Current Research

Urban Regeneration and Housing Policy

Water-Sensitive Urban Planning and Design

Understanding Social Change in Urban and Rural Communities

Urban Resilience

Urban Regeneration and Housing Policy

1. Housing Regeneration Strategies: Towards Evidence-Based Practice

2. Housing Renewal and Structural Reinforcement in Israel’s Peripheral Towns

3. Housing Cooperative In Israel: Challenges and Opportunities

4. Affordable Housing in Central Cities of the Developed Economies

1. Housing Regeneration Strategies: Towards Evidence-Based Practice

With post-doc Nava Kainer Persov
Funded by ISF – Israel Science foundation (270,000 NIS)

Housing regeneration is a main and necessary component of urban renewal, and will continue to be necessary in the foreseeable future in almost every city in the world. The research aims to (1) conceptualize the enormous amount of available information about projects of housing regeneration; (2) develop a method for ex-post evaluation of the projects, focusing of social justice considerations; (3) try the suggested method in the field, in order to enable evidence-based practice.
Preliminary results of an extensive literature survey identified three main strategies of housing regeneration that are currently implemented in Western countries, including Israel: (a) rehabilitation of the existing physical and social fabric; (b) demolition and redevelopment; (c) intensification of the existing urban housing by adding units attached to the existing ones or in their immediate proximity. A survey of the literature on evaluation of urban programs, especially impacts of housing regeneration projects on social equity, has led to proposing the following three evaluation measures: (a) distributive justice – costs and benefits for the most vulnerable stakeholders;(b) procedural justice – participation in decision-making; and (c) social mix in the new residential areas – mix of incumbent and new residents.
The ex-post evaluation is comprised of two units: an international unit – secondary analysis, a kind of meta-analysis of data from selected cases of housing regeneration from various countries, a few cases for each of the three identified strategies; only cases on which rich data was published and is available have been selected; an Israeli unit – primary data collection from projects of housing regeneration that are part of two different strategies, demolition and redevelopment (Pinui u’binui) and housing intensification (TAMA 38), using quantitative and qualitative research methods, including household survey of long-time and new residents. Similar questions are examined in both units, emphasizing the study of results of the regeneration projects in terms of social equity measures, while distinguishing among outputs, outcomes and impacts.

2. Housing Renewal and Structural Reinforcement in Israel’s Peripheral Towns

With Prof. Yechiel Rosenfeld, Planner Tami Gavrieli and students Inna Burstein and Doron Assis
Funded by Israel Ministry of Housing and Construction (230,755 NIS)

TAMA 38 is a national Israeli program to reinforce existing older buildings against damage by earthquakes. It takes advantage of the central urban planning system in the country to provide incentives for developers and homeowners; they receive building permits for housing renewal, both for expanding existing apartments and for adding new residential units on top of old buildings, providing that they strengthen the building and add anti-missile shelter rooms. The economic incentive where land values are high, in the center of the country, has been strong enough for a few thousand projects to be currently in process. However, none of them have been initiated in the peripheral regions, where land values are low, or along the Syrian-African Rift, where the risk is much higher than in Tel Aviv metropolitan area. Our research is intended to address this problem and suggest ways to overcome it.
Interim findings, based on literature surveys and interviews with practitioners, have led to develop alternatives to the national plan, alternatives that are designed to work synergistically in order to enable the program to be applicable where land values are low. Architectural alternatives, structural alternatives and financial alternatives for strengthening residential buildings and regenerating them are being studied, as well as special community-related and organizational-related guidelines that are being developed. The general conclusion that may be drawn is that the goals of urban regeneration and urban resilience, each on its own, cannot be achieved; however, simultaneous planning towards the two of them creates a synergy that enables achievement of both, even in urban areas with low land value.

3. Housing Cooperative In Israel: Challenges and Opportunities

With Dr. Efrat Eizenberg and MSc student Aviv Negbi

A housing cooperative is a legal entity that creates joint ownership of real estate. A housing cooperative constitutes intermediate housing tenure, between ownership and leasing; and like other intermediate tenures, it aims to promote housing stability, grant the tenants control over their living conditions and environment, and offer housing prices below market prices. Throughout the Western world, cooperatives constitute an accepted form of housing tenure; about 10% of the housing units in Europe are organized as cooperatives. In light of the continuously rising housing costs in Israel, and the diminishing prospects of many people for obtaining housing, the absence of a cooperative housing solution in Israel becomes ever more glaring.
This study explores the possibility of establishing housing cooperatives in Israel, examining their feasibility, the barriers facing them, and the opportunities available to them. The study aims to examine the cooperative model for populations that are currently struggling to achieve housing stability in Israel. To this end, we have chosen three population groups for which a housing cooperative might provide a solution: lower-middle-class citizens, low-income households, and single mothers.
The study begins by analyzing and characterizing three models of cooperative housing from different countries, each addressing one of the three target groups identified in the Israeli arena. The second phase of the study includes interviews with fourteen experts in the field of economics, law, culture, cooperatives, and housing policy in Israel. Thematic analysis of the interviews enables us to identify the opportunities and barriers facing the creation of Israeli housing cooperatives, in each of the experts’ fields. In the third phase of the study, three focus groups were gathered from among the three chosen target populations. The focus groups seek to learn the participants’ perceptions on housing and their housing needs, as well as to delineate the various housing aspects represented in cooperative housing, and to find out the participants’ attitudes and perceptions regarding those aspects.
In accordance with the nature of this study, its key conclusions will be practical, most of them actions towards removing obstacles and using the opportunities to make the establishment of housing cooperatives in Israel feasible.

4. Affordable Housing in Central Cities of the Developed Economies

Part (A) Affordable Housing in Global Cities
With Dr. Nati Marom
Part (A) was funded by Lady Davis Foundation (completed)

The research reviews and analyzes critically contemporary housing policies and plans in London and New York, in the context of neoliberal urban governance. We find in both cities severe housing affordability problems, an increasing dependence on provision of affordable housing by the market, and a gradual shift from support of low- and moderate-income residents to promoting housing for households around and above median income. Affordable housing plans in both cities also link their “marketplace” orientation to “social mix” objectives. The research addresses socio-spatial implications of these plans and raises concerns regarding the implementation and unintended consequences of mixed-income housing. It discusses ideas and tools for more equitable affordable housing policies. Finally, we suggest that our analysis of the policy trends in London and New York, and the implications we draw, can be relevant to other global and globalizing cities, which face similar affordability concerns and rely on the marketplace to address housing needs.

Part (B) Housing Renewal Projects and the Availability of Affordable Housing
With post-doc Nava Kainer Persov
Part (B) is in process

Housing renewal projects in Israel of the 21st century are typical public-private initiatives of the neo-liberal era, which assign first priority to the financial concerns of private developers, respect home owners and completely disregard renters. Two strategies of renewal are common: demolition and redevelopment (pinui u’binui) and intensification of the urban fabric. The intensification (TAMA 38) takes the form of adding space to existing units in selected buildings besides adding floors with large apartments to the same buildings, or the form of replacing a building by a taller one with larger apartments. All current renewal projects have taken place in the central regions of the country, because this is where land value is high enough to create large profits for developers.
The immediate outcome of both strategies is a gradual elimination of smaller and older apartments, i. e., gradual elimination of affordable housing units in Israel’s central cities and towns. In parallel, the extended apartments and the high-standard of the new residences that are the results of these renewal projects play a significant role in the trend of rising housing prices in these cities and towns. The research is designed to quantify these trends and explore the differentiation between the two strategies. Although both reduce dramatically the chances of lower-income households to reach affordable housing in these localities, at least one is hypothesized as contributing to the opportunities open to lower-middle-class households to improve their housing conditions in areas they may want to live in, and do that for prices they can afford.

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Water-Sensitive Urban Planning and Design

1. Sustainable Urban Stormwater Management: Assessment of Goals Achievement

2. From Conventional Drainage to Sustainable Stormwater Management: Beyond the Technical Challenges

1. Sustainable Urban Stormwater Management: Assessment of Goals Achievement

With Porf. Tal Alon Mozes, Prof. Michelle Portman and MSc student Nadav Shapira
The research is being conducted in the framework of the Center for Water Sensitive Cities in Israel, funded by the JNF –Jewish National Fund (200,000 NIS)

Water-Sensitive Planning – WSP – is an approach to sustainable development that was developed in Israel by Carmon and Shamir (1997, 2007, 2010). It integrates management of water resources into urban and regional planning, with special attention to storm water management. It directs planners and engineers to collaborate ab-initio and through all phases of urban planning and design, in order to achieve water-related and ecology-related goals, simultaneously and synergistically with economic and social goals.
Based on the WSP approach, this research develops a tool for assessing the level of goals achievement of implemented projects, which integrate urban stormwater management with landscape design, including assessment of the level of synergy reached by a project. The usefulness of this tool will be demonstrated by means of investigating case studies in Israel, with special attention to the “Lake Park” project in the city of Rishon LeZion.
The assessment tool is designated mainly for use by municipal authorities. It is intended to provide a new platform, which demonstrates the diverse potential benefits offered by WSP projects, in general, and projects of sustainable stormwater management, in particular.

2. From Conventional Drainage to Sustainable Stormwater Management: Beyond the Technical Challenges

With post-doc Shula Golden, Porf. Tal Alon Mozes and Prof. Michelle Portman
The research is conducted in the framework of the Center for Water Sensitive Cities in Israel, funded by the JNF –Jewish National Fund (175,000 NIS)

Cities increasingly recognize the value of adopting Sustainable Stormwater Management (SSWM) principles and measures. As compared to conventional drainage infrastructure, designed to remove stormwater rapidly from the city, a Sustainable Stormwater Management approach can produce multiple ecological, social and economic benefits. These include contribution to biodiversity, groundwater quality and quantity and attractive urban landscapes, in addition to flood mitigation. International experience has shown that scientific knowledge and technologies need to be complemented by changes in a range of social and administrative factors, in order for a widespread shift to SSWM to occur.
This research uses a single-country case study (Israel) and employs institutional analysis to explore changes among these social and administrative factors. We reviewed Israeli research, documents, plans and professional changes. This was complemented by interviews with professionals in national and regional bodies responsible for drainage and stormwater management, and a workshop with representatives of a dozen municipalities and related consultants.
We found significant development in professional awareness and discourse, followed by some advances in professional standards of work and the regulation system. However, the multi-goal SSWM approach has not been internalized sufficiently by professionals or by regulation. We concluded that the urban and regional planning system is useful as an integrator of spatial planning and SSWM, an integration that is necessary to achieve the potential multiple benefits of SSWM. For authorities interested in such a shift, we recommend working simultaneously on cultural-cognitive changes, transformation of professional standards and alteration of regulations, and as far as possible, using incentives based on identification of relevant interests to encourage the desired changes, and not resort to imposed regulations.

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Understanding Social Change in Urban and Rural Communities

1. The 2011 Protests as a Global Social Movement

2. Studentification in Peripheral Communities in Israel: Socio-Spatial Relationships between College Students and Local Residents

1. The 2011 Protests as a Global Social Movement

With PhD student Sarah Gpldberg
Funded by the Glass Balaban Foundation (25,000 NIS)

The research has two objectives: (a) To explore and explain the process that carried citizens to the streets in the global social protests of 2011; (b) to contribute to the theory of social movements. The theory of social movements is divided into several schools of thought, each explaining some part of the relevant subject; this research intends to achieve a more comprehensive explanation of the phenomenon by integrating the insights of several strains of social movement research into an original model.
The research is designed to answer the following questions:
(1) What explains the occurrence of the protests in 2011?
(2) What explains the similarities and differences among the protests in different countries?
(3) What was the function of cities – cities’ people and cities’ spaces – in the protests of 2011?
The 2011 protests spread around the globe and reached more than 1,000 cities in 80 countries. As this is a doctoral research with limited resources of time and money, a decision was made to investigate in depth only two countries: The protest of J-14 or social justice protest in Israel – about 0.5 million participants out of 7.5 million citizens; and the Occupy Wall Street protest in the US – estimated 100,000 participants out of 310 million citizens. In each country the focus will be on the protest events in the city that is the economic and cultural capital of the country: Tel Aviv in Israel and New York in USA.
The main sources of data for the research include:

Scientific publications – books, refereed articles and research reports on social movements and on the 2011 protests, with particular attention to publications about the two selected cases.
Data collected by international bodies –by the UN, EU, ILO (International Labor Organization) and OECD.
Traditional media – at least two national newspapers will be selected for in-depth research of their coverage of the protests, probably: Ha’aretz and Yediot Aharonot in Israel; New York Times and USA Today in the United States.
Documents written by the protesters and published on their internet sites, activists’ blogs, distributed handouts and the like.
Partly structured interviews with experts – in each of the selected countries several interviews will be conducted with scholars who have studied the 2011 protests in their country.
In-depth interviews with protest leaders, about 12 in each of the two selected countries.

2. Studentification in Peripheral Communities in Israel: Socio-Spatial Relationships between College Students and Local Residents

With MSc student Chen Naor
Funded by the Council of Higher Education in Israel through the Social Hub at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning in the Technion (15,000 NIS)

The term studentification describes social, cultural, economic and environmental changes that occur in a residential area as a result of a substantial presence of students who rent places to live in the private housing market, not far from their academic institution. The phenomenon was identified at the beginning of the twenty-first century in Great Britain, following conflicts that erupted between local residents and students in many university towns. Since then, research on this topic has steadily developed in many countries, but not in Israel, in spite of the growing numbers of students and colleges.
This research examines the phenomenon in the Israeli context and focuses on the geographical periphery of the country, specifically in the regions of Sapir College in the Northwestern Negev and Tel-Hai College in the Upper Galilee. The purpose of the study is to determine whether the presence of students in the region constitutes a ‘blessing’ for the residents, or is it a source of difficulties and conflicts. The study’s goals are: (a) to characterize the students and their residences in the areas of the colleges, while distinguishing between town and the rural communities in each region; (b) to examine the relations between students and local residents; and (c) to identify the implications of the students’ residences on their socio-spatial environment.
Since this is a pioneering study on the topic, a flexible research design was needed. It includes a variety of instruments: analysis of available statistical data; questionnaires filled by students and statistical analysis; observations; interviews and conversations with local residents and leaders; and telephone interviews with local officials.
The findings show that many students prefer living in rural communities located near the towns of Kiriyat Shemona and Sderot, in spite of their distance from the colleges. The implications associated with the students’ living arrangements in the different communities are mainly positive, a result which differs from findings in international studies on the topic. Among the underlying reasons for these positive implications: the students came from a higher socio-economic class than the local community (especially in the towns); they were perceived as being a quality population, a desirable social elite; many of the students rented units that were adjacent to the housing of the leaser, and as a result, joint interests were created for maintaining good neighborly relations. Another reason was associated with the volunteer work of the students in the community.
This study contributes to existing knowledge by examining the phenomenon in the Israeli context that has rarely been researched; it presents and characterizes a new concept – rural studentification. Furthermore, it points to a unique way of coping with the phenomenon from the perspective of local and national authorities. The study includes recommendations for public policy and for the practice of planning of student housing in the vicinity of institutions of higher learning.

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Urban Resilience

1. Urban Resilience – The Concept and the Factors that Influence It

2. Towards Resilience Strategy for Cities and Towns in Israel

1. Urban Resilience – The Concept and the Factors that Influence It

With Prof. Amnon Frenkel and PhD student Aya Dolev (submitted for funding)

The research goals are to define and measure urban resilience, to identify factors that may support it and those that hinder its development, and to examine the influence of these factors on urban resilience. A basic assumption is that the local authority is a key factor that determines coping with emergency events. Hence, a decision was made to see the emergency-related capabilities of the local authority as a proxy of urban resilience – the dependent variable in this study. The data for investigating these capabilities have been obtained from a special data system managed by the Home Front Command (Pikud haOref) of Israel Defense Forces; this will be the first civil use of this special data system.
Two groups of factors will serve as independent factors: first, the resources of the residents, including their economic capital, human capital and social capital; second, the resources of the local authority that include its organizational-economic capital and its political capital. Geographic and structural variables, such as the size of the city and its geographic location will serve as control variables. The data for measuring these variables will be obtained mainly from the Central Bureau of Statistics. The research is based largely on quantitative analysis, on factor analysis to reduce the number of variables, multiple regression analysis and more, but it will also have a qualitative part, designed to explain some of the results of the quantitative analysis.
The research will enable assessment of the level of resilience of localities in Israel, including the factors that enhance or hinder its progress. Decision makers will be able to use the results to develop policies and plans to better cope with various emergency events.

2. Towards Resilience Strategy for Cities and Towns in Israel

With M.Sc. student Romy Couriel (initial stage of work)

This research is intended to focus on the kind of risks that are threatening Israeli cities and towns, whether nature-caused or human-caused risks, and on the time line of coping with an emergency event: before it happens – mitigation (activities to reduce the vulnerability) and preparedness (warning systems, for example); when it happens – response (first aid, for example); and after the event – the recovery process.
The leading goal is to enhance the level of resilience in Israeli towns and cities, to improve the capabilities of coping with mega-risk events. The empirical work is inspired by the idea of “learning from success”: three success stories from other countries will be investigated, based mainly on data that were gathered by the Rockefeller initiative of 100 resilient cities, and two relative success stories in Israel, one in the larger city of Haifa and the other in the smaller town of Sderot. The products are planned to serve as foundations for building a resilience strategy for various kinds of cities in Israel.

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