Eurasian Cities : New Realities along the Silk Road
Eurasian cities, unique in the global spatial landscape, were part of the world's largest experiment in urban development. The challenges they now face because of their history offer valuable lessons to urban planners and policy makers across...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/09/16750696/eurasian-cities-new-realities-along-silk-road http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11877 |
| Summary: | Eurasian cities, unique in the global
spatial landscape, were part of the world's largest
experiment in urban development. The challenges they now
face because of their history offer valuable lessons to
urban planners and policy makers across the world from
places that are still urbanizing to those already urbanized.
More than three-quarters of the built environment in
Eurasian cities was developed after 1945 in a centralized
fashion. Central planners could implement whatever they
considered good practice planning solutions, and
Eurasia's cities became their drawing boards. The
central planners got a lot right easy access to public
transportation, district heating networks, almost universal
access to water systems, and socially integrated
neighborhoods. At the same time, they failed to acknowledge
the importance of markets and individual choice in shaping
sustainable and congenial places for people to live in. From
a spatial point of view, it became clear that many Eurasian
cities were developed in places where they should not have
been. To populate sparsely inhabited territory, Soviet
planners pushed urban development toward the heart of
Siberia. Many of the resulting cities had no rural
hinterland to rely on for daily food needs and had to depend
on subsidized goods and services. Many Eurasian cities face
an overdeveloped public service infrastructure that is hard
to maintain and upgrade. Facing an economic downturn in the
1990s and lacking experience in decentralized urban
management, many local authorities struggled to run these
services. Public transport ridership fell in most cities,
with more people commuting in private vehicles. Recycling
networks disappeared, and soaring consumption overwhelmed
solid waste management systems. District heating systems
became large energy sieves hard to run and maintain without
subsidies. Plaguing water systems are large shares of
nonrevenue water, and low tariffs do not ensure the cost
recovery needed for upgrades and repairs. This book
discusses all five of these issues rethinking, planning,
connecting, greening, and financing in more detail. It seeks
to analyze the key challenges created by central planning,
outline how these challenges were addressed in the
transition years, and identify some steps Eurasian cities
should take to chart a sustainable development path for
themselves. The book also shows how some of the most
progressive cities in the region have been tackling these
problems and, in doing so, shedding the last vestiges of the
socialist economy. |
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