Cities around the world are hard at work on traffic congestion. Boston is designing streets for a mix of bikes, pedestrians, buses, scooters, and cars, and creating special drop-off zones for Uber and Lyft in high-volume areas, such as around Fenway Park. But the task is about to get more complex, with the advent of driverless vehicles, delivery robots, and AI-enabled trackless trams—all of which will require a more wholesale physical transformation of the cityscape.
With shared autonomous mobility, travel lanes can be narrower, because vehicles can essentially tailgate each other. There will also almost certainly be less need for parking in downtowns, as self-driving cars will pick up and drop off and head to the next ride. Intersections will be reconfigured as traffic signals are guided by artificial intelligence.
It’s a big task with a lot of complexity—and no little uncertainty about what, exactly, will be needed in the years ahead. That’s where the emerging practice of scenario planning comes in, says Heather Hannon, who manages the scenario planning initiative at the Lincoln Institute. In this cutting-edge approach to urban planning, communities or regions construct and analyze multiple versions of the future, leaving ample room to change course as unexpected wrinkles arise.
In the past, cities have approached challenges in a more linear fashion. The solution to more cars and trucks, for example, might be a new freeway. Scenario planning allows for much more flexibility, as conditions warrant—without relying on interventions that are hard to alter. The approach also benefits from robust public participation in the planning process, Hannon says. Community input is critical to judge the merits of any major infrastructure scheme.
Scenario planning is being used not only in the design of future streetscapes, but in many other areas as well—importantly, in planning for climate change, where unknowns and uncertainty abound.
The Consortium for Scenario Planning offers a community of practice for planners, community leaders, and stakeholders of all kinds, including access to technical assistance, educational resources, and a network of fellow innovators. It recently held its annual conference in Hartford, Connecticut, and will hold a workshop in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Place Database is built on the PolicyMap platform and enables users to map a broad array of indicators from housing prices to zoning. It is designed to be easy to use for academics, local governments, the general public, and journalists, regardless of their experience with tools like ArcGIS, according to Jenna DeAngelo, associate director of international and institute wide initiatives at the Lincoln Institute. Users can search U.S. geographies and select from a list of data layers, such as aggregate transportation costs or local revenue per pupil, and data points, including brownfield sites and structurally deficient bridges. The platform can zoom down to the block group level and draws on information from sources like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Census Bureau.
In the past two years, the resource has been used in academic theses, as a tool for brokers and real estate agents, in curricula developed by the National Building Museum, and more. The most popular data layers include per capita income, median home value, and critical habitat, while the most frequently used data points have been LIHTCs, Brownfields, and FEMA floods.
The Lincoln Institute decided to host this contest to promote the tool and find out more about who was using the tool and how they were using it, DeAngelo said. It attracted over 40 submissions. A committee composed of Lincoln Institute and PolicyMap staff, a representative from the City of Cambridge GIS and Community Development departments, and a professor from Boston University reviewed the entries, selecting five winning projects and awarding $1,500 to each to develop a brief narrative using the maps that are now featured as use cases on the Lincoln Institute website.
One of the winning projects focused on housing in St. Louis, where the majority of affordable housing funded through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is concentrated in neighborhoods with extensive blight and vacancy and related poor health outcomes. Jason Whiteley, a research analyst at the St. Louis Planning and Urban Design Agency, used The Place Database to better understand what factors, such as restrictive single-family zoning in more affluent parts of the city, have created this current geographic distribution of LIHTC developments.
“We wanted to go beyond the standard talking points about siting affordable housing and look at a more local context and see what issues might impact siting decisions,” Whitley said. “This mapping exercise allowed us to see where the LIHTCs fall against a host of variables, such as vacancy, and served as a good starting point to talk about not just LIHTCs but all the different types of affordable housing in the city.”
In his narrative, cowritten by Raha Pouladi, a planner at the city of Celina, Texas, Sardari presented maps from the Place Database highlighting census tracts where housing costs consume 27 to 30 percent of household income. He also used a data layer that illustrates the percent change in housing price index to identify zip codes that have more recently started to face affordability challenges and might benefit from early interventions to preserve affordability.
Other maps in the project illustrated the spatial mismatch between the concentration of subsidized properties in the southern sector of Dallas and the increasing growth of low-wage jobs in the northern sector of the city. The project concluded with a list of approaches, such as inclusionary zoning, community land trusts, and improved access to public transit, that would create a more even distribution of subsidized housing throughout the city.
“Combining affordability with housing price changes is a unique contribution of the Place Database,” Sardari said. “House price change is missing in other data sources. Often you have to go look in other places.” Most datasets in the Place Database are updated every year as new data becomes available, according to DeAngelo, which allows users to map changes over time.
Sardari emphasized that being able to access a range of datasets on one site is also an advantage of the tool, as researchers often have to navigate between the websites of places like the U.S. Census Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and Environmental Protection Agency to map multiple criteria. For instance, in his analysis, Whiteley was able to access datasets from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Valassis Lists, a direct mail marketing company that compiles vacancy data; and the City of St. Louis, without leaving The Place Database platform.
For researchers who want to do a deeper dive, the Place Database offers the option to download datasets, Sardari added.
While none of the winners told stories across multiple geographies, DeAngelo said that this capability is another strength of the Place Database: “Many tools are hyper-focused on indicators in one city or region, but The Place Database lets policy makers compare U.S. geographies in one tool, as opposed to having to look at multiple tools that might not have standard data across places.”
Emma Zehner is communications and publications editor at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Image: The relative concentration of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit developments in and around census tracts with elevated levels of vacancy in the City of St. Louis. Credit: The Place Database/Jason Whiteley, St. Louis Planning and Urban Design Agency.
Course
Desarrollo Urbano Orientado a Transporte: Aspectos críticos e implementación en América Latina
Março 2, 2020 - Abril 3, 2020
Free, offered in espanhol
Profesor: Erik Vergel
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Descripción
Este curso ofrece una introducción a la relación entre el transporte, la movilidad y los usos del suelo, y profundiza en el concepto de Desarrollo Urbano Orientado al Transporte (DOT) con énfasis en la movilidad sostenible. Se aborda la relación de este concepto con una serie de instrumentos de planificación y gestión urbana asociados a las inversiones en transporte masivo e infraestructura de transporte no motorizado, especialmente con la idea de captura de valor y los instrumentos de financiación del desarrollo urbano. Se discuten las etapas de formulación y evaluación de propuestas DOT, los impactos de las inversiones en transporte sobre el desarrollo y casos emblemáticos de DOT a nivel global.
Relevancia
Actualmente, las ciudades de América Latina y el Caribe realizan importantes inversiones en sistemas de transporte masivo, las que pretenden responder a los retos de un crecimiento urbano en rápida expansión y que incentiva el uso de vehículos motorizados privados. El concepto de Desarrollo Urbano Orientado al Transporte (DOT) surge como una alternativa frente a este crecimiento urbano de baja densidad y con baja demanda de los sistemas de transporte público, y busca promover formas urbanas compactas en áreas servidas por transporte masivo, la infraestructura para transporte no motorizado, la mezcla de usos del suelo para reducir la necesidad de viajes largos, y el mejoramiento del espacio público amigable para los peatones.
BRT, Cadastro, Mitigação Climática, Desenvolvimento, Desenvolvimento Econômico, SIG, Habitação, Planejamento de Uso do Solo, Planejamento, Crescimento Inteligente, Desenvolvimento Orientado ao Transporte, Transporte, Desenvolvimento Urbano, Recuperação de Mais-Valias, Zonificação
Course
Adaptación de Instrumentos de Planificación Territorial para Pequeñas Ciudades
El curso propone una reflexión informada, basada en fundamentos conceptuales y en realidades concretas, sobre la necesidad de aplicación de instrumentos de políticas de suelo que sean adecuados para pequeñas ciudades, según sus particularidades propias. Se aborda la caracterización de los conflictos territoriales en esta escala de ciudad, como el acceso al suelo urbano, la movilidad, la falta de espacio público y equipamiento, y los conflictos ambientales, entre otros, y se discuten las implicancias que tienen estas dificultades para los procesos de planificación y regulación del suelo. También se ofrece una mirada crítica sobre las ventajas y limitaciones de la planificación urbana y regional tradicional en los conflictos territoriales de una ciudad pequeña, para lo que se consideran factores normativos y de gestión asociados.
Relevancia
América Latina ha sufrido un acelerado proceso de urbanización en las últimas décadas y hoy es la segunda región más urbanizada del planeta. Las ciudades de tamaño pequeño y medio encabezan el crecimiento poblacional urbano y se caracterizan por contar con altos índices de pobreza. Este nuevo patrón de urbanización implica oportunidades y desafíos para los gobiernos nacionales y locales, ya que por un lado existe la necesidad de ampliar la provisión de servicios básicos, garantizar una mejor calidad de vida, promover la generación de empleo y abordar los desafíos relacionados con el cambio climático, mientras que por otro, se hace frente a la escasez permanente de recursos para inversiones, con gobiernos municipales que generalmente no alcanzan la independencia fiscal.
El curso ofrece un espacio para debater nuevas miradas teóricas y experiencias prácticas sobre la planificación para la gestión de suelo en Latinoamérica, con énfasis en la necesidad de hacer más visible el rol del Estado en la construcción de la ciudad, el impacto que las decisiones de planificación urbana tienen en los mercados de suelo, y la relación entre planificación y localización de la vivienda social en la ciudad. Se busca promover una reflexión crítica sobre el tipo de planificación urbana predominante en la región, los actores estratégicos con intereses específicos en la gestión del suelo, así como los instrumentos urbanísticos con que cuenta el Estado para la gestión del suelo urbano.
Relevancia
En América Latina se han registrado avances legislativos en materia de política urbana desde hace unos veinte años. Sin embargo, la práctica de la planificación urbana ha estado influenciada por una concepción rígida de la planificación, centrada en la definición de usos del suelo y densidades mediante la técnica del zoning, que deja de lado cuestiones relativas al logro de una ciudad más inclusiva. Bajo este esquema, las normas se plasman en planes que no se enfocan en la gestión del suelo y que tienen escasa capacidad para transformar la realidad. La traducción de dicha legislación en políticas urbanas más equitativas e integradoras requiere de la implementación efectiva de políticas adecuadas, es decir, los nuevos enfoques de la planificación deben ser operativos y contener instrumentos que permitan gestionar y aplicar efectivamente las estrategias de desarrollo.
Habitação, Inequidade, Banco de Terras, Regulação dos Mercados Fundiários, Planejamento de Uso do Solo, Segregação, Recuperação de Mais-Valias, Zonificação
El curso presenta los fundamentos jurídicos de las políticas de de suelo implementadas en América Latina, con énfasis en la evolución conceptual y en el cambio que la aparición del derecho urbanístico representó para la comprensión del derecho de propiedad inmobiliaria urbana en la región. La función social de la ciudad y de la propiedad, la distribución equitativa de cargas y beneficios, el urbanismo como función pública, las posibilidades de la planificación urbana y las políticas de gestión de suelo son examinadas como principios del derecho urbanístico capaces de convertirse en instrumentos que producen efectos jurídicos concretos en las ciudades. Asimismo, se aborda el derecho a la ciudad como un reto que puede ser obtenido por medio de la política urbana y de sus instrumentos.
Relevancia
En América Latina son varios los países en los que se observan avances legislativos en temas de planificación y gestión del suelo. Sin embargo, también es común la ausencia de herramientas jurídicas y de interpretación de los marcos normativos que promuevan políticas de suelo que generen ciudades justas, eficientes e incluyentes. Para superar este obstáculo es necesario avanzar en el conocimiento de los fundamentos jurídicos de los instrumentos de planificación, ordenamiento y gestión del territorio. El derecho urbanístico busca aproximarse al fenómeno urbano desde el ordenamiento jurídico, para lo cual resulta central la regulación de las formas de ocupación del suelo y las condiciones en que la misma ocurre.
Propriedade Coletiva, Resolução de Conflitos, Habitação, Mercados Fundiários Informais, Lei de Uso do Solo, Regulação dos Mercados Fundiários, Planejamento de Uso do Solo, Políticas Públicas, Segurança de Posse, Melhoria Urbana e Regularização, Recuperação de Mais-Valias, Zonificação
Land Matters Podcast
Episode 6: The (Late) Great Climate Change Mobilization
In the past century, the United States has mobilized for war, engineered the recovery from the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and sent a man to the moon. Tackling climate change should be no different, says Billy Fleming, director of The McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and one of the editors of the new Lincoln Institute book Design with Nature Now.
“We can figure out how to do this,” Fleming declares in the latest Episode of Land Matters, the podcast of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. “We’ve done it before.”
New technological solutions may pop up in the future to make the job easier, but, on the mitigation side, several basic tasks are plainly evident: decarbonize the power grid, decarbonize transportation, and stop cutting down trees that suck up carbon and store it away. Similarly, on the adaptation side, green and blue infrastructure systems are proven solutions that need only be implemented on a larger scale, Fleming says.
He’s in a good position to know. Together with UPenn colleagues Fritz Steiner, Richard Weller, and Karen M’Closkey, Fleming helped identify the 25 cutting-edge ecological design projects from around the world that are showcased in Design with Nature Now. From a transformed landfill in New York City to a re-engineering of natural systems to absorb rising seas on the coast of Virginia, these interventions promote sustainability and build resilience for a broad range of both urban and rural locations.
What’s needed now is a high-level framework to organize these approaches and establish ways to pay for them, Fleming says. “The cost of doing something is far, far less than the cost of doing nothing,” he says.
Photograph: Following a 1953 coastal flood in which 1,800 people died, the Netherlands adopted a successful water management strategy that gives its major rivers room to flood safely. Made up of 34 projects, Room for the River excavated floodplains, relocated dikes, and created flood channels to build resilience against more frequent and extreme weather events in the future. Room for the River is one of 25 projects featured in Design with Nature Now. Credit: IJsseldelta. With permission, Province of Overijssel/Rijkswaterstaat. Project Credit: Room for the River is a cooperative effort of nineteen different entities overseen by the Province of Overijssel Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management/Rijkswaterstatt. See www .roomfortheriver.com/.