Economically Incentivising Smart Urban Regeneration. Case Study of Port Louis, Mauritius

Abstract

Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius, has been the preferred city for hosting the judicial, political and business activities of the country for the past two centuries. However, new policies have created nine new smart cities in greenfield locations within 10 km from Port Louis, so the capital city is facing economic decline as it is losing businesses, as well as administrative functions. This loss equates to an erosion in municipal revenue along with a reduced interest in contributing to the development of the city; all of which takes a toll on its urban economic landscape, as well as on the broader Mauritian economy. This paper builds from the findings of a focus group study to propose a smart urban regeneration model for the City of Port Louis, which could enable the old city to be restored and regenerated rather than redeveloped in modernist architecture, as has happened in the new smart cities model. A smart urban regeneration model is proposed backed by the pillars of smart infrastructure, culture, metabolism and governance. The proposed model is applied to the context of Port Louis to generate an urban regeneration scheme. The potential benefits in terms of financial outcomes, investment attraction and job creation are explored through a combined application of econometric forecasting models. The results support positive figures of both investment and job creation, and the findings of this study aim at informing and providing the governing bodies of Port Louis with a tangible solution for revamping the centuries-old capital city, as well as demonstrating to the world that smart cities can mean sensitive urban regeneration.Keywords: urban regeneration; economics; culture; port louis; smart cities; fiscal measures IntroductionNested in the North-West littoral side of the Island of Mauritius and bounded inland by a mountain range, Port Louis extends over an area of 46.7 km 2 . With a total population of 119,333 inhabitants as at December 2016, the capital city of Mauritius is the most densely populated geographical district of the island with 2954 P/km 2 [1]. Port Louis hosts the only trade port of the island and has been the main administrative centre from a judicial, political and business perspective for more than two centuries. However, within the last decade, there has been an emergence of Techno-parks and privately-owned smart cities across the island which opened a new competitive landscape for businesses and administrative functions [2]. There have been notable highlighted risks that the loss in business and administrative functions from both the state and privately-owned organisations will eventually lead to an erosion in municipal revenue [3]. Lesser financial input will trickle down to lesser budget availability not only for city development but also for its maintenance. This might lead to an increase in urban decay, as has been the case with Detroit in USA [4]. In fact, at the moment more than 95% of municipal revenue is used for administrative ends such as salaries for the employe...

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