Compact city: an analysis of this urban concept and it's relation with the elderly

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

COMPACT CITY: AN ANALYSIS OF THIS URBAN CONCEPT AND ITS RELATION WITH THE ELDERLY

Mariana Eri Towata Ota Supervisor Kenichi Tanoue

FUKUOKA 2018

Abstract

This study aims to comprehend the compact city history and its application over the years to understand the compact city and its relationship with the ageing population since by 2050, 70% of urban population will be 65 years or older and many cities aren’t prepared to deal with the necessities of this parcel of population. So cities like Aomori and Toyama, both compact cities located in Japan, Fukuoka also located in Japan but not a city with compact policies and Curitiba located in Brazil were studied to try to understand how the compact city policy can help this cities with their problems. Since Aomori and Toyama were facing with a decreasing population and suffering with the high costs to keep the city running without budget deficits, while Fukuoka has an increasing population but has to keep a good infrastructure to all population. Curitiba, the only city studied in Brazil is the pioneer in its country to adopt compact city strategies to give the population a better quality of life.

Keywords - Compact city, Elderly, Ageing, Aomori, Curitiba, Fukuoka, Toyama

SUMMARY I. Introduction p.6 II. Objectives p.6 III. Methodology p.7 IV. Compact cities

4.1. History and concept of compact city p.7

4.2. The compact city and the sustainability p.8

4.3. Differences between countries on urban planning p.10

4.4. An age friendly city characteristics p.11 4.5.

The compact city in Japan p.11 4.6.

The “FutureCity” Iniciative (FCI) p.13 V.

Study cases 5.1. Analysis of compact cities in Japan 5.2. Analysis of compact city in Brazil (Curitiba)

p.15 p.20

VI. Conclusion p.22 VII. References p.23 VIII. Annex

8.1. Toyama’s Tram 8.1.1.

Toyama tram line p.25 8.1.2.

Toyama PORTRAM line p.27

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TABLE LIST Table 1.

Table 2.

Table 3.

Table 4.

Key policy stategies and sub-strategies for the compact city Comparative table between the city planning in the developed countries Major actions by local governments and regions selected by “FutureCity” Frequency of Toyama Light Rail FIGURE LIST

p.7 p.10 p.14 p.16

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Evolution of compact cities Cities create new value by tracking environmental and aging issues “FutureCity”: Cities selected in 2011 Light rail attendant Light rail vehicle with barrier free Non barrier-free Cenrtram train (old one’s) Barrier-free Cenrtram train (new one’s) City facilities for the elderly City facilities for the elderly Aomori compact city plan AUGA complex Fukuoka city transportation map Fukuoka BRT Fukuoka bus Curitiba’s buses connections Curitiba’s bus stop , called “tube” Toyama’s tram map Toyama types of trams Barrier-free CENTRAM train Inside of a barrier-free CENTRAM train Non barrier-free train Inside of a non-barrier-free train PORTRAM rail map PORTRAM train PORTRAM train, with light rail attendant

p.8 p.13 p.13 p.16 p.16 p.17 p.17 p.17 p.17 p.18 p.19 p.19 p.20 p.20 p.20 p.21 p.25 p.25 p.26 p.26 p.26 p.26 p.27 p.27 p.27

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I. INTRODUCTION

In a society with a decreasing and ageing population, cities have to adapt their structures to be prepared to attend the necessities of the elderly population which have different levels of capacity and different necessities. In Japan, according to Takao (2015) from 2010 to 2040, 16.2% of Japanese population will decrease and in 385 municipalities (22.8% of all municipalities) is projected to decrease by a rate of more than 60%.

With it, the number of underpopulated areas will increase and in these areas citizens will have more difficult to get to one place to other, especially the elderly who can’t drive to the suburban shopping center on their own. Another problem of the decreasing and ageing population is the declining ratio of the workforce, which means that the old people has to reduce as much as possible, their dependency on the workers. “For example, old people cannot remove snow from the roofs of their houses in snowy areas on their own, and some people actually moved to apartment housing in central districts where they do not need to do such snow removal work.” (TAKAO, 2015)

To deal with problems like this, which appears in all countries where the population is ageing, the Japanese government launched in 2011 a program called “FutureCity” Initiative which aims to embrace new people-friendly values and turn cities into a compact city to deal with these problems caused by the depopulation and ageing. Since these strategies aims to bring people and services back to the central areas, where there is public transportation system like buses, trains, subway and trams. With these services, it’s possible to the elderly keep their independency, participate actively in the society and have access to the services that they need.

These strategies also bring others advantages for the city, once if the population gets back to the center areas where there is the infrastructure, the number of cars is reduced, there are less energy consumption, the transport costs are lower and consequently the emission of green gases are reduced and the quality of life gets higher.

II.OBJECTIVES

This research aims to understand how cities are dealing with the aging population, especially in Japan where for decades the number of elderly people has increased and the population is declining year after year.

In this way, it intends to study compact cities, which is the main policy adopted by the Japanese government in relation to urban issues and the aging of the population, because with the reduction of population several underused or idle spaces has appeared and also the elderly have more difficult to move around the city. So, bring the population back to the center, specially the elderly, where the infrastructure already exists is one of the objectives of the compact city.

Understanding these policies adopted by developed countries, which have already deal with these problems for a longer time, intends to analyze how these measures can contribute to countries that are beginning to deal with problems related to the increasing number of elderly population, such as Brazil which elderly population has increased from 9.8% to 14.3% in between 2005 to 2015, much more than the global average according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

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III. METHODOLOGY

To achieve the objectives of this research information about the subject was researched in books, papers and internet, and the following methodological steps were adopted: References research Concept of compact city

Compact city and the elderly

Concept of compact city in Japan

Study case Japan Toyama (visit)

Brazil Aomori

Fukuoka

Curitiba

Preliminary report writes Final report writes Correction and formatting the final report IV.COMPACT CITIES 4.1. History and concept of compact city

Compact cities have a long history, in modern times (1930s’) it was a policy to protect the local natural environment or agricultural areas from the urban expansion. Just only in 1973, the term compact city was used for the first time by Dantzig and Saaty, two mathematicians that proposed a utopic circular city which could house 250.000 people and expand to a population of 2 million by doubling its diameter and high. This city has dense settlements, less automobile dependence, mixed land use, social fairness and self-sufficiency of daily life. On this proposal transport system should also consist in electric cars. The characteristics of a compact city are on the urban form: high and dense settlements, less dependence on automobiles and clear boundary from surrounding areas; on the special characteristics are the mixed land use, diversity and clear identity; on the social functions are the social fairness, self- sufficiency of daily life and independent government.

Since the late 1980s’the compact city concept gained popularity with the introduction of the notion of sustainability, when the Club of Rome used this term for the first time on a report in 1972. On this report called “The limits to growth” written by Dennis and Donella Meadows showed that the way that the population was growing and consuming the natural resources the Earth would collapse. This report concluded that “to prevent this disaster, a collective commitment would be needed to curb the indiscriminate growth of the economy and achieve global equilibrium.” (COLOMBO, 2000)

But just in 1990s’ after the European Community’s “Green paper on the urban environment” where the idea of an environmental quality of life, dense development and mixed 7

use was promoted, the compact cities started to be implemented. (figure 1)

Figure 1: Evolution of compact cities Authorship: Elaborated by the author, information take fromOECD (2012). Compact City Policies: A comparative assessment, OECD Green Growth Studies

Compact city is an urban policy characterized by “compactness” in which there are some key characteristics like dense and proximate development patterns, urban areas linked by the public transportation and accessibility to local services and jobs. This policy aims to influence the way as the urban space is utilized to integrate urban policy goals (economic viability, environmental quality, social equity, etc.). With these policies is expected that compact cities substantially improve cities’ environmental, social and economic performance. For example, a compact urban form with an efficient transport system can reduce intra-urban trip distances, and this in turn reduces the cost of transporting goods and services as well the consumption of petroleum (gasoline). (OECD,2012 p.26)

Despite the term compact city remind small towns, any city can become compact independently of its geographical space and population. Once, metropolitan areas can also be compact if they have the characteristics of a compact city. In terms of urban structure, compact cities on metropolitan scale doesn’t presume a specific urban form, so they can be monocentric or polycentric according to local circumstances.

4.2. The compact city and the sustainability

There is a global trend toward urbanization and consequently there are environmental and economic impacts with this process. By 2050, 70% of the world population will live in urban areas that will demand more resources and the impacts of global warming and increasing energy prices will require new responses. Other point is that the elderly population has doubled over the past 60 years in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and tripled worldwide so, urban policies will have to deal with this population needs too.

One way to deal with these questions is transform the cities into compact cities that according to OECD there are three key characteristics of a compact city and they are: dense and approximate development patterns; urban areas linked by public transport systems and accessibility to local services and jobs. So, compact cities have to dense and develop patterns, linking them by public transportation system and maintaining accessibility to local services and jobs. As the intra-urban distances are reduced the automobile dependency is reduced to. Once an efficient infrastructure is offered to the residents and they can easy access services, jobs, and social networking the economy gets better too.

Other recommendations for compact city policies are set explicit compact city goals; 8

encourage dense and contiguous development at urban fringes; retrofit existing built-up areas; enhance diversity and quality of life in urban centers and minimize adverse negative effects. (table 1) And, to measure if the compact city policy outcomes there are two indicators and they are: the “compactness” which consider the density, proximity, public transport systems and accessibility to local services and jobs; the other is measure a compact city’s performance in relation to other cities.

Table 1 - Key policy strategies and sub-strategies for the compact city 1. SET EXPLICIT COMPACT GO- Establish a national urban policy framework that includes ALS compact city policies Encourage metropolitan-wide strategic planning 2. ENCOURAGE DENSE AND Increase effectiveness of regulatory tools PROXIMATE DEVELOPMENT Target compact urban development in greenfield areas Set minimum density requirements for new development Establish mechanisms to reconcile conflicts of interests Strengthen urban-rural linkage 3. RETROFIT EXISTING BUILT-UP Promote brownfield development AREAS Harmonize industrial policies with compact city policies Regenerate existing residential areas Promote transit-oriented development in built-up areas 4. ENHANCE DIVERSITY AND Promote mixed-land use QUALITY OF LIFE Improve the match between residents and local services and jobs Encourage focused investment in public space and foster a “sense of place” Promote walking and cycling environment 5. MINIMISE ADVERSE NEGATIVE Counteract traffic congestions EFFECTS Encourage the provision of affordable housing Promote high-quality urban design to lower “perceived” density Encourage the greening of build-up areas Table 1 - Key policy stategies and sub-strategies for the compact city Authorship: Elaborated by the author, information take from Compact city policies: A comparative assessment, OECD.

As the city became compact there are many benefits and contribution to urban sustainability such as the reduction of CO2 emissions, less pollution from automobiles, less energy consumption, lower transport costs, higher quality of life due to more recreational activities and access to local services, etc.

These compact cities benefits can be separated in three categories the environmental benefits that are shorter intra-urban distances and less automobile dependency and as consequence reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions; farmlands and natural biodiversity around the urban areas are conserved; and more opportunities for urban-rural linkages are created, so nearby farming encourages the local food consumption and reduces the food transportation, which also helps to reduce the CO2 emission. The second benefit is the economic where the cities can increase the efficiency of infrastructure and reduce the cost of maintenance specially for line systems like transport, water and energy; the residents can have easier access to jobs and services; the high density, combined with the diversity of urban functions stimulate knowledge diffusion and the thus economic growth. The last benefit is the social and it’s involves the better quality of life once the travel distances are shorter and local services and jobs near to home.

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4.3. Differences between countries on urban planning

The way that cities are planned are different around the world since, according to Kaido (2007) the city urban planning is a part of country’s culture. So, the economy, society and the time that it was planned induces the urban planning form been the reason for the countries have different ways on planning their city and have different targets about the urban planning (table 2).

Table 2 - Comparative table between the city planning in the developed countries Country / Field

Urbanization

England Urban expansion after Industrial Revolution; Anti-urbanization trend in the latter half of the 20th century

Activation policy ; City center Green belt policy

Germany

Post-war history; Continued urban historical city recon- growth; Progress struction; Gentle of sprawl growth with urban and rural boundary clarification

Nature/ Farmland

Japan Reconstruction of war damage; Rapid urbanization and population decreasing; Ageing society

Lively historical cen- Declining edge Declining central ter urban area city of the central city area city

North - South prob- Independent lem; Expansion of the network Land form Southeastern region and the decline of the north Conservation of farmlands and rural areas; Managing monotonous landscape

USA

city Extensive nation- One-pole conal land centration; Flat ground with no bridges between cities

Forest; natural ecology regeneration; Environmentally conscious conservation; Beautiful village

Conservation of agricultural land; Crisis of loss of wildlife area

Prosperous natural environment and progress of loss; Agriculture decline

Public ownership of Strong private rights Vast land; Large Small, fine, exdevelopment rights; restrictions land ownership pensive (recent Land decline); Strong ownership Large land ownership owner rights Administrative authority

Progress of central- Decentralization; citization; Citizen partic- izen autonomy (deipation system mocracy in the ballot box)

Planning system

Government’s stra- Plans developed to Zoning system, Unified, moderate tegic planning guide- fit around the vicinity regional diversity regulatory system lines by field

Target

Decentralization of state and local government; Citizen autonomy

Progress of decentralization; Progress of citizen activity

Urban Renaissance; Formation of com- Smart growth; Conversion Compact city policy; pact city; Urban area New urbanism compact city Social inclusion stage composition

to

Table 2: Comparative table between the city planning in the developed countries Authorship: 海道清信（2007） 「コンパク . トシティの計画とデザイン」，京極迪宏、京都市. p.252

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4.4. An age friendly city characteristics

Once the world population is getting older, it’s important that the cities creates opportunities to elderly to participate in the society, promoting their inclusion and recognizing their capacities and understand that they aren’t a homogeneous group and they have individual diversity which increases with the age. So, cities have to be prepared to adapt their structures and services to be accessible and inclusive for the elderly people with different needs and capacities, with it they will respect the decisions and lifestyle of the population, protect who are most vulnerable and promote the inclusion of the old people and contribution of them for all areas of community life.

There isn’t just these characteristics that determine a city as an age-friendly city. There are many determinants like economic determinants, health and social services, behavioral determinants, personal determinants, physical environmental, social determinants, gender and culture. All these characteristics affects how a city can be more or less age-friendly, once these points are related to transportation, housing, social participation, outdoor spaces and buildings that induce on the personal mobility, safety from injury, security from crime, health behavior and social participation.

So, to a city become an age friendly its transportation has to be affordable for everyone with accessible vehicles which has low steps, priority seat for older people for example; the stations has to be accessible with ramps, elevators, appropriate platforms, public toilets and legible and well-placed signs. The buildings, been public or not, has also to attend the necessities of this population making the building accessible with the elevators, ramps, adequate signs railings on stairs and non-slip flooring. And the outdoor spaces have to have sidewalks without obstructions, cycle paths separated from the walkways and pedestrian crossing lights should allow sufficient time for older people cross the street and have visual and audio signals. With these actions, a city can be friendlier for all population, specially with whom have any mobility difficult, not only the elderly but also the ones that have any mobility difficulty.

4.5. The compact cities in Japan

“In Japan, local authorities (prefectural and municipal governments) are responsible for urban planning. The national City Planning Act sets the framework for city planning, decisions on city plan and restrictions on city planning.” (OECD,2012 p.252) This law was voted in 1968 to resolve a nationwide problem, when the rapid economic growth of the 1960’s made the cities face to the concentration of population and activities in urban areas. Because the need to control the development of housing and industrial areas, this law defined “city planning areas” within are defined as “urbanization promotion areas” in which urban areas already existed and where urbanization was able to be implemented preferentially in a well-planed manner, the other defined area is “urbanization control areas” in which urbanization was to be controlled to prevent unregulated urbanizations. These acts defined the basis for the Japanese compact city policy.

From 1990s the cities central urban areas that had symbolized the local culture and tradition have declined by the motorization and a preference for shopping in large-scale in suburban areas. So, the central area became empty with the decay of local communities, vacant stores and unused lands. In 1998, the central government enacted laws called “Act on Measures by Large-Scale Retail Stores for Preservation of Living Environments” to renovate these communities, with these law, the development of large-scale retail stores where regulated aiming to preserve the local living environments; the “Act on revitalization of Cen11

tral Urban Areas” to revitalize central urban areas that was suffering from depopulation and de-industrialization; and the “revised City Planning Act” which enables local authorities to control the development of large-scale retail stores in suburban areas. “These three acts aimed to stimulate economic activity in central urban areas and affected the framing of Japan’s compact city policy.”

As the Japan’s population is declining and getting older since 2004, the central government review the city planning system which had been premised on urban growth in order to assure livability in urban areas. So, the government amended to promote compact city policies where the development of large-scale facilities is restricted, except in commercial districts; required modification of the city plans of the municipalities concerned in order to ensure that such development reflects on the local decisions. So, three main compact city strategies were stablished and there are Promotion of comprehensive transport strategy by packaging policies such as construction of public transport (e.g. Light rail transit), improvement of transport connections, and improvement of the environment for bicycle use and pedestrians.

Concentration of urban facilities through revitalization of central urban areas and promotion of living in urban areas, regulation of development of new urban areas in suburbs, and effective utilization of natural and unused energy.

Building of a green network through the development of urban parks, conservation and promotion of urban green areas, and greening of public facilities.

(OEDC, 2012 p.251)

Other strategies and actions are related to policies for low carbon cities. Since in Japan, more than 50% of CO2 emissions come from the urban activities – residential sector, business sector (offices and shops) and transportation sector (roads, railways, etc.) and the reason is that in urban transportation sector the motorization and growing dependence on passenger cars in daily life; in business sector is the expansion of the offices and shops, that increased the energy consumption; in the residential sector is an expansion of floor areas due to increasing numbers of households as a result of the growth of nuclear families and single households, progress of IT, and increasing sizes of home appliances.

Since the growth of CO2 emissions, compact city policies not only prevent urban sprawl but also help to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and global warming by reducing the travel distances, creating compact urban structures which has centers in its central built-up area and around main transportation hubs, among others, to promote the accumulation of urban functions. These integrated centers are organically linked with other areas in the metropolis via public transportation networks, thereby ensuring a better quality of life for citizens and the sustainable development of the metropolis. (MLIT, 2011 p.6)

So, compact cities with an intensively developed urban functions and maximizing the efficiency of urban management costs can deal to the population decline and ageing society.

“They efficiently materialize good living environments and interaction spaces, where people can choose to live a certain life style depending on the local conditions and where necessary urban functions and public services are concentrated.” (MLIT,2011 p.7) This kind of urban structure also helps to a low-carbon urban structure by reducing the maintenance costs of cities and improving urban landscapes and others.

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4.6. The “FutureCity” Initiative (FCI)

In 2011 “FutureCity” Initiative (FCI) launched a concept to create cities that embrace new people-friendly values in order to deal with environmental issues and the aging society, one of worldwide problems. It’s involves three values that are social values, environmental values and economic values.

The social value involves health care and medical services; nursing care and welfare; disaster prevention and childcare and education, etc. The economic value involves the tourism; new businesses and public/private sector cooperation, etc. The third value is the environmental and its involve the low carbon; water and atmosphere; biodiversity and waste management, etc. With these three topics, they pretend to increase the quality of life and make cities into places where anyone want to live Figure 2: Cities create new value by tracking environmental and aging and everyone enjoys vitality as issues Authorship: https://www.japanfs.org/en/projects/future_city/index.html new sources of value continually come into being. (figure 2)

Since Japan is one of the countries that is already facing challenges about the elderly population, once it is projected that by 2050, 40 % of population will be senior (65 years or more) this country has to realize cities and regional population centers that keeps social vitality, where the senior citizens can live fruitful, healthy and secure. In the near future, other countries starting from Asia are expected to deal with the same challenge of an ageing society, as the Japan’s experiences is tackling this problem the lessons can be shared all over the world.

In 2011 the FCI has selected 13 cities with are Shimokawa city, Hokkaido Prefecture; Kamaishi city, Iwate Prefecture; Ofunato city, Iwate Prefecture; Rikuzentaka city, Iwate Prefecture; Sumita city, Iwate Prefecture; Higashimatsushima city, Miyagi Prefecture; Iwanuma city, Miyagi Prefecture; Shinchi city, Fukushima Prefecture; Minamisona city, Fukushima Prefecture; Toyama city, Toyama Prefecture; Kashiwa city, Chiba Prefecture; Yokohama city, Kanagawa Prefecture and Kitakyushu city, Fukuoka Prefecture (figure 3). Each candi- Figure 3: “FutureCity”: Cities selected in 2011 date city has to decide your own Authorship: https://www.japanfs.org/en/projects/future_city/index.html 13

strategy future vision to attend FCI’s basis concepts, with the aim of maximizing an integrated total of environmental, social and economic values (table 2).

Table 3 - Major actions by local goverments and regions selected as “FutureCity” Shimokawa city (Hokkaido)

Toward the comprehensive business and being completely self-sufficient in energy International expansion by cooperating with a University Building of a self-sustained community through collective living

Kamaishi city Efforts of a smart community (Iwate) Efforts aimed at building a regional comprehensive care system World heritage registration and the holding of Rugby World Cup in Kamaishi Kesen ReEfforts on environment gional Future Response for super ageing city* (Iwate) Industrial promotion Higashimatsushima city (Miyagi)

[Environment] Japan’s first local production local consumption model: Higashi-matsushima citycity smart disaster prevention eco-friendly town [Education] Miyamori Elementary School taking advantage of natural forests

“FutureCity” Iniciative

[Disaster prevention] disaster prevention and recovery efforts throught international exchange Iwanuma city Formation of an eco-compact city (Miyagi) Creation of Sennen Kibou no Oka Building an energy management system of natural energy Shinchi city (Fukushima)

Building of a smart hybrid network of various decentralized and self-sufficient energy supplies City development around the Shinchi Station and regional energy project Shinchi town city restoration and development to achieve environmental preservation and industrial development simultaneously

Minamisona city (Fukushima)

A city with a renewable energy circulation system

Toyama city (Toyama)

Formation of a LRT network

Generation- circulating city where everyone can easily live Creation of a clinical local industry with EDEN plan as core Perilla producers’ diversification into processing and distribution to promote various businesses Packaging environmental measures and inter-city cooperation

Kashiwa city (Chiba)

Local health institute “A-SHI-TA” (efforts for super ageing population and citizen participation) Building a KOIL that creates business chances (efforts for the creation of new industries) Building an emergency smart energy system (environmental efforts)

Yokohama city (Kanagawa)

Yokohama Smart city project

Kitakyushu city (Fukuoka)

Regional energy hubs promotion project

Minato Mirai 2050 project Cooperation with other cities in Japan and abroad and international organizations Creating and advance “zero-carbon” jono town area International water business in collaboration with the public and private sectors

* Kesen Regional Future city is composed by Ofunato city, Rikuzentaka city and Sumita city Table 3: Major actions by local governments and regions selected by “FutureCity” Authorship: Elaborated by the author, information take from <https://www.japanfs.org/en/projects/future_city/index.html>

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For the FCI’s success some factors are important like the implementation of project management, powerful executive authorities that can act quickly, and strongly cooperation among cities. So, the project is managed in three levels: how to effectively promote the FCI as a whole on the national level; how to manage all projects at the individual city level; how to grasp progress at the individual project level. To have successes is important that a powerful and quickly acting executive authorities are involved to stablish a system to promote coordinate financing, deregulation and various reforms.

Once the cities accumulate success, is expected that the national government construct an international intellectual platform by collecting, arranging and analyzing worldwide cases successful cases, disseminating the information and arranging opportunities to for intellectual exchanges. So, FCI’s cities can cooperate to each other, exchanging information to have more successful cases that can be shared in Japan and with the world.

V. STUDY CASES 5.1. Analysis of compact cities in Japan

Toyama city is located in Toyama Prefecture in the center of Honshu Island in Chubu Region, it’s population is 418.686 according to 2015 census. This city, like much of Japan is facing with the aging population and by 2045, 40% of Toyama city population will be elderly (65 years and above). This city has the lowest population density in urban area among national prefectural capitals and population has spread from the center of the city to suburban areas, making Toyama a car-dependent spread city.

Since the population is getting older and the demographic shift leads to decline tax revenues, which means that the strong transportation system is becoming outdated. In turn, without convenient access and reliable transportation, elderly residents face with the isolation and health problems associated to the limited mobility. So, to deal with this kind of problems the city has developed a long-term strategy turning it in to a compact city.

As a compact city, Toyama has some strategies like economic values that involves the public transportation renovation, environmental values that means to develop an attractive high-quality life and social values that promotes the local industry. With these three values Toyama city aims to revitalize the public transportation and concentrate the city functions in the center of the city and along the public transportations lines; increase the quality and range of civic life amenities by reducing the automobile dependency and creating more opportunities to the elderly go out; and take full advantage of city’s strengths using the nurture local pharmacy (pharmaceutical industry), increasing the use of renewable energy and attract new business and create new industries.

Before this plan, Toyama’s public transportation was suffering with the decreasing number of users; the Japan Railway Lines has dropped by 17% of numbers of users from 1989 to 2004, other railways by 44%, trams 43% and buses 67%. With these numbers, in 2003 the city started the renewal plan, on February of this year, Toyama Central District Revitalization Basic Plan established three policies to revitalize 463ha of downtown, improving the public transportation system and making the central district a nondependent car area; attracting more visitors to this area by a prosperous and active downtown; encouraging people to leave in the center. In March, Toyama Public Transportation Revitalization Plan started designating 6 rail/tram routes and 13 bus routes as vital public transportation corridors; and designating areas within 500m from tail/tram station or 300m from a bus stop as “public transportation residential area”.

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On April 2006, the old JR Toyamako line start to operate as Toyama Light Rail. This local line was suffering from declining number of users became into Japan’s first complete Light Rail Transit (LTR) with a public-private partnership. This line has received new vehicles with low floor cars and barrier-free stations and inside of the vehicles there are light rail attendants to help (figure 4 and 5), better frequency, vibration reduction and IC card tickets can be use. (Table 4)

Figure 4 (left): Light rail attendant Authorship: author photo Figure 5 (right): Light rail vehicle with barrier free Authorship: author photo

Table 4 - Frequency of Toyama Light Rail Before Interval 30-60min First and last train 5am (first) / 21pm (last) Number of Stations 9 Type of Vehicle Rail Vehicle

After 15 min 5am (first) / 23pm (last) 13 Low floor car

Table 4: Frequency of Toyama Light Rail Authorship: http://www.mlit.go.jp/kokusai/itf/kokusai_policy_000010.html

Nowadays Toyama public transportation forms a radial network with Toyama Station at the center which has 4 railway lines, two operated by Japan Railways and two operated

by Toyama Chiho Railways; 2 tram lines, the Toyama Chitetsu City Tram Line and Toyama Light Rail Port Line; and an extensive bus services with more than 100 routes operated by Toyama Chitetsu Ltd.

Toyama’s is still taking more action in transportation, developing a belt line or loop line (Centram) of trains in the city, extending 0.9km and adding 3 new stations, turning the downtown area more appealing and easier for people to move around (figure 6 and 7). With it, the Toyama Station and Horuriku Shinkansen will be included in the route so it’s going to build out in harmony with road spaces in order to build an appealing cityscape and introduce in Japan the first vertically-separated system.

In the future, the city pretends to create a LRT network with 23.5km connecting north and south-bound street cars under the elevated tracks of Toyama Station and expand the train lines in the city to Toyama Chihou Tetsudou’s that goes to Toyama’s alps.

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Figure 6: Non barrier-free Cenrtram train (old oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) Authorship: author photo

Figure 7: Barrier-free Cenrtram train (new oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) Authorship: author photo

Strategies related to health and sociable town are the implementation of pedestrian friendly area in downtown, preventative care facilities networked to the city, so the elderly can live safely and comfortably and make the city easier to get out of home and meet with the others (figure 8 and 9). As a result, the city creates a multifaceted regional vitalization, increase the number of users of the public transportation, reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, create opportunities for senior citizens, increase the housing along the railroad lines and increase the number of visitors at tourist facilities along the railroad.

Figure 8: City facilities for the elderly Authorship: author photo

Figure 9: City facilities for the elderly Authorship: author photo

The second city in Japan that was analyzed is Aomori city which is located in Aomori Prefecture in the northern Tohoku Region, its population is 287.648 according to 2015 census. This prefecture was suffering with the declining population in the center city, a significant increase in maintenance cost of road and infrastructure cause to urban expansion, an increase the cost of snow clearance in winter, a hallow in the center city and population ageing.

According to Washino (2008), Aomori Prefecture has been at leading edge of compact city movement in Japan, since this prefecture started an effort to reduce the cost of snow removal and divided the city in three zones called inner-city, mid-city and outer-city, stablishing principles for each zone. This model was launched in 1999 by Aomori city government in the city master plan, in which the main pillars of urban development towards a compact city formation are make the city resistant to heavy snow, urban environment that corresponds to 17

elderly and welfare society, make a harmonious city, an urban disaster resistant city and an efficient and comfortable city (figure 10).

With it, the city aims to form a monocentric compact urban form, in which, in the inner-city zone is promoted the urban development according to district characteristics of each area, on the mid-city relatively new areas from inner-city and the outer-city zone is for the future urbanization.

The inner-city is an old urban area that was compartmentalized by the war damage and re- Figure 10: Aomori compact city plan constructed after the World War II Authorship: https://tchndr.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/screen-shotand it’s also contains many urban 2017-03-17-at-6-32-47-pm.png?w=545&h=423 areas formed by a sprawl urban design from the 1965s. However, since it is an area where many citizens’ dense living remains, the government will promote the advanced utilization of the land by reorganizing and reshaping residential areas to promote good living environment improvement.

As it’s an area where is possible to make as a base of central urban area for daily life, it will be revitalized and created a bustle in the area by making it an exchange base/ living center. Furthermore, by improving dwellings for the elderly people, which is consistent with the housing master plan, and by consolidating various urban convenience facilities, the convenience of living within the range that can be walked up will be enhanced, so the elderly will also promote the creation of a comfortable living environment.

In this ageing society area, it will promote the maturation of local communities that can support each other, and will induce the revitalization of neighboring commercial functions that provides localized services. With all these actions, the smoothing of intraregional flow can be achieved, thereby eliminating traffic jam, providing air pollution reduction and it also promotes the use of public transportation, bicycles and the walking.

The mid-city is a pressure receptacle, been an area for expansion of urban areas and making possible the preservation of a comfortable living environment. Therefore, in residential area, it aims to encourage the enhancement of local community and create better local rules by residents’ participation for them live better.

So, the goals for the mid-city are create a relaxing environment, mainly based on a low-rise housing, a community awareness that emphasizes the live of individual families and a transit system action that incentives the use of railroads, bus and bicycle instead of the private car. Wherefore, this transportation environment aims to make the transportation easy to use to all people and promote the traffic smoothing, thereby endeavoring to curb traffic congestion.

The last zone, called as outer-city is the Aomori area where the expansion of urbanization is suppressed, not only as an industrial production base of Motochi, but also the natural environment that conveys Aomori’s richness and conservation from the viewpoint of green landscape. This green landscape is an area of a harmonious relaxation and recreation. So, this area has to advance as a development place of academic and artistic activities, aiming for further advancement as an area supporting Aomori city in the future, where 18

the industrial and academic bases concentrated in countryside.

In this area, the main city life image is a place with a maintenance of the landscape environment, agricultural lots filling up the gaps, green spaces and preservation of farmer communities, supporting the green areas and improvement of its environment.

With this plan and consequently the activation of central urban area, Aomori gained a commercial facility called “AUGA” Figure 11: AUGA complex in front of Aomori station, a huge Authorship: https://en.japantravel.com/aomori/auga-building/2941 building which was opened in 2001 with a fresh fish market in the basement, commercial facilities up to 4th floor and on the 5th and 8th floor there are complex facilities such as library, bringing more people to the central area (figure 11).

The third city that was analyzed is Fukuoka city, in Fukuoka Prefecture located in northern part of Kyushu with a population of 1.538.681 according to 2015 census. This city, different from the others has an increasing population and the reason is that in “May 2014, Fukuoka city was selected as the National Strategic Special Zone, which is the keystone of the Growth Strategy”, with this strategy the city is promoting innovation and facilitating creation of new business and jobs through the supporting start-up. From October 2010 to 2015, the city saw a 19.5% growth rate for young residents (15 to 29 years old).

Despite the city population is increasing, the city keeps a compact urban structure with a public transportation system composed by subway (three lines), Japan Railway Lines (JR), Nishitetsu Lines (two lines) and Nishitetsu bus. Fukuoka’s airport is also in the heart of the city, been accessible by bus or subway. But different from smaller cities in Japan, Fukuoka doesn’t have any more the tram system since 1979.

Fukuoka’s transportation system covers all city (figure 12), making easy to go to one place to other. The average time to people go to work and school according to the Fukuoka City Website is about 38 minutes on weekdays while in Kanto region is 51 minutes and Japan average is 41minutes.

While Toyama city and Aomori city become compact because of the increasing number of elderly and the reduction of their population, Fukuoka City doesn’t have this problem due the fact that its population is getting bigger, but it Figure 12: Fukuoka city transportation map still has an elderly population who Authorship: http://www.rainbowfia.or.jp 19

needs help. So, in January 2016, the city has launched a program in Higashi-ku, in which ten volunteer drives and help approximately 70 elderlies with shopping and other services three days a week and with the success of the program the city intends to spread services into other areas.

Fukuoka city also started to implement the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) with 18m of length (figure 13) and in which 130 people can ride at once in a barrier free vehicle, making easy to elderly and people with any disease to take the bus. While the regular buses have steps to get in and get off instead some of them don’t have steps inside, just ramp (figure 14).

Figure 13: Fukuoka BRT Authorship: http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/yukine787/imgs/b/c/ bc1891de.jpg

Figure 14: Fukuoka bus Authorship: author photo

5.2. Analysis of compact city in Brazil (Curitiba)

The compact city policies, in the last ten years, have been almost exclusively for developed countries (US, Europe, Japan and Australia) according to Burgess (2000) although the environmental problems are global. Since, there isn’t a compact city in Brazil, the nearest city that adopts compact city goals is Curitiba in Paraná, been the reason that this city was chosen to be analyzed.

Curitiba is the capital of Paraná, a state located in the south of Brazil. This city has a population of 1.908.359 according to Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Instead this city isn’t exactly a compact city, in terms of the public transportation system it has a lot of characteristics of a compact city although this city doesn’t have a subway or tram system. Curitiba’s public transport system started to be implemented in 1970 when an exclusive bus road was created in the North and South axes and start to operate in 1974. These axes are exclusive for express buses and to integrate this system interconnection terminals was created too.

On this interconnection terminals buses from farthest location would stop and connect with the principal one (figure 15). After the implementation of these axes, services Figure 15: Curitiba’s buses connections and markets that just had in the center area Authorship: https://www.urbs.curitiba.pr.gov.br/transporte/ rede-integrada-de-transporte

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started to open near to the axes, solving many problems like, move around to get some service/market, less traffic and consequently, less pollution.

In 1980 the single rate in the Integrated Transport Network (Rede Integrada de Transporte - RIT) was implemented making possible to the citizen go around the city paying only one rate and take as many as buses it’s necessary to go to the destiny. And, Figure 16: Curitiba’s bus stop , called “tube” 11 years after, in 1991, buses Authorship: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Eslines called “Linhas Diretas” (Di- tação_tubo_Linha_Verde_Curitiba_BRT_05_2013_Est_Marechal_Florect Lines – free translation) also riano_6531.JPG known as “ligeirinhos” (little fast – free translation) were implemented. On these buses lines the stops are in tube station (figure 16) where the fee is paid before entering the bus and it’s on the same level of the bus. After this, other lines started to receive the tube station. In 2002, the electronic payment (like the Japan’s IC card) started to be implemented.

Nowadays, there are six corridors of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) that are North, South, East, West, Boqueirão and Linha Verde. All terminals are equipped with bicycle parking and in some bus lines it’s also possible to get the bus caring a bicycle. Curitiba is also implanting cycling routes, in 2013 it has increased 71,4% from what it had totalizing 254 kilometers of cycle routes. These routes were implanted in places to encourage people to go to work by bicycle, so they are located in structural axes.

With these actions Curitiba’s government pretend to stimulate the use of bicycles to go to job and markets instead of using the car. The BRT corridors with one rate also motivate the citizens to take the bus to go for where they need.

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VI. CONCLUSION

After research about the compact cities and their goals, visit Toyama city and analyze the proposal and effectiveness of the projects for compact cities in Toyama and Aomori, it’s possible to see that the implementation of compact city policies helped both cities to deal with their problems. Since Toyama city was having problems with the decreasing number of users of transportation system and the increasing number of stores that were closing in the central area. With these policy Toyama could bring people back to the central area that’s where the public transportation system runs. And as the transportation and central area become accessible for everyone, the elderly started to go out and fell safe to use it, different from the suburban areas, where there is just a few buses and almost everyone uses car to go to one place to the other.

Different from Toyama city, where the number of users of the public transportation is big, especially the elderly, in Takaoka city, a Toyama’s nearby city, there are a few people walking on the city even in commercial areas and Takaoka’s transportation system also doesn’t contribute to the displacement since the frequency of buses and trains is very low making the city looks like abandoned.

The city of Aomori, after the implementation of its plan to become a compact city, managed to bring the population back to live in the central area of the city, one of the great goals since the city has great expenses each year with the snow removal and with the city growth into suburban, the expense of snow removal increases. So bringing the population back to the central area and creating the inner-, mid- and outer-city, Aomori’s can control the urban growth to suburban areas and keeps the city budget. And as Toyama, Aomori also could increase the number of users of the public transportation after these actions.

Despite Fukuoka city doesn’t have policies become a compact city, its promotes the use of public transportation in the city as well as Toyama and Aomori do, with it the city trade remain active and secure. In addition, the city has deployed the BRT in which 130 people can ride at once in an articulated bus and it’s also accessible for disabled people, elderly and people with baby carriage making easy to go around the city. Even Fukuoka city isn’t a compact city and doesn’t has actions to become compact, its actions are favorable to all citizens, being possible to go everywhere easily just using the public transportation.

After analyze the three Japan’s cities, it’s possible to see that the actions adopted by Curitiba since 1970 has many similarities to Japanese cities actions like the implementation of public transportation to discourage the use of private vehicles and increase the population quality of life, since with more people using the public transportation and less using private vehicles, the traffic decreases and the air quality is improved.

Although compact city policies have been almost exclusively for developed countries, Curitiba city, in Brazil is an example in which these ideas were implemented in a developing country and achieved success. So, these policies shouldn’t be restricted to developed countries since the problems are common to all.

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VIII. ANEX 8.1. Toyama’s tram

Toyama city has a public transportation network formed by four railway lines (two operated by Japan Railways and two operated by Toyama Chiho Railways), two tram lines and Toyama Light Rail Port Line (Portram) and also bus lines. All these public transportation are been improved in order to become a compact city and provide better quality of life for all citizens.

8.1.1. Toyama tram lines (CENTRAM and SANTRAM)

The Toyama’s tram lines (figure 17) are connected with the Toyama Station (JR line), located at the center of the city. Departing from Toyama Station there are three tram lines, the loop line also called as CENTRAM, which has 13 stops, 3.7km of extension and takes approximately 26 minutes to complete the route and more two lines, the orange and the green ones. The orange tram route, is composed for 22 stops and 5.7km of extension, taking around 38min to go to all stations and the green tram route is composed by 15 stations, 3.8km of extension and it takes approximately 20 minutes to make all route.

On the Toyama’s tram lines, there are two types of trams the articulated car and the single car (figure 18). The articulated cars are barrier-free (figure 19 and 20) in order the single cars have stairs to enter in it (figure 21 and 22). There is also a difference between the trams that runs on the loop line and on the other line (orange and green line), the one’s that runs on the loop line, called CENTRAM, are divided in two parts, and the one’s that runs in the regular lines, called SANTRAM, are divided in three parts.

Figure 17: Toyama’s tram map Authorship:https://www.chitetsu.co.jp/english/trams/

Figure 18: Toyama types of trams Authorship: https://www.chitetsu.co.jp/english/trams/

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Figure 19: Barrier-free CENTRAM train Authorship: author photo

Figure 20: Inside of a barrier-free CENTRAM train Authorship: author photo

Figure 21: Non barrier-free train Authorship: author photo

Figure 22: Inside of a non barrier-free train Authorship: author photo

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8.1.2. Toyama PORTRAM Line

The other Toyamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tram line is the Toyama Light Rail Port Line, called PORTRAM. This tram line also starts at Toyama Station, but on the opposite side of the CENTRAM and SANTRAM line departures.

This line was renewed in 2006 and now is composed by 13 stations, starting at Toyama Station (north exit) and going until the bay side, at Iwasehama, taking around 24 minutes to run all stations (figure 23). On this line, after the renovation, all trains and stations become barrier-free and on some trains there are Light Rail attendant to help who needs (figure 24 and 25).

Figure 24: PORTRAM train Authorship: author photo

Figure 23: PORTRAM rail map Authorship: http://www.tsunagujapan.com/ eco-friendly-streetcars-run-all-over-the-country-every-day/

Figure 25: PORTRAM train, with light rail attendant Authorship: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71h8xUhYH2L._SL1143_.jpg

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