Scott Hawken

Innovation districts and urban heterogeneity: 3D mapping of industry mix in downtown Sydney

Abstract Economic heterogeneity is an intrinsic characteristic of cities, but it varies greatly within and between urban areas. The economic relationships and specific mix of service industries are important keys to the management and design of innovative urban districts that support the knowledge economy. Although heterogeneity is accepted as a general ‘good’ within urban design, the concept has not been approached systematically with specific physical relationships between industries, uses and the spaces they occupy generalized as ‘mixed-use zones’. This paper critically reviews the concept of mixed-use and investigates the concept of 3D heterogeneity using a fine-grained geographical information system (GIS) dataset to scrutinize spatial and economic characteristics of a commercial downtown ‘innovation district’ in global Sydney.

Adaptive reuse of industrial heritage for cultural purposes in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing

With the dramatic transformation of China’s industrial landscape, since the late 1990s, adaptive reuse of industrial heritage for cultural purposes has become a widely occurring phenomenon in major Chinese cities. The existing literature mainly focusses on specific cases, yet sees heritage conservation similarly at both national and regional scale and rarely identifies the main factors behind the production of China’s industrial-heritage reuse. The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in heritage reuse outcomes among three Chinese mega-cities and explore the driving factors influencing the differences.,This paper compares selected industrial-heritage cultural precincts in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, and explores the local intervening factors influencing differences in their reuse patterns, including the history of industrial development, the availability of the nineteenth and/or twentieth century industrial buildings, the existence of cultural capital and the prevalence of supportive regional government policy.,The industrial-heritage reuse in the three cities is highly regional. In Beijing, the adaptation of industrial heritage has resulted from the activities of large-scale artist communities and the local government’s promotion of the city’s cultural influence; while in Shanghai, successful and more commercially oriented “sea culture” artists, private developers in creative industries and the “creative industry cluster” policy make important contributions. Chongqing in contrast, is still at the early stage of heritage conservation, as demonstrated by its adaptive reuse outcomes. Considering its less-developed local cultural economy, Chongqing needs to adopt a broader range of development strategies.,The paper contributes to knowledge by revealing that the production of industrial-heritage cultural precincts in Chinese mega-cities is influenced by regional level factors, including the types of industrial heritage, the spontaneous participation of artist communities and the encouragement of cultural policy.

TOWARDS THE RIGHT MODEL OF SMART CITY GOVERNANCE IN INDIA

There is broad agreement among the scientific community that local government’s play a vital role in fostering smart cities which focusses on improving quality of life by integrating technology with the built environment. But, urban governance in rapidly urbanising countries of global south is often poorly organised to deal with complex urban challenges, severely hindering their aspirations to become smart cities. Although smart city dossiers are abundant in literature, their governance framework and structural variations in such development across regions is lacking. Furthermore, efforts to import governance models from developed world cities are facing lack of unique context sensitivities, which stand against their transformation as smart cities. This paper contributes to the debate on urban governance of smart cities by providing their distinct theoretical conceptualisations and linking them with case studies. It analyses the urban governance dynamics in Indian cities which has started implementing a massive 100 smart cities development programme. From the past experiences of Indian cities in reforming urban administration to its new model of special purpose vehicle led project execution; this research critically assesses the ability of Indian cities to transform their traditional bureaucratic governments into a more accountable collaborative governance. The outcomes from this study highlight the need for aspiring smart cities in emerging economies to address deep-seated structural issues of municipal government’s and engage in the process of governance transformation rather than adopting temporary solutions.

Evolving a Locally Appropriate Indicator System for Benchmarking Sustainable Smart Cities in India

Urban development initiatives in India are largely shaped by a ‘patchwork of programmers’ launched periodically by the Government of India. Recently, the Indian government has launched multiple urban transformation programmes aiming at smart city development, urban renewal, and heritage development. But, India’s urban policy interventions lacks effective mechanisms for measuring the impact of such programmes over time. Indicator systems can provide insight into local urban challenges and issues and offer a basis for measuring urban progress as a result of public investments. Although there are multiple global indicator facilities available for adoption, considerable challenges remain in selecting an appropriate set of indicators for local conditions. With Indian urbanisation intensifying and an accompanying proliferation of urban development programmes, there is an increasing need for a set of indicators suited to local context. A local approach can objectively measure the existing performance of Indian cities vis-a-vis quality of life and sustainability, and can evaluate the outcome and benefits of new local urban development programmes as they are implemented. To address this emerging need, this research aims to provide a bridge between local urban performance and the capacity to meet local and global standards. By the application of factor analysis (Principal Component Analysis) on 59 indicators chosen from various urban sectors, this study attempts to derive the most significant factors to measure the performance of 98 Indian cities and assess their potential to become sustainable smart cities. The study enhances the selection and development of policies by city makers. It also establishes an approach to develop urban typologies for different Indian cities. Such a categorisation makes the bewildering range of Indian cities and their challenges easier to comprehend and address.