Urban Planning and Environmental Management: Perils from Ignoring*
by
A.T.M. Nurul Amin, PhD Professor and Chair Department of Environmental Science and Management North South University,
[email protected]
*Prepared for a Seminar on Urban Planning and Environmental Management of the Department of Environmental Science and Management, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 2, 2009.
Contents Page 1
Introduction
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2
Perils from Ignoring Urban Planning and Environmental Management Education
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3.
Planning Education in the Global University System
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Three Cases: NSU’s Environmental Science and Management, AIT’s Urban Environmental Management and Columbia University’s Earth Institute
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3.1
3.1.1 AIT’s Urban Environmental Management
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3.1.2 NSU’s Environmental Science and Management
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3.1.3 Columbia’s Earth Institute
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3.1.4 Three Cases at a Glance
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4.
My Journey to Economic Aspect of Planning Education
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4.1
Informal Sector and Urban Environmental Management in Planning Education
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4.2
Accommodation of the Informal Sector in Urban Planning and Environmental Management
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4.3
Emphasis on Financing and Cost Recovery for Provisioning Urban Environmental Infrastructure and Services
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4.4
Influencing Behaviour by Environmental Management Measures (EMM) Based on an Understanding of Human Mind’s Three Fundamental Inclinations
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Lack of Influence of Urban Planning and Environmental Management Education and Profession: Two Principal Causes
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5.1
Failure of Planning Education to Enrich Itself
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5.2
Failure to Use Development Control Effectively for Curtailing Human Greed Let Loose by Distorting Economic Logic
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Concluding Remarks
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5.
6.
References
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1.
Introduction
At the backdrop of total disruption of Dhaka’s normal life with the very first rainfall of the season, this seminar’s thematic topic has assumed an added significance. While flooded roads and overflowing drainage & sewerage are common sights mostly in rainy season; traffic jam, shortage of water, power cut are daily experience in our urban living. From a provincial capital, Dhaka’s status as not only national capital but as one of the mega-cities of the world could be a source of our pride but for such problems and shame associated with for poor sanitations, subhuman living in slums. All this goes on without much social strife (not yet!) perhaps because human capability to endure sufferings is immense. Land degradation, water pollution destruction of water bodies are no more affecting the urban poor only. No social class – no matter whether they live in affluent areas of the city or in low income settlements -- is now safe or far from degraded environment and their health effects. Although no problem can be explained by a single factor, this paper argues that the present urban environmental problems in cities of populous developing country cites like Dhaka is a direct consequence of not according due priority to urban planning and environmental management in the university education system, public policy and professional practice. Thus it is now surprise that planning profession is quantitatively as well as qualitatively in adequate to address the complex urban problems that are arising by the interplay of forces of demographics, economics, markets and globalization. To make it worse there is a misconception that “planning” has little role in today’s world of free market that has been sweeping the world.
I do not think it is necessary for me to labor hard for clarifying why it is misconception free market economy does pose a challenge to ‘planning’. It is however more obvious for ‘economic planning’. In fact, free market economy norms and economic planning norms, particularly of the centralized variety, are in conflict in most instances. What perhaps needs to be explained is that free market economy does not diminish the role of ‘planning’ of the variety that we are interested in, i.e., urban planning. To the contrary, free economy of global scale that we have been experiencing since 1980s have rather increased urban planning’s significance. Because in a free market economy, individuals, households and businesses make their economic and location decisions largely in line with market economy logic, and norms. It does not require a lot of imagination to understand that these micro level decisions by millions of individuals do not produce a macro level outcome that is in harmony1 with spatial, social, economic or environmental desirability, need or goal. The discipline of economics recognizes this and it has developed necessary public policy tools, based on their theoretical constructs. For example, economists recognize that freemarket economy creates imbalances (i.e., inequality in interpersonal income, rural-urban disparity, regional disparity, income inequality between men and women & rich and poor) and business cycles (i.e., recession and recovery, boom and bust). Economists also caution that in the presence of externalities (i.e., non-accounting of all costs and benefits associated with any human activity beyond the immediate party – producer and consumer of a particular good), outcome of free market-based economic decisions will produce socially and environmentally undesirable outcomes. In the absence of internalization of externalities, social, economic and environmental disharmonies are the norms, rather than exception. Despite all these warnings and vigorous public policy and actions at Good that “harmonious cities” is the theme of the State of the World’s Cities 2008/2009 (UN-HBITANT, 2008) 1
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times, social sustainability, economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and above all preservation of the planet itself that humanity inherited are at stake. It is ironical that these ideologues of capitalism made best use of economists’ messages of social benefits associated with free market economy (e.g., power of market dynamism, price signals, forces of competition, etc.) but did not tell the public that economists give “two cheers to market but not three!” The need of not only containing human greed but using public policy to deal with imbalances, cycles and externalities has never been emphasized by the champions of free market economy. More ironical is the situation that has developed since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, i.e., rejecting of not only ‘economic planning’ but also deemphasizing urban, spatial, physical planning as if all the ills associated with centralized economic planning also apply to planning! It seems unlike the economics profession, the urban planning profession has not got one John Maynard Keynes, Amartya Sen. We have thus not been able to make or convey a simple message that free economy does not diminish the role of urban planning, rather enhances its need. Because, the wrought that free market creates (the environmental wrought, the spatial & social disharmony, and cultural disintegration) could have been qualitatively reduced by making best use of urban planning paradigms2 of development control, land-use plan, zoning, urban revitalization, city compact to stop urban sprawl and suburbanization. All this would have allowed to reduce infrastructure cost and energy use for commuting. Alas, instead of strengthening urban planning at a time when (i.e. the time of unprecedented reliance on free market mechanism) its need is most relevant, it has been weakened by the supremacy of free market norms or sheer inadequate understanding of the issues involved. The rest of this paper will essentially elaborate the above points with particular reference to urban planning and environmental education and professional practice.
2.
Perils from Ignoring Urban Planning and Environmental Management Education
Ignoring urban planning & environmental management education leads to catastrophic consequence. Dhaka city is already experiencing signs of that as is the care with populous developing country cities. How does it happen is briefly outlined here. Its influence on public policy becomes insignificant (To appreciate this point, just contrast the influence of economics on public policy as an example). Both qualitatively and qualitatively urban planning and environmental management profession becomes weaker. The above two realities, coupled with “democracy” and free market economy’s challenge to urban planning (i.e., as if urban planning is neither possible or desirable in the present global political-economy system marked by freedom of choice to locate business, residence and industries and supremacy of democratic polity and free market economy), have seriously weakened, if not have made redundant, the planning paradigms of: -
master plan structure plan land use plan development control
A paradigm is a model or pattern, as the dictionary defines it. “It is a practical example which perfectly illustrates an abstract principle. Its hallmark is the complete correspondence between the abstract and the applied, between theory and praxis” (Piore, 1981). 2
2
-
open green space compact city containing urban sprawl, etc.
Inevitable consequence of this include:
Land grabbing Dumping of wastewater to water bodies Filling up of water bodies Transforming of green open space Dumping of wastewater to water bodies for other use Location of dirty industries (e.g. tannery) close to residential areas Dumping of clinical and hazardous wastes along with domestic wastes Suburbanization High-rises in restricted locations, etc.
Consequence of above nature are further complicated by population growth, increase of poor urban economy, price signals generated horizontal expansion of cities that increases commuting distance, time and energy consumption. This is reflected in: - unbearable traffic jam - Increase in reliance on private cars
This fate of waiting in nerve-breaking traffic jam arises from: Neglect of urban planning Non-adoption of environmentally sustainable transportation strategy comprehensively Potential of influencing behaviour remain unrealized because of partial and piecemeal use of incentive measures Inadequate understanding of human attitudes and behaviour Non-utilization of full potential of change and innovation in fuel and vehicle technologies Non-appreciation of the role and need of investment for green transport infrastructure Inability to attract necessary investment arising from reluctance in allowing cost recovery Not grasping the value of involving stakeholders for better enforcement of public policy
3.
Planning Education in the Global University System
One way to understand planning education3 is to glance at the variety of names by which it is offered by the global university system. A compilation of 108 planning schools is classified by some commonly encountered names which have generated 17 different name categories. Some of the old names are ‘Housing and City Planning’, ‘Town and Country Planning’ etc., whereas, the new trend is to add environment as it is in AIT’s 3
Planning education is comprised of a variety of curriculum offered by the global university system as shown in Table 1. It does not include economic planning. It has originated, it seems, from physical planning. In this paper it denotes urban planning, urban management, environmental management and environmental science & technology.
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UEM. It is also notable that despite various permutations and combinations in name configuration, the common denominators appear as urban, regional and rural (spatially); design, planning and management (art-wise); housing, real state and built environment (sector-wise); architecture and engineering (discipline-wise). Table 1: Some Common Names in Nomenclature of Planning Schools
Planning Schools Number 1. Town and Country Planning. 2 2. City and Regional Planning 3 3. Urban and Regional Planning 20 4. Architecture and Planning 14 5. Community and Regional Planning 1 6. Planning 5 7. Urban Engineering/Urbanisme 7 8. Real Estate/Housing, Building and Planning 4 9. Built Environment, Architecture and Design 5 10. Urban and Rural Planning 2 11. Urban and Environmental Planning 6 12. Urban Environmental Management 3 13. Urban Studies/Social Studies/Development 6 14. Environmental Management/Studies 15 15. Environmental Science, Technology and Engineering 10 16. Spatial Planning and Environmental Policy 3 17. Environmental Design 2 Total Number of Planning Schools 108 Whereas multidisciplinary education offering is a fashion now, ‘planning education’ from the outset has been a multidisciplinary configuration. The disciplinary combinations that have been prominent from the beginning in planning education include: architecture, engineering, geography, economics and sociology (Figure 1). In recent years, law, political science, public administration, environmental studies and ecology are faring in planning education’s multidisciplinary configuration.
Figure 1: Multi-disciplinary Planning (coordinated deductive approach) Source: Anis-ur-Rahmaan, “Towards a Prospective Physical Development Planning Education” Selected Paper of 8th Asian Planning Schools Association Conference: Cities for People, p.70.
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3.1
Three Cases: NSU’s Environmental Science and Management, AIT’s Urban Environmental Management and Columbia University’s Earth Institute
As can be understood from Table 1, the mode of structuring and offering planning education in general or urban planning and environmental management in particular varies from university to university. In this section, three cases are briefly presented with which this author has direct involvement or familiarity. 3.1.1
AIT’s Urban Environmental Management
The Asian Institute of Technology, an institution that was established as a Graduate School of Civil Engineering in 1959, introduced planning and management education by establishing a Division of Community and Regional Development (CRD) in 1973. Subsequently CRD evolved as the Human Settlement Development (HSD) in 1977 with two fields of study (Regional and Rural Development Planning, Urban Planning, Land & Housing). Since 1996, the urban field of HSD has been transformed as Urban Environmental Management (UEM).The core of curriculum of UEM is comprises urban planning, urban environmental economics & finance, environmental science & technology, urban governance, and urban infrastructure & service (see Figure 1).
Figure 2: Five Core Curriculum Components of Urban Environmental Management Field of Study at the Asian Institute of Technology
3.1.2
NSU’s Environmental Science and Management
Today’s ‘environmental science and management’ department of NSU was originally established as ‘environmental studies’ in 1994. It was changed to the present name in 2004. The novelty of the curriculum that the Department of Environmental Science and Management (DESM) offers is the blend of science and management. Many universities
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offer ‘environmental science’ or ‘environmental management’ separately. The multidisciplinary curriculum of DESM offers a curriculum that prepares its graduates to understand, and analyze problems such as land degradation, pollution of water and air, health consequences from environmental damages. It integrates the insights of sciences, social sciences, ecology and make use the tools such as GIS, EIA and environmental accounting to impart knowledge and skills of management solutions. The curriculum of two degrees – Environmental Science and Environmental Management – offers a large number of courses divided as follows:
Core courses
Courses for science concentration
Courses for management concentration
Minor in environmental science or environment management.
3.1.3
Columbia’s Earth Institute
One of the most inspirational innovations in environmental management is that of the Earth Institute of Columbia University. It “provides a unique academic base for governing the science-based, cross-disciplinary understanding needed to confront the practical challenges of sustainable development. It is built on five clusters: -
Earth sciences Ecology and conservation Environmental engineering Public health and Economics and public policy.
Jeffry Sachs, the Director of the Institute, believe that “by joining these disciplines under one roof, the Earth Institute can better connect the sciences with public policy to find practical solutions to problems at all scales, from local (villages) to global…. Bringing these five clusters together makes possible the kind of rigorous thinking about the challenges” of the millennium development goals (Sachs, 2005, p. 225). 3.1.4
Three Cases at a Glance
Curriculum of three cases can be seen at a glance in Table 2. Table 2: A Comparison of the curriculum of the Three Cases
NSU’s Environmental Science & Management
AIT’s Urban Environment Management
Earth Institute Columbia’s
Two major steams: Environmental science Environmental management Core for both streams include: - Chemistry, biology, geology - Economics, geography, law, sociology, and psychology
Five core curriculum components: - Urban Planning and Environmental Management System - Urban Environmental Economics & Finance - Urban Environmental Science and
Five clusters: Earth Science Ecology and Conservation Environmental engineering Public Health Economics and Public policy
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-
Ecology and conservation Environmental technology Natural resource, forest Pollution control Water, sanitation, health GIS, EIA, environmental accounting techniques - Public policy - Energy - Sustainable development
4.
Technology - Urban Governance - Urban Infrastructure & services
My Journey to Economic Aspect of Planning Education
Trained as an economist, my journey to planning education started with reading of the book, “The Economy of Cities” book by Jane Jacobs. I would perhaps never have ended up in the planning education field if I was not asked by my PhD supervisor to read the book for conceiving a research topic for my thesis. Analogously, if I had never read a 1910 classic piece, “Economic Aspects of City Planning”, I would have never felt confident about what I have been doing as an academic in the planning education field for the last 20 years. All I have been doing over these years gets rationalized, by this article of Benjamin Marsh. An extensive quote from Marsh might suggest what I have been doing right with respect to my contribution to urban planning and environmental management (i.e. in the economic and financial considerations of the field). However, before that, a biographical note on Benjamin Marsh needs to be added. He was then Secretary, Committee on Congestion of Population in New York City, a position he assumed in 1907 after serving as secretary of the Pennsylvania Society to Protect Children from Cruelty. Marsh (? ?) was born in Bulgaria where his father was an American missionary. After graduating from Grinnell College he undertook further studies at the Universities of Chicago and Pennsylvania. Attracted to the single tax theories of Henry George and the policies of the Fabian socialists in Britain, Marsh made social reform his life’s work. Preparations for his work in New York took him to Europe in the summer of 1907 to observe and study what had been accomplished in ‘housing and city planning’. In New York he and his associates organized an exhibit on New York City’s housing conditions and wrote a lecture on the danger of congestion and how it might be remedied using some of the more advanced planning techniques and development control devices that had been accepted in Germany. In 1909 he wrote An Introduction to City Planning: Democracy’s Challenge to the American City, a 158 page book whose first page carried the heading “A city without a plan is like a ship without a rudder.” That May Marsh’s committee and the Municipal Art Society produced an exhibition in New York on American and European city planning. The material in this exhibition was also on display at the first national conference on city planning held in Washington, D.C. later in May (excerpted from the bibliographical note provided by John W. Reps, Professor Emeritus, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University). Marsh defines city planning as an endeavor that should address nine elements (Box 3). He lists these near the beginning of his statement and then proceeds to provide details and examples of each component of planning.
To clear the way, therefore, for a discussion of the subject I submit the following definition: City Planning is the orderly development of a city by which each section is arranged for the purpose for which it is best and most economically adapted, so
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that a harmonious entity is secured. This development must be for the common good and not for the individual’s gain. To secure this harmonious entity in American cities it is fundamental that we should have a wider extension and application of the police powers of the State under which are, of course, subsumed the health powers, the taxing powers and analogous methods by which the State controls the ambitions or cupidity of its individual members, when such ambitions or cupidity are in conflict with that greatest good of the greatest number which it is the primary function of government in its several capacities to secure (Marsh 1910, p.73).
Box 1: Nine Elements of City Planning Advocated by Benjamin Marsh in his Article, “Economic Aspects of City Planning” Proper housing of the city’s masses of the reasonable proportion of a fair wage, and within easy access of their work. Direct and adequate roads connecting the main business centers of a city with smaller roads of such width and construction as not to impose an unnecessary and burdensome cost upon the occupant of small house. A proper system of water supply and sewage disposal pipes and wires. The economic location of factories and prohibition of factories in districts where they will be an injury to the neighborhood, and, as necessary corollary, the provision of means for carrying freight. The elimination of the cost of carfare, as far as possible, to the working population. The decentralization of the city’s business, pleasure and educational interests. The provision of adequate park, playgrounds and open spaces, with space for public buildings to furnish not merely sites but settings. Such control over the location and volume of buildings for manufacturing and office purposes as will enable the city authorities to anticipate and provide adequate means of carrying passengers. The control of the development of new and unbuilt sections of a city, and the incorporation of adjacent areas so that their development may similarly be controlled. 4.1
Informal Sector and Urban Environmental Management in Planning Education
In view of the importance of and the role I have played in incorporating the informal sector and urban environmental management paradigms originated in development literature in general and planning education, I would like to devote some space of this paper in elaborating these two paradigms. Informal sector Depending on whether the analytical focus is on people, activity, or habitat, the informal sector is distinguished from the formal sector by: (i) certain labor and employment characteristics (such as lack of official protection/ recognition, lack of coverage by wage legislation and other social security systems, and predominance of own-account work; absence of trade union organization, low income and wages, little job security, and
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absence of fringe benefits from institution source); (ii) enterprise operation characteristics (such as very small scale operation, unregulated and competitive market, reliance on locally available resources, family ownership, labor-intensive and adapted technology, and absence of access to institutional source of credit and similar support or protection); and/or (iii) land and housing characteristics of settlements (such as unauthorized use of vacant land, illegal subdivisions/ renting of land, unauthorized construction, reliance on cheap and locally available scrap construction techniques, lack of application of safety standards and regulation, and non-availability of mortgages or any other financing) (Amin 1996b, p. xvii). Such settlement characteristics sometimes lead to restricted access to basic service, which can also be used as a criterion for distinguishing between informal and formal land and housing settlements. Such lack of access to basic services gives rise to rudimentary service provision by informal labor and enterprises – what Montgomery (1988) calls the informal service sector. Urban Environmental Management Instead of explicitly defining UEM, White, in his book Urban Environmental Management: Environmental Change and Urban Design implies that UEM means the study and practice of urban planning and management from an environmental perspective (White 1994, p.xii). Writing around the same time, Mukoko states that UEM means “ the systematic and conscious effort on the part of city of municipal government or any other public institution to influence human activities susceptible of damaging the environment” (Mukoko 1994/95, p.123). AIT’s UEM Field of Study’s adopted definition reflects study of Urban Planning and Urban Management problems from environmental perspectives to promote sustainable urban development. Its firm origin in, and belonging to, the planning education discipline/field is well reflected in UEM’s statement of purpose: faced with deteriorating environmental conditions which threaten urban productivity, the quality of life of urban residents and the social cohesion of cities, the field develops and teaches the capabilities and skills to confront and reverse these negative trends. UEM draws on and integrates theories and perspectives from the established disciplines of urban planning, urban and regional development, and public policy and management into a distinctive framework of problems, issues, and questions concerning the urban environment in a developing society context. This field deals with environmental problems such as poor water supply and sanitation, inadequate solid waste and wastewater management, land-use conflicts and deteriorating environmental quality in the home, workplace, neighborhood and city. Teaching, research and outreach programs of UEM stress the specific physical, spatial, economic, social and political characteristics of urban and regional systems in developing Asian cities and their implications for urban environmental changes and solutions. Informal Sector-Urban Environmental Management Relationship This informal sector and urban environmental management are two paradigms that have their origins in two different kinds of urban crises that are experienced by developing countries: the informal sector in growing urban unemployment and rural-urban migration, and UEM in the environmental problems that threaten the quality of urban life. It is still surprising that the two have become intertwined in our cities. Documented evidence clearly shows that the relationship between the informal sector and UEM has become one of mutual benefits. Nobody imagined until recently that so many income-earning opportunities would be created for informal-sector labor by urban environmental service provision. Likewise, urban development professional did not anticipate that the informal sector could be a potential supplier of environmental services required for solid waste management and for the provision of water and sanitation. For those of us urban development professionals who have worked on both areas, the intersection between the
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informal sector and UEM has been rewarding. Hopefully this has not affected the objectivity of this investigation. With the above disclaimer, let me note that the extensive studies and research by a combination of (i) those who work on the informal sector; (ii) those who work on urban environmental management; (iii) some who have done work on both areas; and (iv) a few who have worked connecting the two show that informal-sector contributions to UEM are substantial and could potentially be even greater. This is due to impetus from market forces that have never been so powerful as they are in the contemporary world. Even as the limited scope of planning has made UEM more relevant to urban development professionals, fewer jobs in the public sector and even in the formal private sector have made the informal sector of greater significance from an employment point of view. But this does not mean that planning has become irrelevant for enhancing the quality of life in cities or that secure jobs in the formal sector are not essential for people to be able to afford a decent standard of living (Amin 2008, p.19). Having noted these two qualifications, let me raise two concerns. The first is that when informal-sector workers contribute to UEM, in many instances it is at the cost of their health and often entails sacrificing their children’s education. This in turn entrenches intergenerational transfer of poverty. Thus, informal-sector work must be turned into decent work, which require job security and safety, increased productivity and income, and improved working conditions. Foremost issues are reducing health hazards and improving working conditions. Public policy and action in this regard are not expensive. Simple awareness campaigns on risks to health and some assistance in obtaining protective gear can make a lot of difference. There are many very good practices in these areas, but this are still limited to demonstrations by a few successful NGOs. Local governments must now take these up for citywide implementation. 4.2
Accommodation of the Informal Sector in Urban Planning and Environmental Management
Accommodation of the Informal Sector in Urban Planning In order to adopt an accommodative approach, a first basic task is to convince the government, planners and policy makers that the urban informal sector contributes significantly to national economic and social development in a variety of ways. Another important task is to overcome some well-known doubts and concerns with respect to the sector. At the third level, it is important to make a change in the overall attitudes towards the informal sector so as to ensure an enabling environment for people to exercise their ‘right to work’ without hindrance from any quarter. This right to work would not involve ‘providing’ jobs by the government, neither would it require acceptance of working situations that conflict with desirable patterns of urban planning. Such recognition would rather require urban planners to bring necessary changes in the urban planning paradigms, which largely originated from the Western experience of urban industrial development that had no significant presence of urban informal sector. Success in these three directions would ensure an optimal environment for the operations, expansion and development of the UIS business. How my research has contributed to these tasks can be sensed from the summary of a few selected informal sector researches.
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Box 2: Agenda for Increasing Urban Productivity with Focus on Urban Poor’s Work (Informal Sector Labor and Enterprises) Overall Directions
Plan cities as places for earning.
Recognize centrality of job.
Focus on low-productivity occupations.
Priority infrastructure investment.
Recognize limit of scale and agglomeration economic.
Improve the regulation framework.
Improve urban financing methods.
Strengthen local and metropolitan governments.
Utilize local social and political forces
Informal Sector Specific Directions
Enable and accommodate the informal sector.
Relax control.
Expand access
Promote entrepreneurship
Welcome market intermediation
Accommodation the Informal Sector in Urban Environmental Management Livelihoods of the urban poor, particularly the informal economic activities operating on streets and other public places, are usually seen as undesirable for environmental management by urban authorities which are preoccupied with keeping their cities clean. Hence, informal sector activities are often seen as “eye-sores” and are evicted from city centers in the name of “public cleanliness and orderliness.” However, it is seen that environmental problems associated with the informal sector are mostly manifestations of unresponsive physical planning systems rather than attributes inherent to the sector’s respective activities. An environmental impact analysis (Perera and Amin 1996) shows that provision of proper business premises to informal enterprises is an effective measure to curb the environmental problems associated with the sector. From this viewpoint, accommodating the informal sector in the urban built environment is seen as an effective strategy for urban environmental management.
4.3
Emphasis on Financing and Cost Recovery for Provisioning Urban Environmental Infrastructure and Service
If urban planning had worked well, environmental problems at least in cities could have been kept within a tolerable limit. By definition urban planning is a method that denotes proactive action to avoid problems of congestion, suburbanization and urban residents’ exposure to pollution. However even without the free market logic and freedom of choice that individuals & businesses exercise (not least the widespread malpractices on the part of those who are in charge of formulation and implementation of public policies or development controls), environmental problems would have been unavoidable. This is the
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reason that urban management (for better coordination of policy & planning) and environmental management (for mitigation of the problems notwithstanding any proactive actions by urban planning paradigms) go hand in hand with urban planning. In AIT we established Urban Environmental Management (UEM) precisely with this understanding that UEM is an academic area in planning education field that studies urban planning and urban management from environmental management perspective (White 1994, also see Amin 2005a, 2007). Again, because of free trade and specialization based on comparative cost advantage of global scale, developing countries in general and their cities in particular have become the “pollution haven” (Minh and Amin, 2002 studied pollution haven hypothesis, based on FDI enterprises in Hanoi, Vietnam). No wonder hundreds of garment factories have mushroomed in my own country’s capital city – Dhaka (not in its suburban areas, very much within central Dhaka). Challenging tasks of urban planning (just take in view what need to be done for urban revitalization, reversing urban sprawl or effective use of development control), urban management (just taken in view traffic congestion, financing of infrastructure or governance issues) and environmental management (again bring in view what need to be done with wastewater that is being now pumped to waterbodies, piles of unseparated municipal wastes and untreated hazardous wastes or emissions – including – CO2 from thousands of vehicles in our cities) is thus mind-boggling. My own contribution has been in the area of urban environmental economics & finance, which culminated in emphasizing and developing two key strategies for urban environmental management. These are: Financing and cost recovery (Amin, 2005). Behavioral change for environmental management based on human mind’s three elements – fear, economic & material interest, and moral/ethical sense (Amin, et al 2006). It goes without saying that the world has, for better or worse, almost universally embraced the free market as the norm of primary economic decision-making. As a result, economic logic, market forces, price signals and competitive markets are relied upon as mechanisms for not only economic growth and development but also for pursuing specific social and environmental goals. Such development requires that urban planning and environmental management policies and strategies ought to be sensitive to economic and market logic than ever before. With this in view, the economic and financial considerations deemed key for urban planning and environmental management to be tuned to economic and market logic are briefly stated below. Economic considerations in Urban Planning and Environmental Management
Recognition of the fundamental reality that the market force propelled urban growth is unlikely to remain within the planning and zoning horizon and stipulations. Even development control may not be able to cope with individual, household and enterprise decision-making on migration, housing and business locations, which are influenced so much by the market forces in general and price signals in particular.
Not mere recognition but also making use of the market forces and price signals wherever and whenever they can be relied upon (e.g., in the urban land, labor and housing markets and in the supply of urban infrastructure and services).
Adoption of an ‘employment-income approach’ so that jobs, productivity and income of urban residents will increase and thereby their ‘affordability to pay’ (ATP) for urban infrastructure and service provision will increase. A more
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comprehensive approach will be to (i) raise urban productivity, (ii) reduce urban poverty and (iii) improve urban environment (World Bank 1991). Adoption of such an approach can positively influence the ‘poverty-environment nexus’ in the urban context and thereby set in motion a virtuous cycle (see Figures 6-8 and Box 6). Making use of the ‘built-in advantages’ (allowed by ‘agglomeration and scale economies’) on ‘the supply side’ and the availability of a large urban population with higher income, that is affordability on ‘the demand side’ for the provision of urban infrastructure and services. It should however also be kept in mind that agglomeration and scale economies are not unlimited. As many good things end at some point, so do agglomeration and scale economies. Such turning points denote starting of agglomeration and scale ‘diseconomies’, which usually get reflected in rising land prices, cost of living, and heavy congestion, etc. In this situation, the need is deconcentration, not undertaking megaprojects to offset the mega-effects of agglomeration and scale diseconomies as usually done. The inevitable consequence of such policies is the emergence of unsustainable mega-cities. Financial Considerations in Urban Planning and Environmental Management
Making good use of traditional as well as new innovative methods, techniques and ideas for financing urban infrastructure and service provisions.
Promoting a culture of paying for a service received. The long-prevailing culture of expecting basic service provisions from government free and paying for them only when they are provided by the private sector needs to be discarded.
Making cost recovery built into the service provision.
If cost recovery is built-in, the huge amount of capital required for investment in the urban infrastructure and service provision will be that much easier.
Despite tremendous increase in the private capital inflows to the developing country cities, FDI has not gone adequately, if at all, to the urban environmental infrastructure and service sector (UEI&S) because of its non-attraction from a profit viewpoint. This has started to change but has a long way yet to go. If cost recovery becomes an acceptable norm, FDI and domestic private capital will flow in and even the local governments will have money to invest.
Pricing of urban infrastructure and service provisions appropriately and imaginatively by taking into account the (i) willingness to pay (WTP) and (ii) affordability to pay (ATP) and the (iii) scope of subsidization and crosssubsidization.
The above points show wide scope of enriching planning education with economic and financial insights. (Amin 1995) stresses incorporation of economic and financial insights for enriching the urban planning and environmental management paradigms. Based on the insight of environmental economics, it derives an analytical framework for management of the urban environment. On the financial side, the paper focuses on cost recovery, which is seen key for mobilizing financial resources including the foreign direct investment required for the urban environmental infrastructure and service provisions. For cost recovery to succeed, the paper suggests pricing of services based on considerations of the service users’ willingness to pay, affordability to pay and the scope of subsidization and cross-subsidization. Similarly, the paper (Amin 2005c) focuses on economic and financial considerations for attaining the goal of environmental sustainability and reaching the three associated
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targets. It suggests that more concerted public policy and actions are required at all levels to expedite the efforts to reach these targets. To reverse losses of environmental resources, urgent actions are necessary for: (a) enshrining property rights of natural resources like forests and water bodies as feasible; (b) infusing private good characteristics to public goods wherever possible; (c) incorporation of environmental measures (EMM), i.e., regulatory, economic, and suasive measures comprehensively and specific to environmental media (i.e., air, water, waste, land, etc.), spatial/administrative unit (i.e., national, regional, city and neighborhood), and sectors (population, consumption, production, natural resource, transportation, construction, technology, etc. For increasing access to water, (a) adoption of innovative financing methods and cost recovery measures to ensure capital investment in the provision of water; (b) focusing on mobilization of financial resources for expanding water provision to those who are not currently connected to a service with simultaneous identification of ways and means to increase revenue from water supply; (c) pricing of water with careful analysis of affordability to pay (ATP) and willingness to pay (WTP) on the demand side and capital cost and recurring operation and maintenance cost (O&M) on the supply side; and (d) use of cross-subsidization principle in water charging according to ATP and WTP and PPP (polluters-pay principle). For improving the condition of living in slums, public policy and actions are necessary for basic services similar to the ones enunciated for water. In addition, (a) increasing demand of poor's labor and enterprises wherever possible so that their income, hence, ATP for services would increase; and (b) enhancing human capability and institutional capacity specific to each task associated with each of the MDG targets. Several students’ theses followed up research in this area (Amin 2008, p. 42). For attracting foreign direct investment for financing urban environmental infrastructure and services, (Minh and Amin 2002) reveals that in recent years flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries have rapidly been increasing. It is now an important contributor to the national economy and urban growth in scores of developing countries. Rapid urbanization in these countries is leading to many problems in the cities. Existing urban infrastructure and municipal services have been unable to cope with the increased demand arising from growing population and rapid economic growth. Consequently, the environment in these cities has deteriorated alarmingly. This paper assesses the role of FDI in urban environmental management (UEM) by analyzing three main themes: one, FDI, employment and income; two, FDI and environmental degradation; and three, potential of utilizing FDI for the provision of urban environmental infrastructure and services (UEI&S) in order to improve the urban environment. Both primary and secondary source data have been used. Policy implication of the research findings are drawn from the perspective of sustainable development. 4.4
Influencing Behaviour by Environmental Management Measures (EMM) Based on an Understanding of Human Mind’s Three Fundamental Inclinations
In exploring material basis for environmental policy instruments, Amin et al. (2006) paper’s case studies of Bangkok Hazardous Industrial Waste and Hanoi’s Air Quality Management start by clarifying the basis of using well-known policy instruments such as regulatory instruments (RIs), economic instruments (EIs) and suasive instruments (SIs). In most instances RIs, EIs and SIs are used in isolation and without full comprehension or appreciation of the fundamental basis of their existence as policy instruments and thereby not realizing why they need to be used simultaneously. One need not be a psychologist to know that three elements which invariably influence the human mind are: fear, material (economic/financial) interest, and a moral & ethical sense. Policy instruments for influencing human behavior according to these elements are, respectively: regulatory, economic and suasive instruments.
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Figure 3: Three Elements in Human Mind as Basis of Environmental Policy Instruments
EI (economic instruments)
(suasive instruments)
Moral & Ethical Sense
SI
Economic /Financial interest
Fear
(regulatory instruments)
RI Each and every citizen of a society or country know that they are subject to some laws, rules & regulations and that they may be prosecuted if those are disobeyed or ignored. The CAC or regulatory measures indeed target the fear element of human mind. Perhaps the most powerful element in the human psyche in the capitalistic market economy is economic and financial interest. Indeed this is the basis of most economic policies. This element in the human mind has led economists to denote every individual as an economic person and it has given rise to the assumption of consumers as utility maximizers and producers as profit maximizers and the corresponding economic theories of firms and consumer behavior. Many criticize economic theories inappropriately on the assumption as if economists’ focus on the economic element implies it is their ‘whole’ view of the human mind. Economists are correct as long as they make it clear that the economic theories are based on the ‘economic part’ of the human mind. They are bound to be wrong if the claim is made as if human behavior is only motivated by economic or material interests, whereas, the critics are wrong if they deny that a human mind is devoid of an economic interest. In the present context, the point is that the EIs or MBIs essentially seek to influence human behavior by playing on the economic motive part of each and every human being. Yet another powerful element in the human mind or psyche, which gets less attention if not totally ignored, is the fact that each and every human being is blessed with a moral & ethical sense too. Traditionally, the religious education and parenting of children served to imbibe and nurture this element of the human mind. In the present context, moral suasion or suasive measures, i.e., environmental education and awareness-raising campaigns, seek to promote this most valued and desirable aspect of the human mind. The Case for an EMM Framework Setting aside for the moment the problems in application of these three sets of instruments for environmental protection and management, it needs to be said that even on the conceptual side two drawbacks are depriving societies’ potential gains from their use. One, the fundamental basis of these policy measures being in place in the first instance to influence human behavior is not always borne in mind in designing their use. As a result, they are not explicitly targeted to the needed behavioral change. Two, that an use of one set of measures, setting aside the other two, would clearly imply adoption of a partial approach because this will address only one element of a human mind or psyche. That in the absence of a simultaneous use, the approach is doomed to be partial in influencing behavior of a consumer, producer or a stakeholder is not always borne in
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mind or understood those for whom it is important to do the policymakers or policy implementers. In short, what is then necessary, first, understanding that a human mind is neither all about only fear, economic interest or moral sense but each element is inherently present in human mind and inhabit together. In other words, each individual has simultaneously a fear in his mind, an economic orientation and a sense of morality. Second, a policy strategy for behavioral change thus needs to target each element of a human mind for optimal outcome from a policy measure seeking to influence particular aspect of human behavior. Third, as a result, use of regulatory, economic and suasive measures needs to be simultaneous as a policy package for them to be comprehensive, whole or holistic enough for appealing to all three aspects of human mind. For facilitating such holistic approach, it is better to place all these three sets of instruments as integral parts of an EMM framework. The mere labeling and denoting them together as EMM, instead of referring to the three policy measure categories by their respective label – regulatory, economic and suasive – will reduce the chance of using them in isolation. Such labeling will be a built-in safeguard against use of RIs, EIs and SIs in isolation. Of course by definition an EMM framework is comprised of RIs, EIs and SIs, hence, the chance of ignoring one for the other will be less. In contrast, if the policy vocabulary is solely by RIs, EIs and SIs, the chance of omission of one in favor of the other gets built-in in the policy paradigms and, thereby a partial approach is taken at the cost of a highly desirable holistic approach to effect behavioral response in all three dimensions of human mind just explained. The point made here is not dissimilar to the problem that the world seems to have encountered because of compartmentalization of education and knowledge by academic disciplines. Realization is growing that such compartmentalization of education and learning is particularly unhelpful for promoting sustainable development.
5. Lack of Influence of Urban Planning and Environmental Management Education and Profession: Two Principal Causes My reflection on the causes of low profile existence of urban planning and environmental management educational and professional practice suggests that this arises from:
5.1
Failure of planning education to enrich itself. Global Political economy dominated by free market force logics and weakening. The role of regulation and development control. Failure of Planning Education to Enrich Itself
Although I have not gone in details as to how free market economy has weakened the planning paradigms, it seems to me that society is also suffering for lack of adequate influence of planning profession in public policy. In many countries, economics has more command over public policy (perhaps engineers too, I am setting aside those professions which are not expected to have influence public policy such as civil and defense bureaucracy) than that of urban planning. Although I have not deeply explored the reason for the present policy influencing status of planning education and profession, plausible explanations would include:
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5.2
As an academic field, theoretical development in urban planning does not seem to be comparable with classical disciplines at sciences, humanities, social sciences, engineering or architecture.
As a corollary of the above situation, research and publications in urban planning are limited. It goes without saying that research and publications – sometime directly, at times indirectly – influence public policy and action. Numerous examples can be cited here on this point. Ongoing public policy and actions internationally on ‘climate change’ is a case in point. In the absence of scientific evidence documented by research on greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on global warming, it is unlikely that climate change would have drawn serious public policy attention nationally or internationally.
Unlike other professions, planning seems to be divided in their views on the value of research and publication. One group decries academic research in attaching importance to practice. The other group tends to push planning education to social science and development studies. Yet some would see it as an auxiliary to civil or environmental engineering and environmental studies, etc. On checking names of 108 planning schools across the world, I found 17 common labels (see box 1). This situation (unclear or undefined bounds) does not bode well for urban planning to become a rich academic field.
Arguably multidisciplinary background of students intake and faculty composition may have hurt urban planning’s theoretical development in that deeper probing of issues by particular disciplinary insight has not been possible. Even if this has been the case in the past, new realization of the need of ‘holistic education’ should place urban planning in an advantage simply because from the outset urban planning has been of holistic (i.e. multidisciplinary) nature. It is still not too late to seize on this opportunity. However, unless urban planning’s faculty transform themselves from their disciplinary origin to offer an interdisciplinary planning curriculum, this potential will remain unfulfilled. Failure to Use Development Control Effectively Curtailing Human Greed Let Loose by Distorting Economic Logic
As discussed in section 3, long before free market economy entered the present era of global scale, exactly hundred years ago (to be precise in 1909), Benjamin Marsh wrote a book, titled An Introduction to City Planning: Democracy’s Challenge to the American City. The central thesis of this book is democracy poses a challenge to city planning. Read ‘democracy’ as free market because free-marketeers always claim that democracy, freedom and free market are inseparable. Although market economy seems to flourish under autocratic system too as it was under Syngman Rhee Korea, Ayub Khan’s Pakistan, Pinnochet’s Chilie and of late under communist party leadership as it is currently the case in China and Vietnam. This is a different issue, so let’s leave it at this. Profoundness of Marsh’s thesis lies in the fact that in a city when thousands of individuals, households, and business make their respective employment, residential and location decisions, propelled by freedom of choice, self-interest (even if it is ‘enlightened self-interest’) and price signals generated by market price (e.g. high land price in the central city vis–a–vis low land price in suburban area, even if that will be 40-50 km away from central city); the outcome of those decisions by no means will create a city that has meant so much to civilization and, more importantly, for day to day comfortable living of its residents. It is these numerous individual decisions that are glorified as exercise of
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freedom of choice on the basis of enlightened self-interest and price signals even if they violate development control, regulations and building codes. The inevitable consequence is unsustainable urbanization processes, urban forms and cities. Of course no phenomenon of today’s mega-city can be explained by a single factor. Elsewhere (Amin, 1996) I have explained Asian urbanization’s paradoxical trend – megaurbanization with vast size of the informal sector – by demographic factors (e.g., huge population base, its continual growth, vast size of the rural agricultural sector, migration), economic considerations (rural-urban income disparity and earning opportunity in cities), market forces (scope to compete for upward mobility) and globalization forces (Opportunity to be part of the global labor & capital market and access to technology including internet, satellites, etc.). Another source of disappointment is incomplete understanding of and reliance on economic logic (if not selective as per ideology or self interest). For example, while high land price in central city is understood well and based on which housing project location is made on far away agricultural land, what is not taken to heart that high land & housing prices and cost of living mean that a city’s scale economy and agglomeration economy have been exhausted. Laws of return also mean that there is something called diseconomy too. Even economists fail to point out that scale and agglomeration diseconomies cannot remain far behind of scale and agglomeration economies. Instead of questioning these fundamental economic and market forces or logics that lead to the observed and unsustainable outcome, bureaucracy and corruptions are held responsible for all the realities that we are in.
6. Concluding Remarks The paper has argued that reliance on the free market does not diminish the role of planning and public policy. To the contrary, the role of public policy, planning assumes greater significance in a system of individual choice sovereignty, which however, in many instances do not produce a macro outcome that is socially, economically and environmentally desirable or acceptable. It will be thus a perilous mistake to assume that in a world of free market economy and democratic polity the need of ‘planning’ and ‘public policy’ has diminished. It may be true for ‘economic planning’ of the centralized kind but not for the kind of planning that is the subject matter of this seminar. A sound understanding of demographics, economic logic, interplay of market and globalizing forces and their consequences manifested in the (a) inequalities between man and man, man and woman, rural and urban, underdeveloped and developed regions/countries; (b) unbalanced human settlements pattern – unabated rural to urban migration, slum settlements and informal sector growth, long-distance commuting for work, mega-city and primate-city dominance, internal migration flows, etc.; and (c) widespread pollutions of air and water, degradation of land, congestion, etc. affecting the quality of life and above all bringing serious consequences to the environment (the ultimate of which is already apparent in climate change) have rather increased the need of urban planning and environmental management that we have addressed here. Seizing this opportunity requires planning education to be more economic logic and market sensitive, and more accommodative of cities’ functions, among others, as generators of employment and income. This is, however, only one perspective of planning – the economic one. Similar insights – even perhaps richer than what has been presented here – need to come from physical planners, regional planners, architects, engineers, social scientists, environmental scientists and gender & natural resource specialists.
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References Amin, A.T.M.N. (1994/95). "Economics of Rural-Urban Relations Reexamined in the Light of Growing Environmental Concerns", Regional Development Studies, Vol.1 (Winter), pp. 27-54. Amin, A.T.M.N. (1996). "The Asian Setting of the Informal Sector's Growth Dynamics", Regional Development Dialogue, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring issue), pp. 70-93. Amin, A.T.M.N. (2005a) “The Informal Sector’s Role in Urban Environmental Management”, International Review for Environmental Strategies. Vol. 5, No.2, pp 511-529. Amin, A.T.M.N. (2005b). Economic and Financial Considerations in Urban Environmental Management (Bangkok: UMP-Asia), 96 p. Amin, A.T.M.N. (2008). Legacies in Planning Education: Economic Aspects of Informal Sector and Urban Environmental Management, Professorial Lecture (2nd Edition), Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. Amin, A.T.M.N.; Jarusombut, S.; Thuy, T.T.B. and Thanaprayochask, W. (2006). "Environmental Management Measures for Influencing Human Behaviour Towards Sustainable Development", Regional Development Dialogue, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 85-100. Minh, N.T.B. and Amin, A.T.M.N. (2002). “The Role of Foreign Direct Investment in Urban Environmental Management: Some Evidence from Hanoi, Vietnam”, Environment, Development and Sustainability, Vol. 4, pp. 279-297. McGee, T. (1996). “On the Utility of Dualism: The Informal Sector and Mega-Urbanization in Developing Countries”, Regional Development Dialogue, Volume 17, No. 1 (spring), pp 1-15. Marsh, C.M. (1910). “Economic Aspects of City Planning”. Proceedings of Municipal Engineers of the City of New York. Paper No. 57, pp. 73-87. Mukoko, S. (1994/95). “Strengthening Urban Environmental Management Capabilities in Developing Countries,” Regional Development Studies 1 (Winter): 131-142. Piore, M.J. (1981). “Labor Market Segmentation: To What Paradigm Does It Belong?” American Economic Review, 73 (1:1981):249-53. Perera, L.A.S.R. and Amin, A.T.M.N. (1995). "Viability of Accommodating Informal Sector Enterprises in Local Government Areas: A Case Study in Colombo, Sri Lanka", Regional Development Dialogue, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 198-209. Rammont, L. and Amin, A.T.M.N. (2009). “Constraints in Using Economic Instruments in Developing Countries: Some Evidence from Thailand’s Experience in Wastewater Management”. Habital International (accepted). Sachs, J. (2005). The End of Poverty: How We can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime (New York: Penguin). UN-HABITAT (2008). State of World’s Cities 2008/2009: Harmonious Cities (Nairobi: Earthscan). White, R. R. (1994). Urban Environmental Management: Environmental Change and Urban Design. (London: John Wiley & Sons). __________________________
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