Urban Development
11 items available
Permanent URI for this collection
The Urban Development Series discusses the challenge of urbanization and what it will mean for developing countries in the decades ahead. The series aims to delve substantively into a range of core issues related to urban development that policy makers and practitioners must address. Titles in this series undergo internal and external review.
Items in this collection
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Publication
Private Cities: Outstanding Examples from Developing Countries and Their Implications for Urban Policy
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-05-30)Institutional constraints and weak capacity often hamper the ability of local governments in developing countries to steer urbanization. As a result, there are not enough cities to accommodate an unabated rural-urban migration and many of those that exist are messy, sprawling, and disconnected. The flipside is the emergence of entire cities—more than gated communities or industrial parks—led in whole or in part by private actors. To date, little systematic research has been conducted on the conditions that are necessary for such unusual entities to emerge, on the roles played by private actors, or on the consequences for efficiency and equity. Private Cities: Outstanding Examples from Developing Countries and Their Implications for Urban Policy aims to fill this gap. Using an analytical framework that draws on urban economics and political science, it includes inventories of private cities in the Arab Republic of Egypt, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan and provides structured reviews of 14 outstanding examples across all developing regions. Nongovernment actors turn out to be diverse—they include not only major companies and large developers but also business associations, civil society organizations, and even foreign countries. The way local governments interact with these nongovernment actors varies as well, from deliberate neglect to joint ventures. Private actors take on some—but not all—local government functions, while at times embracing unconventional roles. And while private cities tend to be economically successful, they can lead to environmental degradation, social segregation, and even institutional secession. Increasing the capacity of local governments in developing countries will take time.Along the way, inefficient spatial development patterns may be locked in. There is a case for selectively tapping into the comparative advantage of significant private actors while actively using policy tools to avoid the potential shortcomings. In the spirit of a publicprivate partnership for urbanization, land value capture would be at the center of this approach. -
Publication
What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-09-20)By 2050, the world is expected to generate 3.40 billion tons of waste annually, increasing drastically from today’s 2.01 billion tons. What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050 aggregates extensive solid waste data at the national and urban levels. It estimates and projects waste generation to 2030 and 2050. Beyond the core data metrics from waste generation to disposal, the report provides information on waste management costs, revenues, and tariffs; special wastes; regulations; public communication; administrative and operational models; and the informal sector. -
Publication
East Asia and Pacific Cities: Expanding Opportunities for the Urban Poor
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-07-19)Urbanization in East Asia and the Pacific has created enormous opportunity for many. Yet the rapid growth of cities can also create challenges as national and local governments try to keep up with the needs of their growing populations. Among these challenges is a lack of affordable housing, resulting in increasing slums, deficits in basic service provision, and widening inequality for urban dwellers. This study aims to better understand urban poverty and inequality in East Asian cities, recognizing that many countries of the region, particularly those of middle-income status, are at a critical juncture in their urbanization and growth process where potential social divisions in cities could harm prospects for future poverty reduction. The study uses a multidimensional approach to understand urban poverty and inclusion and draws on examples of programs and policies that have been successfully implemented in the East Asia region to develop a set of guiding principles for policy makers. -
Publication
Regenerating Urban Land: A Practitioner's Guide to Leveraging Private Investment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-06-01)Regenerating Urban Land draws on the experience of eight case studies from around the world. The case studies outline various policy and financial instruments to attract private sector investment in urban regeneration of underutilized and unutilized areas and the requisite infrastructure improvements. In particular, each case study details the project cycle, from the scoping phase and determination of the initial amount of public sector investment, to implementation and subsequent leveraged private-sector funds. This manual analyzes rates of return on the investments and long-term financial sustainability. Regenerating Urban Land guides local governments to systematically identify the sequence of steps and tasks needed to develop a regeneration policy framework, with the participation of the private sector. The manual also formulates specific policies and instruments for expanding private sector participation; structuring effective administrative and legal frameworks; utilizing land readjustment/assembly methods; determining duration of contracts, adequate phasing, and timeline; and balancing the distribution of risk and sustainability measures. -
Publication
East Asia's Changing Urban Landscape : Measuring a Decade of Spatial Growth
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015-01-25)Urbanization is transforming the developing world. However, understanding the pace, scale, and form of urbanization has been limited by a lack of consistent data. East Asia’s Changing Urban Landscape aims to address this problem by using satellite imagery and other data to measure urban expansion across the East Asia and Pacific region between 2000 and 2010. Illustrated with maps and charts, it presents trends in urban expansion and population growth in more than 850 urban areas -- by country, urban area, income group, and city size categories. It discusses findings related to increasing urban population densities across the region and quantifies the administrative fragmentation of urban areas that cross local boundaries. The book discusses implications of the research and outlines potential policy options for governments that can help maximize the benefits of urban growth. These policy options include strategically acquiring land to prepare for future urban expansion; creating national urbanization policies that address the growth of the entire system of cities at once in order to support economically efficient urbanization; investing in small and medium urban areas; ensuring spatial access to the poor in order to make urban growth more inclusive; maximizing the benefits to the environment of existing urban density through location, coordination, and design of density; and creating mechanisms to support interjurisdictional cooperation across metropolitan areas. Leaders and policy makers at the national, provincial, and city levels who want to understand how trends in their cities compare with others in East Asia, as well as researchers and students interested in the transformative phenomenon of urbanization in the developing world, will find this book an invaluable resource. -
Publication
Financing Transit-Oriented Development with Land Values : Adapting Land Value Capture in Developing Countries
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015-01-15)Cities in developing countries are experiencing unprecedented urban growth. Unfortunately, this is often accompanied by the negative impacts of sprawl as a result of rapid motorization such as congestion, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, inefficient use of energy and time, and unequal accessibility. As these cities are often under severe fiscal constraints, they face great challenges in financing capital-intensive mass transit systems to reverse the course of these negative trends. Development-based land value capture (DBLVC) financing schemes being practiced in Asian megacities like Hong Kong SAR, China, and Tokyo have helped them not only to generate funds for transit investment and operational and maintenance costs but also to promote sustainable urban development through transit-oriented development (TOD). Many rapidly growing cities in developing countries have the conditions for introducing DBLVC – namely, strong economic growth, rising real incomes and increased motorization and congestion levels – all of which cause land value appreciation within proximity of transit stations or corridors. If adapted well to local contexts, DBLVC schemes have great potential to become an important strategic apparatus of urban finance and planning for cities in developing countries. Through a careful analysis of various case studies, this book provides strategies, policies, and methodologies that policy makers and practitioners can apply in developing their own DBLVC schemes for transit financing. -
Publication
Transforming Cities with Transit : Transit and Land-Use Integration for Sustainable Urban Development
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-01-03)This study explores the complex process of transit and land-use integration in rapidly growing cities in developing countries. It first identifies barriers to and opportunities for effective coordination of transit infrastructure and urban development. It then recommends a set of policies and implementation measures for overcoming these barriers and exploiting these opportunities. Well-integrated transit and land development create urban forms and spaces that reduce the need for travel by private motorized vehicles. Areas with good access to public transit and well-designed urban spaces that are walkable and bikeable become highly attractive places for people to live, work, learn, play, and interact. Such environments enhance a city's economic competitiveness, reduce local pollution and global greenhouse gas emissions, and promote inclusive development. These goals are at the heart of transit-oriented development (TOD), an urban form that is increasingly important to sustainable urban futures. This book uses a case study approach. It draws lessons from global best-case examples of transit-oriented metropolises that have direct relevance to cities in developing countries and elsewhere that are currently investing in bus rapid transit (BRT) and other high-capacity transit systems. It also reports the results of two original in-depth case studies of rapidly growing and motorizing cities that introduced extended BRT systems: Ahmedabad, India and Bogota, Colombia. Two shorter case studies enrich the understanding of factors that are critical to transforming cities with transit. -
Publication
The Economics of Uniqueness : Investing in Historic City Cores and Cultural Heritage Assets for Sustainable Development
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012-10)With rapid urbanization, cities featuring valuable historic cores and heritage assets struggle to modernize without completely losing their uniqueness. The good news is that there is an increasing trend toward financing projects aimed at conserving and incorporating heritage into development strategies. This book presents approaches to balance conservation and development. There are many interesting papers surrounding the topic, but policy and decision makers do not have any easy-to-digest compendium to guide them on how to decide when an element of conservation is warranted, and how much it is worth spending on it. This book presents approaches to combine investment on landmarks and on their surrounding areas, with investment to create jobs and prosperity for local communities, many of them poor, while also contributing to sustainable urbanization and inclusive growth. -
Publication
Urban Risk Assessments : Understanding Disaster and Climate Risk in Cities
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012-06)The rapid and oft en unplanned expansion of cities is exposing more people and economic assets to the risk of disasters and the effects of climate change. For city governments, increased climate variability imposes additional challenges to effective urban management and the delivery of key services, while for residents it increasingly affects their lives and livelihoods due to more frequent floods, landslides, heat waves, droughts, and fires. There is an urgent need for cities to consider disaster and climate change by streamlining assessments of related risks in their planning and management as well as delivery of services. This paper proposes a framework for carrying out urban risk assessment, and seeks to strengthen coherence and consensus in how cities can plan for natural disasters and climate change. The Urban Risk Assessment (URA) was developed by drawing on lessons from existing efforts to assess risk in cities as well as urban planning literature. It was vetted through consultation and collaboration with international development agencies, the public and private sectors, and nongovernmental organizations. It minimizes duplicative efforts, and brings convergence to related work undertaken by the World Bank and other key partners. The target audience for this report includes: (1) decision makers such as city managers, mayors, and those involved in developing national and local policies related to urban development; (2) urban practitioners and technical staff at the municipal, regional, and national levels; and (3) international organizations. The assessment methodology focuses on three reinforcing pillars that collectively contribute to understanding urban risk: a hazard impact assessment, an institutional assessment, and a socioeconomic assessment. The URA allows flexibility in how it is applied, depending on available financial resources, available data relating to hazards and its population, and institutional capacity of a given city. Through the URA's sequencing, which is linked to complexity and required investment, city managers may select subcomponents from each pillar that individually and collectively enhance the understanding of urban risk. -
Publication
Climate Change, Disaster Risk, and the Urban Poor : Cities Building Resilience for a Changing World
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012-04-17)Poor people living in slums are at particularly high risk from the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. They live on the most vulnerable land within cities, typically areas deemed undesirable by others and thus affordable. This study analyzes the key challenges facing the urban poor, given the risks associated with climate change and disasters, particularly with regard to the delivery of basic services, and identifies strategies and financing opportunities for addressing these risks. The main audience for this study includes mayors and other city managers, national governments, donors, and practitioners in the fields of climate change, disaster-risk management, and urban development. The work is part of a broader program under the Mayor's task force on climate change, disaster risk and the urban poor. The study is organized in four chapters covering: 1) a broad look at climate change and disaster risk in cities of the developing world, with particular implications for the urban poor; 2) analysis of the vulnerability of the urban poor; 3) discussion of recommended approaches for building resilience for the urban poor; and 4) review of the financing opportunities for covering investments in basic services and other needs associated with climate and disaster risk.