Gabriel Batista (p)

Lakshmi Sivaramakrishnan

Zoning laws are one of the most common policies in urban planning. In São Paulo, significant restrictions apply to most regions, particularly regarding building height and floor area. However, the municipality developed the Operações Urbanas (Urban Operations – OUs), which aim to (i) ease these restrictions in certain areas by selling building permits beyond the limits in exchange for (ii) investments in local
improvements and infrastructure. The literature suggests that (i) could decrease property prices due to an increase in supply, while (ii) could raise them by enhancing local amenities. The net effect, however, could go in either direction.

Using a database of transacted properties provided by the municipality of São Paulo, this study employs a hedonic price model—with spatial correlation extensions—to measure the overall impact of OUs on property prices in affected regions. Results show mixed effects: properties in wealthier, more expensive areas experience a price boost, indicating that local improvements played a more significant
role, while those in less developed regions see either no significant change or a decline, suggesting that the increase in local supply had a greater impact.

Lakshmi Sivaramakrishnan (p), Pratima Rohatgi, Sumona Bandopadhyay

Gabriel Batista

India’s Smart City Mission (SCM) is a flagship initiative to promote sustainable mobility through technological innovation, urban planning, and green infrastructure. The mission focuses on improving urban transport, reducing congestion, and enhancing environmental sustainability. A large share of the country’s urban population relies on sustainable mobility modes like walking, cycling, and public transport. But in reality, commuting in these modes is not equitable and popularly used by the urban poor. The problem lies in the fact that most cities do not have footpaths or cycling tracks and most of the roads have multiple uses at different times of the day. Public transport still is outdated using polluting fuels and is very poor to meet the population's demands.
Most of the transport and communication infrastructure development in metropolitan cities is geared towards satisfying personalized mobility modes, particularly private cars, and automobile sales are rapidly increasing. The problem of mobility increased in the small towns of India where fast and slow-moving vehicles use the same transport lane. The number of road accidents are also increasing in urban areas.
Smart mobility is becoming increasingly crucial for urban transformation. By integrating advanced technologies with transport infrastructure, smart mobility can connect service providers and end-users, creating a seamless, accessible, and inclusive transport ecosystem that improves sustainability and safety across modes
The Government of India has taken several initiatives like Smart City Mission, AMRUT and National Infrastructure pipe line. These initiatives propose to realign the mobility patterns in Urban India focusing on sustainability and resilience City Mission, AMRUT and the National Infrastructure Pipeline. Thus cities can efficiently support their growing populations while minimising environmental impact.
This paper will look into the projects taken up in different cities under the SCM and how far they have improved the mobility in Indian cities. It will also focus on the challenges and way forward in the successful implementation of this programme

Gabriel Batista (p)

Hsien-hsin Cheng

São Paulo is one of the largest cities in the world, with its metropolitan region surpassing 20 million people. Yet, the city faces significant urban contradictions, particularly urban blight in its downtown, severe traffic congestion from commuters traveling to the city center, and a considerable housing deficit.

This study examines the economic mechanisms behind these issues — specifically, why São Paulo's downtown suffers from urban blight despite well-developed public infrastructure and abundant job opportunities. Using property price data from the municipality’s database of transacted properties, along with data from Origin-Destination surveys and the Brazilian Census, I apply a General Equilibrium Model to account for neighborhood amenities, productivity, and job accessibility.

Results show that central neighborhoods are relatively undesirable to live in, with some offering lower amenities than 75% of the city's neighborhoods, yet they remain highly productive. This reflects the observed pattern of the region concentrating jobs (2.6% of the metropolitan area) while housing a much smaller share of the population (0.5%). Further analysis reveals a positive correlation between calculated amenities, property vacancy (a proxy for urban blight), and crime rates. Thus, given the region's high employment accessibility (greater than 95% of all neighborhoods), there is a good potential for reoccupation and revitalization.

Hsien-hsin Cheng (p)

Gabriel Batista

The promulgation of the "Tainan City Self-Government Ordinance for the Revitalization of Historic Street Districts" in Taiwan's cultural capital in 2012 provided the legal basis for historic street district operations. Formulating historic street districts involves examining the historical resources and atmosphere of the current environment as the basis for promoting revitalization. Historic street districts are flexible in scope. However, comprising a large scale of 880 hectares, these districts are essential to cultural governance plans. Furthermore, coordinating promotion and guidance plans is necessary for organizing communities and groups in small areas. Moreover, formulating historical street districts is broad enough to be incorporated into urban planning. As such, it has become a significant review reference for urban planning involving historical preservation projects (zoning intensity, planned roads, urban design, etc.).
The present study investigated the identification methods regarding historic houses, people-oriented walking environments, and compact land-use construction methods involved in formulating historic street districts. The operation content is similar to the international concept of a "15-minute city" that has developed within the past 10 years. This study analyzed the social and economic revitalization benefits of accumulating historical resources in street districts based on long-term community building. It proposes an urban regeneration paradigm for Taiwan's cultural governance from theory to institutionalization and implementation in daily life.