2017 Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon 11-14th July

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/1812

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 336

Open Access
Investigating the role of resilience theory in assessing sustainability of coastal tourism destinations: the case study of New Zealand
(AESOP, 2017) Ismail, Kareem Adel
The connection between resilience theories and human intervention methods such as coastal management and tourism activities was and remains to be an interest of many researchers in local and international scales. The interest of researchers arises from the growing environmental threats to coastal areas and the importance of tourism in the local and global economies. Their work has focused in two main directions. One direction has focused on measuring ways to decrease the negative effects of tourism on ecological systems. The second direction has been to investigate better ways of incorporating tourism activities within coastal management plans and increasing tourism’s contribution to coastal resilience rather than focusing only on reducing its impact on the environment. Harvey (2006) highlighted that there is a major knowledge gap in the study of the ability of coastal megacities and small communities in the Asia-Pacific region regarding adaptation to changes. He recommends that giving more focus towards developing planning systems, assessment methods, and coastal management techniques could fill such a gap. Pisano (2014) highlighted the need to incorporate the resilience concept when dealing with our vulnerable systems including coastal areas. Luthe and Wyss (2014) highlighted the knowledge gap in the study of the relationship between tourism governance and resilience and emphasised that resilience has an explanatory power to clarify ways that tourism activities could adapt and even transform under various pressures. Luthe and Wyss (2014) also highlighted how tourism systems could be approached as interrelated Socio-Economic-Ecological Systems (SEES) and that developing resilience in such systems would increase their capacity to deal with stresses while maintaining the stability of a tourism-related economy and at the same time ensuring the diversity needed for innovation and future development. They discussed how current assessments of functional tourism networks complement resilience understanding and how tourism systems could adapt with both slow and prompt change processes. In the New Zealand context, there is a knowledge gap regarding assessing the resilience of coastal tourism destinations. The attention has been given to evaluating the socio-economic and environmental impacts of tourism in coastal destinations in relationship to climate change.
Open Access
The profile of risk governance (in municipal planning) in Portugal
(AESOP, 2017) Mileu, Nelson; Queirós, Margarida
This paper aims to define a risk governance profile for hazards with direct intervention in spatial planning, considering the various perspectives involved in Portugal. In risk management, relations between the different levels of the State acquire a successively relevant role, taking into account approaches of cooperation between the national, regional and local actors. Recognizing for the Portuguese case, the weight and influence of the State in the management of risks and the growing diversity of actors and interests involved in land use planning, we question the distribution of responsibilities in risk management among government actors at different geographical levels (local, regional, national) and, beyond the State, which stakeholders and interests. Based on an adaptation of the model proposed by Walker et al. (2013), a risk governance profile was defined for Portugal for hazards\risks with direct intervention in spatial planning, considering the various perspectives involved. In order to support the identification of the governance profile, an online questionnaire was built and an email was sent to the target public, in 2014. Unlike the model advocated by Walker et al. (2013), where a qualitative and non-measurable risk governance profile is chosen, the adaptation of the survey considered an evaluation scale. The identification of the different stakeholders involved in risk management was based on the information obtained from the literature review, analysis of the legislation and discussion with some of the key actors in the field of civil protection. Among other conclusions, the obtained risk governance profile highlight a relevant role of local government actors in the decision-making process, a low culture of multi-stakeholder participation\involvement, and infrequent and limited risk public communication. At the same time, it showed the interest manifested by the technicians of the local administrations focused on the decision on the spatial development, guaranteeing compliance with the legislation. The importance of the risk governance profile derives from the possibility it offers in the identification, evaluation, management and communication of risk, as well as a relevant basis for the development of a spatial decision making support system on the transformation of land uses that integrates the analysis of natural and technological risks.
Open Access
Lisbon social dimension in urban resilience
(AESOP, 2017) Dias, Joana; Partidário, Maria Rosário
The world has been facing a continuous increase in the number and size of urban areas. Social dynamics changes are inevitable, calling for the need to examine and monitor urban systems, in particular urban resilience to social problems and to changes in socio-ecological systems. This paper intends to analyze and understand how the municipal policies in Lisbon have been contributing (or not) to the resilience of the urban system, through a social dimension. We have looked at what is that socially drives the urban system, what, why and how social disturbances and changes affect its resilience, and how the municipal policies may contribute to it. A literature review on urban resilience and social innovation was developed to identify a proper methodology to be adopted and to identify the main elements to be addressed in this analysis. The methodology adapted consists of five steps: (i) translation of the social dimension into urban resilience, through social dynamics and social innovation concepts; (ii) definition of the focal scale; (iii) identification of indicators; (iv) development history; (v) interpretation from the perspective of long-term resilience. In applying the methodology to the city of Lisbon, the city governments´ policies were analyzed, and the social drivers, social disturbances, and changes affecting the urban system resilience identified and assessed. The results indicate that demography, social vulnerability, mobility and city attractiveness prove to be key drivers to assess the social contribution to urban systems resilience. These key drives can be applied to other cities with the same urban development typology as Lisbon. Research on the Lisbon's system showed that the city has been facing, over the last 50 years, a mix of desirable and undesirable qualities. Desirable qualities seem to facilitate the urban system's transition to a sustainable behavior, building urban long-term resilience; while the undesirable qualities can be seen as an opportunity to reverse the city social disturbances negative trends by changing current city governance policies.
Open Access
Study on the space growth boundary delimitation of Mizhi county in China based on the compact development concept
(AESOP, 2017) Wu, Zuobin; Liu, Yepeng; Huang, Jiaying
The loess plateau region in northern Shaanxi province in China is characterized by loess hilly and gully, fragile ecological environment, scarcity of land resources. The delimitation of space growth boundary is critical to the intensive use of land resources and the compact development of space. How to delimit the compact space growth boundary becomes the focus of attention and research. The urban space growth boundary is one of the earliest urban land management policy tools adopted by the United States under the new urbanism in the West. The concept was presented in 1976 by Salem, Oregon, USA [1]. Its goal is to curb the social, economic and environmental problems brought about by the spread of the city. Urban space growth boundary is not to curb the development of the city, but through the space boundary to limit the development of the city in a clear geographical space. Thus, city's disorder expansion is blocked while meeting the needs of urban development [2]. Once the urban space growth boundary has been put forward, it has become one of the hotspots of urban planning. Many scholars at home and abroad are committed to many aspects of practice and research, such as the concept of its connotation and impact analysis, the formation of mechanism analysis, delineation methods and related management strategies, application in planning [3-7]. In the traditional urban space growth boundary delimitation method, mainly in static analysis, dynamic simulation of two types of methods, the specific technical means, including ecological suitability evaluation, binding CA model, BP neural network, SLEUTH model [8-10]. In the planning practice, planners often use the urban ecological suitability evaluation, and then take the empirical value to delimit the urban space growth boundary. And also some scholars have made a reference to the overall planning of urban construction land to determine the scope, that is, plus 25% of the floating rate on the scale of the construction land in master plan [11]. In general, different demarcation methods have their own strengths. But the association with the goal of urban space growth boundary is weak, which is the intensive use of land. In addition, there is a lack of adaptability research between two elements, regional natural terrain conditions and urban surrounding ecological environment factors, the urban space growth boundary and its urban space development trend adaptability, the urban space growth boundary and urban space development endogenous needs [12]. In this paper, the method of delimiting the boundary space of urban space has made a response to this problem, which is of great significance to the compact growth of urban space.
Open Access
The spatial distribution of urban heat vulnerability and coping strategies in Beijing
(AESOP, 2017) Kai, Chen; Yan, Tang
Under the influence of global climate change and local urbanization, the heat wave is thought to be more intensified and frequent. So far, the definition of heat wave has not been reached a general agreement all over the world, but severe consequences caused by heat waves on health effects have been demonstrated in many cities. With the constant process of Asia’s urbanization, heat wave events will be the uppermost one of extreme weather conditions that Asian cities have to confront in the future (IPCC,2014). Thus, it is emerging objectives for urban planning that how to efficiently reduce the urban vulnerability and prevent public health from the current or potential risk of heat wave events. Similar to other extreme weather conditions, impact areas of heat wave event are distributed unevenly. Thus, before reducing urban heat vulnerability (UHV) by means of urban planning, to identify the place and people vulnerable to heat waves is the fundamental basis for variant planning strategies. In terms of spatial pattern caused by the heat wave, the intra-urban variation of magnitude and duration during heat waves is significant. Some studies find urban heat island (UHI), a atmospheric phenomena that city area warmer than its countryside, aggravates the intensity of heat wave events within the urban area (Yang and Chen et al., 2015). In turn, higher temperature during heat wave events make UHI effect more significant. With the interaction between heat waves and UHI, urban residents have to be suffered from a higher risk of consistent heat stress. In addition to the variation of geographical range, the difference of heat-related health is another aspect need to be identified. Under the same weather condition, some people may be affected more than others. The research from public health recognizes general characteristics of people that are vulnerable to heat waves by the case study of heat-related mortality and morbidity, which includes age, economic characteristics, pre-existing health condition and thermal environment (Harlan and Brazel et al., 2006). Therefore, mapping UHV, which emphasize not only vulnerable areas, but also susceptible people, is urgently needed.
Open Access
Translating new conceptions of climate change risk into urban climate change risk assessments and adaptation responses
(AESOP, 2017) Connelly, Angela; Carter, Jeremy; Handley, John; Hincks, Stephen; Moosavi, Somayeh Taheri
Identifying and assessing risk is common across a number of disciplines from health sciences to disaster risk management to critical infrastructure protection. Yet, the climate change adaptation community has preferred a vulnerability-based framework in order to conceptually understand and respond to climate change (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2012). However, since 2012, the main scientific organisation that leads on climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has reframed climate change in order to look at risk rather than vulnerability. Such a move intends to harmonise the climate change adaptation community with those working in the allied discipline of disaster risk management (Aven & Renn, 2015). There is a further supposition that the risk-based concept can help to shift the focus from top-down, science-first vulnerability assessments to risk assessments that can better include a range of stakeholders (Meadow et al., 2015). There is, however, scant literature on the means of co-producing risk assessments. There are also potential difficulties in translating the new risk-based concept into practice, particularly in spatial planning which combines expertise from a range of disciplines. The definition of risk differs across disciplines and sectors (Thywissen, 2006; Wolf, 2011). In addition, existing climate change adaptation projects have used vulnerability-based conceptual frameworks, and there is therefore a question mark over the way that their resultant data can be easily reused.
Open Access
Spatial transformations through migrant crisis in Greece
(AESOP, 2017) Lianopoulou, Vasiliki; Stavridou, Kyriaki; Vogiatzaki, Maria-Eleni
Although migration is not new, in recent years Europe has to deal with an entirely unanticipated reality. Since European migration crisis began in 2015, the number of people that have arrived at European Union borders through regular or irregular channels has continually increased. This migration surge rapidly became the largest and most challenging that Europe has faced since the World War II (European Union, 2016a). The term “migrant crisis” is preferred instead of “refugee crisis” explained by analyzing the desegregation of migrants and refugees arrived in Europe by nationality. According to UNHCR (2017a), Syrians constitute the 6.4% of total arrivals in the Mediterranean and 38.5% in Greece. This statistics constitutes an indisputable proof that Europe and Greece, in particular, faces a migration crisis with intense refugee waves. Since 2015, a large proportion of migration flows has directed to Europe through the countries of the Mediterranean – South (Metcalfe-Hough, 2015). Greece is the country of first entry for the vast majority of migrants and refugees arrived in Europe by sea or land because of its geographical location. Greek Islands of the Aegean Sea have greeted more than 70% of arrivals between 2015 and 2016 (UNHCR, 2017a). Thus, throughout this period, the country has been converted into a transit zone for migrants to Central and Northern Europe. Migration/refugee movements formed “corridors” from East to Western Europe; through Turkey and Greece to the mainland EU, which is their final destinations (Frontex, 2016).
Open Access
The urban risk assessment: a methodological proposal
(AESOP, 2017) Maragno, Denis; Musco, Francesco
The risks for cities and natural environment coming from the climate change seems to give back substance to the considerations on urban sustainability, a word rich in promises, but poor in applicative content. The Global Risks Report 2016 considers all the possible potential impacts on global scale, measured in a Cartesian system. In the diagram, the x-axis defines the probability of occurrence, and the yaxis shows the impact degree on economies, population and environment. The highest position, caused by a high probability and a devastating impact on world scale represents a failure of adaptation and mitigation policies. Then the migration caused by wars and environment disasters follows, and the third position is assigned to water scarcity (both attributable to the climate change consequences). Today the challenge of climate change represents one of the most complex scientific and political questions of the 21th century. International institutions like IPCC, OCSE, FAO, UNDP, just to mention a few, identify climate externalities like extreme rainfalls, heat and drought waves as scenarios of high environmental impact for the next 100 years. The worst-case scenarios in economic and human life terms will occur above all in the cities (Betsill, Bulkeley, 2005; Biesbroek, Swart, van der Knaap, 2009; Van der Veen, Spaans, Putters, Janssen-Jansen 2010). The climate change topic enters local political agendas, pushed by the urgency perceived on an international level, though finding difficulties in application.
Open Access
An output of paradigm-shift in urban planning: “resilient transportation” and examination on city of Istanbul
(AESOP, 2017) Ciris, Seckin
Throughout the history, urban planning experienced several changes and developments with the light of economic, politic, demographic, social and environmental characteristics of existing time period and effects of these features on society. An example of these developments is the emergence of the idea of seeking a comprehensive and multi-faceted solution to the negative situations of cities in the early 1990s in the context of "sustainable planning". The question of how our cities will react in the face of adverse conditions has become a matter of debate. The focus of this debate lies in the fact that cities and the inhabitants of the city struggle with sudden changes and threats. Aim of this study is determination of necessities for integrating urban transportation with urban resilience concept and examination of basic approaches for this integration method. One of the most important subject is identification of policies and scenarios in so that resilient transportation concept works with urban transportation system in harmony and reflection of this harmony to city as a whole. In addition to this, the determination of working principles integrated with different disciplines (social sciences, economic sciences, etc.) and the inclusion of macro and micro scales into urban planning are among the topics to be elaborated. Finally, on the Istanbul city, analysing existing potentials and possibilities in the context of urban transportation and making of policies, scenarios and solution alternatives are discussed on the city of Istanbul.
Open Access
Drought risk, farmer communities’ perceptions and planning for resilience in rural Crete, Greece
(AESOP, 2017) Sapountzaki, Kalliopi; Daskalakis, Ioannis
Drought incidents may originate from both, manmade and natural factors and are characterized by uncertainty. The present paper attempts to shed light on the interrelations between exposure, drought perceptions and the adaptive responses opted by agents attempting to cope with drought risk and to provide insights into the planning processes implemented at the levels of the individual agents and the water management authorities. The choice of personal versus collective resilience strategies is largely a function of risk perception and the availability of resilience assets, but it is also a matter of power relations and alliance forging. The farming communities and the local self-government authorities of Messara plain in rural Crete provide the testbed on which the authors have attempted to scrutinize their initial assumptions by using appropriate questionnaires and interviews with key-staff of planning authorities.
Open Access
Climate adaptation in regional planning in Germany
(AESOP, 2017) Schmitt, Hanna Christine
The legal basis of the German spatial planning system is the Federal Planning Act (Raumordnungsgesetz des Bundes, ROG), which defines the core task of spatial planning to be the “anticipatory, comprehensive, supra-local and cross-sectoral organisation of the spatial and settlement structure for the medium and long term” (ARL, 2005, p. 965). Within the German planning system, regional planning is the intermediate level of comprehensive planning, bridging the (political) frameworks of the national level, sectoral planning and the (practical) implementation at the local level. It concretises the aims and guiding principles of comprehensive spatial planning of the national and federal-state level for all planning regions and prepares regional plans in accordance with § 8 (1) no. 2 ROG. Due to regional planning’s comprehensive, supra-local and yet spatially-specific character, it is qualified for addressing impacts of climate change. This becomes especially valuable in the light of absence of a separate sectoral planning division responsible for considering climatic changes (ARL, 2013; BMVBS, 2009; Federal Government, 2008).
Open Access
Climate change adaptation measures for Italian coastal cities
(AESOP, 2017) Magni, Filippo; Magnabosco, Giacomo; Musco, Francesco
Coastal areas are commonly the geographical space of transition between land and sea, comprising of the land near the coast and the adjacent territorial waters. These areas include diverse systems such as delta environments, humid areas, lagoons, small islands, low-lying coastal plains, sandy beaches and sedimentary coasts. The borders of a coastal area are often defined arbitrarily and can be divided up among nations. Due to their own nature, these areas are intrinsically dynamic systems characterised by interacting morphological, ecological and socio-economical processes
Open Access
Regional resiliency: exploring the emergence and resiliency of two regional initiatives in the Netherlands
(AESOP, 2017) Alagic, Alda
In the past few decades we have observed a proliferation of regional initiatives labelled in various ways. Some refer to city-regions, appealing to some kind of territorial coherence of adjacent cities, others to learning -, creative -, or competitive regions, ascribing to the region human abilities to learn and create. Even though such regional initiatives are very distinct from each other in their appearance and process of development, most of these initiatives are results of actor networks with some kind of common interest crossing the administrative boundaries of cities. As such, from an actor-network perspective, it can be argued that regions emerge through network activities between various actors who in first place prioritise meaningful (economic) relations above spatial scale and fixed demarcations. In the same line, regions are thought as a landscape of perpetual overlapping processes of becoming. Such regional processes develop at a certain grade of complexity and uncertainty of how relations (re)assemble and how do they become resilient. Consequently the dynamic context of changing relations also implies a different role for planners in regional initiatives. Even though it seems impossible to plan for such complex and volatile regional processes, planning activities occur and regional concepts emerge in co-evolution with other socioeconomic processes. In this paper we will explore the emergence of two regional initiatives in the Netherlands and their resiliency. More specific we want to address the meaning of the regional concepts in relation to the resiliency of regional initiatives. One, Brabantstad, is a governmental initiative concerning five middlesized cities in the province of Brabant. The other, Eindhoven-Leuven-Aachen- Triangle, is a cross-border regional network including Flemish and German cities Leuven and Aachen. With the help of Assemblage Theory and Actor Network Theory we will investigate which conditions lead tonmore (or less) resilient and robust regional initiatives and their capacity to transform their context.
Open Access
Resilience through a methodology to plan green infrastructures
(AESOP, 2017) Fasolino, Isidoro; Grimaldi, Michele
The increasing use in recent years of the word resilience when considering sustainable development, linking relief to development, adaptation to climate change and the need to give greater priority to addressing vulnerability has been much discussed. It has proved attractive because it appears to offer a way to bring different disciplines and perspectives under a single conceptual umbrella. The impacts of urban sprawl on peri-urban landscapes include, among other things: loss of natural habitats for species; lack of natural water retention areas; negative impacts on water quality; negative impacts on human health, mental/physical wellbeing, recreation, social interaction; impacts in terms of climate adaptation. The climate crisis is hitting a territory in which the hydrogeological instability has made the mountain slopes unstable and fragile and where the lowland areas improperly exploited, particularly in the vicinity of rivers, have become spaces of devastation due to floods and landslides. The territory has suffered profound and disfiguring changes in terms of structure, function and, consequently, of resilience capacity to these extreme events (Fasolino, 2017). Green Infrastructures (GI) can mitigate the effects of climate change and extreme events that they pose, managing, for example, the devastating power of floods or landslides, re-establishing spaces and functions (Austin, 2014; Benedict and McMahon, 2006; Lafortezza et al., 2013). The main elements of GI include parks, private gardens, agricultural fields, hedges, trees, woodland, green roofs, green walls, rivers and ponds. The theme of GI is closely related to Ecosystem Services (ES), which are fundamental to maintaining the resilience of a territory. We propose a methodology for the effective planning of a GI network that will help achieve numerous benefits, including: reducing risks to people and property, improving psychological health & well-being, boosting local economic regeneration and providing a habitat for wildlife. There are currently any tools available and many more emerging. The challenge is to ensure that well planned GI, providing functions which will meet numerous planning objectives, can go beyond the purely scientific and environmental framework and become an integral part of public policies; but this requires thorough planning, design and management. This paper shows how to develop a GI network using existing European data. Most input data for the Geographic Information System (GIS) was taken from published and reclassified sources for analysis purposes. The choices made during the data processing and analysis are based on expert opinions and are open to public control. In conclusion, to achieve the resilience of a territory, it is very important to promote the mainstreaming of risk assessments into land-use policy development and implementation, including into urban planning.
Open Access
Visual interactive support for cross-domain simulation and new information flows in early stage planning processes
(AESOP, 2017) Forster, Julia; Kaufmann, Thomas; Bothe, Dominik; Voigt, Andreas
For the development of urban areas within existing urban systems, which concentrate on sustainable ways of energy supply and therefore essential cooperative planning processes, interactive software systems holding digital city models can enable visual driven support. The offered visual support provides a communication basis for the interdisciplinary actors within these complex planning processes. Within an interdisciplinary research project a visual planning and decision support system, named the ‘URBEM-Visualization‘, has been developed. This system allows to geographically pinpoint information of urban systems within a multi-dimensional city model. Thus, it offers multi-scale and cross-domain handling of information within different calculation scenarios regarding energy supply. Based on a development area in Vienna, located at the train station “railway station Vienna West”, which offers high potential for a sustainable agglomeration and the use of built grid infrastructures, a “planning test run” is evolved. Within this planning test run, new designs of housing developments and different possibilities for the electrical and thermal energy supply related to building energy demands are evaluated, analyzed and visualized. Based on this planning test run the paper exposes how visual interactive decision support strengthens the cooperation of the interdisciplinary planning team as well as the planning process. Furthermore, this interdisciplinary consolidation facilitates a rethinking process, changing historical driven top-down planning processes. It shows how visual output of simulation data regarding energy supply networks allows the design of new feedback-loops of information flows and how this can supply decision makers in early stage planning processes.
Open Access
Flood risk mitigation: from engineering to ecosystem-based measures : The benevento case study
(AESOP, 2017) Galderisi, Adriana; Treccozzi, Erica; Limongi, Gaida
In the last two decades Europe has faced a strong increase of flooding events. Out of 325 flood events recorded from 1980 to 2012, indeed, more than 200 occurred in the 2000s (EEA, 2012). Among all natural hazards, more than 64% of the damages are due to hydro-meteorological events, namely to floods and landslides, with costs higher than 13 billion euros since 2000 (EEA, 2013a). If on the one hand the increase of heavy downpours can be ascribed to climate change, on the other hand the amount of damage has to be imputed to the significant, and sometimes uncontrolled, urbanization processes (EEA, 2017). Therefore, both of these matters have to be addressed in order to prevent future flood disasters. Climate change, intended as “a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period”, is caused by “internal processes” or by “persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use” (IPCC, 2001). The subversion of natural patterns has led not only to the increase of the sea level and of the mean temperatures but also to “changes in the frequency and magnitude of heavy precipitations” (EEA, 2017) that are expected to become even more frequent over the 21st century. Meanwhile, the population’s strong migration toward cities has enhanced the growth of urban areas with the consequent processes of land take and soil sealing (EC, 2012). In Europe, since the 1950s, the amount of impervious surfaces has registered an increase equal to 78%, with an increase of only 33% of the population (EC, 2012)
Open Access
Living the climate resilient city—Hangzhou’s ‘five water co-lead’ strategy
(AESOP, 2017) Liu, Dan
Climate awareness in urban planning has increased from 2011 due to more frequent occurrences of extreme-weather disturbances in Chinese cities. To deal with climate-related disturbances, the notions of urban resilience and resilient planning have gained increasing attention and interest over recent years in the field of water management and urban planning. A simple definition of resilience is the ability of a city to absorb disturbance while maintaining its functions and structures (Holling, 1987, 2001; White, 2010). With the challenges of climate change, planners and decision-makers in China realize that it is possible that resilient strategies provide more adaptive and flexible approaches in decision-making. In planning practice, however the concept of resilience features in many policy documents, the implications for planning policy officials remain unclear in the case of Hangzhou, China. Drawing on information from a review of policy documents supplemented by interviews with policy officials, this paper aims to understand key issues in transitioning to climate resilience in Chinese cities through a study of Hangzhou. The main body of the paper is structured in three parts. The first section presents a review of the notion of resilience and examines its relevance for urban planning and climate change. The second part provided the assessment of planning strategies related to climate change in the city. Specific attention is paid to how planning processes in the city consider or deal with the climate risks that it presents. The third part explored the challenging areas – spatial data infrastructures, climate planning, green infrastructure planning, limiting urban sprawl –as viable facets for sustaining urban transition strategies.
Open Access
Chinese experience in delta cities: to what extent does Guangzhou city`s spatial planning system facilitate the initiatives in resolving flood risk?
(AESOP, 2017) Meng, Meng; Dabrowski, Marcin; Stead, Dominic
Spatial planning is supposed to denote innovations in resolving flood risk. However, taking spatial action is never an easy task. This study aims to explicate the reasons for this difficulty by illustrating why the urban flood risk mitigation is struggling to be tackled of locally despite the growing flood risk in delta cities. It does so by investigating the recognition of flood risk in the spatial planning system. Specifically, Guangzhou, a city located in the Pearl River Delta and vulnerable to fluvial, pluvial and coastal flooding, is taken as an example in this research. By using the method framing analysis, the paper finds that the road to face the flood risk in Guangzhou is still at an emerging process from informal activities to formal legislation. With a pace changing from a dedicated to an integral issue, there is an appeal for a combination between nature-based options and engineering options. In spit of these progress, there is still a mismatch between this policy intent and real practitioners. Due to the weak sense of identity in flood-proof initiatives among practitioners, the road toward a more resilient city is challenging.
Open Access
A model for the pursuit of robust urban form
(AESOP, 2017) Hall, Tony
The starting point of the argument to be presented here is that the physical structure of urban areas lasts from many decades to several centuries. Without rebuilding, it can constrain, or even prohibit, specific urban activities that are thought desirable and being planned for. In contrast, economic and social forces will change markedly over the same time period and it is desirable that the physical structure should be designed to cope with these changes. Growth of settlements is the norm rather than the exception and, at the very least, there is no basis for assuming that a city will never expand beyond its existing limits. As urban areas expand, it becomes necessary to retrofit them by inserting new, and adapting existing, buildings and by renewing and extending the infrastructure. Increases in residential density will result and will require similar retrofitting. If, therefore, a city is to be planned it must be robust: it should be designed to accommodate change, particularly the expansion of infrastructure, on a continual basis. Although, at first sight, very long-term physical planning of robust form may seem like a tall order, it will be argued that it is feasible. A theoretical and normative model of robust urban form can be derived, or deduced, from two sets of planning goals - pursuit of quality of life and pursuit of sustainability (Hall, 2015) - and it will be shown that it has some remarkable properties.
Open Access
Regional planning responding to climate change
(AESOP, 2017) Du, Dexter; Nunes, Richard J.; van de Wetering, Jorn
Climate change, although defined with global and long-term scales, has currently caused substantial impacts to many local places. Even though wide efforts are being made to ameliorate the future environment, increasingly frequent extreme events due to the changing climate have been rather unbearable to many places and population. The integration of mitigation and adaptation efforts becomes a critical issue, so that improvement is available to both current and future, both local and global conditions. Spatial planning for urban regions demonstrates unique potential of promoting this integration. With the review of existing studies, we lead the mitigation-adaptation integration to the topics of regional planning and policy mobilities, for which regional governance is proposed as the appealing innovation in climate governance.