Kategorie: New Items
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Covid 19 in rapidly urbanising countries
UN Habitat has published its response to the serious problems posed by the pandemic in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Arabic countries. Over 95% of Covid 19 cases are in urban areas. There are 1 billion people living in informal settlements, and 2.4 billion people lack adequate access to safe water and sanitation.…
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Elites treat the poor as disposable citizens – CV19 in India
Dispatch from Delhi on the CV19 crisis in India’s cities. „The COVID-19 pandemic is deepening the existing ruthless and exclusionary practices in India’s big cities, where elites treat the poor as ‘disposable citizens’ clearly evident when we see thousands of poor migrants being stranded in the middle of nowhere, whereas the upper-class people continue to…
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WUF10 – Global Planning Aid
I am going to participate in the tenth World Urban Forum, in Abu Dhabi 8-13 February 2020. At the WUF I will be speaking in a Networking Event hosted by PAS and ISOCARP. We will be launching the idea of Global Planning Aid in Hall 2, Room 5 on Wednesday 12 February from 2-4pm local time. All are welcome to attend. The aim is to…
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Growth and the commercialisation of public space in Edinburgh
A major controversy has developed in Edinburgh over a huge development that was allowed to go ahead in the World Heritage Site without planning permission. The London-based event organisers Underbelly have a contract with Edinburgh’s city council who are paying them a reported £800,000 to stage a Christmas Market and a series of events around…
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Job opportunity – Commonwealth Projects Coordinator
Exciting job opportunity – closing date 3 November 2019. Are you interested in a 12 month job, working on sustainable cities and human settlements, with opportunities for interenational travel? 2020 is going to be an important year. In February the 10th World Urban Forum will be convened by UN-Habitat in Abu Dhabi. There will also…
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Capacity crisis is hitting urban development in Pakistan
Pakistan is suffering from chronic underinvestment in urban planning. The leading newspaper in the Punjab has run a story about unfilled professional planning posts, noting some of the negative consequences. The article in Dawn, states that „Many professionals working in the public and private sectors have either left or are planning to proceed abroad.“ It quotes…
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My recent newspaper articles
Here are links to some of my articles that have been published in The Scotsman recently (July 2019) I have had a number of columns published in The Scotsman, which is an Edinburgh-based national newspaper in Scotland. Though the articles are tagetted at that particular readership, the underlying issues are relevant in many other places, I believe.…
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Free on-line learning on cities and planning
The Erasmus University in Rotterdam provides a series of on-line trianing materials on urban development and planning, with a particular focus on rapidly urbanising countries. How to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change in African cities? How to finance urban infrastructure? What is Local Economic Development and how can it be delivered?…
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How setting national climate budgets obscure the need to really tackle the climate emergency
Why is the French Government failing to meet its own goals on limiting CO2 emissions? A blog by Pierre Calame provides insights into why France is not meeting its targets on energy and the climate emergency. The messages apply to many other countries too. Calame points out that successive French governments have set national “carbon budgets” every…
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Would you buy a Frank Lloyd Wright house to demolish it?
The Booth Cottage, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1913, which is in Glencoe, Illinois, could become the third of his buildings to be demolished since 2004. The 882 square foot cottage may be tiny, but it sits on a large lot in an affluent Chicago suburb, which I passed through earlier this month. It’s…