and entrepreneurship in the heat sector, participation in the grant requests, in state crediting programs, realization of the business projects in the field of production of environmentally friendly fuel; conducting an information campaign among the population and other key market players to raise the awareness of the energy efficiency financing mechanisms. The practical significance of the obtained results is that the developed recommendations will be used to improve the organizational and economic mechanism of management of the district heating system modernization and ensure its sustainable development.


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