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Airport-related development raises important city-regional planning and governance issues. The paper examines the development of a new Chinese airport and associated changes in nearby cities. Ezhou Huahu Airport was initiated by one of China's largest delivery and logistics companies. The analysis focuses on the development patterns, growing visions, and changing governance around the airport as well as how the provincial government plays a crucial role in governing the airport region. Furthermore, the study highlights regional coordination manifested in various institutional forms, which warrants solid implementation through regional plans and regional institutions for dispute settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: in light of the acknowledged relationship between housing circumstances and health outcomes, the research explored the implications of the diversifying role of housing associations, considering the extent and form of engagement with the health sector and the potential repercussions for inequalities. Study design: the research was based on a single case study of the Manchester city-region, chosen to provide a way of considering the role of recently agreed devolved governance and funding arrangements in respect of housing and health. Methods: primary qualitative data were assembled via a programme of semi-structured interviews with housing and health policy actors and direct observation of six quarterly meetings of a housing-health steering group established as part of new devolved governance arrangements. Results: the findings reveal a perception among housing managers that the reorientation of housing association services to offset the rationalisation of mainstream provision risks exacerbating inequalities. Interview and observational data suggest that the diversification of housing association activity may have begun to erode the sector's ability and willingness to provide affordable housing on a universal basis to those in need. Conclusions: The growing non-landlord functions of some housing associations can act as a deterrent to the allocation of housing to applicants with complex (and expensive) needs. This reinforces the increased selectivity in housing association stock allocations, linked to marketization and the increasingly commercial outlook of some providers. Further inequalities may be engendered because while tenants can benefit from the extended housing associations services, others continue to depend on a weakened statutory sector.

Commercial land use management that focuses on a future-oriented urban and regional development must address multiple goals. Effective policy mixes need to simultaneously (1) improve city-regional and inter-municipal cooperation, (2) reduce land take, and (3) assure the long-term economic development of a region. Using the Northern Black Forest in Germany as a case study, we brought together planning and land use research with public policy analysis. We applied cross-impact balances (CIB) to build and analyze a participatory policy-interaction model. Together with a group of 12 experts, we selected effective individual measures to reach each of the three goals and analyzed their interactions. We then assessed the current policy mix and designed alternative policy mixes. The results demonstrate that current approaches to commercial land use management present internal contradictions and generate only little synergies. Implementing innovative measures on a stand-alone basis runs the risk of not being sufficiently effective. In particular, the current practice of competing for municipal marketing and planning of commercial sites has inhibiting effects. We identified alternative policy mixes that achieve all three goals, avoid trade-offs, and generate significant synergy effects. Our results point towards a more coherent and sustainable city-regional (commercial) land-use governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concentration of economic growth into large metropolises is widely documented across Europe. Yet, planning of this growth at the strategic metropolitan scale shows significant variation. This paper documents the evolution of Opportunity Areas within Greater London. Through statistical and documentary analysis, and participant observation, we reveal how they have been repurposed from a tool employed to facilitate brownfield regeneration to one that sustains growth through brokering relationships, enhancing land value and capturing it. The paper argues that the cumulative impact of these 'soft spaces' of planning represents a fundamental change in the nature of strategic planning for city-regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial land use management that focuses on a future-oriented urban and regional development must address multiple goals. Effective policy mixes need to simultaneously (1) improve city-regional and inter-municipal cooperation, (2) reduce land take, and (3) assure the long-term economic development of a region. Using the Northern Black Forest in Germany as a case study, we brought together planning and land use research with public policy analysis. We applied cross-impact balances (CIB) to build and analyze a participatory policy-interaction model. Together with a group of 12 experts, we selected effective individual measures to reach each of the three goals and analyzed their interactions. We then assessed the current policy mix and designed alternative policy mixes. The results demonstrate that current approaches to commercial land use management present internal contradictions and generate only little synergies. Implementing innovative measures on a stand-alone basis runs the risk of not being sufficiently effective. In particular, the current practice of competing for municipal marketing and planning of commercial sites has inhibiting effects. We identified alternative policy mixes that achieve all three goals, avoid trade-offs, and generate significant synergy effects. Our results point towards a more coherent and sustainable city-regional (commercial) land-use governance.