The Relationship Between Mega-Events and Urban Planning
Urban planning is a discipline concerned with minimizing land-use incompatibilities and creating order over land. The discipline comes in hand in the effective functioning of cities through land-use and infrastructural guidelines provisions (Black, 2018). Over the years, events have increased in magnitude and impact on society. Most of these events affect more than the social aspect of society. They bring together people of diverse political standings, economic backgrounds, and cultures (Taha & Allan, 2019). For this reason, events held within a particular community have different impacts on the normal way of life of the community in which they are held. In a particular context, events have an impact on the planning of urban centers as well as infrastructure development within these regions. A mega event is characteristic of a large crowd or congregation settled for one purpose in an area. The most common mega-events in the world of sports include the world cup, the Olympic games, and the super bowl (Kim & Kang, 2020). All these events attract spectators from different parts of the world. For this reason, it is essential for the government to adequately set up the right infrastructure and services to support such a population. Municipalities, towns, and cities should be designed in a way to achieve efficiency during high population densities.
Consequently, these events are held in cities that are already densely populated. Most of the foreigners visiting these areas for the events may not be conversant with the provisions on the novel place such as parking, public transport, essential utilities, and accommodation (Kassens-Noor, 2019). What this means is that it is the responsibility of the hosting local authority to ensure that the visitors have the amplest time while visiting the region. Some of the ways through which authority in charge of a mega event can ensure that visitors are comfortable is the provision of efficient transport systems, adequate parking, ease traffic along major highways, efficient access, and circulation. As mentioned above, most of these visitors may be visiting the cities for the first time (Kim & Kang, 2020). Without understanding the directions of the stadiums from the hotel and vice versa, navigation through the city streets becomes a hard task for the visitors. For this reason, a clear demonstration of the directions from the hotels to the stadiums would be crucial in the success of these mega-events.
The high population density of attendees may in one way or another freeze busy towns and cities on en-route to the venues. Therefore, the location of the stadia and stages is crucial (Kassens-Noor, 2019). Stadia should be strategically located in areas accessible by cheap transport means from the hosting town, such as road or rail. This ensures that the event will not cause havoc-like congestion within the city, which might adversely affect the normal operations and cripple essential services and systems such as crippling businesses. (Azzali, 2017).Existing stadia should be equipped with efficient infrastructural and transport provisions. Such provisions ensure the attendees get on the events without many challenges. The ultimate implication of these investments in infrastructure will be more events being hosted in these cities. This will create more business locally and more revenue for the local authorities (Li, Wang, Yin & Li, 2019).
Law enforcement is an important aspect in the implementation of directives during a high influx of population, regarding maintaining order when applying special measures to cater to the population. Some cities have in the past closed certain roads to public use and assigned these roads only to people attending the events. Ultimately, this makes the movement of the people attending these events easier.
Adequate and proper parking are necessities during mega-events. Local authorities, working in conjunction with urban planners have the mandate to instill proper parking requirements during events (Shoup, 2018). On-street parking and normal business-office parking is not adequate, which propagates for interventions for event parking, visitor, and guest parking. Most of these people may opt to use private means of transport. For this reason, the cities should assure the visitors of a safe space to park these vehicles while witnessing the event. Additional visitor parking spaces may be designated exclusively for events, and clear guidelines on the allocation of the parking lots. City developers are required to construct stadiums in parts of the city with enough space to construct sufficient parking spots(Kassens-Noor, 2019).
Nonetheless, stadia should be designed to accommodate the target population, with secondary viewing plans for non-attendees. (Taha & Allan, 2019). Imagine a situation where people have to watch the super bowl in turns because they cannot fit in the stadium. A worse scenario would be people buying tickets to the super bowl but failing to witness this event due to insufficient space. To avoid these scenarios, local authorities, contractors and urban planning experts indulge in the design phase to advocate for a spacious and accommodative venue.
Unlike smaller events that can be held in public squares, theatres, and campus, mega-events attract more people and need more security measures to be in place (Li, 2018). The best way to ensure that high-security measures can be enforced on a large crowd is by containing the crowd in a stadium. The safety and security of attendees are essential for the future of the event world. (Taha & Allan, 2019). Furthermore, there are international standards set by different event organizers that must be met by local authorities before they are allowed to host these mega-events. Stipulated guidelines include the design aspect that accommodates safety and security in the incidence of emergencies and uncertainties in the venue. (Li, 2018). These stadia are viewed as an investment. The more events are held in the city, the better for businesses within the city. The ultimate responsibility is to the local authorities to provide safety and security during terrorist attacks or accidents. Some of these mega-events attract individuals from different parts of the world. Some of these people are not aware of their surroundings. This makes them easy targets for crime (Li, Wang, Yin & Li, 2019). Additionally, some individuals in attendance could essential. This makes such individuals lucrative targets for criminals. One of the most important aspects of visiting a new location is being assured of your security while visiting. For this reason, city authorities are expected to put measures in place to ensure that they promote the security of their visitors (Azzali, 2017). One of the ways of promoting security during mega-events is by enforcing movement restrictions or curfews in unstable regions of the city. Although this measure can be seen as suppressive, it could make the difference between a secure and insecure event. Another way to ensure this is through thorough security screening of individuals attending the events. The better the security measures as the entrance to the events, the more secure the event is likely to be.
Mega events provide opportunities for cities and municipalities to invest in supporting businesses such as the hotel industry (Bauman and Matheson, 2018). Urban planning comes in hand in ensuring there is proper design and access to lodgings, cafes, other recreation facilities, and are as per the required standards. A properly planned structure of the hospitality industry shall yield more for the city apart from making the visitors comfortable. For instance, if several multibillionaires get to spend the night in hotels within the city, this will increase the hotel revenues (Kim & Kang, 2020).
However, for these individuals to spend the night in these local establishments, they must be ensured of their security. For this reason, providing the dignitaries with additional security might have a positive economic impact on the city. Moreover, if these individuals feel appreciated, there are higher chances of developing positive relationships with city authorities (Li, Wang, Yin & Li, 2019). There is a saying that life is about the relationships one makes. Having a good relationship with local authorities could entice these wealthy individuals to invest in local businesses. This ultimately contributes to further development of the cities in which these events are held. This has been witnessed through the economic development of cities that have hosted the FIFA world cup and Olympics in the past. Most businesses established in these cities continue to thrive long after the mega-events due to the positive relationships established during the events.
Another implication that mega-events can have on cities is a direct impact on the businesses. One of the most outstanding characteristics of mega-events is that they attract large crowds of people both locally and globally. These people often come from countries with different cultures and values from those of the host country (Li, 2018). For these reasons, you find that upon visiting these countries, the visitors are interested in having new experiences. One of the ways of enjoying new experiences is through consuming products and services not found in the home country (Diugnan and O’Brien, 2017). It is unheard off of a person visiting a mega event and not spending a dime on anything besides the event. Necessities such as food, transportation, and accommodation require visitors to depend on the local businesses. For these reasons, irrespective of social standing, all people attending these events have an economic impact on the local businesses. (Azzali, 2017). Urban planning can be essential in optimizing business locations over the urban spatial framework for maximum tapping by the attendees.
Planning for major events requires the availability of utilities such as water and sanitation. Moreover, mega-events have an impact on city planning in terms of water and sanitation services. For most cities, water and sanitation services are never sufficient. This means that cities and municipalities are always putting in the effort to improve water and sanitation services. Under normal circumstances, however, it may take longer for these services to be optimized. However, when a mega event is expected to be hosted in the city, such plans are often expedited. This is because water is critical to public health. Additionally, unlike the residents, the visitors may not expect to face water problems(Li, Wang, Yin & Li, 2019). This means that if a city fails to plan on ensuring that these services are efficient when the visitors come, the visitors may suffer disappointment. What this means for the city is that people will no longer fancy visiting the city. The low the rate of foreigners willing to visit a city, the low the likelihood of the city hosting any mega-event in the future. Consequently, the city will miss out on opportunities created by hosting mega-events.
Local authorities should deploy disaster preparedness systems for the events. Most mega-events involve activities that encounter uncertainties endangering human life; additionally, due to the increased population density in a city caused by a mega-event, the likelihood of getting into an accident increases (Benis and Notea, 2018). Moreover, the fans are often crowded increases the chances of injury. Any city that would like to host an event of this proportion should make sure that its emergency services are prepared to handle any incidences that may arise(Li, Wang, Yin & Li, 2019). The benefit of this to the city is that even after the event is over, this infrastructure remains operational (Bama and Tichaawa, 2020). For this reason, cities that have hosted more mega-events have a higher likelihood of enjoying more advanced healthcare systems.
Urban planning is an essential discipline in mega-events. Adequate systems need to be in place for efficiency. These include but not limited to effective transport systems, adequate parking, and disaster preparedness, among others. Moreover, mega events have positive implications for cities, such as economic development through investments and growth of support services.
References
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