Thesis (M.Phil. (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Water and sanitation is one of the key factors in the socio-economic development of a nation and people. Billions of people worldwide do not have access to clean water or basic sanitation leading to many health problems and developmental issues. This article discusses the challenges facing the world, South Africa and in particular the Western Cape and Cape Town in the provision of water and sanitation. For most people the desire is to have access to their own private portable water supply and their own private flush toilet connected via costly bulk water services to sewage treatment plants far away. The question posed is whether this model is sustainable into the future, given the water demands in many parts of the world affected by droughts and more violent weather cycles as a result of climate change and global warming. These factors will affect water supplies in South Africa and in particular the Western Cape and Cape Town. To answer some of the questions raised the Lynedoch EcoVillage development is discussed in detail in terms of sustainable neighbourhood planning and implementation. Sustainable Development is discussed, also various options in terms of applying ecological sanitation. The on-site water and sanitation system of the Lynedoch EcoVillage is discussed as a case study. The results of influent and effluent tests conducted by the CSIR are analysed to see whether the system is conforming to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry standards for the use of effluent water in irrigation and re-use of water in toilets. Localised models of water and sanitation provision might thus be a way forward to satisfy the increasing demand for such services made on national and local authorities as urban areas increase in size and population.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Urban Design / Many forgotten and resurfacing emerging theories in the field of urbanism are starting to recognise highperformance landscapes and green infrastructure as an essential urban element toward more resilient urban development. This report, entitled ‘Future-proofing the Urban Landscape: Green Infrastructure as a Primer for Resilient Urban Development’ addresses the question of whether Green Infrastructure can become the primary structuring element towards achieving more resilient development, and how this structure influences public place-making. The strategy is tested on a the Frankenwald site, one of the last remaining greenfield sites in Johannesburg. The proposed development comprises of guidelines and an indepth phasing strategy for development and intermediate natures that add long-term value towards future-proofing the city. The document establishes that green infrastructure is a highly relevant subject to consider for the planning of future cities. As a discourse it adds value to the profession of urban design and questions the urban designer’s capacity to offer more productive landscapes and assist in protecting and enhancing the ecosystem services of cities. The multi-layered nature of priming for green infrastructure services make available a variety of natural elements to be exposed and designed by means of meaningful place making. / GR2017

Este trabalho parte do desenvolvimento urbano sustentável e das políticas públicas como forma de promovê-lo. Os conselhos gestores de políticas públicas estão presentes em todos os níveis de governo, especialmente após a Constituição Federal de 1988. Tomou-se então para análise o município de Santo André pertencente à Região Metropolitana de São Paulo e quatro de seus 23 conselhos municipais relacionados à: Política Urbana, Política Ambiental, Orçamento Participativo e Gestão da Área de Mananciais. Para alcançar o objetivo de analisar o funcionamento dos conselhos municipais de Santo André, buscando reconhecer os pontos em que são exemplares e as ineficiências, foi realizada pesquisa de campo e entrevistas com gestores municipais e conselheiros. As principais conclusões são que Santo André é um caso exemplar em gestão compartilhada, com diversas experiências positivas que, indo muito além das exigências legais de abertura de canais de participação, reiteram a disposição do governo municipal em abrir para a sociedade civil canais de diálogo e deliberação. Porém, não existe uniformidade na atuação dos conselhos e ainda existem problemas, principalmente relacionados com a paridade numérica e a disparidade de condições para que haja um real compartilhamento de poder nos conselhos / This work parts from sustainable urban development and the public policies as a way to promote it. The public policies management councils are present in all levels of the government, especially after the 1988 Federal Constitution. It was taken for analysis the city of Santo André, which belongs to the metropolitan region of São Paulo, and four of its 23 municipal councils related to: Urban Policy, Environmental Policy, Participatory Budget and Management of the Source Water Area. To achieve the objective of analyzing the municipal councils of Santo André, trying to recognize the places in which it is exemplary and its inefficiencies, we carried out field research and interviews with municipal managers and council members. The main conclusions are that Santo André is an exemplary case of shared management, with various positive experiences that, going far beyond the legal requirements for openings channels of participation, reaffirm the willingness of the municipal government to open channels for civil society dialogue and deliberation. However, there is no uniformity in the actions of the councils and there still are problems, mainly related to the numeric parity and the disparity of conditions so that there is a real sharing of power in the councils. However, there is no uniformity in the performance of councils and there are still problems, mainly related to numeric parity and disparity of conditions so that there is a real sharing of power in the councils

Este trabalho parte do desenvolvimento urbano sustentável e das políticas públicas como forma de promovê-lo. Os conselhos gestores de políticas públicas estão presentes em todos os níveis de governo, especialmente após a Constituição Federal de 1988. Tomou-se então para análise o município de Santo André pertencente à Região Metropolitana de São Paulo e quatro de seus 23 conselhos municipais relacionados à: Política Urbana, Política Ambiental, Orçamento Participativo e Gestão da Área de Mananciais. Para alcançar o objetivo de analisar o funcionamento dos conselhos municipais de Santo André, buscando reconhecer os pontos em que são exemplares e as ineficiências, foi realizada pesquisa de campo e entrevistas com gestores municipais e conselheiros. As principais conclusões são que Santo André é um caso exemplar em gestão compartilhada, com diversas experiências positivas que, indo muito além das exigências legais de abertura de canais de participação, reiteram a disposição do governo municipal em abrir para a sociedade civil canais de diálogo e deliberação. Porém, não existe uniformidade na atuação dos conselhos e ainda existem problemas, principalmente relacionados com a paridade numérica e a disparidade de condições para que haja um real compartilhamento de poder nos conselhos / This work parts from sustainable urban development and the public policies as a way to promote it. The public policies management councils are present in all levels of the government, especially after the 1988 Federal Constitution. It was taken for analysis the city of Santo André, which belongs to the metropolitan region of São Paulo, and four of its 23 municipal councils related to: Urban Policy, Environmental Policy, Participatory Budget and Management of the Source Water Area. To achieve the objective of analyzing the municipal councils of Santo André, trying to recognize the places in which it is exemplary and its inefficiencies, we carried out field research and interviews with municipal managers and council members. The main conclusions are that Santo André is an exemplary case of shared management, with various positive experiences that, going far beyond the legal requirements for openings channels of participation, reaffirm the willingness of the municipal government to open channels for civil society dialogue and deliberation. However, there is no uniformity in the actions of the councils and there still are problems, mainly related to the numeric parity and the disparity of conditions so that there is a real sharing of power in the councils. However, there is no uniformity in the performance of councils and there are still problems, mainly related to numeric parity and disparity of conditions so that there is a real sharing of power in the councils

As the role of cities in addressing climate change has been increasingly recognized over the past two decades, the idea of a low-carbon city becomes a dominant framework to organize urban governance and envision a sustainable urban future. It also becomes a development discourse in the less developed world to guide the ongoing urbanization process. China’s efforts toward building low-carbon cities have been inspiring at first and then obscured by the halt or total failure of famous mega-projects, leading to a conclusion that Chinese low-carbon cities compose merely a strategy of green branding for promoting local economy. This conclusion, however, largely neglects the profound implications of the decarbonization discourse for the dynamics between the central and local governments, which together determine the rules and resources for development practices. The conclusion also hinders the progressive potentials of the decarbonization discourse in terms of introducing new values and norms to urban governance. This dissertation approaches “low-carbon cities” as a part of the decarbonization discourse and employs a discourse-institutional analysis to investigate the relationships between discourse, institutional arrangement, and socio-political resources for development activities. Through an examination of the Shenzhen International Low-Carbon City (SILCC), the dissertation answers three questions: (1) How does the framework of a low-carbon city affect a specific urban development project? (2) What is the role of the state (local/national) in promoting low-carbon development? and (3) What is the influence of the decarbonization discourse on institutions and norms of urban governance? Evidence was gathered during 2014-2017 from three fieldtrips, 39 interviews and the review of government documents and other archives. The dissertation highlights how different levels of government became entangled in developing a local area and how, in doing so, the proponents continuously searched for ways of ‘positioning’ their initiative in discourses that would attract higher level government support, maintain local coalitions, and entice international attention and investment. In this regard, low-carbon cities are a state discursive project. Rather than an established material goal, a low-carbon city is an evolving process in which the decarbonization discourse introduces a new set of values, metrics and governing logics into development practices and redefines the legitimacy and accountability of urban development. Furthermore, the local state leverages the interpretive flexibility within the decarbonization discourse through strategies including carbon labeling, weak carbonization, and carbon exceptionalism. Consequently, the state takes a strategic position to reconfigure the state-society as well as the environment-economy relationships.

The historic place is the result of a uniqueness that characterises and differentiates it from other places. It holds both tangible and intangible features that creates its sense of place, which is a lifelong process whereby it gradually constitutes our historic city and its character. This study aligns with the growing recognition by the international heritage community to expand our understanding of cultural heritage to include tangible and intangible values, agenda of sustainability, the role of local culture, and sustainable development. It, thus, initiates a critical dialogue between heritage conservation and sustainable urban development, to examine the concept of sense of place and its implications for conservation theory and practice. By drawing on a variety of methodologies and sources, it seeks to understand how effectively sense of place can contribute to the management of historic urban areas in a globalised world. The theoretical phase of the research traces relevant literature and studies, presenting the latest debates on heritage management at the international level, and explores selected collaborative projects in Europe at regional level. While the practical phase, focuses on Edinburgh as an in-depth case study, exploring its policies and practice at a local level. The methodological approach adopted in this study has enabled combining literature from different disciplines, through categorising the main features of sense of place, to a grid of main goals for any development project: conserving the physical structure, the suitability of the use, and the development of local community and improving the quality of life. This takes us beyond issues of conservation and towards a recognition of the central role sense of place and local community have in (re)configuring shared values, practices, collective memory and identity in a specific cultural cluster. To illustrate the validity of the approach, the analytical framework was applied to selected development projects across Edinburgh to explore the sense of place, unpack the complexity of local values of various users, effectively engage more users and stakeholders, and redefine heritage management and the way it can be integrated within the planning system. This was possible by using various methods to acknowledge its multiplicity: exploring the evolution of Edinburgh’s historic place in history and the role of planning system and policies into shaping the present character; and conducting semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and focus groups in local communities.

This study analyzes the relationship between comprehensive planning and actual development (as measured by changes in welfare) for 158 jurisdictions in metropolitan Atlanta. Relying on ecological economics for a method to measure welfare and planning literature for a method to evaluate the content of comprehensive plans, this dissertation uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Development is measured for four dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social, environment, and resource) using a modified Genuine Progress Indicator, and the metropolitan Atlanta area is found to have had weakly sustainable development from 1980 to 2000. In all places, economic welfare increased and resource welfare decreased. Social and environmental development had mixed results with about half of jurisdictions showing increases in environmental welfare while less than a handful showed increases in social welfare. Comprehensive plans were found to have a range of overall plan quality scores (the average of scores of policy statements in a plan) from 1.3 to 3.2 with a mean of 2.3 out of a maximum of 4. Of 2564 policy statements, 541 (or 21\%) were high quality statements scoring 4/4 points while 708 (or 28\%) received no quality points - they were weakly worded, vague, and not measurable. The average commitment to sustainable development (percent of policy statements in a plan that are related to a principle of sustainable development) is 39\% with a minumum of 9\% and a maximum of 80\%. Plan policy statements coded for principles of sustainable development were found to have significantly higher quality scores while overall plan quality scores were not found to be correlated to the plan commmitment to sustainable development; this implies that plans are generally either rigid (having highs scores) or visionary (having high commitment to sustainable development) overall. Plan quality was found to have a significant negative relationship with sustainable development, when dimensions are considered. This relationship was stronger for plans completed within the study time period (before 2000), suggesting that this relationship may be causal. The negative result is unexpected and leads to a rejection of the hypothesis that high quality planning would be significantly and positively related to development. On the other hand, plan commitment to sustainable development was found to be weakly positively related to sustainable development although the dimensions of this relationship changed over time. As such, the hypothesis that commitment to sustainable development would be significantly and positively related to development cannot be rejected. These results hold even when looking at distinct growth patterns across the metropolitan region, suggesting that the relationships between plans and development may be applicable to other places.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Urban planning is not only about planning the city for people today but also planning decades of year ahead for next generations. Growing complexity and dynamics of the urban system make planning, decision-making and problem-solving to be more challenging. In order to achieve sustainable development, the notion of creative city is aroused in academic field and also advocated by many policymakers recently. Creative city notion suddenly becomes the panacea for many urban problems such as revitalizing dilapidated old urban area, enhancing the competitiveness of the city in the global economy, and boosting local employment rate, etc. However, among the polemical meditations on the creative cities notion, there is insufficient study on what vital preconditions are for creativity to be emerged in the metropolis, what creative activities are generated and how actors are interrelated with each other and with the environment regarding social, economic and physical dimensions. This dissertation proposes the “creative ecology” framework for analyzing and contextualizing the interrelationship and dynamics of stakeholders in the “creative ecology” and with the surrounding environments. An empirical study which applies the framework to a local district of Hong Kong, Yau Ma Tei, is conducted. The study tries to trace out the interrelationships of local creativity scene to the environments, and the dynamics within the ecology supported by the comprehensive study on the empirical setting from the perspective of Hong Kong to local district like Yau Ma Tei, and in-depth face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders. The analysis shows, in particular, how the “creative ecology” rooted in a local district operates and how a balanced “creative ecology” can be achieved in relation to the sustainable urban development. The recommendation is concerned passim with cultural policy and urban planning issues. The dissertation is concluded by summarizing the concept of “creative ecology” and highlighting its nature of continuous evolution, as well as addressing the main contemporary challenges while Hong Kong is in the transition process to be a more creative place. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Culture-led regeneration policy has become a global trend in many major cities worldwide (UNCHS, 2004; Miles and Paddison, 2005). While overseas governments such as the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia have directed their regeneration policies to encourage the creative class and industries; Hong Kong is again left behind. Some scholars suggest that the culture-led strategy can act as the twenty-first century driver for regeneration, able to better preserve social networks and capital, and hence bring greater benefit to the local residents (Szeto, 2007). However, the methods of promoting culture-led regeneration in the Hong Kong context are rarely discussed. In addition, to what extend urban planning could help to facilitate creative class, and its possible impact on local residents is yet to be studied. This dissertation therefore has a two-way focus; on one hand, it seeks to address the research gap on how culture-led regeneration can be implemented in Hong Kong; on the other hand, it contributes to the academic debate by exploring the mechanism of capitalising culture in a regeneration project in order to maximise the ways at which local residents can truly benefit. It is often assumed that the integration of cultural production, consumption and community art programmes bring about the greatest benefits for the local economy, and hence benefit the locals by ‘trickle down’ effect (Binns, 2005). However, this dissertation argues that the community and its institutions play an important role in distributing the wealth created by culture-led redevelopment. While gentrification as well as the displacement of local residents, is usually observed in culture-led regeneration, progressive community planning and community ownership of the ‘Common’ can help in breaking the monopoly of rent and fixed capitals, to the benefit of local residents. The case of Hoxton – with the success of its local organizations in reducing the pressures of gentrification – is studied alongside with a case of similar background, Noho, Hong Kong, to explore new research and enlighten a possible new policy direction of culture-led regeneration in Hong Kong. Both cases are led by artists and creative industries in the area with the aim of revitalizing poor local economies. In light of this, the two cases are compared to firstly address the research gap on the community role in a sustainable culture-led regeneration, and then to enlighten a possible new policy direction of culture-led regeneration in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning