Infrastructure

Event: Climate Summit 2014
23 September 2014 New York City, USA

As part of a global effort to mobilize action and ambition on climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is inviting Heads of State and Government along with business, finance, civil society and local leaders to a Climate Summit in September 2014, New York. This Summit is aimed at catalyzing action by governments, business, finance, industry, and civil society in areas for new commitments and substantial, scalable and replicable contributions to the Summit that will help the world shift toward a low-carbon economy. For more information, click here.

Infrastructure and environmental justice in the city

Transport and infrastructure remain key components when designing urban space. Urban planners are required to evaluate transport routes, modes, and costs, to ensure the city functions efficiently. Across Tanzania key means of public transportation in, and around, the city includes boda-boda's, or piki-piki's, (motorcycles) and daladala's (small buses). Such means are cheap, frequent, and although carrying capacity is limited, space can be made to squeeze another passenger on. However, with rising concerns over road safety, the costs of congestion, and the need for improved supply, the future of such transportation remains debatable. As the agenda shifts to designing 'sustainable cities', whereby urban environments can meet contemporary needs without jeopardizing that of future generations, we need to question what it means in the developing world. The concept of environmental justice is key. Discussions on environmental justice integrate calls for sustainability and recognition of the social, spatial, and economic, inequalities individuals face in relation to the environment . Environmental justice recognises the urban environment as political. Access, externalities, and use-value, of the environment are political. Read more.

Submitted by Gemma Todd — Wed, 03/19/2014 - 13:04

¡Ya basta!

En la entrada anterior, comentábamos acerca de las importantes áreas de oportunidad que no han sido abordados por las diferentes administraciones del Gobierno del Distrito Federal (GDF), al menos, los últimos 20 años. En este sentido, la falta de planeación urbana se hace cada vez más visible y sobretodo, palpable. Los tiempos de recorrido son preocupantes, y muestra de ello, es el índice que señalamos que generó IBM (Commuter Pain Index) donde pone a la ciudad de México como la ciudad "que más se sufre" a nivel mundial. Leer más.

Submitted by Saúl Guarneros — Thu, 03/13/2014 - 16:23

Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision

To me, the more difficult part of this question may not be answering what a more equity-driven approach to city infrastructure would look like — but figuring out how we would get there from here. In Chennai, we have interacted with government servants from a number of agencies that regularly deal with the urban poor, such as officials from the Slum Clearance Board or the city department that builds and maintains public toilets. Especially in India, government officials are often portrayed as corrupt and lazy, barriers to better governance. However, what we have found is that many officials are actually sincere and hardworking, but that they themselves face barriers that prevent them from taking actions that benefit the poor and create a more equitable city Read more.

Submitted by Editor — Thu, 03/13/2014 - 15:43

Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision

Power supply, generation, and distribution are some of the many challenges facing developing nations. Lagos receives 25 percent of the power generated in Nigeria every day, but it's only enough to meet less than 10 percent of the energy demand. In response to the inadequate supply, the city government has created three running independent power project (IPP) plants that generate energy, and two more are scheduled for completion before the end of 2014. Read more.

Submitted by Wura — Thu, 03/13/2014 - 15:36

Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision

After the transition to democracy from the apartheid era in 1994, an ambitious post-apartheid housing initiative was implemented in South Africa to provide formal housing for those denied it under apartheid. However, the simplest and cheapest policy has been to locate this housing on the urban peripheries (typically over 20km away in the case of Johannesburg's or Pretoria's economic centres) — thus creating an alarming parody of apartheid-spatial planning in locating former black townships in marginal locations far from economic opportunities, amenities, and public transport. This has not only compelled people residing in these areas to use much of their income on transportation but, moreover, the dispersion perpetuates a marginal urban form which increases the burden placed on the city's financial models and its already depleted and over-extended infrastructure networks. Read more.

Submitted by Tariq Toffa — Thu, 03/13/2014 - 11:16

Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision

South Africa has entered into its 20th year of democracy and as the world looks on at a society that has been free of the shackles of Apartheid for two decades, the form of its urban fabric is changing as its cities try to shake off their segregated pasts. Over the last two decades, cities in South Africa have seen the tremendous influx of people in search of economic opportunities and better access to services. This in-migration to urban areas has seen the proliferation of informal settlements from nearly non-existent in the late '80s to over 2000 (and counting) in present day South Africa. Local municipalities and city planning departments have not planned for these settlements. If anything, the only strategy being applied today is a reactionary one, further handicapped by the very formal and rigid development methods imposed by city officials trained primarily in planning for and implementing very traditional city planning processes. Where does that leave the informal settlement dweller? Read more.

Submitted by Editor — Thu, 03/13/2014 - 11:03

Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision

Urban service networks have long been the domain of public utility companies, private enterprises, and city governments to plan and manage, but as cities grow rapidly, existing mechanisms become overstretched and cannot keep up with demand. Citizen participation in the management of these urban networks can go a long way to make urban systems more effective; when citizens work with them to supply information and give feedback on service quality levels and identifying service gaps. A few trends that can support this are: the increasingly widespread use of cell phones in many developing countries, and also the increasing sophistication of local community organizations to gather data to support citizen advocacy efforts. Both these mechanisms can increase citizen participation by giving the public access to information to enable citizen and community-based groups to be proactive stakeholders, not simply being clients or beneficiaries. By receiving and supplying information, the citizens can be informed and updated, and also provide information to service providers about their needs, in a way that would otherwise be difficult. Read more.

Submitted by Editor — Thu, 03/13/2014 - 10:52

Retooling 'Cities for Life': New approaches to urban infrastructure and service provision

An equity-driven approach that targets transportation would advance pro-poor sustainable transportation integrated with transit-oriented development and affordable housing. Worldwide, transport policy and planning inadequately target the needs of the poor, while the majority of public resources are dedicated to transport investments like highways that cater to the desires of the car-owning minority. Coupled with the shortage of affordable, quality transport is the pervasive trend to locate affordable housing on inexpensive land in the urban outskirts — far from reliable transit, economic opportunity, and critical services, all while driving urban sprawl. As a result, poverty is concentrated and isolated in spatial pockets disconnected from the broader metropolitan economy, where residents suffer not only low income and low opportunity, but also high transport costs. Read more.

Submitted by Editor — Thu, 03/13/2014 - 10:38

É mais do que 20 centavos

Ano passado, o mundo viu uma transformação no Brasil com os jovens indo às ruas pedindo por novas medidas para as questões de mobilidade no país. Após uma violenta resposta policial nos primeiros dias de manifestações, a causa ganhou mais força em todo o país. A frase "Não é pelos 20 centavos" ficou famosa e foi usada para representar angústia e desejo dos jovens por novas soluções — mais sustentáveis e sociais (em mobilidade, na política, na econômica, etc). As reivindicações eram muito mais profundas do que o aumento de 20 centavos da passagem. As manifestações, porém, aconteceram há mais de 6 meses e o que mudou no Brasil — principalmente no que se refere a mobilidade? Leia mais.

Submitted by Carla Link — Tue, 02/25/2014 - 10:55

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