World Cities Day 2023 – Recent Research at PLOS ONE

World Cities Day, designated by the UN General Assembly and first celebrated in 2014, takes place annually on October 31^st. The theme of this year’s event is “Financing sustainable urban future for all” and aims to explore ways to facilitate funding for sustainable urban development, particularly in emerging markets and developing economies. This post highlights some publications in PLOS ONE relating to this topic from the preceding year.

Transforming brownfields into urban greenspaces: A working process for stakeholder analysis

Agyemang FSK, Memon R, Fox S (2023) Mapping urban living standards and economic activity in developing countries with energy data. PLoS ONE 18(9): e0291824. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291824

This article reports a study carried out by a team of researchers from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, to develop a working process by which urban greenspaces can be transformed from brownfields through engagement of stakeholders, including those contributing financial resources as well as service providers and users. The authors applied the method to a study site in Polstjärnegatan, Sweden and report on the outcome. They suggest that this process can be applied to other sites in other countries.

Mapping urban living standards and economic activity in developing countries with energy data

Agyemang FSK, Memon R, Fox S (2023) Mapping urban living standards and economic activity in developing countries with energy data. PLoS ONE 18(9): e0291824. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291824

A team of authors from the University of Manchester, UK and the University of Qatar investigate ways to address the lack of data needed to inform urban planning and policy in developing countries. Aiming to find suitable proxies for living standards and economic activity data, the authors find that night-time light data for Karachi, Pakistan to be useful in predicting population density and economic activity, while electricity meter data were more useful as a proxy for living standards.

How much behaviour change is required for the investment in cycling infrastructure to be sustainable? A break-even analysis

Candio P, Frew E (2023) How much behaviour change is required for the investment in cycling infrastructure to be sustainable? A break-even analysis. PLoS ONE 18(4): e0284634. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284634

Researchers from the University of Trento, Italy and the University of Birmingham, UK use the Health Economic Assessment Tool to evaluate the economic value from factors including health benefits and reduced air pollution generated by an additional regular cyclist. They compare this against the cost of developing the required infrastructure to estimate the financial break-even point for such development using a planned cycleway in the UK as a case study. This tool was developed by the World Health Organization, who also observe World Cities Day each year alongside the UN and its partners. The authors demonstrate its use in providing policy information for decision makers when planning similar transport infrastructure.