Planning Shrinking Cities
Progress in Planning, Vol. 72, No. 4, pp. 223-232, November 2009
Posted: 26 May 2010
Date Written: October 26, 2009
Abstract
Developed, modern cities throughout the world are facing population declines at an unprecedented scale. Over the last fifty years, 370 cities throughout the world with populations over 100,000 have shrunk by at least 10% (Oswalt and Rieniets 2007). Wide swaths of the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan are projecting double-digit declines in population in the coming decades.
Internationally, scholars and practitioners of the built environment have responded to this crisis by reconceptualizing decline as shrinkage and have begun to explore creative and innovative ways for cities to successfully shrink (Stohr 2004; Swope 2006). Historically, planners have responded to population decline by instigating economic development strategies, but this conventional approach has failed in scores of places. This emerging new approach to rethinking decline provides a non-economic view of responding to depopulation.
Keywords: Smart Decline, Shrinking Cities, Urban Planning, Depopulation
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