Greater energy efficiency can be achieved in existing dwellings thanks to longer lifecycles, slow replacement rates, and technical innovations. Many such dwellings are located in dense urban neighbourhoods, where urban renewal projects are undertaken. Local government can encourage the setting of ambitious goals as a stepping stone to realizing energy efficiency goals that achieve high levels o...

Irish planning legislation has traditionally emphasised control at the expense of development. In response to widespread dereliction spreading across the city in the early 1980s, a shift in policy direction became imperative. The Urban Renewal Act, introduced in 1986, marked a new departure in Irish planning practice signalling a more pro-active approach to development. This paper charts the ev...

Our objective in this paper is to argue for a new use of geographic information systemsö GIS in local planning as an auxiliary tool for decisionmaking. We review the use of the GIS technique in earlier research studies and represent the empirical findings from using GIS in a quality-of-life study in conjunction with an urban renewal project of a residential area in Stockholm County, Sweden. Spe...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Estimation of maternal mortality has been difficult because of large sample size requirement. A study using snowball technique for identification of households where maternal death has taken place and its related causes was conducted. We present here the feasibility of carrying out the snowball technique for capturing maternal deaths as against house-to-house survey and t...

In the early 1980s, suburbanization and periurbanization processes became widespread in major cities within Spain. An interesting stage of returning to city centers commenced that materialized in the start of rehabilitation policies within historic centers. These processes coincided with weak population growth, an acute industrial economic crisis, and new democratic policies in municipal counci...

Regime theory, the dominant paradigm in the study of urban politics, maintains that cities are governed by informal arrangements consisting of public and private sector elites. Because economic growth is the main policy objective of regimes, research has tended to focus on mayoral coalition building and development policy. Thus much less attention has been paid to policies that more directly im...

This article examines how narratives surrounding qilou (arcaded buildings) have changed through three very different moments over a period of almost a century in Guangzhou, China. As a result, what public discourse once perceived as a new, modern form now serves as a symbol of traditional local culture. The metamorphosis of the qilou narrative in response to different visions, social circumstan...

To an economist, the justification for publicly provided urban shelter or urban renewal projects is much stronger if they are socially ‘profitable’ than if they are merely politically acceptable forms of redistribution towards deserving groups. Indeed, if such programs pass the cost-benefit criterion of social profitability, then efficiency can be improved with no sacrifice of distributional go...

HOUSING POLICY DEBATE VOLUME 17 ISSUE 3 © 2006 FANNIE MAE FOUNDATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Abstract This article examines the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI), Mayor John F. Street’s plan to revitalize Philadelphia’s distressed neighborhoods by issuing $295 million in bonds to finance the acquisition of property, the demolition of derelict buildings, and the assembling of large trac...