Special Issue "Urban Regeneration and Sustainability"

Guest Editor
Prof. Ken Tamminga
Department of Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Website: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/k/r/krt1/
E-Mail: krt1@psu.edu

Dear Colleagues,

This issue of Sustainability focuses on regeneration research being put into action across a continuum of urban systems and spatial scales. Sustainability concerns in the city tend to arise from a combination of dysfunction in particular sectors, and a severing of life-sustaining flows between those sectors and associated realms. Framing effective scholarship and practice of sustainability-inducing regeneration, thus, requires a clear understanding of part-whole relations. Like the member of a body, any part (neighborhood, precinct) and subsystem (infrastructure, ecosystem, institution) of a city may falter. At times, enlightened tinkering is all that’s needed to re-set to a sustainable trajectory. In other instances, there’s little left to work with or the problems are more complex, calling for special effort. Generally, a shift toward sustainability occurs when the regenerative intervention catalyzes integrity and functionality in the part, while strengthening connections between that part and whole of the city.

Successful applied research in regeneration will tend to be broadly ecological, requiring a collaboration of scientific rigor, strategic creativity, and willful action and monitoring. We are interested in a range of manuscripts that are consistent with this understanding. Applied urban regeneration theory and well-documented project precedents would be most suitable. Papers addressing regeneration as catalyst of sustainable livelihood and environmental form in stressed communities are especially welcome. Taken as a compilation, this issue hopes to show that regeneration that integrates social, economic, technological, infrastructural and ecological dimensions will advance both the scholarship and tangible goal of sustainable neighborhoods and metropolises.

Prof. Ken Tamminga
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 500 CHF (Swiss Francs). English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

• urban regeneration
• sustainable social-ecological systems
• catalytic policy and design
• ecosystem services
• adaptibility and resilience

Title: The New Ecology of Vacancy
Author: Sean Burkholder
Affiliation: Department of Landscape Architecture, The Pennsylvania State University, PA 16801, USA; E-Mail: slb59@psu.edu
Abstract: Urban environments are in continual transition. Yet as many cities continue to grow and develop in ways deemed typical or standard, these transitions can be difficult to acknowledge. Narratives of continued growth and permanence become accepted and expected while the understanding of urban dynamics becomes lost. In many parts of the world the shrinking cities phenomenon has given rise to a new awareness of urban transition that provides a laboratory of new conditions at the intersection of urbanism and ecology. With vacancy rates easily exceeding 50% in certain locations, cities in the American Rust Belt look more like successional woodlands than bustling metropolises. While these new ecologies have been embraced or accepted within both planning and academics in Europe, these conditions are still seen as indices of failure in America. This paper will look to recent studies in Urban Ecology as a framework for understanding these shrinking cities as places of unprecedented potential in urban sustainability and planning.
Keywords: shrinking cities; urban ecology; urban landscape; vacancy; successional urbanism

Title: Science and the Sacred: Rethinking the Relationship Between the GAP and the Ganges
Authors: Priyam Das ¹ and Kenneth Tamminga ²
Affiliations: ¹ Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2424 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
² Department of Landscape Architecture, 121 The Stuckeman Family Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA   16802-1912, USA
Abstract: For centuries, the heavily urbanized reaches of the Ganges river in India have been the locus of sacred rites for the Hindus. The religious significance of theGanges has resulted in the physical manifestation of ghats, or stepped landings that form the land-water interface. The ghats have become an inseparable part of people’s daily lives. At the same time, incessantactivities along the ghats have contributed to the alarming levels of pollution in the river. In 1985, the government of India launched the GangaAction Plan (GAP) with the primary objective of cleaning the river. However, programs like the GAP, characterized by centralized planning and control, have had limited success. Despite this, in 2009, the government launched yet another program, this time with loans from the World Bank, to replace the GAP. In this paper, we take a closer look at the tenuous relationship between the need for ‘efficient’ management of environmental problems and citizen participation: How does participation fit into the technocratic model that is often adopted by environmental programs? What approaches to participation kindle authorship and empowerment among those who share a deep relationship with the river and the ghats? How can religious bathing and cremation rituals be accommodated within scientific frameworks of adaptive management and resilience? We argue that rethinking these relationships poses a crucial challenge towards any effort to clean the Ganges, restore its waterfront, and catalyze broader regeneration in the Varanasi urban region.

Title: Sticks and Stones: the Impact of the Definitions of Brownfield in Policies on Socio-economic Sustainability
Authors: Yu-Ting, Tang ^1,*, C. Paul Nathanail ²
Affiliations: ¹ School of Geography, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK/ C9 Sir Clive Granger Building, University of Nottingham, University Park, UK; E-Mail: enxytt@nottingham.ac.uk
2 School of Geography, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK / C7 Sir Clive Granger Building, University of Nottingham, University Park, UK; E-Mail: paul.nathanail@nottingham.ac.uk
Abstract: Many countries encourage brownfield regeneration as a means of sustainable development but define brownfield differently. Specifically, the definitions of brownfield in the regeneration policies of countries with higher population densities usually promote recycling land that is previously developed, whether or not there is chemical contamination.  Further, the de facto definition of brownfield used by the UK government focuses on previously developed land that is unused or underused.  The ANOVA analyses in this study revealed that local authorities in England (n=296) with higher percentages of derelict and vacant land tend to be more deprived.  However the percentage of previously developed land in use but with further development potential has no significant effect on the deprivation conditions.  The Blair-Brown Government (1997-2010) encouraged more than 60% of new dwellings to be established on the previously developed land in England.  The analyses in this study showed that this target, combined with the definition of brownfield in the policy, may have facilitated higher densities of residential development on previously developed land but without addressing the deprivation problems.  These observations indicate that a definition of brownfield in regeneration policies should focus on previously developed land but now vacant and derelict if land recycling is to contribute to sustainable communities.

Title: The Future of City Living as Eco-Localisation
Author: Rachael Unsworth
Affiliation: School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK; E-Mail: r.unsworth@leeds.ac.uk
Abstract: As climate change and resource constraints become more evident, the need to reduce resource use and pollution output will be increasingly factored into decisions such as where and how to live and how to develop cities. This paper draws on the concept of ‘eco-localisation’: a combination of both ‘immanent’ forces (economic rationale) that will affect location decision making and ‘intentional’, pro-active ideas for reworking the functioning of settlements with the deliberate aim of reducing resource use and associated pollution. Applying this thinking to the future regeneration of central city areas, in conjunction with sustainable urban design principles, will provide a long-term planning framework that anticipates both the seriousness of future trends and the likely changes in location decision making. Then neighbourhoods can be generated where future urban dwellers will be able and willing to live, work and meet a wide range of requirements within a relatively small area, thus reducing their environmental impact while ensuring a reasonable level of prosperity and well-being. Using the example of the area of Leeds city centre south, it is argued that a neighbourhood designed in this far-sighted way to enable a transition to low-carbon (and generally less resource-intense) living could be a selling point for the city, attracting organisations and households responding in both immanent and intentional ways, as well as helping to meet local, national and global environmental targets. But there are some significant barriers to be overcome.
Keywords: city living; eco-localisation; peak oil; climate change; sustainable urban regeneration; futures thinking

Title: Radicalizing the Logic of Urban Regeneration: The Case of the Sacramento Diasporas Project
Author: Michael Rios
Affiliation: Department of Environmental Design, University of California Davis, USA; E-Mail: mxrios@ucdavis.edu 
Abstract: Urban regeneration is viewed and approached in many different ways. From the perspective of sustainability, urban regeneration is constituted by the linkages between macro-scale processes and micro-scale interventions. For example, regional issues such as watershed stewardship or food security are tied to site-based interventions such as stormwater management or urban gardening. However, the implementation of these and other forms of urban regeneration often come down to trade-offs, although not necessarily ones pitting development against the environment. Congestion pricing and LEED-certified buildings are just a few examples that are well intended, but have differential effects on urban inhabitants. The production and consumption of urban space has always been a conflict-ridden process. Cities operate under competing logics that involve policy decisions resulting in uneven geographies of investment. Today, urban regeneration efforts are further constrained by the effects of the on-going global recession and home foreclosure crisis. Fiscal retrenchment has led to a dis-allocation of public resources and the steering of private capital away from locations that were, until a few years ago, ripe for urban redevelopment. In light of the aforementioned critiques, these and other trends raise fundamental questions about urban regeneration. For example, what type of urban regeneration is appropriate, where should it take place, and ultimately, which groups benefit most from urban regeneration projects? Using the Sacramento Diasporas Project as an illustrative case, I will argue that urban regeneration “from above” needs to be balanced with urban regeneration “from below”. The processes by which migrant and refugee communities in Sacramento territorialize and repurpose space offer a different logic of urban regeneration that does not fit easily into normative models of sustainability. Some of the manifestations in the built environment include the appropriation of public and private land for social, cultural, religious, and/or economic purposes that defy land use norms, zoning requirements, and the law. In the paper, I introduce the concept of social entropy, not as natural decay and disorder of social structures, but rather to characterize the generative possibilities of site. From this perspective, regeneration begins with coming to terms with the ‘unhomely’ urban conditions found in marginalized communities and identifying the liminal spaces between what is seen and unseen, the existing and the potential, and grounding urban regeneration in the struggles of livelihood and generative forms of placemaking.

Title: Urban Implosion and Community Renewal: An Analysis of the Quest for Socio-Economic Regeneration and Implementation Deficit in Jamaica
Authors: Philip D. Osei and Terri-Ann Gilbert-Roberts
Affiliation: Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago
Abstract: Urban decay has been occurring in Kingston, Jamaica since the 1970s and its genesis is predicated on the clash of regimes and state impotence and lack of capacity to deliver the “bread and butter” function of the state across the entire city. To date, the problem has been explained within theories of class and race (Gray 2011), political dysfunctionality and unregulated popular culture in urban spaces. Against that background, socio-economic regeneration has been pursued through a plethora of plans, political promises, public-private partnerships and third sector interventions, which are at best fragmentary. Yet, state capacity to implement has not been theorized as the potential basis for explaining the despair which others (Meeks 2007) have labeled as “hegemonic dissolution” – a weakness of central political authority to exert control and bring meaningful change in urban governance and regeneration. Our main argument is that though the existing theories attempt to shed light on contending political forces, they are weak in explaining the lack of outcomes of regeneration plans for socio-economic development of inner cities in Jamaica. In that regard, this paper will examine the vexing issue of state capacity and untangle the administrative debilitation that has led to the phenomena of non-implementation of regeneration plans and policies. The paper will examine the cases of dislocation unleashed by the overthrow of two alternative urban governance regimes, controlled by local informal leaders namely Zeeks and Dudus, and the programmatic attempts at quick fixes. Decision process analysis will be carried out regarding a recent Community Renewal Programme in Kingston to enable an assessment of the embeddedness of implementation deficit in the policy process.

Title: Identifying and Fostering Social and Cultural Capital Through an Experimental Approach to Urban Water Resources Management
Authors: Olivia Odom Green ¹, William D. Shuster ², Ahjond S. Garmestani ² and Hale W. Thurston ^2
1 Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Fellow at U.S. EPA, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45268; E-Mail: Green.Olivia@epa.gov
² U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45268 USA
Abstract: Urban integrated water resources management can be used as a framework to comprehensively address social, economic, and environmental issues in urban areas. However, urban water management faces significant hurdles including: large volumes of unabated stormwater flow, access to sinks for runoff (as vacant or private property), and multiple levels of governance and stakeholder interests, among other factors. To address several of these problems with one experiment, we used a systems perspective on water resources to better understand the potential to derive multiple benefits from decentralized municipal stormwater management approaches that incorporate green infrastructure. This research tested a method (i.e., a reverse auction incentive) that helped to focus limited local government resources on environmental management. Residents voluntarily bid on rain barrel and rain garden installation with three-years of maintenance, and bids were ranked based on cost and an environmental benefits index. The successive auctions led to the installation of a cumulative 83 rain gardens and 176 rain barrels on more than one-fifth of the 350 residential properties in the watershed. The stormwater management retrofits added substantial detention capacity, which was linked to significantly reducing stormwater runoff volume produced by this suburban catchment. In this paper, we will detail the specific approach to water resources management via a novel incentive program, describe the value of engagement with citizens and governance, and discuss how we will identify and leverage other sources of social and cultural capitals to address local and regional water resources management problems in post-industrial U.S. cities.

Title: A Method for Gauging Landscape Change as a Prelude to Urban Watershed Regeneration: The Case of the Carioca River, Rio de Janeiro
Authors: Mônica Bahia Schlee ^1,* and Kenneth Tamminga²
Affiliation: ¹ Urban planner and landscape architect, City of Rio de Janeiro, Macro Urban Planning Department/Municipal Secretary of Urban Planning, Rua Santa Cristina 121, Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro, Cep. 20241-250, Brazil; E-Mail: monbasch@gmail.com
² Professor of landscape architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture, 121 Stuckeman Family Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA, E-Mail: krt1@psu.edu
Abstract: Natural systems undergo processes, flows, and rhythms that differ from those of urban sociocultural systems. Both are dynamic, heterogeneous, and vulnerable to regime shifts, and are inextricably linked. The interrelations among natural and anthropogenic factors affecting sustainability vary spatially and temporally. This paper focuses on landscape changes along the Carioca River valley in Rio de Janeiro, located in the Brazilian Neotropical Southeastern Region, and its implications for local urban sustainability. The study incorporates a transdisciplinary approach that integrates landscape ecology and urban morphology methodologies to gauge landscape change and assess social-ecological systems dynamics. The methodology includes the identification of environmental impacts that affect the river under study and assessment of on-site morphological and biological parameters to gauge urban watershed quality. Finally it presents an adapted inventory to urban tropical rivers, Neotropical Urban Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (NUSVAP), and correlates the level of stream and rainforest integrity to local urban environmental patterns. How to promote shifts into more desirable configurations? The understanding of the transient behavior of social-ecological systems and how they respond to disturbance is fundamental to building appropriate management strategies and fostering resilience, regenerative capacity, and sustainable development in urban watersheds. As a first-cut approach meant to be applied by lay persons, NUSVAP may be useful as an orientation to community-based stream regeneration actions. More generally, it could serve as a tool in helping to strengthen Rio’s socio-political awareness of the link between urban stream integrity and the wellbeing and resilience of the urban communities living alongside – particularly those low-income neighborhoods that are vulnerable to climatic regime shifts.
Keywords: landscape morphology; landscape dynamics; urban stream quality; edge effect; social-ecological systems; resilience