By Ani Dasgupta

1. TRANSFORMATIVE
SOLUTIONS:
CITIES FOR PEOPLE
PHOTO: JESS KRAFT/SHUTTERSTOCK
ANI DASGUPTA | GLOBAL DIRECTOR, WRI ROSS CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIES
May 24, 2016

2. 2
Photo by Stephen Bugno/Flickr.
GDP per capita: $1,110
(2014)
Population : 5.02 million
Poverty Rate: 25%
KOLKATA, INDIA

3. 3
Photo by: VnGrijl/Flickr
KOLKATA HAS BEEN MAKING STREETS WIDER TO
ACCOMMODATE GROWING NUMBER OF CARS

4. 4
Photo by: VnGrijl/Flickr
NARROW SIDEWALKS FORCE PEOPLE ONTO
STREETS, SLOWING TRAFFIC FURTHER

5. 5
CYCLING BANNED TO MAKE ROOM FOR CARS
ON MAIN STREETS

6. 6
Photo by Nicolas Mirguet/Flickr
ONLY 8% PEOPLE IN KOLKATA DRIVE CARS
25% WALK OR CYCLE

7. 7
Choices today create path dependencies for decades to come
Source: IIHS,2011,hp://iihs.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/IUC-Book.pdf

8. 8
LOW DENSITY SPRAWL AT THE URBAN FRINGE
Selected findings, Kolkata urban fringe,
1990-2014:
• Share of residential area in atomistic housing: 92.1±7.4%;
• Share of the built-up area in roads and boulevards:
8.4±2.2%; and
• Share of roads less than 4m. wide: 66.7±13.3%
Residential development on the urban fringe of Kolkata,
India1(990-2014)
Source: Sholomo Angel

9. HOW WE BUILD
CITIES MATTERS

10. HOW WE BUILD CITIES MATTERS
Source: LSE research, drawing on data from Atlanta Regional Commission (2014), Autoritat del Transport
Metropolita (Area de Barcelona) (2013), GenCat (2013), UCSB (2014), D’Onofrio (2014), based on latest data.
Atlanta’s built-up area Barcelona’s built-up area
Population: 5.26 million
Total area: 16,605 km2
Urban area: 7692 km2
Transport emissions: 6.9 tonnes CO2 p.c.
Traffic fatalities: 564 per year
Population: 5 million
Total area: 3263 km2
Urban area: 648 km2
Transport emissions: 1.2 tonnes CO2 p.c.
Traffic fatalities: 31 per year
ATLANTA BARCELONA

11. WHAT STRATEGIES WILL AVOID LOCK-IN?
Source: World Bank
Short-Term Capital Stock
Long-Term Capital Stock
Infrastructure
Land Use and Urban Form
10-15 years
15-40 years
30-75+ years
100+
years
11

12. WE WORK WITH 70-80 CITIES
1 We aim for reaching 60% of catalytic cities within current geographies where WRI Ross Cities has offices and 40% outside such geographies
2 This includes cities influenced by Publications, Tools, Training and Short-term assistance. This encompasses pilots with the Global Protocol for
Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GPC), Aqueduct Flood Analyzer, and Accessibility Tool.
Network Country: USA, Mexico, Turkey, India, Brazil, China
Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (10 Cities)
Building Efficiency Accelerator - Signatory partners (11 Cities)
Additional cities reached through Catalytic influence (9 Cities)
1
2916
Mexico
2 614
Brazil
1 13
India
267
Turkey
2622
China
5
21
Cities (FY16)
Geo Deep Targeted Catalytic* Others
Mexico 1 16 29 0
India 1 13 21 0
Brazil 2 14 6 0
China 0 22 26 0
Turkey 0 7 26 0
Global 0 0 250+ 30
Total 4 72 350+ 30
* Catalytic Cites FY16 1, 2
FY19
Geographies Actuals Target
Within network country 108 120
Outside network country 250+ 80
Total 350+ 200
200
Catalytic
30
Targeted
4
Deep

13. SCALING UP INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS IS POSSIBLE
IN CITIES
Source: Dalkmann, WRI

14. TRANSFORMATIONAL
CHANGE

15. Source: The Guardian
Photo Source: Juan Manuel Cardona Granda/Flickr
• “Murder capital of the world” in the 1990s
– 6,349 killings in 1991
• Fragmented city form
– Low-income residential neighborhoods far-
removed from city center
MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA

16. Source: McGuirk, 2014
Photo Source: Iván Erre Jota/Flickr
• Governance and public
finance leveraged for
“Integral Urban Projects” or
PUIs
– Participative design
• Metrocable car system
MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA

17. Source: NYT, India Water Portal
Photo Credit: John Abel/Flilckr
• Outbreak of pneumonic infections in the
1990s
– Affected outskirts with poor drainage, sanitation
services
• 60% of the population left Surat
• Estimated loss of Rs. 12 Billion
SURAT, INDIA

18. Source: World Resources Report, India Water Portal
Photo Credit: John Abel/Flickr
• Governance
• Municipal commissioners instituted improved
sanitation services and waste management
• New bus rapid transit system
• City climate resilience planning
• Public health data collection and
monitoring
• E-governance initiatives
SURAT, INDIA

19. Source: The Independent, Transport for London
Photo Source: City.and.Color/Flickr
• In the last decade, London
showcased some of the worst
congestion in Europe
• In 2002, road deaths in
Greater London composed
14% of all road casualties in
Great Britain
LONDON

20. Source: Bartlett and Satterthwaite, 2016, p. 207-209.
Photo Source: [Back to Action]/Flickr
• Immediate reduction of congestion: 15%
– 70,000 fewer vehicles on the street today
than before the congestion charge
– About half of former drivers chose to use
public transport, and others used bikes or
shared vehicles
• Changes to local governance
– London Plan, produced under the Greater London
Authority
– Mayor’s Adaptation Strategy
– London Climate Change and Resilience
Partnerships
• Integrated planning between sectors
LONDON

21. Source: East Asia Forum
Photo Source: Craig Nagy/Flickr
• Booming urban
expansion
– Increased to population of
over 10 million in the
1990s
• Issues of overcrowding
and congestion arose
• Growth management
plan became necessary
SEOUL

22. Sources: Forbes; Song, Dutt and Costa; Seoul Metropolitan Government; Metropolis.org
Photo Source: Brian Kusler/Flickr
• 2030 Seoul Plan
• Policies work toward a productive and
competitive city while improving citizens’
quality of life
• Growth management
• Inclusive and integrated mobility:
– Public buses and subway – integrated fare system
– BikeSeoul bikeshare system
• Urban renewal project: Re-
invigorated Cheonggyecheon Stream
SEOUL

23. Image: Flickr/RodrigoSolon
MEXICO CITY
• One of the most polluted cities in the world
• Economic weight 40% of national GDP
• 22M daily trips
• Transport = 18% of emissions
• 4,000 deaths per year due to pollution
23

24. MEXICO CITY
Photo: Táis Policanti/EMBARQ Mexico
1 MILLION
DAILY RIDERSHIP
122,000
TONS OF CO2 REDUCED
ANNUALLY
20%
REDUCTION
IN VEHICLE
ACCIDENTS
Political, technical, and financial solution to congestion & air pollution

25. MEXICO CITY
Photos by EMBARQ Mexico
Before After
Creating a local coalition for solutions,
through evidence-based decisions and
capacity-building
25

26. Source: The Guardian
Photo Source: Katherine Sharpe/Flickr
• Road safety in 1950s-1970s deteriorated
– 3,300 total traffic deaths in 1971
• City built to accommodate increasing
number of cars
AMSTERDAM

27. Sources: International Traffic Forum; Guardian; NYT; Gemeente Amsterdam
Photo Source; Aykut Türkay/Flickr
• Movement takes hold
– Taking back city spaces for
pedestrians and cyclists
• Streets built to the human
scale
– Woonerfs, or complete
streets, emerged as a model
• Model for road safety
• 38% of trips are by bike
AMSTERDAM

28. GROWING CONSENSUS IS ON COMPACT AND
CONNECTED CITIES

29. HOW TO TRANSFORM
• Success breeds success (from one sector
to another)
• Political change between cities and
citizens
• Coalition-building
– Cities, businesses and citizens engaged
– Creating momentum behind solutions and
projects
– Knowledge sharing and participatory planning