The past years have seen widely noticed critiques of historic preservation by “one of our leading urban economists,” Edward Glaeser, and by star architect Rem Koolhaas. Glaeser, an academic economist specializing in urban development, admits that preservation has value. But he argues in his...

Vor dem Hintergrund steigender Energiepreise und aufgrund der politischen Klima- und Energieziele muss Stadtentwicklung energetisch effizienter und nachhaltiger werden. Dies betrifft bauliche Strukturen vom Gebäude über das Quartier bis zur Gesamtstadt ebenso wie Anlagen und Netze. Moderne...

Robust economic growth and rapid urbanization led many Chinese cities to embark upon some of the world's largest inner city renewal projects. The official goal of inner city neighborhood redevelopment is to improve quality of life; however, it has often been used as an excuse to displace the poor....

Background: Urban health is of global concern because the majority of the world's population lives in urban areas. Although mental health problems (e.g. depression) in developing countries are highly prevalent, such issues are not yet adequately addressed in the rapidly urbanising megacities of...

The authors compare the welfare effects of in situ slum upgrading programs with programs that provide slum dwellers with better housing in a new location. Evaluating the welfare effects of slum upgrading and resettlement programs requires estimating models of residential location choice, in...

This article shares some experiences with different techniques for estimating economic benefits and costs used by the Bank in appraising urban upgrading projects . The projects usually combine infrastructure investments and complementary activities to strengthen, build capacity and organize...

The Bank has been involved in a number of urban upgrading projects over the last three decades, which have demonstrated that quality of life in slums can be improved through realistic policies, investments and implementation processes. This note reviews community-driven development (CDD) in...

Poverty is at the root of the problems facing many public housing projects in the U.K. today. Experience emerging from 100 low-income housing estates echoes findings from urban upgrading for the poor in developing countries. Tackling poverty and unemployment in low income communities cannot be...