Search Results (10)

In response to the call of the New Urban Agenda—Habitat III for a reinvigoration of long-term and integrated planning towards sustainable urban development, this paper presents an empirical comparative study of planning practices based on the “satellite city” and “new town” concepts in Tokyo and Shanghai to examine from a long-term perspective how well they have guided polycentric urban development at a time of massive population growth. We aim to deliver evidence-based contributions to boost the knowledge transfer between the Global North and the Global South. The paper adopts a multi-dimensional framework for the comparative analysis, including a review of long-term urban development policies and an inspection of the population distribution and extent of built-up areas using time-specific categorizations to map the spatiotemporal changes based on GHSL data. The comparative analysis shows that urban plans in Tokyo and Shanghai based on satellite cities and new towns as steering instruments for polycentric urban growth management have not lived up to the original aspirations. In fact, the intended steering of population distribution has essentially failed, despite the practical steps undertaken. Full article

Digitalizing cities has become increasingly complex and difficult to control despite advanced computational tools. The comprehension of emergent, dynamic agent–pattern interaction is limited. Studies show that the implementation of large-scale plans occasionally fails to meet expectations due to uncertainty in urban actor processes and institutions. Theories of complexity and resilience reflecting urban unpredictability and non-equilibrium enable understanding and planning methods for guiding actors. We explored empirically via close reading and spatial analyses the ability of the traditional master planning instrument to steer the actor allocation in Tampere, Finland. The plan apparently failed to appropriately guide the actors, who formed self-organizing patterns colliding with the planning aims enabled by deviations and lower-level planning instruments. The planning mode was either enabling or reactive. We recognized three types of self-organization: single-point attraction, emergent type, and location-based self-organization. Self-organization was the major force behind urban transition. Only certain large-scale projects in the city center somewhat complied with the planning aims, however through negotiations. We proposed planning solutions encouraging and guiding self-organizing patterns by recognizing complexity in strategies, and with loose plans, constant monitoring, correcting, and experimenting in planning. The results participate in building more general knowledge of planning considering self-organizing urban dynamics and provide applications for urban planning. Full article

Adapting spatial development to the challenges of climate change is a major task facing cities. In particular, urban heat islands caused by increasing average temperatures and urban growth are a challenge for cities. The use of climate simulations to assess current and future urban heat stress is a helpful approach for supporting this transition. In particular, green and blue infrastructure helps to reduce the urban heat island effect. These cooling effects can be analysed using simulations. However, a central challenge is that urban adaptation to heat needs to be implemented consistently at different planning levels. A second major challenge in adaption is identifying the amount of urban green infrastructure required in order to achieve a specific cooling benefit and establishing this by means of planning instruments. This article presents two case studies in the city of Vienna to demonstrate how climate simulation tools can be used across different planning levels if they are standardized. When combined with a green and open space factor as a steering instrument, the necessary amount of greening for subsequent planning processes can be secured. The result is a multi-scale toolset consisting of three climate simulation models and a green and open space factor, coordinated, and standardised for use at different levels of planning. Full article

In this systematic review, I cumulate previous research findings indicating that sustainable urbanism and networked public governance can be instrumental in carrying out extensive sustainability and resilience objectives through steering urban transformations in the direction of sustainability and resilience. Urban analytics data infrastructure, multicriteria sustainability evaluation, and sustainable performance assessment display the intricate network dynamics operational within cities, impacting urban resilience decision-making processes and leading to equitable and sustainable urban development. Throughout July 2020, I conducted a quantitative literature review of the Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest databases, search terms including “sustainable urban planning,” “urban sustainability assessment,” “sustainable urban governance/urban sustainability governance,” “sustainable urban development,” “sustainable/sustainability behavior,” and “environmental performance.” As I focused on research published exclusively in the past two years, only 301 various types of articles met the eligibility criteria. By removing those whose results were inconclusive, unconfirmed by replication, or too general, and because of space constraints, I selected 153, mainly empirical, sources. Future research should investigate whether the assessment of environmental sustainability performance of heterogeneous urban configurations by shared sustainability policymaking through spatial green infrastructure planning and regulations articulate sustainable urban design and governance for the development of innovative performance. Full article

Studying the selection of planning instruments in flood prevention can be critical to gain a better understanding of governance. This choice is underestimated in the flood management literature. This paper fills a knowledge gap in flood management governance by examining the rationales for the choice of instruments. The study is grounded on a comparative illustration of planning instruments in flood prevention in three European countries: England, France and the Netherlands. Flood prevention through spatial planning is a specific example, as the implementation of the Floods Directive has reactivated the role of spatial planning in urban agglomerations. The choice of instruments is never neutral. In the field of flood management, alignment among strategies is supposed to lead to resilience. Instruments should be aligned and coherent. Is that the case? The article explains the challenges of governance configured by a conflict between the spatial planning policy steered by local authorities and the risk prevention policy led by national authorities. This model is further complicated by the tension between the preference for legal, technical or scientific instruments, and the difference in professional culture between planning and prevention. The selection of instrument shows that if their conflicts are exacerbated to debates on variables or parameters, it is because there is no political agreement on the balance between development and security. Full article

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be grouped into three domains, the environmental domain, the social domain and the economic domain. These different layers influence each other; hence sustainable progress in the economic layer cannot be achieved without good progress in the two other layers. To achieve the SDGs, transitions in the current system are needed and actions should be taken that support transitions and contribute to short term needs and long term (global) goals. Therefore, it is necessary to have knowledge of transitions and understand the different phases of transition. In this paper we discuss the key role of the soil-water system in these transitions and the achievement of the SDGs by 2030. The increasing pressure on land calls for multi-use of land and for the restoration of degraded land. Healthy soils and healthy land are the basic conditions for the successful implementation and realization of the SDGs. To enable a sustainable management of the soil and water system a transition approach is a prerequisite. In the X-curve used to describe transitions, soil and land stakeholders are given a framework, which provides perspective for action, specifically for science and governance stakeholders in each phase of the transition. This framework can provide the required intensive guidance to (i) analyze the impact of provided incentives, (ii) identify new reference points in the transition and (iii) stimulate transition catalysts, and (iv) innovate by testing cutting edge policy instruments in close cooperation with society. The key to make the necessary transitions and realize the SDGs by 2030 lies in the intensive guidance to combining initiatives, steering knowledge flows and continuously assessing the stage of the transition, in order to plan specific steps needed to progress in the transition framework. Both scientist and policy makers have an important role in this guidance. Full article

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be grouped into three domains, the environmental domain, the social domain and the economic domain. These different layers influence each other; hence sustainable progress in the economic layer cannot be achieved without good progress in the two other layers. To achieve the SDGs, transitions in the current system are needed and actions should be taken that support transitions and contribute to short term needs and long term (global) goals. Therefore, it is necessary to have knowledge of transitions and understand the different phases of transition. In this paper we discuss the key role of the soil-water system in these transitions and the achievement of the SDGs by 2030. The increasing pressure on land calls for multi-use of land and for the restoration of degraded land. Healthy soils and healthy land are the basic conditions for the successful implementation and realization of the SDGs. To enable a sustainable management of the soil and water system a transition approach is a prerequisite. In the X-curve used to describe transitions, soil and land stakeholders are given a framework, which provides perspective for action, specifically for science and governance stakeholders in each phase of the transition. This framework can provide the required intensive guidance to (1) analyze the impact of provided incentives, (2) identify new reference points in the transition and (3) stimulate transition catalysts, and (iv) innovate by testing cutting edge policy instruments in close cooperation with society. The key to make the necessary transitions and realize the SDGs by 2030 lies in the intensive guidance to combining initiatives, steering knowledge flows and continuously assessing the stage of the transition, in order to plan specific steps needed to progress in the transition framework. Both scientist and policy makers have an important role in this guidance. Full article

In accordance with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), Norway has made the river basin the basis for coordination of sectoral policies. New units of River Basin Districts and Sub-Districts have been introduced. In each district, the joint water management plan and program of measures is formulated by cross-sector and multi-level networks. This network structure is added to and clearly subordinated to the primary structure following the sectoral principle and hierarchical steering. Therefore, the WFD objectives of good environmental status of all waters must be integrated into the goal structure and policy priorities of different sector authorities and levels of government. This paper examines whether and, if so, how the activities within the secondary structure of water governance influence the policies and practices of the agricultural sector regarding diffuse water pollution mitigation. The analyses of sector policy documents and water management plans reveal that even though the WFD’s aim of good ecological status of water is integrated into the objectives of the agricultural environmental program, only minor changes have been made in instrument targets and settings. Economic incentives and voluntary measures still dominate. This leads to the conclusion that the corporatist governance mode of the agriculture sector dominates the sector’s choice of policy objectives and instruments. Full article

In recent decades, Serbia has been undergoing a period of post-socialist transition that has significantly altered the value system underlying spatial development due to alteration of ownership frameworks and land use rights. In consequence, issues have arisen of how to strike a balance between the various interests involved in the distribution of spatial resources and how to control the outcomes of public policies. Land use planning has been identified as an efficient instrument for implementing the public policy value framework. The objective of this paper is to identify the key points of land use planning in relation to urban forest management of significance for the maintenance of urban forests in the environment of post-socialist institutional transformation in Serbia. Seen as an institutional structure, the practice of land use planning in Serbia is the product of a stable interaction between the set of interrelated rules, procedures and organisational units that allows spatial development outcomes that take into account and safeguard land resources and, ultimately, urban forests. The research was carried out in relation to the concept of institutional transformation across three scales: macro/governance, meso/coordination and micro/agency: (a) components of the regulatory framework; (b) procedures for cooperation between stakeholders; and (c) specific activities of land use planning practice. As a result, the concept of Land use Planning for Urban Forest Protection (LUPUFP) in Serbia was established. It identifies components of institutional structure of importance for regulating system changes in the post-socialist transition environment and steering them towards the establishment of a value framework that allows the agenda of saving urban forests to be implemented. Full article

Who owns the soils? What seems to be a straightforward legal issue actually opens up a debate about the ecosystem services that can be derived from soils and the distribution of benefits and responsibilities for sustaining functioning and healthy soils. In particular, agricultural land use may be constrained by a lack of properly defined property rights. Using the new institutional economics perspective, we show that multifunctionality of soils and an attribute-based property rights perspective substantiate the intuition that land property implies special obligations towards the common good. The concept of ecosystem services can illustrate the variety of beneficiaries of multifaceted soil ecosystem services. This allows identification of reasons for unsustainable soil management that result from imperfections in the definition of property rights. We suggest implications for improved governance of agricultural soils using two case studies in the EU context: the EU Common Agricultural Policy and the use of planning instruments to steer agricultural soil use in Germany. Thus, we contribute to achieving the societal goals of more sustainable land use by detecting causes of shortcomings in current land regulation and by suggesting governance approaches to support a more sustainable management of agricultural soils. Full article