sustainable urban development efficiency and impact of integrated urban development strategies...

SUSTAINABLE URBAN SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENTDEVELOPMENT

Efficiency and impact of integrated Efficiency and impact of integrated urban development strategies urban development strategies

regarding sustainable developmentregarding sustainable development

2013, ÖKO ZRt.2013, ÖKO ZRt.

Objective of evaluationObjective of evaluation

The evaluation had a dual objective. Issues addressed:•The extent to which the criteria of sustainable development were considered in planned and implemented projects.

•Theoretical background: the rate to which integrated urban development includes (or does not include) the principle and objectives of sustainable development (as indicated by the relevant European and Hungarian documents).

To address the first issue, 5 case studies were prepared relying on projects in the Regional Operational Programme, mostly implemented: Fonyód, Pécel, Budapest Belváros, Kecskemét, MiskolcThe evaluation procedure is demonstrated by the Kecskemét project.

Definition of integrated urban developmentDefinition of integrated urban development

The Integrated Urban Development Strategy (IUDS) is an integrated, medium-duration (7-8 years) urban development plan to harmonise the objectives of long term urban development concepts and the available or accessible resources.

•Integration refers to parallel planning regarding the sector, the location, scheduling and resources.

•IUDS is an implementation-oriented planning document for towns or sometimes for districts. •In he integrated approach, various development objectives and their financing, possibilities and alternatives of implementation and maintenance are managed together, as a system.

Integrated urban development strategy Integrated urban development strategy

Sustainable development and towns 1.Sustainable development and towns 1.

At urban level, sustainable development is the only system now in Hungary, that provides the availability of and fair access to infrastructure and assets matching modern expectations, while:

• also provides for the good quality of environmental values and its maintenance, creating a liveable settlement, now as well as in the future (presuming that improvements in individual living quality do not result in the deterioration of environmental values preferred by the individual him/herself or others).

While:•Preserves the specific values of the location that represent the living habitat for each group, including human relations

•Considers the need to develop the awareness of residents as objectives cannot be met without their proper mental approach

•Guarantees expectable security regarding the right for health and healthcare

Sustainable development and towns 2.Sustainable development and towns 2.

Criteria of sustainable developmentCriteria of sustainable development

For the purposes of evaluation, accountable sustainable development criteria were used as reference. Evaluation was performed at two levels:

•Integrated Urban Development as a theoretical and practical approach

•Actual urban projects based on it and financed from the ROP

When developing sustainable development criteria, the following points were considered:• LEIPZIG CHARTER OF SUSTAINABLE EUROPEAN CITIES • Toledo Declaration of the ministers responsible for urban development• The Hungarian URBAN DEVELOPMENT MANUAL • The NATIONAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY• The European Commission: Cohesion Policy between 2013 and 2020, INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT 2012

Kecskemét: Revitalisation of Rákóczi Kecskemét: Revitalisation of Rákóczi Road - Vasútkert/1.Road - Vasútkert/1.

DAOP 5.1.2/C-09-2f-2011-0001. Revitalisation of Rákóczi Road - Vasútkert

Beneficiary: the Municipality of Kecskemét City with County Rights

•Support granted: ≈ 5 000 000 €•Project costs, total: ≈ Eur 7 000 000 €We present the settlement, the IUDS and the actual project using the documents of KIK-FOR Városfejlesztő és Ingatlanhasznosító Ltd. and the Alföld Science Institute of the Centre of Regional Surveys of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as well as our own photos made at the site.

Kecskemét: IUDSKecskemét: IUDS

Az Integrált Városfejlesztési Stratégiák értékelése

Sustainable development criteria Kecskemét IVS

Improving the quality of life, the status of the environment and perceived sustainability in the settlement.

•Every tool allowed by IUDS should be used to create a liveable town that fosters sustainable development. •Demand for sustainable use of natural resources. •Several elements at strategy level are linked to this objective; these, however, aim at improving the status of the environment, without composing a coherent system regarding sustainability.

Improving problematic environmental factors in the settlement or district impacted by the IUDS.

• Kecskemét joined the town accepting the Aalborg Charter in 2000. The IUDS defines key areas of urban environment to be improved.

Improving specific utilisation of natural resources in the settlement impacted by the IUDS.

• A new urban behaviour appears: the settlement consciously uses new technologies to protect its natural resources. The demand for energy efficiency and the selective collection of waste is included in the IUDS. • However, the issues of water use or reducing losses are not included.

Kecskemét: Revitalisation of Rákóczi Kecskemét: Revitalisation of Rákóczi Road - Vasútkert /2Road - Vasútkert /2..

Objective of the Action Area Plan:

The objective of the Action Area Plan was to create a coherent, people-centered public space system with rich cultural and tourism-related functions as a result of the rehabilitation process, providing a true city centre image and a unique urban landscape. Examples of related goals:• creating several centres instead of a single city centre,• creating a uniform city image,• gradual phasing out of the road traffic loading the city centre,• creating a coherent, premium quality, people-centered system of public spaces.

Kecskemét: Revitalisation of Rákóczi Kecskemét: Revitalisation of Rákóczi Road - Vasútkert /3.Road - Vasútkert /3.

Action area goals:

• Protection of monuments on Rákóczi Road, combined with restoration and the preservation of values and the creation of a matching environment.• High quality restoration of the facades of ground-floor shops on Rákóczi Road complying with the urban landscape.• Restoring the facades of residential homes along Rákóczi Road to create an attractive image.• Mitigating traffic on Rákóczi Road, changes in traffic quality.


Action area goals (cont.): • Revitalising and extending trade and catering functions on Rákóczi Road.• Revitalising social and cultural functions on Rákóczi Road.• Rehabilitation of Vasútkert facilitating social activities.• Establishing a roofed market that is worthy of the past of the market town while also complies with modern criteria.• Modernising and expanding parking lots in the city centre.


New lamp posts and decorative information platesNew lamp posts and decorative information plates


Renovation of shops and confectioneriesRenovation of shops and confectioneries


Expected beneficial impacts:• Pollution is reduced in the restored city centre (reduced emission of suspended solids, CO2 and NO2) as a result of traffic mitigation; increased traffic safety in mitigation zones• On Rákóczi Road and at the market, premium quality trading, catering and tourism services may be established • As a result of new public spaces and planned events, the population of the town will be able to actively participate in cultural and social life and in recreational activities• By establishing local partnerships, local readiness to co-operate increases; new jobs are created and the quality of existing jobs increases.


Expectations: the project should Project

– reduce discharges and emissions into all recipients (air, water, soil) and for all pollutants

According to the plan, air emissions and noise are reduced in the city centre as a result of traffic mitigation.

– reduce activities causing environmental stress that cause congestion and noise, vibration, odour, etc. emissions

Rákóczi Road activities serve these purposes. However, traffic cannot be fully eliminated and as the square is crossed by road traffic (across the pedestrian area), results are diminished.

– not result in indirect environmental impacts (improving the environmental quality in a given area should not in turn deteriorate another one)

No relevance to the planned project. Increased transit traffic as a result of traffic mitigation and the elimination of parking lots may cause some problems.

– be energy efficient (reduce energy consumption)

Considered in the modernisation of street lighting.

– use low waste technologies and facilitate waste recycling

The project does not include such tasks but the implementation of plans related to the town facilitate full scale selective waste collection in the future.

Environmental loadsEnvironmental loads


Expectations: the project should Project

– improve living conditions for the local community

Stopping the devaluation of the area by restoring the architectural environment and creating new functions and quality services, to improve the living conditions of local residents.

– improve accessibility The aim is to create a city centre more concentrated than that of today, where everything is within walking distance.

– improve equal chances in accessing the benefits of the project

Project results are available for everybody.

– reduce stress factors and increase comfort and satisfaction

As the living environment is becoming more pleasant, residenst feel increasingly comfortable. The project is guaraneteed to reduce congestion in the area.

– not adversely affect organic values of the architectural environment nor the spiritual or physical creations of the local culture

The project is based on the restoration and development of existig structures, new roads or buildings are not constructed.

– harmonise with organic culture, traditions, existing scales, project results should be modest and have high aesthetic value

An aim of the project is to maintain and improve the traditional, valuable architectural (and natural) environment.

Social characteristicsSocial characteristics


Similar to other assessed developments, the project improves environmental quality, yet it is considered a relatively small step regarding sustainable development, with somewhat uncertain results.The IUDS of Kecskemét appears to be one of the best of its kind, yet it cannot fully incorporate sustainability into its strategy. Obviously, it is at least partially due to the fact that it was not a requirement when developing the IUDS.

Conclusions /1.Conclusions /1.

Planning methods have been improved and implemented projects could better serve the improvement of the quality of living in the impacted settlements. This improvement affected several settlements, but mostly locally only; thus the improvement of the quality of living could be hardly felt in the settlements in general.

• The fast introduction of the system and the resulting accelerated planning and permitting process deteriorated the quality of IUDSs. The Leipzig Chater was signed in May 2007 followed by the publication of the relevant Hungarian Manual as early as in October 2007. IUDS proposal opportunities were advertised at the same time, with a deadline in the early summer of 2008.

•Thus, the IUDS often became a mere formality tool to obtain support for the restoration of city centres or social rehability developments already planned.

Conclusions /2.Conclusions /2.

• Implemented projects in themselves almost never represented significant steps forward, regarding integration or sustainable development at settlement level. For that, other projects or project elements within IUDSs would also be needed.

An interesting question is raised by this situation: Who should be supported in the future? Those that have not been supported yet – as they also deserve the possibility to implement development projects? Or on the contrary, those that have already been supported, as their initiatives need to be finished? Both answers are logical. Interventions are typically considered as first steps on the way and they should be continued to yield broad scale achievements that impact the entirety of settlements.

Conclusions /3. Conclusions /3.

• When developing projects, sustainable urban development was mostly understood as providing for a liveable and attractive urban environment. Accordingly, applications do not fail to mention sustainable development in compliance with the EU IUDS concept, but practical implications are missing. Objectives and aims always include the improvement of the status of the environment, but these objectives hardly go beyond trying to find solutions to a given problem.

Typical approach: „The most important problems are heavy traffic, the lack of green

areas and the deterioration of the urban landscape. If we solve these problems locally, we have already made a step towards sustainability”

Consclusions /4. Consclusions /4.

• As sustainability issues are not clarified in the chapters describing the current status, objectives or the projects themselves only aim at solving environmental problems included in the strategy. We may conclude, however, that successful solutions to these problems can indeed be considered as good results from the aspect of settlements.


• From the aspect of sustainable development and the IUDS, the most important issue is the need to protect urban spaces and urban existence from strong and often unwanted external impacts.

• Towns, especially metropolises are the most exposed geographical units regarding impacts from the space of flows. The IUDS however, heavily relies on this.

What is this all about?


Castells: defines the criteria of spatial sustainability as the need to protect the location of spaces from the impacts arriving from the space of flows.

According to Castells, protection does not equal to isolation at all. On the contrary, external impacts often act as a source of local development, by initiating beneficial changes. Protection means that too sudden and too powerful external impacts do not develop inner structures but destroy them. The lesson of self defense is to maintain a balance between the absorption capacity and adaptability of inner structures and the impact of external changes.


Typical objectives:To create an attractive settlement image, a liveable environment, user friendly public spaces and quality infrastructure, not only for the sake of residents, but also to attract capital and increase immigration.

• This latter task presumes fine tuning as thus far experiences have been rather negative, also in the metropolises of developed countries.

• Problems are typically caused by excessive foreign capital and the demands of immigrants arriving in large numbers from foreign cultures.

• Problems are partially born from the incompatibility with sustainable development. Local cutures and values are often impossible to protect againts the pressure from the space of flow.

Recommendations /1.Recommendations /1.

• The terms of sustainable development and sustainability, so often used in the IUDS as well as in guidelines and project plans, should be clearly defined.

• In the future, to promote sustainability, the summarised environmental performance of projects should exceed that of the solutions they replace.

• To facilitate the implementation of the recommendations above, sustainability issues should be tackled already in the description of the current status in applications.

• Integrated approach to sustainable development means that environmental and developmental issues are to be managed within a single system. This is why sustainability assessment is essential when preparing development plans. For this, alternative plans are also needed.


• Projects should consider entire life cycles as well as the issues of establishment, maintenance and obsolescence. It is particularly true for maintenance as financial sources are often defined for the project only, without clear indications to the resources for maintenance. The use of the entire life cycle approach for planning is recommended as well as that of least cost planning and the increase of labour expenses, labour having the highest added value.

• Protection against external impacts like the climate change should be enhanced at all cost in the strategies. Lower energy consumption represents a better adaptation to eternal conditions as it diminished dependence on external energy. The best ways to adapt to the climate change provoked by ourselves are imporved water management, the conscious management of urban microclimate and the application of green surfaces as large and natural as possible.


• Projects induced by the IUDS should support the creation of sustainable producer and consumer patterns. This problem is never tackled at the level of strategies, not only because this criterion is hard to interpret but also as a result of the crucial importance of attracting capital to the region. The catch here is that residents are often unable to afford premium infrastructure, only earning one third or one fifth of the salaries typical in Western countries, while the capital that could create jobs, not to mention the European regulations demand such quality.

• When managing traffic problems, a truly integrated approach could be represented by solutions manifested in changes in town management, urban structure and public awareness, instead of focusing on the tools of transport.


• The IUDS should be extended to a regional level. Such an extension would also be justified by the IUDS approach as well as sustainability issues.

• Project results should promote education activities that focus on sustainable life styles to a much higher extent. „Culture builds towns”; cultivated people are builders, while uncultivated ones destroyers. Hence results may only be maintained by the tools of community development. This is why project elements focusing on such objectives should not be considered as additional features but as essential ones.

• Interested parties and stakeholders should already be involved in the concept phase of the project. Otherwise, residents will hinder or influence projects not discussed with them. (A recommendable way to involve parties is the procedure described for preparing the Inventory of Values in Komárom. )

Recommendations /5.Recommendations /5.Recommendations of the National Urbanists’

Conference 2009

Thank you for your attention

dr. Endre Tombácz

ÖKO ZRt.

sustainable urban development efficiency and impact of integrated urban development strategies...

Documents