tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/technical-university-of-dortmund-3033/articlesTechnical University of Dortmund2022-10-06T16:33:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1916322022-10-06T16:33:17Z2022-10-06T16:33:17ZClimate change: the fairest way to tax carbon is to make air travel more expensive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488284/original/file-20221005-18-8glwcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4214%2C2824&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A tiny minority flies more than once a year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/suitcases-airport-departure-lounge-airplane-background-450980248">ImYanis/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the fact that poorer people generally <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2020.12">have lower emissions</a>, taxes on the carbon dioxide (CO₂) our activities emit tend to affect people on low incomes <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2cb1">more</a> than richer people. Having less money means you can ill afford a switch to an untaxed alternative, like an electric car, or pay for carbon-saving measures like home insulation. You are also more likely to struggle to use less of an essential good like petrol or gas for heating, even if the price goes up.</p>
<p>Carbon taxes on energy that people use in their homes – for heating, cooking or watching TV – charge consumers for the emissions per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity, gas or oil used. Economists would say that these kinds of carbon taxes are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2cb1">regressive</a>, because using energy to heat and power your home is a necessity and poorer people will use a much higher share of their income to pay for these things – and the taxes – than richer people.</p>
<p>While total emissions have been <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0419-7">falling</a> in several rich countries over the last few years, emissions from cars and other means of transport are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abee4e">growing</a>. The rise in air travel emissions has been especially rapid: a roughly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117834">sevenfold increase</a> between 1960 and 2018 globally. </p>
<p>What’s more, the fuels for heating and powering homes or driving cars are taxed, but the fuel airlines use is exempt due to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-1940s-treaty-set-airlines-on-a-path-to-high-emissions-and-low-regulation-148818">an international agreement</a> from 1944.</p>
<p>And although Europeans generally <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937801831238X?via%3Dihub">disapprove</a> of carbon taxes, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09669582.2022.2115050">our study</a> has revealed one type which could prove popular. In the first analysis of its kind to consider the effect on different income bands, we found that carbon taxes on air travel – what we describe as luxury emissions – nearly always affect the rich more.</p>
<h2>Tax burdens from air travel</h2>
<p>Our research examined how the burden from four different taxes on air travel would fall across income groups in the UK. It shows that all of these taxes are progressive: they burden richer people more than poorer people as a proportion of income. This is because people on higher incomes are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tbs.2021.05.008">much more likely to fly</a>, and fly more often.</p>
<p>Air travel taxes that apply to passengers could be levied on the emissions of each passenger per flight. People could also be taxed according to the distance they travel, or their seat class. An aeroplane’s economy class occupies the least space per person, while business- and first-class passengers take up more room and so are responsible for more emissions than the average passenger. </p>
<p>A person could also be taxed for the number of flights they take. A <a href="https://afreeride.org/">frequent flyer levy</a> would exempt the first return flight a person takes in a year, but would tax subsequent flights at an increasing rate. We found that taxes that take both flight emissions and the number of flights per passenger into account distribute the tax burden fairest.</p>
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<img alt="Large sofas and TV screens in the first-class section of an aeroplane." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488285/original/file-20221005-20-yxa2wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488285/original/file-20221005-20-yxa2wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488285/original/file-20221005-20-yxa2wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488285/original/file-20221005-20-yxa2wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488285/original/file-20221005-20-yxa2wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488285/original/file-20221005-20-yxa2wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488285/original/file-20221005-20-yxa2wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">First-class passengers can be taxed more per flight than those flying in economy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dubai-uae-november-10-2015-qatar-355934918">M101Studio/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The reason for this is that frequent air travel (all flights after the first return flight) is even more unequally distributed in society: the top 10% of emitters are responsible for 60.8% of flight emissions but for 83.7% of emissions from frequent flights.</p>
<p>Who else except the wealthy is likely to be affected by taxes on air travel? We found that, in the UK, university graduates, employed people, young and middle-aged adults, residents of London, as well as first- and second-generation migrants are also more likely to fly than their counterparts, regardless of income. </p>
<p>Our results showed that recent migrants with friends and family abroad are relatively likely to fly often, even when on a low income. So allowances or extra support for recent migrants could make the design of such taxes fairer.</p>
<p>Overall, taxes on air travel are far more socially just than taxes on necessities such as home energy use and could curb luxury emissions in a way that nurtures broad support for more sweeping decarbonisation measures such as those designed to limit car travel, like <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-022-01057-y">expanding bus and cycling lanes</a>.</p>
<p>So why do politicians and others claim, as former UK treasury minister Robert Jenrick did in 2019, that air travel taxes <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8128492/labour-holiday-tax-family-break/">disproportionately hit the poor</a>? It’s possible that they underestimate how little people in low-income groups actually fly, perhaps due to their typically middle- and upper-class backgrounds. </p>
<p>A less charitable interpretation is that they have ulterior motives for opposing such taxes. Social scientists claim that exaggerating or misrepresenting the social justice consequences of environmental policy is one of the most common <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-denial-hasnt-gone-away-heres-how-to-spot-arguments-for-delaying-climate-action-141991">arguments</a> used to stall vital action on climate change.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Milena Buchs receives funding from UK Research and Innovation through the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (grant reference number EP/R035288/1). She is a fellow of the ZOE Institute for Future Fit Economies and curates the sustainable welfare stream for the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giulio Mattioli receives funding from the German Research Foundation as part of the research project “Advancing knowledge of long-distance travel: Uncovering its connections to mobility biography, migration, and daily travel” (Project Number: SCHE 1692/10–1). </span></em></p>Carbon taxes targeting luxury emissions are more popular than those which make necessities more expensive.Milena Buchs, Professor of Sustainable Welfare, University of LeedsGiulio Mattioli, Research Fellow, Department of Transport Planning, Technical University of DortmundLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1549862021-04-25T14:09:03Z2021-04-25T14:09:03ZCOVID-19 could end our dependence on cars — if we ‘build back better’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395844/original/file-20210419-21-1qqgbb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=148%2C98%2C6407%2C4205&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Governments could capitalize on the growth of telecommuting to promote more car-free lifestyles.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When discussing low-carbon transportation and the question of why cars play such a dominant role in our society, it is often tempting to fall back on a comfortable and familiar answer: We drive cars because we like them! </p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has radically disrupted people’s travel habits, with uncertain outcomes for car use. On one hand, it has resulted in empty roads, <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-created-more-cyclists-how-cities-can-keep-them-on-their-bikes-137545">sold-out bike stores</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0581-y">cities with cleaner air</a>. On the other, it threatens a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/30/public-transit-transport-death-spiral-congress">public transit death spiral</a> and the sudden dominance of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-covid-19-testing-access-1.5671055">drive-in services</a>.</p>
<p>The stresses of the past year have altered the complex system of constraints that underpins mass car use, irrespective of personal travel preferences, and changed the ways we use cars. If this continues, it could reduce the use of private cars (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00921-7">yes, even electric ones</a>), but could also radically increase it. </p>
<p>Achieving an outcome that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, while ensuring the development of safe and healthy cities, will require policy-makers and activists to act decisively. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101486">Our research</a> on a general theory of car dependence suggests a few ways that they can do this.</p>
<h2>Infrastructural politics</h2>
<p>Narratives justifying car-dependent infrastructure have become deeply embedded across the political spectrum, justifying enormous hidden subsidies for cars in the form of infrastructure such as <a href="https://medium.com/radical-urbanist/cars-gets-billions-in-hidden-subsidies-b3bf9e6bfafc">roads and parking lots</a>. This defunds alternatives and forces people to use roads as their primary transportation system, creating a nation of drivers who are predisposed to support even more subsidies for cars. </p>
<p>The pandemic, however, has disrupted the narrative and created an opening for new kinds of infrastructure that can facilitate car-free travel. Cheap-and-cheerful <a href="https://www.uci.org/news/2020/pop-up-bike-lanes-a-rapidly-growing-transport-solution-prompted-by-coronavirus-pandemic">“pop-up” bike lanes</a> have already taken hold in cities around the world, but policy-makers can think bigger. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-cyclists-expanding-bike-lane-network-can-lead-to-more-inclusive-cities-144343">COVID-19 cyclists: Expanding bike lane network can lead to more inclusive cities</a>
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<p>Public transit, in particular, should also be the focus of a new round of state investment that makes it affordable and convenient for everyone. It will be particularly important to increase service levels to reduce crowding so that infection-wary travellers are no longer faced with the choice between a crowded rush-hour bus and a car.</p>
<h2>What about jobs?</h2>
<p>The car industry plays a big role in underpinning car dependence. Car companies’ capital structure requires them to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/C2013-0-17843-9">sell cars at a fixed rate</a>, and to build multipurpose, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.05.019">four-seater vehicles</a> with redundant capacity. This creates a clear <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdr032">incentive for the car industry to lobby</a> against alternative forms of transportation, and for auto workers to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2014.880563">support the car industry</a> or face plant closures and job losses.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="hundreds of cars parked in a lot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395841/original/file-20210419-15-l1efbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395841/original/file-20210419-15-l1efbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395841/original/file-20210419-15-l1efbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395841/original/file-20210419-15-l1efbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395841/original/file-20210419-15-l1efbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395841/original/file-20210419-15-l1efbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395841/original/file-20210419-15-l1efbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">New cars being stored at the logistics port in Duisburg, Germany, in June 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Governments’ promises to “build back better” are a golden opportunity to remove this obstacle to low-carbon transportation. <a href="https://www.greenjobsoshawa.ca/">Retooling struggling car factories</a> to build electric service, industrial and public transit vehicles would be a great start.</p>
<h2>Cars, culture and coronavirus</h2>
<p>People often use cars to “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030304247">buy time</a>” to meet the pressures of everyday life. Once they own a car, they are likely to use it for almost all of their trips. Frequent use is encouraged by the fact that cars have become potent symbols, signifying <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17450100500489247">freedom</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0263276404046063">nationality</a>, maturity, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2018.1500096">masculinity</a> or social status.</p>
<p>The coronavirus could strengthen the grip of car culture. Even before the pandemic, there was evidence that people used their cars as a protective “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2015.02.001">cocoon</a>” from the outside world. Now, with cars becoming “<a href="https://vancouversun.com/news/future-of-post-pandemic-transit-in-metro-vancouver-uncertain">the ultimate in personal protective equipment</a>,” people might be anxious to step back onto a bus or train, and might even prefer to continue using drive-through services and curbside pickup. Even the most habituated “strap-hangers” might be reluctant to pack onto a subway in the post-COVID world. </p>
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<img alt="People wearing masks on a city busy" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395842/original/file-20210419-13-1sgq7ur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395842/original/file-20210419-13-1sgq7ur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395842/original/file-20210419-13-1sgq7ur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395842/original/file-20210419-13-1sgq7ur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395842/original/file-20210419-13-1sgq7ur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395842/original/file-20210419-13-1sgq7ur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395842/original/file-20210419-13-1sgq7ur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a city bus while commuting during rush hour in Toronto in October 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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<p>This is ironic, because COVID-19 and similar pandemics are a collective problem, exacerbated not just by our <a href="https://theconversation.com/origin-of-the-covid-19-virus-the-trail-of-mink-farming-155989">agricultural</a>, public health or economic systems, but also by the environments of our cities. </p>
<p>Air pollution, in particular, has an <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd4049">amplifying relationship</a> with mortality from COVID-19, and other respiratory illnesses. If COVID-19 increases vehicle use, which contributes to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-pollution/sources/transportation/cars-trucks-vans-suvs.html">a significant percentage</a> of air pollution, it will likely increase the death toll of both this pandemic and any future ones.</p>
<p>Governments can nurture collective and community spirit required to respond to the pandemic by making public transit infrastructure safer and more accessible. Extremely aggressive and highly visible anti-infection measures on buses and trains would go a long way, as would adding more service to reduce overcrowding. </p>
<p>Governments could also use regulations to curb the growth of drive-through services. They could capitalize on the growth of telecommuting to promote more car-free lifestyles, including by changing zoning to permit the development of <a href="https://www.15minutecity.com/">15-minute cities</a>, which would put essential services such as grocery stores, libraries, schools and health clinics within a 15 minute car-free trip of everyone’s home. This will be particularly effective if that home is also their workplace.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CCd2XX3pgnp","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>How it all connects</h2>
<p>To fully understand car dependence, we need to think of it as a combined whole. A piecemeal approach to policy is unlikely to untangle the complex systems of land use, physical infrastructure, social habits and political incentives that entrench the dominance of the car. </p>
<p>But the coronavirus pandemic gives us a golden opportunity to think holistically. We should push for sweeping reforms to move towards a truly zero-carbon transportation system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154986/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giulio Mattioli receives funding from the German Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Brown, Cameron Roberts, and Julia K. Steinberger do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pandemic could be a boon to car use, but it would be a mistake for governments to let that happen. There’s a golden opportunity to push towards a zero-carbon transportation system.Cameron Roberts, Researcher in Sustainable Transportation, Carleton UniversityAndrew Brown, Professor of Economics and Political Economy, University of LeedsGiulio Mattioli, Research fellow, Technical University of DortmundJulia K. Steinberger, Professor in Social Ecology and Ecological Economics, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/751142017-08-17T22:39:17Z2017-08-17T22:39:17ZHow ‘temporary urbanism’ can transform struggling industrial towns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167200/original/file-20170428-3525-8ust6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The city of Dortmund is seeking citizens' input on plans for this 44-hectare brownfield site of Hoesch Spundwand und Profil in Dortmund.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robing Chang</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What will become of manufacturing towns in a post-industrial world? From <a href="https://theconversation.com/redesigning-the-rust-belt-an-old-german-steel-region-gets-a-mindful-modern-makeover-75273">the Ruhr region of Germany</a> to the American “Rust Belt”, once-prosperous factory cities are today faced with dwindling industry, shrinking populations and fundamental questions about their role in the modern global economy. </p>
<p>The population of Detroit, Michigan, for example, an auto manufacturing centre that was once one of the United States’ largest cities, <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/news/2017/05/25/new-census-data-show-detroits-population-decline-continues/341336001/">has declined</a> from 1.85 million in 1950 to 675,000 in 2017.</p>
<p>Reinvigorating these <a href="http://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/policy-focus-reports/regenerating-americas-legacy-cities">legacy cities</a>, as they are sometimes called, is not easy – but it is not impossible. Based on my research in Europe, and inspired by the work of the urban planning nonprofit Die Urbanisten, located in my hometown of Dortmund, Germany, I have identified several innovative redevelopment models that may offer lessons for post-industrial cities across the globe. </p>
<p>These three movements focus on ephemeral, flexible solutions that are broadly applicable to any city seeking to reinvent faded manufacturing zones: <a href="http://www.citylab.com/design/2012/03/guide-tactical-urbanism/1387/">tactical urbanism</a>, <a href="https://www.asla.org/sustainablelandscapes/vid_urbanag.html">sustainable landscapes</a> and the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tiny-houses-housing-crisis-2017-5">tiny homes movement</a>. </p>
<h2>Temporary, tactical urbanism (Plantage 9, Bremen)</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167205/original/file-20170428-12963-i9ncl3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167205/original/file-20170428-12963-i9ncl3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167205/original/file-20170428-12963-i9ncl3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167205/original/file-20170428-12963-i9ncl3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167205/original/file-20170428-12963-i9ncl3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167205/original/file-20170428-12963-i9ncl3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167205/original/file-20170428-12963-i9ncl3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167205/original/file-20170428-12963-i9ncl3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plantage 9 in Bremen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robin Chang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For decades, the <a href="https://www.planetizen.com/tag/post-industrial-cities">post-industrial harbour city</a> of Bremen, in Northern Germany, struggled to to adapt to the socioeconomic ideals of the 21st century.</p>
<p>Today, it is known for the success of its <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.5822/978-1-61091-567-0_5">tactical urbanism-inspired</a> approaches. Officially coined by the <a href="http://www.street-plans.com/">Street Plans Collaborative</a>, this approach broadly encompasses all short-term, low-cost, scalable measures that instigate longer-term, community-building change.</p>
<p>In Bremen, the <a href="http://www.zzz-bremen.de/ueber-uns/">ZwischeZeitZentrale (ZZZ)</a>, a local organisation set up to work as a project middlemen, set out to match underutilised urban spaces in Bremen with projects in need of a home. </p>
<p>One result was <a href="https://plantage9.wordpress.com/">Plantage 9</a>, an old textile factory turned culture and innovation hub with over 30 independent, creative and entrepreneurial temporary users, including a food-truck kitchen, bike repair workshop, and studios and galleries for young artists.</p>
<p>Some of these businesses stayed for less than two years. Others remained, and in 2012 these users negotiated a new lease and management contract between the city and the collective. Plantage 9 has gone from a pilot project to a community association with an ongoing role in the city’s cultural life.</p>
<p>This temporary urbanism experiment succeeded in large part because of citizen engagement. ZZZ played a moderator role between citizens and the municipality, working with a cook, a bicycle mechanic, students, teachers, photographers and filmmakers, among other Bremen residents, to conceptualise and coordinate these tactical initiatives. </p>
<p>As Plantage 9-style matchmaking revitalised lifeless spaces with exciting projects, Bremen’s national reputation has changed, too – from struggling post-industrial city to dynamic urban innovator.</p>
<h2>Sustainable landscapes (Zomerhofkwartier, Rotterdam)</h2>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/zNWAO1ofkN/?taken-by=zohordam","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Local residents in Rotterdam, Netherlands, have also cultivated comprehensive urban revitalisation processes in one neglected neighbourhood. The result: <a href="http://zohorotterdam.nl/over-zoho/">Zomerhofkwartier, aka Zoho,</a>, the new face of a former industrial area near the city’s central train station. </p>
<p>Originally conceived in 2013 as a temporary project by a handful of community organisations, many of which later reconfigured as ZOHOCITIZENS, Zoho now includes permanent co-working spaces, along with studios that host events, classes and green spaces. </p>
<p>Already in this decade-long process that its developers have dubbed “<a href="https://thecityateyelevel.com/tag/slow-urbanism/">slow urbanism</a>”, the area has matured into one of Rotterdam’s core makers’ district.</p>
<p>Zoho’s innovations include <a href="http://www.urbanisten.nl/wp/?portfolio=climate-proof-zomerhofkwartier">climate-proofing</a>, and the site serves as an urban laboratory for ecological adaption and transition. Thus far, the project has implemented water collection, storage systems in public spaces, green roofs, urban gardens, and the reduction of hard surfaces. </p>
<p>The ultimate goal is to increase the whole district’s ecological resiliency and the socioeconomic vitality of the district through the micro-greening of the specific locations in the urban concrete fabric. </p>
<h2>Tiny Houses (Berlin)</h2>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BXi46d_lX6M/?hl=en\u0026tagged=tinyhouseuniversity","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>The <a href="http://thetinylife.com/what-is-the-tiny-house-movement/">Tiny House Movement</a>, which relies on small modular units that recall images of cottages, has ballooned in the aftermath of the US housing crises as an alternative for affordable housing. These wee residences, which are sometimes standalone and other times secondary units, have even inspired an American TV show, “<a href="http://www.hgtv.com/shows/tiny-house-big-living">Tiny House, Big Living</a>”.</p>
<p>This movement is firmly established in North America, but is still developing on the European continent (as this <a href="https://www.tinyhomebuilders.com/map#1215">tiny house map</a> confirms). </p>
<p>While the typical context for tiny homes is residential, the <a href="http://bauhauscampus.org/#home">Bauhaus Campus Berlin</a> collaboration between the Tinyhouse University and Bauhaus Archive from the Museum of Design in Berlin is demonstrating how these units can temporarily reconceive unused spaces for social justice, learning and research. </p>
<p>Inspired by the challenges with providing housing for new residents and refugees in Germany, for example, the project established in early 2017 an educational forum and workshop that allows people to learn how to build their on tiny homes. </p>
<p>Recently featured in <a href="http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/architektur-tetris-am-bau-1.3624734">German media</a> alongside other similar projects, Bauhaus Campus Berlin includes 12 tiny homes on the front lawn of the museum and promotes tiny house building through design crash courses, panel discussions, and other cultural gatherings.</p>
<h2>Scaling innovation</h2>
<p>These European narratives reveal resilient trajectories of temporary urbanism, comprehensively coordinated at the neighbourhood scale, using informality to engage citizens and ensure that municipal governments respond effectively and inclusively to contemporary urban quandaries.</p>
<p>Temporary use <a href="https://www.planetizen.com/tag/tactical-urbanism">at the street and neighbourhood level</a> in a diverse range of formats is not limited to post-industrial cities, nor is it confined to Europe. Denver, Colorado, for example, took a tactical approach to launch <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17549175.2015.1029510">one of the US’s first large-scale modern bike share systems</a> in a highly automobile-dependent city. </p>
<p>And Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, included pop-up landscapes as part of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02723638.2016.1276719?scroll=top&needAccess=true">the revitalisation of its Delaware River waterfront</a>, engaging entrepreneurial municipal officials, urban planning agencies, and landscape designers to strategically harness and catalyse investment. </p>
<p>Something is working. But from a scholarly perspective, however, we still know little about the mix of enablers and drivers that inspire such transformative moments. What, exactly, are the factors that make one temporary urbanism project succeed where another fails? </p>
<p>Much critical literature seems stuck on questioning whether the ephemeral has just as much impact as the planned, and whether citizens are as entitled to create effective urban revitalisation as professional planners are. And most current research on temporary use is descriptive or expository – narrating and cataloguing the process and types of users, formats and instruments seen in tactical initiatives. </p>
<p>Critical scepticism is healthy to understanding the change. But I believe that this adaptive practice is the next frontier in city planning. </p>
<p>Ultimately, we have to work backwards to measure the specific dash, dosage, amount and numbers of specifically defined stakeholders, processes, and mechanisms necessary to replicate those results and develop pre-configured “recipes” for more resilient temporary urbanism. </p>
<p>By deconstructing the successful conditions and their combinations, we can help cities across the globe build new and modern futures for their residents.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75114/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin Chang is affiliated with the urban planning nonprofit Die Urbanisten.</span></em></p>Pop-up parks and tiny houses are just a few of the innovative solutions that can help post-industrial cities across Europe and North America adapt to the future.Robin A. Chang, Associate research scientist, Technical University of DortmundLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/752732017-06-23T04:41:31Z2017-06-23T04:41:31ZRedesigning the rust belt: an old German steel region gets a mindful modern makeover<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174248/original/file-20170616-12377-s4g3jg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Phoenix Lake, Dortmund's coolest new quarter, was once an abanonded steel mill surrounded by polluted waterways and brownfields.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Dortmund_-_PO-Phoenix-See_%2B_H%C3%B6rde_%28Kaiserberg%29_02_ies.jpg">Frank Vincentz/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world is urbanising at a pace never before seen in human history. By 2050, 66% of the world <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf">is projected to live in cities</a>.</p>
<p>In the developing world, this <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/urbanization/the_worlds_cities_in_2016_data_booklet.pdf">rapid explosion in urban populations</a> has strained the absorption capacity of cities and led to shortfalls in housing, transport, plumbing and other services.</p>
<p>Europe’s cities face a somewhat different problem. The continent urbanised and industrialised centuries ago. Today, major urban centres that grew up on manufacturing must reinvent themselves for the 21st-century economy.</p>
<p>Given the large scale of modern urban areas, which are more borderless metropolitan regions than self-contained cities, designing these Europolises of the future necessarily involves numerous states, cities, towns – and, ideally, the millions of citizens that live in them. How can so many people and institutions work together to rethink their region both spatially, in terms of its physical layout, and culturally, in terms of its new identity?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174251/original/file-20170616-16217-1t1kfn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174251/original/file-20170616-16217-1t1kfn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174251/original/file-20170616-16217-1t1kfn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174251/original/file-20170616-16217-1t1kfn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174251/original/file-20170616-16217-1t1kfn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174251/original/file-20170616-16217-1t1kfn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174251/original/file-20170616-16217-1t1kfn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The view of Europe at night clearly reveals the regionalisation of cities, which have become more a network of centres than a single urban core.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Steel city no longer</h2>
<p>Among several useful <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Culture-and-Sustainability-in-European-Cities-Imagining-Europolis/Hristova-Dragicevic-Sesic-Duxbury/p/book/9781138778412">European redevelopment experiences</a>, that of Germany’s formerly industrial Ruhr region, which began its reinvention in 2011, stands out.</p>
<p>With its 53 cities and municipalities, and five million residents, the <a href="http://www.metropoleruhr.de/en/home/ruhr-metropolis/data-facts.html">region</a> is one of Europe’s five largest population centres. Once upon a time, it was one of the <a href="https://www.amazon.de/Geschichten-einer-Region-AgentInnen-nachhaltiges/dp/386206607X">top heavy industrial areas in the world</a>, producing steel, coal and iron. </p>
<p>The Ruhr is no classic metropolis. It is comprised of numerous loosely connected cities, towns and neighbourhoods interwoven with a variety of open spaces, including dormant steel factories, landscapes decimated by coal mining, rivers and brownfields.</p>
<p>In urban planning terms, this is what’s called a <a href="http://www.aesop-planning.eu/activities/en_GB/2015/01/14/readabout/polycentric-regions-in-transformation">polycentric urban region</a> without a dominant core city. The Ruhr is also demographically diverse, with communities at different stages of development and income levels in close proximity, and infrastructure mostly dating from its industrial days.</p>
<p>Germany is determined to bring this post-industrial region into the modern global economy. And it wants to do so in a way that takes both climate change and citizens’ radically wide-ranging needs into account: urbanism <a href="https://www.amazon.de/Schichten-einer-Region-Kartenst%25C3%25BCcke-Ruhrgebiets/dp/3868591133">on different levels and at different speeds</a>.</p>
<h2>A discursive process</h2>
<p>These are the challenges facing the Ruhr Regional Planning Association (<em>Regionalverband Ruhr</em>, or RVR) in designing <a href="http://www.metropoleruhr.de/en/home/the-ruhr-regional-association/regional-planning.html">a new regional plan</a> that will soon become the shared development guidelines for all of the region’s 53 municipalities, including 11 independent cities and four counties, in the coming decades.</p>
<p>The plan will replace parts of three existing regional plans where they overlap with the RVR’s area. But rather than <a href="https://www.planning.org/growingsmart/guidebook/six03.htm#6302">go to battle with</a> residents and the dozens of local powers that be (from mayors and governors to businesses), the planning authority has decided on an innovative process based on consensus-building.</p>
<p>All municipalities, local universities and citizens have fed into the plan to turn this former industrial centre into a modern conurbation. The project is also designed to account for the region’s changing demographics, as long-term residents once employed in its factories and mills are replaced by university students, young professionals and immigrants.</p>
<p>Little by little, section by section and with ever-changing working groups collaborating on each development project, the new Ruhr is coming together.</p>
<p>For the recently completed <a href="https://www.dortmund-tourismus.de/en/discover-dortmund/nature/phoenix-lake.html">Phoenix Lake redevelopment</a> in the city of Dortmund, a developer teamed up with the regional planning association and citizens to convert a polluted former mill area into Dortmund’s newest urban quarter.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174249/original/file-20170616-537-7hchtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174249/original/file-20170616-537-7hchtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174249/original/file-20170616-537-7hchtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174249/original/file-20170616-537-7hchtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174249/original/file-20170616-537-7hchtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174249/original/file-20170616-537-7hchtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174249/original/file-20170616-537-7hchtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174249/original/file-20170616-537-7hchtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Phoenix Lake master plan as projected in 2006.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tbachner/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An abandoned factory was replaced with a 24-square-hectare artificial lake designed for swimming and water skiing, and polluted tributaries were scrubbed. New housing went up, built in an architectural style that simultaneously fits in with the modern landscape and recalls the region’s past as a steel centre.</p>
<h2>Two-scale urbanism</h2>
<p>The Phoenix Lake project is an example of <a href="http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783834826466">two-scale urbanism</a>: the successful convergence of high-quality small projects with a broad and long-term regional vision.</p>
<p>In employing this participatory strategy, the Ruhr region is closing the gap between disciplines: everything from urban theory and environmental studies to economics has been fed into its development plan.</p>
<p>It also demonstrates that communities can work on different levels at the same time, transferring knowledge from the neighbourhood level up to the regional level and implementing regional infrastructure in individual cities.</p>
<p>Because of this discursive style, the Ruhr’s final redevelopment document could deliver answers to the challenges facing many cities and regions around the world, from rapidly expanding Accra and shrinking, struggling Detroit to cities that, like Vancouver, are seeking to become “<a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/greencities/files/2014/08/Campbell1.pdf">green</a>”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174254/original/file-20170616-16217-hztnzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174254/original/file-20170616-16217-hztnzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174254/original/file-20170616-16217-hztnzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174254/original/file-20170616-16217-hztnzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174254/original/file-20170616-16217-hztnzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174254/original/file-20170616-16217-hztnzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174254/original/file-20170616-16217-hztnzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like Germany’s Ruhr region, Detroit is struggling to reinvent itself after the decline of the manufacturing economy that built it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Abandoned_Packard_Automobile_Factory_Detroit_200.jpg/1280px-Abandoned_Packard_Automobile_Factory_Detroit_200.jpg">Albert Duce/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Often, what we perceive as dualisms – growing developing-world metropolis versus shrinking manufacturing hub, or booming metropolis versus controlled-growth smart city – are not so different. Rather, they reveal spatial contradictions within the urban transformation processes that all cities are likely to experience at various points in their history.</p>
<p>Listen here: Christa Reicher on Detroit and what the Ruhr can learn from it.</p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="75" data-image="" data-title="" data-size="1811721" data-source="" data-source-url="" data-license="Author provided (no reuse)" data-license-url="">
<source src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/807/ruhr-christa-reichert-170622.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
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<div class="audio-player-caption">
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided (no reuse)</span><span class="download"><span>1.73 MB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/807/ruhr-christa-reichert-170622.mp3">(download)</a></span></span>
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<h2>The resurging city</h2>
<p>In many global cities, for example, two seemingly contradictory shifts are currently underway: reurbanisation and regionalisation.</p>
<p>City centres are booming as young professionals and older generations, who may have left the city to raise their children, are rediscovering urban life, in no small part because people prefer not to spend hours commuting from suburb to downtown and back every day.</p>
<p>At the same time, cities are regionalising. The urban sphere is expanding into surrounding areas, and new multi-functional locations outside of traditional cores are arising.</p>
<p>With the new <a href="https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2012/04/north-americas-most-important-airports/853/">“aerotropolis” model of economic development</a>“, for example, we see mega airports, often located between two cities, offering not just hotels but also conference, meeting and even living spaces. Such "airport cities” are planned or completed near Amsterdam, Dubai, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Memphis and elsewhere, according to the 2011 book <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=F9nerYOcPNQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Aerotropolis&hl=en&ei=FK7TToT9FKjf0QGR6JAG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result#v=onepage&q=Aerotropolis&f=false">Aeorotropolis</a>. </p>
<p>As long as the reurbanisation and regionalisation trends continue apace, the world will see ever more regional conurbations that, like the Ruhr region, have numerous, interconnected “centres”. This is the geography on display in the sprawling <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/sao-paulo-population/">metropolitan region of São Paulo</a>, Brazil, with its 39 municipalities and combined population of 21.5 million, and in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area">New York tri-state area</a> (population 20.2 million), which encompasses large swathes of New Jersey and Connecticut.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174253/original/file-20170616-537-kygaec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174253/original/file-20170616-537-kygaec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174253/original/file-20170616-537-kygaec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174253/original/file-20170616-537-kygaec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174253/original/file-20170616-537-kygaec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174253/original/file-20170616-537-kygaec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174253/original/file-20170616-537-kygaec.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With dense settlement as far as the eye can see and numerous ‘centres’, Sao Paulo is a classic example of modern connurbation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/1_aerial_photo_sao_paulo_brazil.JPG/640px-1_aerial_photo_sao_paulo_brazil.JPG">Chensiyuan/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the Ruhr’s experience has shown, it is no simple thing to respond to these different trends at all the scales present in the region, but it is possible. The local must be connected to the regional at different points – urbanism on two scales, progressing at two different speeds.</p>
<p>To design change in the interest of most citizens – and with visible achievements on all levels – is the core challenge in the Ruhr, and beyond.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christa Reicher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A former industrial region in the heart of Germany is slowly reinventing itself for the 21st century, offering urban planning lessons for Detroit and beyond.Christa Reicher, Professor of Architecture and Urban Planing, Technical University of DortmundLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.