Hiroaki Suzuki

Cities in developing countries are experiencing unprecedented urban growth. Unfortunately, this is often accompanied by the negative impacts of sprawl as a result of rapid motorisation such as congestion, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, inefficient use of energy and time, and unequal accessibility. As these cities are often under severe fiscal constraints, they face great challenges in financing capital-intensive mass transit systems to reverse the course of these negative trends. Development-based land value capture (DBLVC) financing schemes being practiced in Asian megacities like Hong Kong SAR, China, and Tokyo have helped them not only to generate funds for transit investment and operational and maintenance costs but also to promote sustainable urban development through transit-oriented development (TOD). Many rapidly growing cities in developing countries have the conditions for introducing DBLVC - namely, strong economic growth, rising real incomes, and increased motorisation and congestion levels - all of which cause land value appreciation within proximity of transit stations or corridors. If adapted well to local contexts, DBLVC schemes have great potential to become an important strategic apparatus of urban finance and planning for cities in developing countries. Through a careful analysis of various case studies, this book provides strategies, policies, and methodologies that policy makers and practitioners can apply in developing their own DBLVC schemes for transit financing.

Transforming Cities with Transit explores the complex process of transit and land-use integration in rapidly growing cities in developing countries. As one of the most promising strategies for advancing environmental sustainability, economic competitiveness, and socially inclusive development in fast-growing cities, transit and land-use integration is increasingly being embraced by policy-makers at all levels of government. This book focuses on identifying barriers to and opportunities for effective coordination of transport infrastructure and urban development. Global best-case practices of transit-oriented metropolises that have direct relevance to cities in developing countries are first introduced. Key institutional, regulatory, and financial constraints that hamper integration and opportunities to utilise transit to guide sustainable urban development are examined in selected cities in developing countries. For this, the book analyses their Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems and their impact on land development. The book formulates recommendations and implementation strategies to overcome barriers and take advantage of opportunities. It asserts that unprecedented opportunities have and will continue to arise for the successful integration of transit and land development in much of the developing world. Many cities in developing countries currently exhibit the pre-requisites - e.g., rapid growth, rising real incomes, and increased motorisation and congestion levels - for BRT and railway investments to trigger meaningful land-use changes in economically and financially viable ways. Recommendations for creating more sustainable cities of the future range from macro-level strategies that influence land development and governance at the metropolitan scale to micro-level initiatives, like Transit Oriented Development (TOD), that can radically transform development patterns at the neighbourhood level. The book will be of interest to a wide and diverse audience, including mayors, council members and other national and local policy makers, urban and transportation planners, transit-agency officials, and developers and staff of development financial institutions and others involved with TOD projects in rapidly growing and motorising cities of the developing world.

The Eco2 Cities approach is a point of departure for cities that would like to reap the many benefits of ecological and economic sustainability. It provides an analytical and operational framework that offers strategic guidance to cities on sustainable and integrated urban development. At the same time case studies are used throughout the book to provide a matter-of-fact and ground-level perspective. The Eco2 framework is flexible and easily customized to the context of each country or city. Based on the particular circumstances and the development priorities of a city – the application of the framework can contribute to the development of a unique action plan or roadmap in each case. This action plan can be triggered through catalyst projects. To support this framework, the book also begins to introduce some powerful and practical methods and tools that can further enable sustainable and integrated city planning and decision making. These include 1) operational and process methods that can strengthen collaborative decision making and cross-sector synergies in a city; 2) analytical methods ranging from diagnostics, simulation, design and scenario-generation; and 3) accounting and benchmarking methods which can help clarify, define and measure what it means to truly invest in sustainability and resilience. As additional reference reading, the book also features a series of case studies from best practice cities around the world, each demonstrating a very different dimension of the Eco2 approach. It also features a series of infrastructure sector notes (on spatial development, transport, energy, water and waste management), each of which explore sector specific issues as they pertain to urban development, and the many opportunities for coordination and integration across sectors.