Policies for employment centers in metropolitan regions

Abstract

The paper describes the methodology that underpins an EASTS International Collaborative Research Activity (ICRA) on the dynamics of poly-centric employment formation and associated land-use and transport policies. The selection of metropolitan case studies is explained. The general forces that have lead to the decentralization employment from predominantly mono-centric city structures to poly-centric nodal structures or to dispersed employment patterns are outlined. Planning represents a market intervention and the methodology of the comparison of urban policy is presented. Indicative results are presented for 10 cities from Asia and Australia. A critical commentary is made on the barriers to implementing major employment centres embedded in spatial plans. The conclusions deal with first evaluation and discuss further research into policy analysis on this EASTS IRCA.