The place of informality and illegality in planning education in Nigeria

This paper discusses the extent to which topical planning issues of informality and illegality are incorporated into the educational curricula in Nigerian planning schools. Given the scale and enormity of informal and illegal settlements in Nigeria and other African cities, these issues should be emphasized in the education and training of planning professionals. Yet, few curricula in Nigerian planning schools, including the Nigerian Town Planners Registration Council’s professional curriculum, incorporate informal urban issues. The paper recommends an educational interventionist approach based on recognition of the potential of indigenous knowledge as a means of producing critical and reflective planning graduates who possess the competencies to deal with contemporary settlement challenges. It presents the institutional landscape for planning education and the processes of planning curricular reform and accreditation with a view to revitalizing planning education in Nigeria.     

Risk assessment of major hazards and its application in urban planning: a case study

With the rapid development of industry in China, the number of establishments that are proposed or under construction is increasing year by year, and many are industries that handle flammable, explosive, toxic, harmful, and dangerous substances. Accidents such as fire, explosion, and toxic diffusion inevitably happen. Accidents resulting from these major hazards in cities cause a large number of casualties and property losses. It is increasingly important to analyze the risk of major hazards in cities realistically and to suitably plan and utilize the surrounding land based on the risk analysis results, thereby reducing the hazards. A theoretical system for risk assessment of major hazards in cities is proposed in this article, and the major hazard risk for the entire city is analyzed quantitatively. Risks of various major accidents are considered together, superposition effect is analyzed, individual risk contours of the entire city are drawn out, and the level of risk in the city is assessed using "as low as reasonably practicable" guidelines. After the entire city's individual risk distribution is obtained, risk zones are divided according to corresponding individual risk value of HSE, and land-use planning suggestions are proposed. Finally, a city in China is used as an example to illustrate the risk assessment process of the city's major hazard and its application in urban land-use planning. The proposed method has a certain theoretical and practical significance in establishing and improving risk analysis of major hazard and urban land-use planning. On the one hand, major urban public risk is avoided; further, the land is utilized in the best possible way in order to obtain the maximum benefit from its use.     

Guiding Resource Allocations Based on Terrorism Risk

Establishing tolerable levels of risk is one of the most contentious and important risk management decisions. With every regulatory or funding decision for a risk management program, society decides whether or not risk is tolerable. The Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant program designed to enhance security and overall preparedness to prevent, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism by providing financial assistance for planning, equipment, training, and exercise needs of large urban areas. After briefly reviewing definitions of terrorism risk and rationales for risk-based resource allocation, this article compares estimates of terrorism risk in urban areas that received UASI funding in 2004 to other federal risk management decisions. This comparison suggests that UASI allocations are generally consistent with other federal risk management decisions. However, terrorism risk in several cities that received funding is below levels that are often tolerated in other risk management contexts. There are several reasons why the conclusions about terrorism risk being de minimis in specific cities should be challenged. Some of these surround the means used to estimate terrorism risk for this study. Others involve the comparison that is made to other risk management decisions. However, many of the observations reported are valid even if reported terrorism risk estimates are several orders of magnitude too low. Discussion of resource allocation should be extended to address risk tolerance and include explicit comparisons, like those presented here, to other risk management decisions.     

Fear and Urban Planning in Ordinary Cities: From Theory to Practice

The paper complements Abu-Orf's theory about violent settings by setting out a theory of fear in urban planning in ordinary urban contexts around three arguments: spatialization of fear; (modernist) spatialities and the encounter and political economies of urban fear. The three theoretical arguments are used to re-frame the planning history of Chelas, an affordable housing district in Lisbon, Portugal, and debate the way fear shapes, and is shaped in turn by, planning practice. Confirming that (growing) fear in ordinary urban contexts is not just an effect of the contemporary organization of cities, the paper argues for a theorization of fear that combines global (hegemonic) and a local (discursive/contingent) perspectives in the theorization of urban fear, and advocates for the need to put fear, and its capacity to create a crisis in urban policy, at the heart of planners' agendas.     

Technology management: Fundamental issues for engineering education?

Although technology management has been a subject of concern in recent years, its importance to the technical community is not well established. The fundamental implications of technology management for the engineering profession is explored. A definition of technology is sought that best communicates the full implications of the term. In particular, the importance of knowing “how to apply” in contrast to understanding the “scientific fundamentals” is developed as a basis for defining technology.It is concluded that the current attention being given to technology management has significant fundamental implications for engineering and business education. Technology management is shown to focus attention on the importance of decision making processes for engineers and managers. It is concluded that including decision making as a fundamental engineering process may provide a new basis for structuring the “non-science” part of engineering curricula and provide a link between engineering and business curricula. Coupling this with a recognition of the differing characteristics of what is defined as Science Knowledge and Application Knowledge may provide a new paradigm for better preparing engineering students for entering professional practice and also provide a new basis for planning professional development and life long learning.     

金融机构系统性风险溢出和系统性风险贡献——基于滚动窗口动态Copula模型双时变相依视角

本文以33家上市金融机构为研究样本，利用滚动窗口动态Copula模型对金融机构与金融系统之间相依关系的时变结构与时变系数进行双时变拟合，测度了金融机构的系统性风险溢出和贡献，从宏观、行业和机构层面分析了系统性风险贡献的影响因素。研究发现：证券类机构贡献了最多的系统性风险，而银行类机构对整个金融系统最具有潜在威胁性；金融机构与金融系统的相依结构决定了机构风险的外溢程度，而金融机构与金融系统之间相依程度以及系统自身波动性会显著影响整个系统的系统性风险；中国金融风险与财政风险之间存在相互转换的现象，化解系统性风险的根本办法是不断改善金融生态环境。本文可能的贡献有两点：第一，建立具有双时变特征的滚动窗口动态Copula模型，使模型设定和估计结果更接近真实情形；第二，从宏观、行业、机构三个层面分析机构系统性风险贡献的影响因素，这有助于从系统性风险产生的源头进行风险防控，供监管部门决策参考。     

Risk based internal auditing within Greek banks: a case study approach

Internal Audit functions within Greek banks are imposed both by the Greek law for publicly listed enterprises (Law 3016/17.5.2002), as well as by the Bank of Greece (Bank of Greece Governor’s Act. Number 2577/9-3-2006). Based on the traditional approach of internal audit within Greek Banks, an inspection of branches and credit on a tick and check (compliance) basis was conducted. Recent research (Koutoupis and Tsamis, Fourth European Academic Conference on Internal Audit and Corporate Governance. Cass Business School, London, United Kingdom, 2006) comes to a conclusion that this approach does not result in adequate coverage of risks. In addition, new international regulations and best practices such as basel committee on banking supervision requirements, COSO enterprise risk management (ERM) suggested framework, as well as The Institute of internal auditors standards for professional practice of internal auditing (standards) were in most cases partially or fully ignored by the vast majority of Greek banks. However, minimum requirements regarding the operation of internal audit functions have been set up by the Bank of Greece, which in most cases are followed by the Greek banks, as well as periodically assessed by the above banking regulator. Risk based internal audit (RBIA) was an unknown concept for the vast majority of publicly listed and non-listed Greek enterprises until very recently. Only Greek subsidiaries of US and UK enterprises were aware of the RBIA audit concept (including big foreign banks which operate in Greece as subsidiaries), as they were periodically audited by group audit functions as an immediate result of relevant risk assessments. Also, the majority of Greek publicly listed enterprises use the audit cycle approach in developing their long term (3 year) and annual audit plans, which means that they audit specific business cycles and activities within a predefined time interval (1–3 years). Audit planning is based on the head’s of internal audit and internal auditors experience without formal application of risk assessment and audit planning techniques. All Greek banks that participated in the corporate governance and internal auditing survey (Koutoupis, Third European Academic Conference on Internal Audit and Corporate Governance, 2005) stated that they follow a risk-based audit approach and develop risk based audit plans; however the vast majority of them could not prove it through a clearly documented risk assessment and risk-based audit plan. Sarbanes–Oxley Act (2002) directed National Bank of Greece to adjust its audit planning process to a risk based one. Also, other big Greek banks (case study 1–3) are now either considering or adopting a RBIA approach, mostly because of Bank of Greece pressures. internal audit functions within small banks still follow the audit cycle approach. In this paper, current status of Greek banks RBIA approach will be discussed based on relevant references, as well as on three case study examples. This research will be based on relevant literature review, as well as authors’ professional experience in past and current projects related to risk assessment, audit planning and RBIA. Specifically, RBIA approach will be critically evaluated based on three big Greek banks analysis on a case study format and benchmark against basel requirements, ERM and standards for professional practice of internal auditing. Based on the relevant assessment, best practices and recommendations for improvement will be identified.     

Spatial Planning in Ghana: Exploring the Contradictions

The purpose of this research is twofold: to explore the complexity of spatial plan preparation and implementation in Ghana using Kumasi as a case study; and second, to examine the contradictions of spatial plans and ‘actual development’ occurring in Kumasi. Using social science research methods (semi-structured interviews) and physical survey (land use plans), findings indicate that spatial planning in Kumasi is a bureaucratic process hijacked by urban planning agencies with limited involvement of urban residents. As a result, urban development is considerably influenced by spontaneous informal development patterns (i.e. self-organization). This phenomenon of self-organization is expressed in a context of uncertainty created by weak spatial planning system which encourages haphazard development. Regrettably, in Kumasi, self-organization is often overlooked by spatial planning agencies as they focused on rigid and exclusionary spatial plans. This paper advocates consideration and integration of self-organization processes in spatial planning efforts to respond adequately to the urban development challenges confronting Kumasi.     

Large-Scale Urban Projects in Smaller Metro Areas: Towards a Broader Conceptual Perspective

Large-scale projects seem to be as popular in urban politics as they are risky in implementation. Existing research shows a certain bias towards studying projects in large metropolitan regions. The paper aims at extending the scope of research on large-scale urban projects by analysing such projects in a smaller metropolitan area. The case of the city region and country of Luxembourg shows that decision-makers in small metropolitan regions also make use of large-scale urban projects as a planning and place-making instrument. The case is also used to explore methodological approaches of examining the symbolic nature and discursive place-making dimension of planning large-scale projects, and proposes a methodological approach based on constructivist grounded theory and situational analysis of discourses.     

城市土地利用规划的交通影响评价建模研究

本文提出了一种基于投入产出关系和连续逼近方法的城市土地利用的交通影响评价模型。作为城市土地可持续利用规划模型的一个子模型,本模型已在桂林市的总体规划中得以实施。在本文中,先简要介绍了城市土地可持续利用规模模型,接着基于投入产出关系估算了分行业的单位产值对应的货物运输量,然后以交通熵和交通周转量作为评价指标,基于投入产出关系、连续逼近方法和Huff商区模式分别建立了货物运输、居民工作出行和居民购物出行交通影响评价模型。     

Possibilistic scheduling routing for short-notice bushfire emergency evacuation under uncertainties: An Australian case study

This paper aims to develop a capacitated vehicle routing solution to evacuate short-notice evacuees with time windows and disruption risks under uncertainties during a bushfire. A heuristic solution technique is applied to solve the triangular possibilistic model to optimise emergency delivery service. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by comparing it with a designed genetic algorithm on sets of 20 numerical examples. The model is then applied to the real case study of 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia. The results show that it is possible to transfer the last-minute evacuees during the Black Saturday bushfires under the hard time window constraint. Network disruptions however have impact on resource utilisation. The modelling outputs will be useful in the development of emergency plans and evacuation strategies to enhance rapid response to last-minute evacuation in a bushfire emergency.     

Current Constraints and Future Directions for Risk Adapted Land-Use Planning Practices in the High-Density Asian Setting of Ho Chi Minh City

The need to integrate adaptation efforts into land-use planning policies has been only recently recognized in Ho Chi Minh City. The city's latest planning guidance addresses both flooding resilience and mitigation of urban heat. This paper outlines the development contexts and the current barriers for adapted land-use planning within the city. The key challenge for land-use planning is communicating the important functions and services of open and natural urban spaces and effectively guiding the mainly individual developer-driven development. As the realization of non-structural adaptation measures is in strong contrast to the current market-driven private and short-term developer interests, the main development trajectories are questioned and synergies identified.     

New Spatial Concepts Between Innovation and Lock-in: The Case of the Dutch Deltametropolis

It is often proclaimed that planning concepts serve an innovative function in the political process. They are praised as powerful tools that carry new insights and understandings into policy arenas. By examining the emergence and development of a new planning concept in the Dutch national spatial policy-making process, the deltametropolis concept, this paper questions this position. It argues that new spatial concepts tend to lose much of their innovative capacities when they enter the political arena and become encased in the traditional urban–rural planning discourse, thus reaffirming established planning orientations. The Dutch case of the deltametropolis illustrates that new spatial concepts may entail potential for innovation as much as for lock-in.     

Educational Landscapes and Urban Development. Contextual and Spatial Interfaces and Linkages

In the broad sociopolitical discussion on education quality within the last decade, it has become apparent that education is gaining importance for urban development, as well as space and the urban context are important dimensions of education. This becomes particularly evident in concepts for local educational landscapes (Ger. Bildungslandschaften). The young field of research on educational landscapes is currently lacking empirical research from spatial and planning sciences. In the paper, the current state of scientific research on educational landscapes in Germany and Europe and first insights to contextual and spatial interfaces and linkages between education and urban development in general are presented.     

Indigenous People and the Miserable Failure of Australian Planning

Abstract

Major changes in Australian law and significant research efforts have re-positioned Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as important actors in planning. Yet, this has barely penetrated the consciousness of the mainstream professional community. Current requirements for professional competencies and planning curricula fall well short of preparing planners to productively engage with Indigenous people. The profession itself barely acknowledges the significant changes advanced in Indigenous studies and planning, and the new imperatives. This paper details the contemporary position of planning practice in Australia with regard to Indigenous people and considers the changes required to more justly engage with Indigenous rights.     

Understanding Gaps Between the Risk Perceptions of Wildland–Urban Interface (WUI) Residents and Wildfire Professionals

Research across a variety of risk domains finds that the risk perceptions of professionals and the public differ. Such risk perception gaps occur if professionals and the public understand individual risk factors differently or if they aggregate risk factors into overall risk differently. The nature of such divergences, whether based on objective inaccuracies or on differing perspectives, is important to understand. However, evidence of risk perception gaps typically pertains to general, overall risk levels; evidence of and details about mismatches between the specific level of risk faced by individuals and their perceptions of that risk is less available. We examine these issues with a paired data set of professional and resident assessments of parcel‐level wildfire risk for private property in a wildland–urban interface community located in western Colorado, United States. We find evidence of a gap between the parcel‐level risk assessments of a wildfire professional and numerous measures of residents’ risk assessments. Overall risk ratings diverge for the majority of properties, as do judgments about many specific property attributes and about the relative contribution of these attributes to a property's overall level of risk. However, overall risk gaps are not well explained by many factors commonly found to relate to risk perceptions. Understanding the nature of these risk perception gaps can facilitate improved communication by wildfire professionals about how risks can be mitigated on private lands. These results also speak to the general nature of individual‐level risk perception.     

How Senior Glaswegian Planners are Adjusting to the Scottish Government’s Modernization Agenda

This paper is grounded in what 15 experienced Glaswegian planners said about their work. Many spoke of their misgivings about the Scottish government’s efforts to modernize national and local planning practices, whereby, in their view, they are expected to be facilitators of economic development above all other considerations. They spoke of how they thought planning should be practised and in their resource-constrained circumstances, how they strive to do so. Most grew up in the Glasgow region prior to the current neo-liberal ascendancy in public policy and planning and remain committed to their places and people. Whether their professional concerns are now largely residual or still relevant, so presaging possible emergent professional practices are discussed.     

Spatial Optimization of Future Urban Development with Regards to Climate Risk and Sustainability Objectives

Future development in cities needs to manage increasing populations, climate‐related risks, and sustainable development objectives such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Planners therefore face a challenge of multidimensional, spatial optimization in order to balance potential tradeoffs and maximize synergies between risks and other objectives. To address this, a spatial optimization framework has been developed. This uses a spatially implemented genetic algorithm to generate a set of Pareto‐optimal results that provide planners with the best set of trade‐off spatial plans for six risk and sustainability objectives: (i) minimize heat risks, (ii) minimize flooding risks, (iii) minimize transport travel costs to minimize associated emissions, (iv) maximize brownfield development, (v) minimize urban sprawl, and (vi) prevent development of greenspace. The framework is applied to Greater London (U.K.) and shown to generate spatial development strategies that are optimal for specific objectives and differ significantly from the existing development strategies. In addition, the analysis reveals tradeoffs between different risks as well as between risk and sustainability objectives. While increases in heat or flood risk can be avoided, there are no strategies that do not increase at least one of these. Tradeoffs between risk and other sustainability objectives can be more severe, for example, minimizing heat risk is only possible if future development is allowed to sprawl significantly. The results highlight the importance of spatial structure in modulating risks and other sustainability objectives. However, not all planning objectives are suited to quantified optimization and so the results should form part of an evidence base to improve the delivery of risk and sustainability management in future urban development.     

Towards Next-Generation Urban Resilience in Planning Practice: From Securitization to Integrated Place Making

Resilience is a concept incorporating a vast range of contemporary risks and over recent years has become increasingly important to our understanding of contemporary planning policy and practice. This paper examines the changing nature of resilience strategies since 2000 and highlights how planners increasingly are asked to contribute to this agenda. Drawing on the emerging theories of urban resilience, this paper charts the emergence of different ‘styles’ of resilience over the last decade in the UK, with an emphasis on a range of policies associated with designing safer spaces. Emerging lessons are then deployed to highlight how a new generation of urban resilience practice is now emerging associated with embedding resiliency into local place-making activities. This paper concludes by reflecting upon the multiple uses of resilience in planning practice.     

Formal strategy in public hospitals

This paper suggests that the difficulties associated with the application of formal strategic planning in public professional service organizations may have been underestimated in much of the literature. A survey of written strategic plans produced by Canadian hospitals showed that these plans were often heavily oriented towards expansion, ambiguous and rather loosely integrated, leading to questions concerning their realism and utility as a basis for strategic decisions. This phenomenon seems symptomatic of the complex (and often highly political) decision making environment faced by hospital administrators (and by managers of other professional service organizations such as universities and social service agencies). It is concluded that the benefits of formal planning may be different and less tangible for these organizations than for private business.