Valuing Urban Realm
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Colin Buchanan has concluded the latest phase of the ‘Valuing Urban Realm’ research programme for Transport for London (TfL) with the launch of a Valuing Urban Realm Toolkit for practitioners.
The Toolkit is the first of its kind; providing a robust appraisal tool that enables designers, planners and economists alike to prioritise investment between schemes through the consistent economic evaluation of the benefits they deliver. What is more, the Toolkit has been specifically designed to accommodate users who are not familiar with traditional cost-benefit analysis techniques, and only requires a few simple inputs to produce an assessment of value for money. A step-by-step ‘How to’ guide is also available to Toolkit users.
The Toolkit and user guide is available to download at: http://urbandesign.tfl.gov.uk/Valuing-Urban-Realm/Toolkit.aspx
The Toolkit incorporates the findings of CB’s previous phases of research for Transport for London, including ‘Business cases for public spaces’ (2006) which established users’ willingness to pay for being in a higher quality environment, and the (positive) impact of public realm improvements on residential and retail property values which was first established in our ‘Paved with Gold’ study for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and subsequently incorporated into TfL’s research programme.
Colin Buchanan is now working with TfL to develop new methods for quantifying and valuing the health and social benefits of improving the public realm. The first stage of that research has required an extensive review of existing evidence on the links between improved urban environments and positive health and social outcomes, the findings of which will soon be available on the website above.