While many major cities in the United States are once again gaining population, growing their economies, and attracting talent, many small and mid-sized cities are in decline. The reasons for this growing disparity are multi-faceted. A growing body of research has been exploring planning challenges in declining cities and towns. This body of research—often called “shrinking cities” and “urban shrinkage” research—is premised on the belief that many declining places will continue to shed population, jobs, and industries, and planning smartly for this decline is the only sensible path forward. So far, research in the U.S. has focused primarily on Northeast and Midwest cities where population and industrial decline has been the most severe. Less scholarship has studied places that have declined more slowly and more recently. This thesis examines the current trends impacting the decline of mid-sized cities in the Midwestern United States, focusing on four cities in the State of Illinois. It also explores whether these cities are ready to consider the possibility that population decline is not temporary and change their planning strategies accordingly. Finally, this thesis will introduce an emerging paradigm in contemporary urban planning practice that fuses growth and decline strategies, to prepare mid-sized cities for an uncertain demographic and economic future.

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An attempt to save the city of Detroit, Michigan, and its existing buildings by giving it a new meaning and future. Cars and roads are eliminated. Tiger Stadium is converted into a city-wide freight receiving and shipping facility. A system of pneumatic tubes is implemented in each neighborhood, with a district tube router facility inside the LaFayette Tower. Apartments vitalize the landmark Fisher Building. A new multi-storey research/ education/ work station with more stairs then elevators fills in an old parking lot. / Master of Architecture

Since around twenty years, the Saguenay CMA seems to have underwent a population decline and important economic transformations, wich would have confronted citizens and local actors to a situation of a possible decline. In a context of an ageing population generalized to the whole Quebec, the Saguenay CMA can be seen as a precursor territory of the population decline phenomenon for a medium-sized city. It’s the scale and the extent of the phenomenon wich seem to have become more important. In this context, is it possible to reverse the situation from an urban planning based on growth, to a planning that takes into account the possiblity of the decrease and the ageing of the population, as well as the reorganization of econimic activities? The analysis of the actors’s speech, who are involved in planning, economic development and politics, raise the question of the difficulty to conceive the decrease of the population and the economic tranformations, not as an occasional phenomenon, but as a possibly structural phenomenon that may last over time. The subject of the decline seems to generate a form of discomfort among the actors, going even to the complete reject of the situation as a possible reality. For several, the eventuality of a generalized decline is inconceivable, the decrease can be perceived as a political failure. It appears that most of the strategies put in place to correct the situation, are based on the goal of a return to the growth. From the signs in the built framework, through the strategy of territorial marketing and municipal interventionism, until the appearance of urban brownfields, the impacts of the population decrease and the economic transformations seems, for the greater part very subtile, but to be present on the territory of the CMA. The shrinking cities phenomenon is observed in this study according to a new approach that confronts the actors’s speech, the territory reality and the analysis of the economic and demographic dynamics. It is thus an exploratory research wich tries to question the current way of thinking the urban growth. / Depuis une vingtaine d’années, la RMR de Saguenay semble avoir connu une diminution démographique et d’importantes transformations économiques, qui auraient confronté les citoyens et les acteurs locaux à une situation de possible décroissance. Dans un contexte de vieillissement de population généralisé à l'ensemble du Québec, la RMR de Saguenay pourrait être perçue comme un territoire précurseur du phénomène de décroissance démographique d’une ville de taille moyenne. C’est l’échelle et l’ampleur du phénomène qui semblent être devenues plus importantes. Dans ce contexte, est-il possible de passer d’un aménagement du territoire basé sur la croissance, à une planification qui tient compte de la possibilité d’une diminution et du vieillissement de la population, ainsi que de la réorganisation des activités économiques ? L’analyse du discours des acteurs de l’aménagement, du développement économique et du politique soulève la difficulté de concevoir la diminution de la population et les mutations économiques non plus comme un phénomène occasionnel, mais comme un phénomène possiblement structurel qui pourrait être appelé à perdurer dans le temps. Le sujet de la décroissance semble générer une forme de malaise auprès des acteurs, allant même parfois jusqu’au refus de concevoir cette situation. Pour plusieurs, l’éventualité d’un déclin généralisé est inconcevable, la décroissance pouvant alors être perçue comme un échec politique. Il apparaîtrait logique que la plupart des stratégies mises en place reposent sur l’objectif d’un retour à la croissance. À partir des signes précurseurs dans le cadre bâti, en passant par la stratégie du marketing territorial et l’interventionnisme municipal, jusqu’à l’apparition de friches urbaines, les impacts du phénomène de la décroissance, pour la plupart très subtils, se révèlent tout de même présents sur le territoire de la RMR. La décroissance est observée dans cette étude selon une approche nouvelle qui confronte le discours des acteurs, la réalité sur le territoire et l’analyse des dynamiques économiques et démographiques. Il s’agit ainsi d’une recherche exploratoire qui tente de s’interroger sur la façon actuelle de concevoir la croissance urbaine.

Since around twenty years, the Saguenay CMA seems to have underwent a population decline and important economic transformations, wich would have confronted citizens and local actors to a situation of a possible decline. In a context of an ageing population generalized to the whole Quebec, the Saguenay CMA can be seen as a precursor territory of the population decline phenomenon for a medium-sized city. It’s the scale and the extent of the phenomenon wich seem to have become more important. In this context, is it possible to reverse the situation from an urban planning based on growth, to a planning that takes into account the possiblity of the decrease and the ageing of the population, as well as the reorganization of econimic activities? The analysis of the actors’s speech, who are involved in planning, economic development and politics, raise the question of the difficulty to conceive the decrease of the population and the economic tranformations, not as an occasional phenomenon, but as a possibly structural phenomenon that may last over time. The subject of the decline seems to generate a form of discomfort among the actors, going even to the complete reject of the situation as a possible reality. For several, the eventuality of a generalized decline is inconceivable, the decrease can be perceived as a political failure. It appears that most of the strategies put in place to correct the situation, are based on the goal of a return to the growth. From the signs in the built framework, through the strategy of territorial marketing and municipal interventionism, until the appearance of urban brownfields, the impacts of the population decrease and the economic transformations seems, for the greater part very subtile, but to be present on the territory of the CMA. The shrinking cities phenomenon is observed in this study according to a new approach that confronts the actors’s speech, the territory reality and the analysis of the economic and demographic dynamics. It is thus an exploratory research wich tries to question the current way of thinking the urban growth. / Depuis une vingtaine d’années, la RMR de Saguenay semble avoir connu une diminution démographique et d’importantes transformations économiques, qui auraient confronté les citoyens et les acteurs locaux à une situation de possible décroissance. Dans un contexte de vieillissement de population généralisé à l'ensemble du Québec, la RMR de Saguenay pourrait être perçue comme un territoire précurseur du phénomène de décroissance démographique d’une ville de taille moyenne. C’est l’échelle et l’ampleur du phénomène qui semblent être devenues plus importantes. Dans ce contexte, est-il possible de passer d’un aménagement du territoire basé sur la croissance, à une planification qui tient compte de la possibilité d’une diminution et du vieillissement de la population, ainsi que de la réorganisation des activités économiques ? L’analyse du discours des acteurs de l’aménagement, du développement économique et du politique soulève la difficulté de concevoir la diminution de la population et les mutations économiques non plus comme un phénomène occasionnel, mais comme un phénomène possiblement structurel qui pourrait être appelé à perdurer dans le temps. Le sujet de la décroissance semble générer une forme de malaise auprès des acteurs, allant même parfois jusqu’au refus de concevoir cette situation. Pour plusieurs, l’éventualité d’un déclin généralisé est inconcevable, la décroissance pouvant alors être perçue comme un échec politique. Il apparaîtrait logique que la plupart des stratégies mises en place reposent sur l’objectif d’un retour à la croissance. À partir des signes précurseurs dans le cadre bâti, en passant par la stratégie du marketing territorial et l’interventionnisme municipal, jusqu’à l’apparition de friches urbaines, les impacts du phénomène de la décroissance, pour la plupart très subtils, se révèlent tout de même présents sur le territoire de la RMR. La décroissance est observée dans cette étude selon une approche nouvelle qui confronte le discours des acteurs, la réalité sur le territoire et l’analyse des dynamiques économiques et démographiques. Il s’agit ainsi d’une recherche exploratoire qui tente de s’interroger sur la façon actuelle de concevoir la croissance urbaine.

The theme of this dissertation is “Management of the regeneration of post-industrial areas”. The aim of the work is to identify support mechanisms for the redevelopment of post-industrial areas in the Czech Republic. Such support mechanisms were researched and analysed in those EU countries that have broad and varied experience with the regeneration of post-industrial areas. The most favourable case studies were selected from Germany, with a particular focus given to the districts around the city of Leipzig, and the United Kingdom, highlighting the city of Manchester. For these chosen examples, I have analysed the legislative, institutional, and financial tools of urban regeneration support. One chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the environmental assessment tools for buildings and urban communities as alternative approach to the support of municipal regeneration. Findings from all chapters are contrasted with the analysis of four typical examples of derivation of post-industrial areas in Czech cities, which were chosen as being typical of unsuccessful redevelopments. Based on these examples I have compiled recommendations gained from successful mechanisms for urban regeneration abroad which could be considered and put into practice here in the Czech Republic.

In the current post-industrial society, with increasing requirement of sustainability, greenery significantly participates in the spatial, operational and functional organization of the urban environment. The first part of the thesis introduces relationship between formation and structure of greenery in an urban environment from the historical point of view. Elements of greenery in an urban environment and on its margins filled a variety of functions: from productional and aesthetical to the recreational and ecological. Green areas have also gradually become an important public space. In the current urban environment, areas of vegetation arise mainly in the form of recultivation of post-industrial areas, adjusted smaller parks, greenery of business and entertainment centers, or greenery of residential units. The thesis is focusing on the last mentioned type, which should be in the closest coexistence with residential environment and on the possibilities of creating eco-residential units, which can become a substitute /or at least one of the possible options/ to mono-functional residential zones emerging on the outskirts of our cities and in the open countryside and act against the ongoing suburbanization and its negative effects. The text of doctoral thesis is trying to find qualitative aspects of greenery which supports the creation of living, attractive and sustainable public spaces. Comparison and evaluation of selected examples from abroad /Austria, Germany, Holland/ and also from the Czech Republic brings us the definition of the necessary and optimum qualitative properties of greenery in public, but also semi-public spaces of residential complexes. These examples of good practice may be used - as a whole or in parts – as inspiration for the development of residential projects in the Czech Republic, either in preferred brownfields areas or in carefully selected areas of new development. The final chapter emphasizes the inseparability of the creation of public spaces and greenery in residential areas from the sustainable development of the area in terms of a penetrable and compact city.

Urban interior environment mostly serves as a place for various meetings and social events. Thus, these spaces come alive thanks to people, who give them reason and meaning. However, the question is what role urban interior has in the present day, which, at the beginning of the new millennium, is characterized by a high degree of individualism. Within the deurbanization tendencies, buildings and adjoining areas in central parts of cities are often abandoned and the activities move to the periphery. If we want to return the social function to the urban interior, as a place of pleasant encounters and relationships, we need to approach its formation with respect to current trends in the development of human society. From the perspective of sustainable development, it is also necessary not to extend the boundaries of urbanized area to adjacent landscape, while abandoning the central locations in cities, but to maintain their intensive character. From this point of view, it is necessary to realize, that it is the greenery that gives the city an opportunity to perceive public spaces as an integral part of urban life and not just as places that people walk through having no reason to stay longer than necessary. Application of greenery in urban interior provides many positive features to the city. Greenery is an added value that can also operate independently as a functional unit that links the other functions of the urban organism. Both in its solitary form and in line or area applications. Along with water elements, urban furniture, various hard surfaces and landscaping, greenery creates a pleasant and interesting living environment in the city that can be desirable and sought-after again.

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