I ~~24464 CKtA A D May2002 h.JIYiILiI THE WORLD BANK South Asia Urban Air Quality Management Briefing Note No. 6 Urban Planning and Air Quality The role of urban planning is to inanage the spatial organiizaition of cities for efficienit allocratiton of urban infrastructure and land use. Depending on how it is applied, urban planning caui improve air quality in the long run by strategic location of polluting sources and exposed population, and enicouraginig a city struclure that would minimize pollution emissions and build-up. Unfortunately, urban regulations in South Asia have historically contributed to misallocation of land use and growth of urban shapes that are not necess.arily conducive to economic development or air quality improvement. Taking careful account of market ftrces and allowing demand-driven solutions rather than the current administrative allocation of resources could bring considerable benefits, if closely coupled with other sector policies-most notably in tranisport. T he shape of a city and distribution pattern of land should be harmonized to achieve thc same ovcrall use affect air quality and its health impact. The objectives. In practice, the fragmentation ofjurisdictional urban shape determines locations of emission responsibility and the difficulties of changing or repealing sources and where people spend their time, as well as regulations in force make it difficult to implement an emission levels by influencing the amount of polluting efficient policy. activities. This briefing note focuses on the potential impact Historical Approach to Urban Planning of different spatial structures on air quality, and options forimproving airqualitythrough modifying the urban spatial Historically, urban planning in South Asia has tended to structure in urban planning. stress compliance with the legal requirement to update a city's physical development plan at specified time intervals Objectives of Urban Planning Policy without much consideration of the infrastructure cost Urban planning has four primary objectives: implications-notably transport-and without taking into 1..to promote efficient provision of urban infrastructure account how urban planning may be used to mitigate urban and allocation of land use, thereby contributing to air pollution or water pollution and depletion. economic growth, Experience to date also suggests that inappropriate or 2. to manage spatial,extension whilc minimizing misguided land use regulations can lead to serious infrastructure costs, problems in city development. One example is the tendency in South Asia to limit the floor space index (FSI)-the 3e to maintain or improve the quality of the urban ratio of the maximum total floor area permitted to the environment (nligtquiyotehsg area of the plot of land-to a very low value in central areas, or even impose a uniformly low FSI throughout 4. to preserve the natural environment immediately the city, to "avoid congestion". Many cities in India have outside the urban area. limited FSI to I, whereas typical FSI in other Asian cities can fall between 5 and 15. As a result, demand for land Difrentgaistrategies adopthed toreach exachl, oeciitive m has far outstripped supply, pushing up the price of land to wcorkmic againstho anobcthver Formi extamp le,acilg iingr the point where in some cities the ratio of the price of economic growth (objective 1) might entail clearing more land for development, thereby clashing with objective 4. land to income ranks among the highest in the world. The problem of potentially inconsistent objectives of urban If FSI is set at a level that makes the development of planning is compounded by the fact that planners can commercial real estate financially uneconomic, then the influence the urban shape only indirectly through land use private sector will not invest, orelse will try to get around regulations, primary infrastructure investments, and the regulations by paying bribes. The adverse investment taxation. To be effective, the use of these instruments climate in turn reduces government revenue in taxes and user fees which could otherwise finance the much needed within the central business district (CBD) area. As a upgrading and expansion of the city's infrastructure. consequence, in cities that are predominantly "monocentric" (most jobs and retail concentrated in the Multiple and confusing land development regulationis result CBD), the share of trips using public transport tends to be in a significant fraction of land parcels under dispute as in h t Inda, nd iscurae lng-erminvstmntson he ispted higher than In "polycentric" (no dominant center) cities landi and discuragel erm invstments eonis where the CBD contains only a small fraction of the total dland.pThiint trnd sevelopersarely costeran eominvesticg number ofj obs and retail shops. In reality, no city is purely development. L and developers are deterred from investing mooeti orplcnrcbtle oehr ln h in retailing and housing, reducing employment and better continuum. on mixedemode cities alreshare oft trp housing opportunities. If urban land is under-used because from the mode likely t be byapublic trans to andfrmteCDaelkltobbypbctasr, of low FSI, unnecessary extension of urban areas ensues, wi ths from suBu are likely to be by pul vate inrasn deadfrpiaemtoie'rnprn while those from suburb to suburb are likely to be by private increasing demand for private motorized transport and transport. As a broad guide, maintaining contiguous hence emissions. Such a city shape could also isolate the uranizat. And a h igdeny ai nonteibeor poor by placing them far away from areas of potential cities tito tand 5 mili pe . T ere fore employment-already lower than what it could have been cte ihiir hn5nflinpol.TeeIr,adge of polycentricism should be allowed in mega cities while because of poorer investment climate-and deprive them i of employment opportunities if they lack access to mobility, maintaning the pimacy of the CBD to reduce t.ip length and to maintain a high share of public transport. The remainder of this note discusses the impact of land Even if a city moves towards the "right" structure, use policy on mobile and stationary sources of emissions.. however, if traffic is poorly managed in the CBD, air quality Land Use Policy and Transport Emissions may not improve, or may even worsen. High densities and monocentric city planning require a high degree of The amount of air pollution generated by urban transport infrastructure investments, management and traffic law depends on the length, speed and number of motorized enforcement than in lower density and more dispersed trips and the type of vehicles. For a given urban population, cities. Poor traffic management in dense CBD results in the length and number of daily trips are closely correlated low vehicular speed, which in turn increases exhaust with the average population density in built-up areas, and emissions (see Briefing Note No. 5 in this series [2]). the spatial distribution of trip destinations and origins [ 1]. Policy for controlling transport emissions Factors affecting transport emissions Re-suspension of road dust contributes significantly to Population density elevated ambient concentrations of particulate matter, the Population density affects motorized trips for two reasons. pollutant of concern in South Asia [3]. This is something First, for a given population, the higher the density, the that can be directly and easily addressed by simple urban shorter the distance between two points in general, and designs and landscaping. Whenever these urban design features have been implemented, local air quality improves the higher the number of people who can walk to work or f markedly as a result of smoother traffic flows and shopping areas (seeB 1. S d th h r te ddramatically lower dust re-suspension. Unfortunately, scant the easier it is to provide frequent and easily accessible attention has been aid to these effective measures to public transport services, thereby reducing demand for date because they are perceived as "luxuries" that only private motorized transport. However, this trend is true high-income countries can afford. In practice, they can only for contiguous urban areas. Where built-up areas be implemented at a small incremental cost in many road are spatially fragmented, average density becomes a poor projects, bringing significant environmental benefits. indicator of trip length. To help control transport emissions, it would be helpful to develop a policy that increases, or at least maintains, the It is easier to operate an efficient public transport system population density and that favors the concentration of when the destination of the majority of trips is concentrated employment and retail in a centrally located CBD. The Box 1. Walking trips in high density cities A person walking up to 12 minutes can easily reach any point in an area of 100 hectares (ha). As a consequence, a job or a shop located in an area with a density of 10 people per ha (typically density of a US suburb) can be reached by 1,000 people without requiring motorized trips, but 30,000 people can reach the same job within the same walking time if the density is 300 people pet ha (typical density in Asian city central business districts). U important questions are then what type of land use higher and in many cases are actually lower than those legislation, infrastructure investments and fiscal policy are required to accommodate an equivalent growth at low likely to achieve these outcomes, and what potential density in the periphery. A network of public transport negative consequences might be. should also be developed to serve the CBD adequately and to maintain speed in the downtown area To maintain the primacy of the CBD, the reinforcement of radial Increasing or maintaining residential densities, services (particularly public transport) should have priority Regulations can allow high densities but they cannot over the construction of multiple ring roads, although at increase density if there is no demand. Most land use least one ring road is required to prevent truck traffic regulations in South Asia-for the minimum plot size or from crossing the CBD. the maximum FSI-have tended to lower density below the market-determined level, leading to an imbalance Taxation between supply and demand and pushing up land prices. A standard ad valorem property tax is probably the best Land markets are often more influential and more efficient fiscal tool to promote contiguous and dense development. than regulations at setting the level of residential densities. In addition, impact fees could be imposed on new business Increasing density by restricting land supply, on the other construction for high FSI values. The inpact fee should hand, increases housing prices and reduces housing for cover the cost of improving the downtown infrastructure. the poor. Planners sometime take measures to reduce land Confiscatory capital gains taxes on real estate, while supply in order to curb urban "sprawl". The most common appearing equitable as they concern "unearned income," legal tools used to curb sprawl are green belts and urban in fact have a disastrous effect on land use efficiency. growth boundaries. They result in acute housing shortages Increasing capital gains tax increases the threshold for and high land prices, as in Seoul. In turn, the lack of the profitability of land conversion, and as a result obsolete, developable land may curtail the creation of new businesses inefficient and low intensity land uses are prolonged for a and may have a negative effect on the city's economy. much longer time than in the absence of such tax. Maintaining a dominant CBD. Regulations limiting FSI Land Use Policy and Fixed Sources in the commercial areas in the CBD should be regularly reassessed. At the same time, the impact of increasing Land use legislation and fiscal policy are again the main FSI on air quality in South Asia has not always been tools to address industrial and residential sources of air positive because of inadequate handling of traffic pollution. management. The number of two- and three-wheelers often increases appreciably because of their Industrial pollution maneuverability in congested traffic following increased Although industrial activities in cities have been declining density. On account of the large number of operators in the last several decades, the selection of the optimal involved, these vehicles in turn are difficult to control for location for polluting industries in metropolitan areas must emissions as well as traffic management. This points to balance locating factories as far away from population the close linkage between transport and urban policies. centers as possible and maintaining good access to labor. Higher FSI requires much better traffic management, The failure to strike the right balance can result in a high stricter enforcementof parking laws and capital investments concentration of air pollution next to densely populated in sidewalks and pedestrian overpasses. But dispersing areas, or increased traffic demand and high daily transport business outside of the CBD primarily to save expenditures costs for workers. Often, workers try to compenisate by on traffic management is not cost-effective. Box 2 gives creating dense squatter settlements around polluting an example of successful integration of sector policies. factories in isolated locations, thereby increasing their Infrastructure investments exposure level to air pollution. Managing high densities requires adequate infrastructure The dynamics of land markets would ideally push obsolete investments. But these investments are not necessarily and land-intensive industries toward the periphery of the Box 2. Getting the private sector to invest in road and air quality improvement Along the five-kilometer-long C.G. Road in Ahmedabad, India, a very simple road cross-section design has dramatically improved through-traffic flows by separating through-traffic and service lanes. At the same time, the amount of managed parking space was increased, and simple paving and landscaping reduced dust re-suspension [4]. All this was funded by a consortium of private firms that were given advertising rights in retum. U city. Government regulations should allow and facilitate * Urban-based workers have to be transported to and such moves by permitting factory closures and financing from their homes to far-flung industrial sites. of their move by land sale at the market price. If it is * Small and medium-size industries, which need urban illegal, or very costly (because of legal requirements), to locations to maintain profitability, are forced to operate close down factories, as in some South Asian cities, plant illegally, making it more difficult to control them for owners are forced to keep obsolete and non-profitable labor, safety and environmental standards. plants running, or else to abandon the plants altogether. This creates severe problems of brown fields within city The process of establishing zoning should incorporate city- boundaries, increasing pollution levels and causing large wide consultations with all the affected stakeholders. scale property dereliction. Unilateral decisions based solely on well-intentioned environmental concerns are most likely to have serious Residential areas adverse social and economic impacts. Low income areas are often an important source of air pollution because of the use of biomass for cooking and Conclusions heating and informal burning of refuse. This is not an Effective urban planning requires careful balancing of urban planning issue and no land use planning law can divergent, and sometimes incompatible, objectives. Urban solve this problem. The solution lies in investment in slum planners have to weigh the benefits of such socio-economic upgrading which would regularize and legalize the considerations as creating employment opportunities in existence of slums. Regular refuse collection system cities by allowing new industries, and their potential adverse adapted to the layout and circumstances of the effects on air quality and traffic. There is scope in South neighborhood can then be arranged. Forced removal and Asia for allowing market forces to play a greater role in relocation of low income households is the wrong policy, shaping cities, but it is crucial to coordinate policies across except in the case of severe flooding. Informal buring key sectors, such as urban and transport, to realize air of refuse in legalized residential areas arises from weak quality improvement. municipal solid waste management. At times, land use regulations ban the establishment of References commerce and cottage industries in residential areas I J.R. Kenworthy, F.B. Luabe and P. Newman. 1999. because of the nuisances these may cause. Because An International Sourcebook of Automobile there is often no alternative location for these small scale Dependence in Cities, 1960-1990. University Press activities, the social and economic cost of banning of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. employment in residential areas is much higher than the 2. South Asia Urban Air Quality Management benefits accrued by the decrease in noise and air pollution. Briefing Note No. 5. 2002. "Impact of Better Separating residential and industrial areas Traffic Management", April. Available at . In the interest of environmental improvement, there is a drive to earmark zones for all industry away from 3. South Asia Urban Air Quality Management Briefing metropolitan areas. While strict enforcement of such Note No. 4. 2002. "What Do We Know About Air zoning would improve air quality, such a policy points to Pollution?-India Case Study", March. Available at conflicts between different sector objectives. . Banning new industries in metropolitan areas 4. "The Redevelopment of C.G. Road: Innovative exacerbates the phenomenon of increasing number Design and Finance," available at of under- or unemployed workers forced into the . This briefing note was prepared in May 2002 as part of the South Asia program on urban air quality management, funded in part by the joint UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP). The objective of the program is to support the region-wide process of developing and adopting cost-effective and viable policies and efficient enforcement mechanisms to reverse the deteriorating trend in urban air. A full set of briefs and other materials are available at . Forfurther information, contact Sameer Akbar (sakbar@worldbank.org) or Masami Kojima (mkojima@worldbank.org) about the program, and Alain Bertaud (duatreb@msn.com) about this note.