Research has clearly demonstrated the critical impact of urban structure on our present and future well-being -- but there is also a translation gap in overcoming "business as usual," and driving effective reforms to policy and practice.
ABOVE: ChatGPT 4's version of Newport as a livable city, generated in response to a few text prompts. Aggressive research in artificial intelligence has exploded, and has begun to transform policy and practice -- while urban research is lagging behind.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This post is in a series of topics for discussion at the 60th International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference to be held in Newport, RI USA, April 26-28, 2024.
NEWPORT, RI - The agenda of the International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference series, founded in 1985, has always been to connect interdisciplinary research to policy and practice, and thereby to drive effective reforms to make cities and towns more livable, more equitable, more economically vibrant, and more ecologically durable. That will be especially true for its upcoming 60th conference in Newport, Rhode Island, titled "Making Cities Livable: Research Into Communication, and ACTION."
Many other urban reform organizations share this agenda. The United Nations' human settlements agency, UN-Habitat, adopted its similar "New Urban Agenda" in 2016, following a clear mandate to respond to growing urban and planetary challenges. Its stated goal was a "new paradigm," aimed at creating a new generation of walkable, mixed use, lower emissions, higher quality cities, towns and suburbs. The New Urban Agenda was adopted by acclamation by all 193 member states of the United Nations, making it the globally agreed framework for urbanization and urban reform for the next two decades.
The New Urban Agenda identifies research as a critical resource to drive needed reforms in policy and practice. Among these reforms are "well-designed networks of safe, accessible, green and quality streets and other public spaces... appropriate compactness and density, polycentrism and mixed uses.... considering the human scale, and measures that allow for the best possible commercial use of street-level floors... [to] reduce vulnerability, build resilience and responsiveness to natural and human-made hazards and foster mitigation of and adaptation to climate change..." and to "prevent urban sprawl."
The New Urban Agenda also outlines a "shared vision" as follows:
We share a vision of cities for all, referring to the equal use and enjoyment of cities and human settlements, seeking to promote inclusivity and ensure that all inhabitants, of present and future generations, without discrimination of any kind, are able to inhabit and produce just, safe, healthy, accessible, affordable, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements to foster prosperity and quality of life for all.
This is of course an exceedingly ambitious agenda, and it will require effective policies and practices to be fully or even partially implemented. In turn, we will need effective knowledge and evidence of what will work -- exactly the role of urban research.
The Congress for the New Urbanism, a professional reform body created in 1993, has also adopted a very similar agenda. The CNU is a partner of the Lennard Institute, producers of the IMCL, along with the King's Foundation (UK) and others. According to CNU president Mallory Baches -- a speaker at the upcoming IMCL conference -- the three key elements of the CNU's current Strategic Plan are: 1) reforming detrimental regulations, 2) finding effective pathways to affordability and urban quality for all, and 3) responding effectively to climate threats with both adaptation and mitigation.
At a recent research symposium at the University of Notre Dame, participants concluded that there is now an urgent priority to identify, develop and disseminate research that can more effectively drive reforms in policy, practice and education. Following are some of the points discussed.
The first task of such a project might be to outline an agenda for more specific research, as well as effective forms of communication to raise awareness and drive change. This could begin with an assessment, the scope of which may include:
What has already been fully established, but has not yet been communicated or disseminated effectively (e.g. why urbanism matters, in a range of ways);
What has already been partially established, but only in fragmented form across disciplines, and has not yet been brought together into a coherent picture for dissemination;
What has not yet been established, and where there is a need to conduct further research.
There is already a significant body of research on the important impacts of urbanism, including:
Impacts of urban form on climate mitigation and adaptation
Impacts of urban form on health and well-being
Impacts of urban form on resilience and durability (AKA “sustainable urbanism”)
Varying impacts of particular structures of public space and neighborhood form
Viable alternatives to car dependence and fragmented urbanism (AKA “sprawl”)
Specific research topics may include:
Transportation reform
Zoning code reform
Innovative new zoning approaches (form-based, “generative” etc)
Economic tools and strategies
Evidence for ecological degradation or improvement
Innovative new models of design and/or co-production
Project-specific and post-occupancy research on performance, and lessons learned
The outputs of such a research assessment may include working papers, research reports, government panels, conferences, videos, press conferences, media outreach, and peer-reviewed journal papers.
There is of course a need to clarify where these outputs will be aimed. Among the target audiences:
City elected officials and planning staff
Practitioners
Educators, students
NGO officials
Other researchers (to stimulate their work in more relevant areas)
The general public
The upcoming International Making Cities Livable conference in Newport, Rhode Island (April 26-28, https://www.imcl.online/2024-newport) will explore all these urgent topics. The goal is clear: we must find better ways to apply research to make it easier -- and a higher priority -- to build and rebuild more walkable, livable, mixed-use communities, that are better able to meet a new generation of challenges for cities, towns and suburbs.