Suchergebnisse

As a consequence of agricultural intensification, large areas of species-rich grasslands have been lost and farmland biodiversity has declined. Previous studies have shown that the continuity of grazing management can have a significant influence on the environmental conditions and the levels of plant species diversity in grassland habitats. The preservation of species-rich grasslands has become a high conservation priority within the European Union and the mapping of grazed grassland vegetation across wide areas has been identified as a central task for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. The fact that detailed field inventories of plant communities are time-consuming may limit the spatial extent of grassland habitat surveys. If remote sensing data are able to identify grassland sites characterised by different environmental conditions and plant species diversity, then field sampling efforts could be directed towards sites that are of potential conservation interest. In the thesis, I have examined the potential of hyperspectral and multispectral remote sensing imagery to map grassland vegetation at detailed scales in dry grazed grassland habitats. Fieldwork included the recording of vascular plant species and environmental variables in grasslands plots representing three age-classes within an arable-to-grassland succession in an agricultural landscape on the Baltic island of Öland (Sweden). Remotely sensed data were acquired with the help of two airborne HySpex hyperspectral spectrometers (415–2501 nm) and by the multispectral WorldView-2 satellite. The results of the thesis show that the soil nutrient and moisture status within grassland plots influenced the hyperspectral reflectance. Hyperspectral data had the ability to classify grassland plots into different age-classes. Hyperspectral reflectance measurements could be used to predict plant indicator values for nutrient and soil moisture in grassland plots. Prediction models developed from hyperspectral data were successfully used to assess levels of plant species diversity (species richness and Simpsons's diversity). In addition, between-plot dissimilarities in the satellite spectral reflectance were shown to be related to between-plot dissimilarities in the species composition in old grassland sites. The findings of the thesis demonstrate that remote sensing data are capable of capturing detailed-scale information that discriminates between grassland plant communities representing different environmental conditions and levels of plant species diversity. The results suggest that remote sensing data may have the ability for use as a decision-support tool to help conservation planners identify grassland habitats in agricultural landscapes that are of high conservation interest.

The regional development programs promoted by the national governments and international multilateral agencies, like the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank, are oriented to public policies under which public goods, like public services and infrastructures, are supplied to underdeveloped regions, many in Latin America. More a more evidences are pointing to the fact that success of these programs depends in a good part of externalities, which are related to the changes in the form of networking and values among the stakeholders in the territory. These externalities are defined as the Social Capital. As externalities, they are not directly evaluated in the projects economic and social impact, but accepted to exist and the planners of the projects do acknowledge the importance of social networking, although never assessed. Several approaches have been proposed for the assessment of the Social Capital. For managing development projects, the Woolcock approach is considered one of the more interesting. The objective of the research project described in this paper is to measure up front the social capital of a given regional development project, from the project plans before implementation, and to compare the social capital results with those of the benefits according to the drafted project framework agreed upon the multilateral agencies and the region authorities. The regional program selected is the "Programa de Desenvolvimiento da Zona da Mata" (PROMATA) in the State of Pernanbuco Brazil, under the sponsor of the Inter American Development Bank. The project was designed to induce development in which community resources were to be mobilized, with the intention of getting the stakeholders involved as proponents and protagonists of social change in their territories. That social based bottom-up framework was a very interesting opportunity to observe the social capital component given the profile of the project. The research was carried out with the project just finished, which provided the background to compare the up-front analysis with the changes in the social network and values observed. The drafted project plans, including all programs and actions to be implemented, and the preliminar budget, are evaluated using a modified Regnier Abacus by a panel of experts in International Development Projects adapted to reflect the Social Capital model based on Woolcock attributes. The results were processed using Correspondence Analysis and Bayes Model to produce the indexes associated with Woolcock attributes reflected in the decision matrices used to represent the Social Capital status.

Este trabajo coloca su foco de atención en la intervención de arquitectos, planificadores, urbanistas y 'hacedores de ciudad' en la creación de espacios de memoria sobre la última dictadura militar en la Argentina. A través del análisis de la creación del Parque de la Memoria en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires se mostrará cómo estos espacios se insertan en programas de reforma del espacio urbano que involucran desde dirigentes políticos en campaña electoral hasta la participación de expertos y especialistas en la gestión de la ciudad y cómo la intervención de este universo de agentes – y sus propias representaciones y lógicas de actuación – van a incidir en la manera en que estos espacios de memoria son concebidos, gestados e implementados. Mostraré cómo, dentro de este mundo de relaciones, la memoria y el olvido se vuelven categorías significativas en el marco de sus propias disputas por definir qué es la ciudad, quiénes pertenecen a ella y quiénes son los actores legítimos para intervenir en su definición. A través de esta intervención urbana - la creación del Parque de la Memoria - un área marginal de la ciudad ha sido convertida en un espacio sagrado para conmemorar a las víctimas del Terrorismo de Estado y en un paseo público donde los vecinos de la ciudad realizan diversas actividades recreativas. ; This article places its interest in the intervention of architects, city planners and city makers in the creation of spaces of memory about the last military dictatorship in Argentina. By analyzing in depth one case: the Parque de la Memoria in the city of Buenos Aires, I will show how these spaces are inserted into urban programs involving from political leaders in election campaigns to the participation of experts and specialists in the management of the city and how the intervention of this universe of agents - and their own representations and dynamic - will affect the way these memory spaces are conceived and implemented. I'll show how, in this space of relationships, memory and forgetting are significant categories for making sense to their own battles around what is a city, who belong to it and who are the legitimate actors to intervene in its definition. Through this urban intervention - the creation of the Parque de la Memoria -, a marginal area of the city has been turned into a sacred space to commemorate the victims of state terrorism and a public walkway where city residents make different recreational activities. ; Fil: Vecchioli, Virginia. Universidad Nacional de San Martín

This paper searches for roots of current spatial pattern of professional services in location of Soviet-era R&D sector. The Soviet economy sponsored massive R&D oriented mainly on military purposes. Research was carried out in large institutions affiliated with academia or industry. After the collapse of socialism, military spending and related R&D decreased dramatically. Many researchers left Soviet-style institutions and succeed in the market economy. Did however this process mean anything for geography? Under the centrally planned economy, locational decisions were driven by non-market motives. Moreover, it was near-impossible for planners to anticipate which regions would be more promising under market. I focus on professional services since these industries do not rely on physical capital endowments, so sunk costs are unlikely to impose path-dependence. Professional services in Russia typically hire young educated persons which are expected to be mobile, so imperfect labor market is also unlikely to stick people to places ? unlike human capital externalities which are plausibly to do so. I regress employment in professional services in 2009-2011 by 76 Russian regions on the number of R&D staff in 1991. I consider three industries: architecture and engineering; information technology; accounting, auditing and management consulting. Controls to capture industry location fundamentals include modern-day gross regional product or overall employment, number of employees with university degree, number of R&D staff and urbanization. It should be noted that present-day number of R&D staff comprises primarily employees of state-owned Soviet-style institutions while professional service providers are typically up-to-date privately-owned firms. Results reveal that employment in Soviet R&D positively and significantly affects present-day employment in engineering and in IT. No such evidence is found for accounting, auditing and management consulting in which industries researchers' skills were less relevant. Results remains when shares in employment of professional services and R&D sector are plugged into regression instead of absolute numbers. I consider different explanations for this phenomenon. I attempt to track influence of 1991 R&D-related employment on current output-per-worker in IT and engineering and find positive correlation, although marginally significant. So, it is unlikely that Soviet-era pools of human capital created regional poverty traps due to low migration rates, and human capital externalities theory seems plausible. I also find that regions with greater number of R&D staff in 1991 now have greater number of SMEs both in business services and in the rest of economy, so entrepreneurship is a likely mechanism to impose path-dependence.

Since 2004 Ethiopia has experienced strong and generally broad-based real economic growth averaging 10.7 percent per annum. It is one of the most populous countries in the world, but it is not highly urbanized. Nevertheless, urbanization in Ethiopia is taking place rapidly, and is expected to increase over the coming few decades. Addis Ababa, is its commercial and political center and exemplary of the rapid urban growth of Ethiopia. The rapid urban and metropolitan growth in Addis Ababa is exacerbated by poor planning and land-use, inadequate infrastructure, and chronic housing shortage. A key challenge for housing in the Addis Ababa metropolitan area, and, indeed, of planning in general, is that lack of coordination with transportation. The one factor that has mitigated the growth in congestion has been that motorization rates in Addis Ababa are very low by global standards. Over the past seven years, Addis Ababa has been making a concerted effort to improve the urban transport situation, largely through large investments in new infrastructure, including roads, a new Light Rail Transit (LRT) system (under construction) and plans for a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, and improved standards and practices for improving and integrating pedestrian facilities in major transport capital projects. It has invested heavily in its road asset stock, with 26 percent of its capital investment budget dedicated to transport. These investments in the road network may provide less economic and mobility value for residents than their planners may have intended, for four reasons. Indeed, at the current low rates of motorization, the frequent and ubiquitous congestion in the city suggests substantial shortcomings in how traffic is managed, rather than a fundamental mismatch between transport supply and demand. In order to improve public transport, for the city's largely non-motorized population, substantial investments in mass transport network have been made or identified. The current public transport provision/operation has a number of weaknesses, with governance being a critical one. Even though most trips in Addis Ababa are made by walking, facilities for pedestrians tend to be inadequate and substandard. Integrating transport with land-use development has also proven to be very difficult in Addis Ababa. In terms of overall urban development, although the Ethiopian government is making attempts at planning and catering for the rapid urban growth, urbanization still takes place largely in an unplanned/informal way. In recent years, the rate of spatial expansion of the city is outpacing the rate of population growth, resulting in a less than efficient overall physical form.

The IENE 2014 conference puts emphasis on the "greening" of transport infrastructure: both in respect to a wiser use of marginal infrastructure habitats to favour biodiversity and certain ecosys- tem services, and in respect to a more permeable and safer infrastructure that minimises the direct impact on wildlife. Transportation and infrastructure are recognised as signi cant drivers in the global loss of biodiverity. Their impacts on nature are well described and there is ample evidence for the negative effects of traffic and transportation infrastructure on nature. Even though roads and railroads may occupy but a small proportion of an area, they a ect the entire landscape, cause the death of millions of wild animals, and disturb surrounding habitats through pollution, noise and alien species. The overall impact is evident, but there are means to minimise the pressure, to adjust infrastructure facilities and, to some degree, introduce beneficial services for wildlife. Such measures can and should be implemented as a standard in infrastructure development and maintenance. Knowledge about their functionality and e cacy is, however, not always satisfying. Technical innovations and new mitigation concepts need to be tested and evaluated. Their func- tionality and e ectiveness also depends on the interplay between the transport sector and other sectors of society. Communication, knowledge transfer, and public education are just as essential here, as legal frameworks, policy, technical development and environmental science. European policy (e.g., Green Infrastructure) is developing clearly in this direction, recognizing the transport sector and transportation facilities as important players in the endeavour towards a greener and sustainable future. Obviously, this calls for international collaboration in research and practice, for enhanced exchange of knowledge between disciplines, and for the development of harmonised standards and pro- cedures that can be referred to by international actors. IENE provides this interdisciplinary arena through its conferences and workshops. The IENE 2014 international conference emphasises that transport infrastructure can be planned and designed as an ecologically well-adopted, safe and e cient system, while acknowledging that certain impacts can never be avoided. IENE, together with the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Danish Road Directorate and numerous other partners, invites scientists, practitioners and planners, governmental agencies and private companies, NGO's and anybody with an interest in the above to the IENE 2014 conference in Sweden. We welcome new partner- and sponsorships and o er a well-approved and international network for communication and presentation.

The history of most countries, including those regarded as relatively culturally homogeneous, has demonstrated that practically all of them are composed of minority groups and that many of these groups struggle for survival. "Cultural" groups, such as age, interest, socio-economic and gender groups, provide their own quota of problems for educational planners, but are not as politically encumbered as others, such as ethnic and religious groups. In a social democracy as in South Africa where the rule of law reigns supreme, the interest and future existence of minority groups are often overlooked by the majority. In some cases, their cultural and linguistic needs and interests are symbolically entrenched in the Constitution, but these measures are often nullified, for instance through Constitutional Court decisions. Such actions on the part of the powers that be explain why minority groups in South Africa and elsewhere are displeased with the ways in which they are being hampered in their efforts to develop their unique identities. Tensions of this nature are clearly observable in South Africa and elsewhere. The recent referendum in Scotland, the tensions in Catalonia and the treatment of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, at the hands of South African authorities attest to the topicality of the problem. On the one hand, we have the various minority groups with a number of legitimate claims, among others for a measure of independence and self-assertion, grounded in a unique interpretation of social justice and in an appeal to the Constitution of the country. On the other hand, they form part of a larger community structure in which equality and non-discrimination reign as supreme national values. The national government, as representative of the larger community, also appeals to social justice, as embodied in the Constitution. The end result is a conflict of opinions and ideals, each based on an interpretation of social justice. The onus to find a solution for the resolution of the tension lies with the various minority groups, and not with the government as representative of the majority. In fact, many governments find the constant complaints of minority groups rather irritating. The irritation is intensified where a minority group is able to provide in its own needs, and hence can refuse to align itself with the general value system of the majority community. The question therefore arises: What can minority communities do in these circumstances? How can they take charge of their own interests, needs and future existence?

Gómez Palacio, municipio en vías de desarrollo, denota un desmesurado crecimiento y un cuantioso cúmulo de imperfecciones en su morfología urbana que desde su núcleo hasta sus límites; exhibe "el divorcio de lo urbano, con el ser". Problemática originada por el cruce del ferrocarril, donde el gobierno y organismos colegiados politizan las reconfiguraciones urbanas carentes de una necesidad sentida del sitio, propagando un caos mediático basado en trasfondos políticos e intereses mezquinos, aunado a la inapropiada y antiética intervención de arquitectos, urbanistas y paisajistas carentes de una visión holística de "el lugar", que deriva en una tangible "toponecrosis", ya que desconocen las raíces y fenómenos histórico-sociales del entorno antes de intervenirlo, transformarlo o construirlo. Sabedores de la urgente intervención del contexto por profesionales del espacio urbano, con una percepción proxémica que articule los preceptos retóricos de "el discurso", se implementa un paradigma morfológico- urbano con un enfoque "retórico-prospectivo" para dotar al discente y futuro profesionista de un sentido ekístico-ontológico, que le permita entender y acotar los criterios de los principales actores de la gestión urbana "el ser y el lugar" y este en capacidad de adaptarse a la dialéctica de las reconfiguraciones contemporáneas y diseño de tejidos urbanos futuros del municipio. ; Gomez Palacio as a development town, has suffered an excessive growth and a large amount of imperfections in its urban morphology, from the core to its limits, exhibits "urban divorce, with being". All this originated by railroad crossing where government agencies and colleges who have politicized urban reconfigurations often lacking a sense of site, a media spreading chaos based on narrow interests and political backgrounds, coupled with the inappropriate and unethical intervention of architects, planners and landscape professionals who omit a holistic view of "place" that results in a tangible "toponecrosis", as well as unknown historical roots and social phenomena of the environment previous to interventions and transformations. Aware of the urgent intervention by professional personnel of urban space, with a perception that articulates proxemics rhetorical precepts of "discourse", a morphological-urban paradigm with a "rhetoricalprospective" approach is implemented to provide the apprentice and future professional an ekísticoontological sense, enabling him to understand the criteria of the main actors in urban management "being and place" and the ability to adapt in the dialectic of contemporary reconfigurations and design of future urban structure of city. ; Eje 2: Forma y estructura urbana, organización del territorio, orientación del crecimiento. ; Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo

A tale of two cities. The Mason-Dixon line. The Berlin Wall. Fresnans have evoked a variety of metaphors to describe the spatial divide between the rich, clean and white neighborhoods in the north and the southern areas housing the poor, polluting industries and communities of color that has characterized urban development in the city since its inception. The narrative explaining this spatial inequality has been remarkably consistent over time - sprawl fueled by aggressive developers, corrupt city councilmen and the market pushed the city limits ever farther northeast, abandoning the older neighborhoods to the south where the poor and immigrant communities settled and were too disorganized to counter the government's neglect. The spatial concentration of the poor, people of color and unwanted land uses can be seen in cities around the country and is identified by public health scholars to be a key driver of the disparities in health between racial and socio-economic groups. City governments are increasingly returning to their core and investing in New Urbanist and Smart Growth strategies to transform these older, more densely developed neighborhoods as the drive for environmental sustainability, walkable neighborhoods, and the attraction of creative urban residents grows. The potential effects of such efforts on the health and wellbeing of the existing residents, however, remains under explored. This dissertation asks if and how the new planning paradigms that use public health as a goal and organizing principle significantly change planning practice and lead to the re-distribution of environmental risks and resources to reduce health disparities? I investigate this question through three case studies of in Fresno a) a downtown revitalization plan, b) the general plan update, and c) a foundation based community development effort to increase the power of South Fresno residents to engage in planning.Following a year of fieldwork I find that everyone is talking about healthy neighborhoods, however for whom and how to achieve them appear to be quite different. While community groups seek to improve the living conditions of the poor residents of South Fresno and ensure their ability to stay in a revitalized downtown, planners are focusing on attracting wealthier residents and actively avoiding any talk about equity, affordable housing and public investment. Thus, although health seems to be providing a unifying framework in terms of a vision for the physical environment, it does not ultimately resolve the inherent tensions between community and economic development.

In this dissertation I present three theoretical papers, each as an individual chapter. The first paper is titled "The Economics of Discretion in Multi-Agent Decision Problems." It is premised on the idea that discretion is valuable when knowledge mismatches lead principals to delegate decisions to agents with specialized knowledge. In the paper, I consider a team setting, and I characterize the optimal delegated choice set that is offered to agents when an agency conflict is present. I show that the amount of discretion increases with the value of an agent's private information, with the degree of alignment between the principal and agents, and with the ex ante uncertainty faced by the principal and agents. The latter finding implies that discretion may be used by agents to hedge the risk that they face. Nevertheless, I demonstrate that when all participants have rational expectations, it is never optimal for agents to add strategic uncertainty to receive more discretion ex post. I conclude the paper by applying the theory to delegated portfolio management, which yields novel empirical implications in this setting.The second paper is co-authored with Bruce I. Carlin and Andrew Iannaccone and it is titled "Competition, Comparative Performance, and Market Transparency." In the paper, we study how competition affects market transparency, taking into account that comparative performance is assessed via tournaments and contests. Extending Dye (1985) to a multi-firm setting in which top performers are rewarded, we show that increased competition usually makes disclosure less likely, which lowers market transparency and may decrease per capita welfare. This result appears to be robust to several model variations and as such, has implications for market regulation.The final paper is co-authored with Bruce. I. Carlin and is titled "Political Influence and the Regulation of Consumer Financial Products." In the paper, we explore a theoretical model of product regulation in which the social planner chooses an optimal level of market complexity, given that people have varied sophistication. We investigate how several dimensions affect the quality of regulation: the skill of the social planner, imperfect information, lobbying efforts, voting behavior in elections, and political philosophy. We find that both sophisticated and unsophisticated market participants often vote to elect the least informed and educated planners, which erodes social welfare. Further, when concerns regarding equality are sufficiently large (i.e., a socialistic agenda), the social planner limits the market to one product. In such case, adequacy suffers and all market participants are equally worse off.

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to bring two literatures into dialogue. The first, is the place branding literature that aims to assert the diversity and complexity of places in pursuit of various economic, political or socio-psychological objectives. The second, is the strategic spatial planning literature, that focus on place qualities and assets (e.g. social, cultural). Therefore, it re-examines the process of a place branding strategy, by highlighting the importance of strategic thinking in place competitiveness and non-linear regional development (i.e. explaining what strategic planning is, the role in discontinued trajectories of progress in regions, and as a response about how to go further). Strategic frameworks and visions for regional development, with an emphasis on the place assets and strengths, will provide the basis for a branding strategy. The link between place branding and strategic planning will determine the step forward for the theoretical debate, in both fields, by showing that doing marketing and branding, with particular elements of strategic planning, is possible and recommended (e.g. by convincing the stakeholders that new policies and territorial interventions are necessary). Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on place branding theory to point out the gap in the literature explaining the role of strategic spatial planning on branding regions. The analytic framework will be constructed by taking the Northwest region of Portugal as a case study. The region has a potential to develop a strategy capable of moving decisively beyond the crisis and create the conditions to be more competitive. Our argument, and contribution to the enrichment of the literature, is that a place branding strategy could stimulate a new regional dynamic, consolidate the practice of spatial planning, embrace the place complexity and uncertainty, and reshape the response to contemporary economic and social challenges. Findings – Theoretical developments in social marketing, non-profit marketing and specially, place marketing, contributed to a greater interaction between place branding and strategic planning. Places, often adopt strategic policies to try face economic and political challenges and in an effort to rebuild awareness. The starting point is place branding theory as an instrument of spatial planning and place management in order to understand the common ground as well as the role in branding regions. Originality/value – The concept of place branding is well documented in the literature, but its application in Portugal is relatively new. Moreover, the lack of conceptual explanations of the links between strategic planning and place branding bring out research opportunities. Therefore, the paper is of great value for planners and place brand managers.

The study evaluated the various debt conversion programme used by the Federal Government of Nigeria to manage the nation's external debt. It examines the problems and prospects of management techniques with a view to improving on them or possibly suggests new techniques which might be helpful in solving the external debt problem. Therefore, the research is focused on the external debt management techniques in Nigeria, with emphasis on the efforts of the central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the federal ministry of finance (FMF). Generally, the indebtedness of the country becomes a problem when the burden of servicing the debt becomes so heavy and unbearable that it imposes intolerable constraints on the economy and on the development efforts of the authorities.Managing the debt stock without stultifying growth has always has always been the headache of economic planners in Nigeria and other developing countries The pupation of this study constitutes the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) records and personnel, the sample used is the representative sample. This is because the sample reflects the conditions existing in the population. A total of 20 top management personnel of both the CBN and FMF including 5 top management personnel of the Debt Conversion Committee (DCC) were sampled. In this study, two types of data were collected that is, the secondary data and the primary data. In designing the instrument, care has been taken to ensure its effectiveness, the validity of the research questions were established found reliable at r = 0.82. The result showed that the management of Nigeria's external debt via debt conversion programme is effective( χ2cal 6.545 > χ2tab value of 1.635 ;df=4; =0.05).Also, the Nigeria's debt conversion programme is realistic. (χ2cal 4.655 > χ2tab 1.635 ;df=4; =0.05). However, the study revealed that the debt conversion programme is not the final solution to Nigeria's external debt problems. (χ2cal 4.655 > χ2tab 1.635 ; df=4; =0.05). On the basis of the findings, it is therefore recommended that the debt management should be part of the macroeconomic policies of the month. The nation need not wait until there is a debt crisis before embarking on debt management. Also, accurate information on external debts should be sourced as this aids its efficient management on a day-to-day basis and external borrowing strategies in the planning framework. DOI:10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n10p216

AbstractMany American and European cities have to deal with demographic and economic trajectories leading to urban shrinkage. According to official data, 13% of urban regions in the US and 54% of those in the EU have lost population in recent years. However, the extent and spatial distribution of declining populations differ significantly between Europe and the US. In Germany, the situation is driven by falling birth rates and the effects of German reunification. In the US, shrinkage is basically related to long‐term industrial transformation. But the challenges of shrinking cities seldom appeared on the agendas of politicians and urban planners until recently. This article provides a critical overview of the development paths and local strategies of four shrinking cities: Schwedt and Dresden in eastern Germany; Youngstown and Pittsburgh in the US. A typology of urban growth and shrinkage, from economic and demographic perspectives, enables four types of city to be differentiated and the differences between the US and eastern Germany to be discussed. The article suggests that a new transatlantic debate on policy and planning strategies for restructuring shrinking cities is needed to overcome the dominant growth orientation that in most cases intensifies the negative consequences of shrinkage.RésuméDe nombreuses grandes villes américaines et européennes sont confrontées à des trajectoires démographiques et économiques conduisant à un 'rétrécissement' urbain. Selon des données officielles, 13% des régions métropolitaines aux États‐Unis et 54% dans l'UE ont vu leur population diminuer sur la période récente. Toutefois, l'ampleur et la répartition spatiale de ce déclin divergent nettement entre les deux zones géographiques. En Allemagne, la situation tient à la chute des taux de natalité et aux conséquences de la réunification. Aux États‐Unis, le 'rétrécissement' est surtout liéà une mutation industrielle sur le long terme. Or, les problèmes des villes en décroissance ont rarement figuré dans les programmes des hommes politiques ou des urbanistes, du moins jusqu'à ces dernières années. Cet article donne un aperçu critique des voies de développement et des stratégies locales de quatre villes en décroissance: Schwedt et Dresde dans l'est de l'Allemagne, Youngstown et Pittsburgh aux États‐Unis. Une typologie de la croissance et du 'rétrécissement' urbains, du point de vue économique et démographique, permet de distinguer quatre types de ville et d'analyser les différences entre les États‐Unis et l'Allemagne orientale. Un nouveau débat transatlantique sur les stratégies en matière de politiques publiques et d'aménagement concernant la restructuration des villes en décroissance semble nécessaire pour dominer l'orientation prépondérante en faveur de la croissance qui, le plus souvent, accentue les effets négatifs du 'rétrécissement'.

As the economic center of China, Shanghai has achieved 8.2% of GDP increasing in 2011, and the GDP per capital reached $ 12 784, which is close to the level of some developed countries. Meanwhile, its urbanization rate has been 89% in 2009, the whole city is going through severe economic and spatial transformation and requalification. This paper aims to take EXPO 2010 as a case to interpret the strategic logic, institutional arrangement and planning procedures in Shanghai in recent years. The EXPO 2010 might be an extreme case not only because it is a public project in a very big scale, but also because it is the first time of a developing country holding EXPO, which gives this project political meaning - a successful EXPO is required for its international reputation. But it is exactly such a project that could reveal its real motivation, its institutional arrangement which the city considered as the most efficient, and the innovation of planning procedures which could be the paradigm of the future practice. The first part of the paper will introduce the identity card and the chronology of EXPO 2010, also the economic situation and spatial planning documents will be presented to help us understand the strategic purpose of EXPO 2010: it is a good opportunity for the city to transfer it economic structure from industrialization to post-industrialization, to revive the inner city, to integrate both sides of the important River crossing the city - Huangpu River, and to redefine Huangpu River as a symbol of post industrialization. In the succeeding parts, the leading strategy of pre-post strategy will be introduced: the planner stretched the planning effective date to 2020 when a world city is expected, and made the design backwards. In this way, the planning structure, the infrastructure and a big percentage of building which are constructed for EXPO 2010 will be directly put into operation after EXPO. In the institutional aspect, the urban government seems to play a role of developer: they turn the degraded industrial and residential land into prepared culture, business and top-class residential land, and release it to private developer again. In the planning procedure aspect, the chief planners, the decision makers and the implemental planner for the first time work closely, to make sure the plan could instruct the projects. Lastly, the theoretical base, breakthrough and criticisms will be discussed based on this case.

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology that has been used to consult elderly and disabled people about their local accessibility needs, the barriers that need to be overcome and the translation of the findings into the planning process. The work builds on the AUNT-SUE programme of work. AUNT-SUE (Accessibility Accessibility and User Needs in Transport for Sustainable Urban Environments) was carried out jointly at University College London (UCL), London Metropolitan University and the University of Loughborough. At UCL the software tool AMELIA (A Methodology for Enhancing Life by Increasing Accessibility) was developed. This is a policy-oriented user-friendly interface to a GIS (Geographical Information System), for use by local transport planners to test whether their policies increase social inclusion. A key part of the project was to consult groups in the community about whether AMELIA was a good representation of how they consider accessibility issues, and to see whether it could serve as a consultation tool. Consultations have been held with several groups one of which was a group of elderly and disabled people in St Albans in Hertfordshire in Great Britain. The consultation exercises included both general discussions about accessibility and exercises based on AMELIA. For practical and ethical reasons it was not possible to consult with the participants outdoors. Three imaginary journeys were taken by the group using photographs taken by the researchers linked to a projected image of a map of the centre of St Albans to stimulate discussion about the obstacles along the routes and the provision of useful facilities and level access to buildings. The information about the barriers to movement collected from these exercises was input into AMELIA to see how much access would be increased if the barriers were removed. The results were fed back to the group to see their reaction to the findings. The work was reported to the St Albans City Forum, which is a consultative body that provides an opportunity for the St Albans City Council to communicate with representatives of community groups, stakeholders, businesses and members of the public. The findings were subsequently incorporated into the St Albans Public Delivery Strategy. It is shown how AMELIA can be used to translate the often rather subtle requirements of those who find barriers to movement that do not apply to most members of society, into robust findings in the language and methodology used by policy makers, both political and professional.