Chreod Group Inc. News Feed

ADB Project Highlight: Rapid Assessment of City Carbon Emissions

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has commissioned Chreod Ltd. to support the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities Center in the development of a methodology for assessing cities’ energy and CO2 emissions, and modeling impacts of alternative development scenarios arising from changes to transport and more energy-efficient forms of metropolitan growth. Chreod will model transport, land use, density, and development intensity scenarios for three pilot cities: Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Dalian (China), and Colombo (Sri Lanka).

Chreod President new Board member of Annex Residents Association, Toronto

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Chreod’s President, Edward Leman, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Annex Residents Association and Co-Chair of its Planning and Zoning Committee. The ARA is one of the oldest civic action groups in Toronto. It has been at the forefront of numerous efforts to promote balanced development in one of the city’s most unique collection of neighbourhoods, including opposition to the Spadina Expressway extension in the 1970s and, more recently, active participation in the Bloor Street Visioning Study which defines urban design guidelines for one of Toronto’s most important inner-city corridors. The Planning and Zoning Committee reviews all development applications and planning initiatives affecting the Annex and acts on the ARA’s behalf in supporting or opposing these initiatives, and in mediating disputes between residents, developers, and the City government.

World Bank Project Highlight: Multi-hazard City Risk Index

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0400

The World Bank has retained Chreod to design a methodology for calculating present and future risks to cities from natural hazards, including those arising from climate change. The methodology will include: assessment of metropolitan elements at risk; calculation of hazard probabilities; exposure analysis; vulnerability analysis; and individual risk calculation and aggregation. The model will be tested extensively in Bangkok (Thailand), Ningbo (China), and Manila (Philippines) prior to its application in a larger number of cities around the world.

ADB Project Highlight: New Development Strategy for Chongqing, China

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

The Asian Development Bank has retained Chreod to lead a team in advising the Municipal Government of Chongqing on its development strategy to the year 2030. The contract calls for a comprehensive assessment of development opportunities and constraints across Chongqing, and the preparation of policy options for restructuring the metropolitan and provincial economies, fostering social inclusion and equity, managing urban and suburban growth, and strengthening municipal financing. Chreod will work closely with colleagues from the Shanghai Development Research Center (SDRC) on this assignment. Located along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongqing is one of four provincial-level municipalities in China; it has a population of 33 million of which 9 million live in the core metropolitan region, including more than 3 million rural migrant workers.

International Advisory Group

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Chreod is pleased and honoured to announce the formation of an International Advisory Group to the firm, comprised of renowned Canadian and international experts in their fields. The Group will advise Chreod’s management on priorities for supporting the sustainable development of metropolitan regions worldwide. Members of the Group are: Gerhard Braun, Head of the Urban Studies Group in the Institute of Geographical Sciences at Freie Universitдt, Berlin; David Dowall, Professor of City Planning at the University of California (Berkeley); Om Prakash Mathur, Principal Consultant and Professor of Urban Economics and Finance at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in New Delhi; Patricia McCarney, founding Director of the Global Cities Program at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto; George E. Peterson, Senior Fellow in International Public Finance at the Urban Institute, Washington, DC; Rйmy Prud’homme, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University Paris XII; Ingrid Stefanovic, founding Director of the Centre for Environment and a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto; Richard Stren, Professor of Political Science and the former Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies at the University of Toronto; and Wang Yizhi, Director of the Information Institute in the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

OECD Publication: Designing Local Skills Strategies

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

OECD has released Designing Local Skills Strategies, an analysis of best-practice local strategies for increasing workforce skills for which Chreod contributed a chapter. The book which also assesses the opportunities and challenges presented by international migration at the local level. It includes in-depth case studies ranging from Shanghai’s “Highland of Talent Strategy” to new “career ladders” which help immigrants escape low-skilled, low-paid employment in New York. National and local-level recommendations on local skills development are provided for both OECD and non-OECD countries. Chreod’s Managing Director for Asia, Zhang Rufei, researched and wrote the case study chapter on Shanghai.

GTZ Project Highlight: Chreod completes Shanghai Global-city Strategy

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Shanghai’s rapid evolution into a post-industrial metropolis is transforming the city’s economy, social system and culture, and the metropolis’ linkages globally and with the wider Yangtze Delta Region, China’s principal engine of economic growth. The Cities Alliance provided grant financing to GTZ, the German Development Corporation, to conduct a strategic assessment of Shanghai’s global potentials for the Shanghai Development Research Center (SDRC), the government’s top policy think-tank. Chreod and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences were retained to jointly conduct the work over a two-year period.

Chreod and SHASS presented key findings of their final report at a closing workshop in Shanghai in August that was attended by senior officials of the Shanghai Municipal Government, The Cities Alliance, GTZ, and local business and academic leaders. The final report will be published by GTZ and SDRC in early 2010.

OECD Project Highlight: Chreod completes work on OECD Territorial Review of Guangdong Province, China

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Chreod has completed its report to the OECD on regional development trends and challenges in Guangdong Province, once the economic powerhouse of China. After a year of research, including extensive field investigation, Chreod’s report

analyses shifts in Guangdong’s competitiveness and recommends strategies for regional development that could better realize the province’s comparative advantages. This was OECD’s first Territorial Review in China. Our work enables OECD to recommend far-reaching strategies to the provincial government for restructuring Guangdong’s economy, adjusting regional development policy, and focusing capital investment on improving accessibility to strategic centers, improving human capital, and strenghtening local innovation capacities.

World Bank Project Highlight: Lessons from China’s Decentralization for South Asia

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

The World Bank’s South Asia Department has retained Chreod to document, for the benefit of South Asian policy-makers, China’s processes for allocating resources, responsibility, and authority for urban expenditures, especially infrastructure investments, among levels of government and among government, quasi-public agencies and the private sector.

Presentation at World Bank Urban Research Symposium, Marseille

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Chreod’s President, Edward Leman, presented a paper on 30 June in Marseille at the World Bank’s Fifth Urban Research Symposium 2009 on Cities and Climate Change: Responding to an Urgent Agenda. Mr. Leman’s paper — “Towards an Adaptation Strategy for Shanghai and the Yangtze Delta Region” — describes key development trends in Shanghai and the Yangtze Delta, the region’s exposure to severe climate events, potential impacts if trends continue, institutional constraints to the preparation and implementation of effective adaptation strategies, and recent experiments in regional governance that could be harnessed to overcome these constraints.

IFC Project Highlight: Economic Development Strategies for Worst-hit Counties in Wenchuan Earthquake

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0500

The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation has retained Chreod to prepare economic renewal strategies for the three counties in China most severely damaged by the Richter 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake of 12 May 2008 in which 90,000 people perished. Extensive field investigation and consultations will be conducted in Qingchuan, Beichuan, and Wenchuan Counties. This is Chreod’s fourth assignment for the World Bank on Wenchuan Reconstruction. Within five days of the earthquake, Chreod provided the World Bank Office in Beijing with detailed mapping of the affected areas using intensity data (MMI) from the US Geological Survey’s Earthquake Center, and Chreod’s China-wide GIS at the town, township and street committee level. Chreod was subsequently retained to prepare a Policy Note on guidelines for urban and town planning for reconstruction, one of nine Policy Notes that the Bank submitted within 30 days of the earthquake to State Council, China’s Cabinet. Chreod was then retained to conduct a baseline analysis of socio-economic conditions, prior to the earthquake, in all affected counties and cities for use in preparation of a $710 million Emergency Loan. Chreod was then asked to join the Bank’s appraisal team, and to conduct the economic analysis for the proposed Loan.