Tom 16 (2022): Zeszyt 1 (June 2022)

For achieving sustainable cities, sustainable mobility is one of the key elements. Policymakers around the world are taking different strategies to ensure sustainable urban mobility at the local level. However, sustainable urban mobility assessment at neighborhoods of a developing country received a significant research gap. This study attempts to close this research gap by deriving and comparing neighborhood sustainability based on three indicators: modal share, travel time, and travel cost, in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Using a two-step cluster model, neighborhoods were grouped into three clusters. Study results classified 41 (44.6%) neighborhoods as sustainable, 30 (32.6%) as potentially sustainable, and 21 (22.8%) as unsustainable neighborhoods due to less positive outcomes of sustainable mobility policies. Later, median income and jobs-housing ratio value for different neighborhood types validated the classification result. Findings from this study reveal insights for transport planners, development agencies, policymakers to identify areas where mobility of the residents needs to be improved on a priority basis; advocate further research on comprehensive sustainability assessment at the neighborhood level.

Highlights for public administration, management and planning: •

There is a significant difference in modal share, travel time, and travel cost in neighborhoods.

There are only little doubts that territorial competition related to attracting new investments is getting increasingly severe. This competition is closely connected with the wide spectrum of location factors that bear economic as well as social and environmental dimensions. While some of these factors are barely manageable, majority of them can be actively shaped via policies of different kinds and scales. Not surprisingly, intense differentiation applying to both time and spatial perspectives is concomitant to afore mentioned factors. The main objective of this article consists in the analysis and assessment of location factors and mechanisms offered by the managements of Czech towns to potential investors. At the same time, we will examine which location factors and mechanisms these towns regard as important for individual investors. As it turned out, the investment environment in Czechia cannot be considered entirely standard from international perspective, which subsequently rises transaction costs involved in investment location.

Highlights for public administration, management and planning: •

In nearly one half of investigated Czech towns, there are no systemic standardized procedures how to deal with a new investor.

Although medium-sized towns are key components in the polycentric structuring of regional spaces, their evolutionary pathways are less clear than those of cities. This paper considers a set of four medium-sized towns with provincial capital status located in the southern zone of Lombardy, on the fringes of a densely urbanised area dominated by Milan. The population trajectories of these towns and their agglomerations (firstand second-belt municipalities) are investigated in the decade from 2010 to 2020, with a descriptive analysis. The research resulted in three main findings: 1) even in a challenging economic climate, the population trends of the towns considered were affected by proximity to the vibrant Milan metropolitan area; 2) all the towns have gone down the route of reurbanisation, but the suburbanisation process is still ongoing and very intense, especially for the Italian population; 3) there are gaps between cores and belts in terms of population distribution by age group and land take intensity, resulting in differing drives for population concentration or deconcentration.

Highlights for public administration, management and planning: •

Medium-sized towns that are more able to “work together as part of a network” enjoy greater population vitality.

Renewal, revitalisation, or reconstruction of public spaces is an inevitable part of the urban dynamics process. However, before any decision of future development is made, it is necessary to be acquainted with the given place. Mapping urban spaces is essential for recognizing the specifics of a certain area, while a relevant analysis should be performed on the basis of multiple data sources. Nonetheless, identification of relevant data sources as well as their limits, which need to be considered, represent challenges in the process. The study aims to highlight the importance of socio-spatial analyses as tools which help to familiarize place makers with public space as well as with the small nuances of its everyday functioning. Relevant online data sources for urban space analysis (Instasights, Strava) and their limits were explored, described, and applied to the area of interest - two banks of the Danube riverfront in Bratislava, Slovakia. The method was supplemented by mapping of human movement and behaviour. The combination of the methods is a relatively fast and simple way to get to know the spatial, social, environmental, aesthetic, and other dimensions of the given space. The interpretation of data illustrates possible outcomes that can be gained through mapping of public spaces before changes or development plans are proposed. Hence, the paper contributes to the repertory of the possible sources of online data that can be used for recognizing the specific characteristics of individual public spaces. This contributes to responsible decision-making about the future of the urban environment, built on data-based arguments.

Highlights for public administration, management and planning: •

Online data represents a valuable source of city-related information as well as a relevant addition to other mapping methods.

Between 2017 and 2020 the number of households living in slums in Chile has increased by 73.52%, which has led the state to urgently develop housing solutions to reorient public policy in this area. This article contributes to this discussion through an exploratory statistical analysis to identify the socio-economic drivers that best help to explain the formation of slums in Chilean cities. The resulting predictive model is tested in Greater Santiago, the nation’s capital, with good results, validating its usefulness for the design of housing policies. Among the results, low household income and the presence of international immigrants explain an increase in the probability of housing precariousness, while the presence of renters and heads of household with postgraduate degrees decreases this possibility. In addition to the specific scope for the Chilean case, the article shares a methodological strategy that can be replicated in other countries and cities to develop similar diagnoses.

Highlights for public administration, management and planning: •

A predictive model is developed using census data to identify the areas of the city where vulnerability of housing measured by socioeconomic factors may reflect precariousness of housing.

The scarcity of public open space has compelled urbanites to use residential rooftops as an interaction space. In Dhaka, rooftops are used for various social and recreational purposes which has extensively increased due to COVID-19 restrictions. During this period, few rooftops are used frequently while few are less occupied. Hence, the study identifies different variables that impact rooftop activities and finds correlations between them using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The study further shows the direction for accelerating the use of rooftops as an interaction space in residential buildings.

Highlights for public administration, management and planning: •

Rooftops represent important places of public life in Dhaka.

The unplanned expansion of cities has become a serious concern in India these days. They exert pressure on the city’s resources, resulting in uncontrolled expansion and unliveable circumstances. As a result, there is a need to design certain techniques to reduce this issue in order to have planned growth both within and outside the city. In this research, the demographic, physical and environmental transformations of the peri-urban areas of Pune City have been analysed using GIS and parameters have been suggested to develop a selection index to help identify the areas having urban traits and suggest separate urban local bodies for their governance and planning.

Highlights for public administration, management and planning: •

Peri-urban regions experience a lot of changes as they transition from rural to urban features, and assessing these changes using GIS is critical for better planning of such areas’ development.