Dutch New Towns: Triumph or Disaster?

The urban growth is a continuous challenge for any city. It requires continuous development strategies to meet the new economic and social requirements. Historical evidences show that architecture and urban design can be important tools to stimulate the urban growth by establishing urban cores to contain, facilitate and stimulate economic and social activities. The city's history shows that the city center is an important area in any city for its dominating role in creating the city's architectural characteristics and supporting its economic and social functions. The cities have developed different patterns of city centers in order to achieve the urban growth. This study shows how can architecture and urban design be used as a strategy to create livable city centers and how can this livability be an important source for urban growth? The paper is using three models of city centers Brasilia, Oslo and Dubai where all have attempted using the city center to generate urban growth but by applying different strategies. Brasilia has applied functionalism to build one city center which cannot be changed, Oslo has applied new multi city centers in its central area, Dubai has developed multi city centers spread in the whole city.

Law and Contemporary Problems, 1979

Growth centers are those small towns, which, on the initiative of the government, undergo growth in a planned manner. To achieve this high growth, adequate planning has to be done and implemented in a phased manner. This not only necessitates commitment of financial resources, which has to be allotted to the administrative bodies of these towns, but also calls for rigid monitoring of the growth right from the initiation stage to ensure that the work goes on as per the perceived plan. The aim of establishing these growth centers is to absorb the population growth in urban concentrations by providing basic amenities like housing, medical cover, education and other infrastructure essential for a decent living apart from the employment opportunities. However, it has been observed that the growth in all these growth centres has been in a very haphazard manner, which has led to administrative problems of large magnitude all over the country. Also, while these growth centres has grown significantly, population in the adjoining urban areas has also increased tremendously, which is against the philosophy of the Growth Centre concept and questions whether there is a justification in promotion of these growth centres.

2012

Political Geography, 1995

2016

This paper deals with a strategic approach to advance the sustainability of (the effects of) development projects and programs. Therefor, making local governments consider the critical role of other urban local actors in the formulation and implementation of policies, strategies, and plans for human settlements. The question, in which this paper tries to find an answer, is in what way can more attention be given to institutional aspects of development projects to advance the sustainability of (the effects of) development projects and programs? To answer this question, a better understanding is needed of the kind of institutional problems faced by development projects or programs. Institutional Development that will be discussed mainly in the context of urban development projects. Such projects tend to suffer from a rather weak institutional performance. In this regard, this paper will include first: the Urban Development-Opportunities & Challenges. Second: the efficiency of the structure of the urban institutions in Egypt. Third: analyze the strategic approach for institutional reform includes (good governancegood urban management). And finally the results and the recommendations for achievement the institutional reform. 1. Urban Development Opportunities and Challenges: Urbanization is the most important phenomena transforming the developing countries for reaching economic and social change. The process is inevitable and irreversible. Polices and priorities must be shaped accordingly. Moreover, with rapid urbanization, the economic importance of towns and cities is also increasing rapidly, and future economic growth is becoming more and more depending on the ability of urban centers to perform crucial functions within the national economy and to lead the development efforts. Cities in developing countries are fast becoming the major centers of production, employment and innovation, with already about 60% of gross national production of developing countries. Furthermore, cities and towns create economies of scale that enable large industries to operate with greater efficiency, provide manufactured inputs for increasing agricultural productivity, and serve as markets for agricultural goods. Policy makers in developing countries recognize that a resolution of these problems is essential to preserving the productivity and efficiency of urban, and thus of national economies.

2014

Growth points are centres of economic activity, which are artificially created or stimulated in disadvantaged regions with the intention that they will eventually become natural centres of economic growth. They are centres of expanding industries, which trigger a chain reaction of production and promotion of associated services with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life. It is envisaged that by declaring promising and resource-endowed centres as growth points, the cumulative causation process would kick-start the process of economic development, whose spread effects would activate the quality of life in the periphery. In so doing it would attract investment and favourable government treatment, which would lead to both cumulative growth in economic activity and high population growth. Some growth poles have continued to prosper long after the initial stimulation factor gone through multiplier effects associated with a growing centre. In this paper, an attempt has been ma...

Studia Regionalia, 2017

The paper presents a review of concepts for the development of city centres in response to social and culture processes, economic, technical and environmental developments taking place at present on those areas. This review proves that concepts tend to change over time from those based on economic dynamics to those based on collaborative commons and on governance. On the example of a few city centres situated in the Silesian Region an analysis was carried out of the concepts being presently applied and with the use of which projects Silesian cities strive to maintain and strengthen the dynamics and vitality of city centres.

2007

The world has been urbanizing rapidly for a long hibition of further industrial concentration-are inT time and shows every sign of continuing to do so: tended to decentralize economic activity from large, more than 40 percent of the world's population today are congested urban agglomerations. The stated objectives urban dwellers. Dramatic urbanization over the past two include the need to reduce the economic and managerial or three decades has been concentrated in the developcosts of overcrowding and improve regional and urbaning countries, where the urban population has been rural income distributions. At the same time, other expanding at twice the rate observed in the countryside. economic policies-for example, credit subsidies, imIn fact, the world's biggest cities have increasingly been port protection, and urban food subsidies-more often in the developing nations, and population concentrathan not indirectly promote urban concentration. tions in such urban centers as Mex...