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Weekly Urban News Update
December 11, 2020
In This Update
Unregulated Construction in Istanbul Undermines Disaster Preparedness
Reflecting on Recovery in Port-au-Prince Ten Years After Devastating Earthquake
Singapore Embraces Innovative Design and Technologies to Mitigate Climate Warming
Delhi Fights Back Against Pollution
Report on Urban Displacement in Colombia's Informal Settlements
Center for Strategic and International Studies Launches Urban Legends Program
In the News And Around the Web
Unregulated Construction in Istanbul Undermines Disaster Preparedness
Istanbul researchers are calling for the city to upgrade old and poorly built buildings after an October earthquake in the Turkish city Izmir killed 115 people and damaged 340 buildings. The researchers say that 15 years of rapid, unregulated construction has left the city at risk of mass damage and casualty in the face of a similar shock. The government says that it has not rebuilt or reinforced any buildings, but is in the process of assessing structures by its earthquake-resistant standards. Researcher Dogan Kalafat objects to the pace of government work, asserting: “It will be fastest and most realistic to rebuild risky structures in an earthquake-resistant manner by using existing information.”

Read more here.
Reflecting on Recovery in Port-au-Prince Ten Years After Devastating Earthquake
Ten years after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior Advisor Charles A. Setchell reflects on USAID recovery efforts in Port-au-Prince. The earthquake killed 300,000 people, destroyed 180,000 buildings, and displaced more than 1.5 million residents, leading USAID to focus its efforts on rebuilding local communities and providing safe housing. Setchell explains that the success of USAID’s work, especially in the Ravine Patinade neighborhood, lies in its “neighborhood approach,” which prioritizes close coordination with local officials and residents as it offers a longer-term, integrated vision of low-cost sustainability.

Read more here.
Singapore Embraces Innovative Design and Technologies to Mitigate Climate Warming
Singapore, which has heated up twice as fast as the global warming average over the past 60 years, is turning to building design and new technologies to mitigate the effects of climate change. The so-called Garden City has long embraced foliage to reduce heat, recently announcing it will plant one million trees over the next decade. But, as researcher Vinod Thomas observes, although planting trees “cannot hurt and is also conducive to the quality of life, it is not enough by itself to reverse the warming of the city.” Petal-shaped ventilating rooftops, cooling, underground water pipes, data modelling, and smart technologies are among some of the strategies that developers and researchers are pursuing. 

Read more here.
Delhi Fights Back Against Pollution
Delhi, the world’s most polluted capital city, has launched an ambitious anti-pollution campaign in energy, transport, and agriculture, but policy implementation remains weak, write Vinod Thomas and Chitranjali Tiwari at Brookings Institution. Thomas and Tiwari believe that Delhi may learn from the pollution reduction tactics of other Asian capitals. For instance, crop burning was banned in Delhi’s neighboring states, but a lack of political will has allowed the practice to continue. Singapore, on the other hand, has minimized haze from agricultural waste by successfully coordinating its Environment Agency, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Manpower to issue public pollution guidelines.

Read more here.
Report on Urban Displacement in Colombia's Informal Settlements
A new report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre on internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Altos de la Florida, an informal settlement outside of Bogota, explores gaps in humanitarian responses in informal settlements. Conflict, violence, and economic decline in Colombia has forced large numbers of people to move to cities, but even after settling, urban IDPs continue to face high levels of poverty, violence, and vulnerability. Furthermore, prolonged emergency assistance, especially in areas with weakened social fabrics, has created aid dependency. IDMC calls for a humanitarian resilience approach that will strengthen local capacities to make aid more effective and sustainable.

Read more here.
Center for Strategic and International Studies Launches Urban Legends Program
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) launched the Urban Legends program initiative to shed light on the trends, challenges, and opportunities presented by urbanization. The program seeks to promote better understanding and engagement of policymakers with the challenges of urbanization in low and middle-income countries of the Global South, particularly in Africa. In the Urban Legends press release, CSIS program directors assert: “The United States will need to gradually shift from the Sahel to Sao Paulo and from the Hindu Kush to Kinshasa to promote economic prosperity, secure lives and livelihoods, and revitalize democracy across the globe.”

Read more here.
In the News and Around the Web

  • The Value of Housing for COVID-19 Recovery: Researchers Olivia Nielsen and Malaika Cheney-Coker explain how housing can serve as an economic engine to boost recovery from COVID-19.

  • Despite Flooding Barriers, Venice Floods Again: Two months after it successfully deployed flood barriers to protect itself from flooding, the city of Venice flooded again on Tuesday.

  • Stop Doomscrolling, Start Dakarscrolling: As COVID-19 has put travel plans on hold, New York Times correspondent Sebastian Modak explains how to vacation in Dakar from home.
An open street market in Dakar, Senegal. (Photo Credit: Sebastian Modak/New York Times)
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