Konstantin Axenov, Alisa Timoshina (p), Alexandra Zemlyanova

Rephrasing the World Bank definition, urban redevelopment is readjustment of urban land to the new function. While some authors assume the necessity of some government authority to be involved in redevelopment process, others apply the urban regimes approach, claiming that redevelopment could be driven by different combination of forces with the leading role of either authorities, or economic actors as well as of public actors. In such combination of forces the basis for agreement could be informal as opposed to formal government planning . Changing involvement of such actors in urban redevelopment in Russia was indeed the inherent feature of post-socialist transformation after 1989. Central attention in this paper will be given to the third mentioned path-dependency factor of urban redevelopment - post-Socialist transformation.

Martin Andersson (p), Johan P Larsson

The debate over the relationship between productivity and the density of economic activity has largely been based on analyses where productivity differences between cities and sparser areas are attributed to differences in their density. Therefore, much of the empirical evidence of the role of density comes from productivity effects driven by large dense cities. This is particularly the case in recent work on within-city neighborhood density effects. However, there are reasons to believe that agglomeration economies, relatively speaking, are at least as important in sparser areas. For example, the role of dense towns, or neighborhoods, in the countryside could, in functional terms, play the same role as a dense neighborhood do in a large city. In this paper, we analyze the magnitude and spatial attenuation of agglomeration spillovers in different spatial contexts. We exploit geocoded Swedish data aggregated unto square grids of various sizes and study how the elasticity between density and productivity varies across spatial contexts. We also assess heterogeneity across spatial contexts in the rate at which agglomeration effects dissipate with distance. By aggregating matched employer-employee panel data over the 1990-2015 period unto these grids we document quantitatively important elasticities, indeed comparable to those in metropolitan areas, even in sparse rural areas. In fact, our estimates reveal sizeable neighborhood effects even in rural areas, and that those effects exhibit lower depreciation with space compared to urban areas.

Amit Batabyal (p), Karima Kourtit , Peter Nijkamp

We study the impact that the provision of a local public good (LPG) by two cities has on their ability to attract and retain members of the creative class. This creative class consists of two types of members known as engineers and artists. Engineers are wealthier than artists and they also value the LPG more. We first focus on each city in isolation. We compute the marginal value and the marginal cost of the LPG and then determine the provision of this LPG when the provision is determined by uniform contributions and majority voting. Next, we allow the creative class members to migrate between the two cities and analyze whether engineers or artists migrate, the equilibrium distribution of the creative class, and the efficiency of the LPG provision. Finally, we consider the situation in each city just before migration and study how much of the LPG is provided when proportional contributions and majority voting determine this provision. A related question we address is whether engineers or artists now have an incentive to migrate and, if yes, we identify who would like to migrate and to which city.

Antonia Gravagnuolo (p), Luigi Fusco Girard, Karima Kourtit, Peter Nijkamp

The concept of circular city defines a city/territory in which the circular economy (CE) model of sustainable production and consumption is applied, “closing the loops” of urban metabolisms in terms of flows of materials, water, energy and wastes. Circular cities and regions are those in which no wastes and other negative environmental externalities are generated, while productivity is enhanced through wastes reuse, reduction of raw materials extraction, repair, refurbishment, etc. A circular territorial system is that in which urban metabolisms are “closed”, enabling economic growth decoupled from resources consumption.
Circular cities are productive cities, reducing costs of materials as well as costs of production processes through synergies, increasing the quality and quantity of outputs, reducing the costs of negative environmental externalities. This enhanced ‘productivity’ should be seen as multidimensional, with relevant impacts on human and ecosystems health, longer-term economic growth (more independent from resources availability and prices volatility).
Cultural heritage (CH) regeneration and adaptive reuse can play a key role for the achievement of a circular city-region. It reduces soil consumption by re-generating existing buildings and sites with new functions, and valorises the embedded energy of constructions. CH can have positive impacts on local economies, jobs and enhancing attractiveness of cities for residents, visitors and enterprises. It also generates positive social impacts enhancing quality of places, and thus quality of life and wellbeing, enhancing place attachment and care through its symbolic values, it contributes to local communities’ bonds and civic attitude.
The circularity of economic, social and environmental processes can be enhanced through CH regeneration and adaptive reuse. However, the costs of heritage regeneration are high and careful evaluation is needed to create evidence of net positive impacts of heritage investments and their contribution to sustainable development, in the perspective of CE and ‘closed urban metabolisms’.
This work develops a set of criteria and indicators for integrated urban metabolisms assessment that take into account flows of materials, water, energy and wastes, but also social, cultural and economic flows to assess the contribution of cultural heritage regeneration and adaptive reuse to the realization of circular cities and regions. A methodological proposal based on integration of multicriteria analysis and metabolisms assessment is developed to assess the impacts of cultural heritage adaptive reuse for circular urban-regional development.