1999 - Finse, Depertment of Geography Univeristy of Bergen, Norway, July 3-7th

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A Planned Risk?
(AESOP, 1999) Snary, Christopher D.
Main theme of PhD Planning applications for waste disposal units are notoriously met by considerable local opposition. In the case of waste incinerators much of this opposition has been centred upon the potential that the emissions have to pose a health risk. There has been a tendency among waste management companies to view such concerns as irrational, and consequently to approach the problem with a view that education and the provision of information will induce positive changes in people's perceptions towards waste incinerators. This approach has been widely criticised for: being unsuccessful at reducing the level of local opposition accompanying incinerator planning applications; not realising that the problem goes well beyond NIMBY and involves issues of risk perception, trust, and fundamental decisions about the most appropriate waste management strategy (1); and, not making decisions through fair and competent discourse (2). It is increasingly being realised that risk must be looked at within a social context (3); (4), and that non-uniform scientific approaches to assessing environmental risk could be producing non-consistent results (5). Much literature and past research has established risk as a socially constructed problem. Theories on public perception of risk indicate that risk has physical, psychological, social, political, ethical, and economic dimensions (6); (7); (8); (9); (10); and (11). Therefore, it can be said that the effective assessment of risk requires an interdisciplinary approach that recognises the inherent scientific and social pluralities; an integration of scientific and non-scientific perspectives that are both expert in their contexts; and a recognition of citizen knowledge and expertise.
Open Access
A Study of the Behaviour and Cognitive Maps of Tourists in the City
(AESOP, 1999) Wilson, Julie
Lutz and Ryan (1997) have observed that in the 1980's in the UK, both central and local government turned to tourism as one means of generating economic growth. The decline in the inner cities of the UK stimulated a range of urban regeneration policy initiatives and an increasing importance was attached to tourism as a possible generator of employment, albeit often in association with retail and property development and linked to wider civilisation policies. Along these lines, Murphy (1992) notes that urban tourism cannot be regarded as an 'isolated attraction' of the city but is by definition strongly anchored in the urban morphology and the functional urban system. Furthermore, it is clear that within cities, few facilities could be identified as exclusively intended for 'tourists'. A second difficulty with the study of urban tourism is inherent in the wide variety of motives, spatial origins and patterns of behaviour of visitors to cities. (Ashworth, 1989) Existing research has tended to concentrate on the profiling of single cities using facility and supply side approaches, or adopting an ecological approach by attempting to map the tourist 'district' within a city. Further to this, policy approaches have been initiated, following a realisation by planners that the growth of urban tourism requires the ongoing provision of a high quality tourist experience. More recently, there has been a need for cities to compete for tourist markets - cities which may display similar touristic attributes. (Page, 1993). Promoters of urban tourism are increasingly conscious of the necessity for a distinctive 'position' within the marketplace.
Open Access
Book of abstracts : AESOP PhD workshop 1999, Finse, Depertment of Geography Univeristy of Bergen, Norway
(AESOP, 1999)
The AESOP PhD Workshop 1999 aims at constituting a small forum of discussion of PhDs in Planning Issues, bringing together a group of PhD students from AESOP member schools and a group of well known planning professors in an informal environment. The focus of the workshop is dedicated to the specificity of a PhD in planning. We are focusing on the role of paradigms in planning research, the role of theory and methodological approach, the relation between theory and empirical analysis in a PhD thesis. We will as well discuss the process in PhD work from idea to final thesis and whether there are identifiable trends in planning research. The workshop is structured into plenary lectures and group sessions. There will be five lectures by the invited teachers. There will be group sessions on Sunday and Monday at which the PhD students will present their papers, and group sessions on Tuesday at which there will be sought a structured discussion on the different theoretical and methodological aspects of the work with a PhD thesis. Structure of the workshop The workshop is structured in three types of sessions with specific, and different objectives: Plenary sessions of approximately 90 minutes length. There will be 5 such sessions - two on Sunday morning, two on Monday morning and one on Tuesday morning. In these sessions the invited professors and lecturers will present their lecture followed by a discussion. In these discussions all participants are urged to approach the themes of discussion in the light of their own training background, research and practice experience, as well as in the context of the planning school you come from. It is fundamental to keep track of the content of these plenary sessions in order to adress the topics in group sessions, after the PhD presentations.
Open Access
Economic functions and spatial planning
(AESOP, 1999) Ploeger, Ralph
Introduction In 1990, the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy wrote that in the last decades the big cities transformed from pioneer into slow developer concerning economic growth (WRR, 1998). This trend developed in spite of national spatial policy, which promoted concepts stressing concentration of activity in and around big cities and mainports. Real trends point in another direction. Since 1960, all metropolitan areas in The Netherlands have undergone a significant spatial economic transition. The city is not the place where activities concentrate anymore. Since the sixties economic growth has increasingly been concentrated at the edge of the city, or even the periphery. Urban researchers stress that it is better to refer to what we used to call the city as part of an urban field, that has a spatial structure that is less obvious. Theoretical background When looking at the spatial dynamics of economic activity through the eyes of a spatial planner, it is important to understand that functions are essentially free to move and that a city is not (Salet, 1998). Even though economic geographers today realise that firm behaviour is not just regulated by economic forces, and that spatial, political and temporal forces also play a role in decision making, planners have to realise that the city as such is not the natural focal point of the economy, and that economic activity does not have a natural tendency to locate in this centre. It is the other way around. For a number of reasons, maybe not relevant anymore today, economic functions located in the city. As a result, it became the focal point of essentially unattached economic activity, and resulting natural interrelations generated a surplus value. Today, when firms have to choose a location, the mixed activity pool in the central city area is a location condition to consider.
Open Access
Environmental Management and Planning System in Thailand: The Theory and Practice of Using Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Decision Making Process
(AESOP, 1999) Pimcharoen, Orapim
Introduction That environmental management should be an integral part of economic development has now world - wide recognition. The problem is how to apply this principle effectively in practice. The incorporation of environmental concerns into the planning process is a relatively new procedure for developing countries. An important step which has been taken is that most developing countries now have ministries and agencies which are responsible for environmental protection (Biswas, 1992). In addition, various methodologies and tools have been introduced and aimed at integrating a full consideration of environmental impacts into development activities. Whilst the tools may be similar or common, the practice is made more difficult by the different contexts of each country. Developing countries such as Thailand had themselves undergoing major and significant changes in their socio-economic systems which are different from the Western industrialised countries. Many developing countries are rapidly modernising by acquiring advanced technology. They therefore have jumped some stages of development, and this often presents a strange combination of old and new technologies operating side by side. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an instrument widely used internationally and has become a standard tool in decision-making process associated with large scale development projects. The EIA process is often based on procedures transferred from the Western industrialised countries to the developing countries. The question is how appropriate and effective are such procedures in helping to deliver the new objective of sustainable development.
Open Access
From Theory to Methodology and Back Again: The Need for Planning Researchers to Engage with Methodological Concerns
(AESOP, 1999) Campbell, Heather
Concerns associated with the development and implementation of the methodologies which underpin empirical investigations often seem to be treated as if they are of marginal significance to the research endeavour. For example, refereed journal articles seldom discuss the detailed decisions surrounding the conduct of a piece of research. This element is omitted in favour of concentration on the theory informing the research and the implications of the findings; yet it is the methodology which provides the link between the theory and the findings and consequently is instrumental in determining the validity and reliability of the conclusions. The result of this lack of discussion and engagement with methodological concerns has been the creation of something of an academic myth that carrying out a study is a relatively straight-forward and unproblematic undertaking. Experience suggests quite the reverse and that moreover if the quality of research is to develop and progress in the planning field there is much to be gained from open and honest discussion of the theoretical and practical issues associated with the methodological aspects of research. The purpose of this paper therefore is a plea for greater engagement with methodological concerns. In the context of this discussion it is assumed that methodology includes both the techniques used in the field to collect data and also the approach adopted to analyse and interpret the resulting material. The paper is divided into two parts, the first examines existing perspectives on research methods in planning while the second focuses on the seemingly poorly developed relationship between theory and methodology.
Open Access
How ringroads change urban areas On the relationship between planning, administrative and private activities, and their impact on urban territory
(AESOP, 1999) van Nes, Akkelies
The project's purpose and scope Up to now the average age of a street was about 1000 years, while the usage of urban space is changing almost continuously. These changes affect in particularly a street's location, its capacity and its design. They influence the future physical structure of the street's immediate surroundings, i. e. its architectural form, the usage of land, the treatment of floor space, transformation processes in general and even the city's future form. During the last 40 years the various functions of streets in Norway have changed considerably. Due to an increase in urban population and car traffic the transport capacity of the urban street system had to change. The new turn towards upgrading of the urban main road system in the mid 80s, particularly through constructions of tunnels, has emphasised the importance of urban transformation through development of the street network. New streets that are intended to account for the city's increasing traffic, influence the use of space in the vicinity of newly established roads. These changes in turn affect urban transformation, changes in floor space and the global development (the concept used as Hillier) of the future city area. It will be particularly interesting to investigate the changing neighbourhood along a new road, especially at points where it crosses other roads in the urban grid.
Open Access
Interpretation of a Disposal for the Coordination Between the Actors of Planning: The Agreeement of Program as a "Space of Interaction
(AESOP, 1999) Tessitore, Paola
Presentation of the research: subjeet and ease-study The central subject of the research is the relations between actors in the implementation of Public Works in Italy. The Agreement of Programme is a disposal for coordination introduced by the national law 142/90 regarding the renewal of the competences of the local bodies. In the law the recourse to the Agreement of Programme is suggested for the "definition and implementation of public works, interventions and programmes of interventions that require for their complete realization an integrated action of municipalities, districts and regions, of national administrations and other public subjects, anyhow of two or more of the subjects above". The research puts forward an interpretation of this disposal for coordination by building up some hypothesis that take start from the literature on the theme and compare it with three concrete case-studies. The main references come from the reflections of the Planning theory on the ethical dimension of Planning, from the critical contributions of the Public Policy Analysis, and from some last achievements of the Sociological disciplines: actor-based approches, theory of action, principles and applications of principles in planning.
Open Access
Local Agenda 21 as a Challenge to Planning
(AESOP, 1999) Niemenmaa, Vivi
This is a research scheme aiming at Ph.D. in planning geography. Main interests are in Local Agenda 21, planning theory (participation and communicative planning) and urban studies. Study concentrates on Local Agenda 21 as a challenge to planning process. The purpose of the study is to find out if local Agenda 21 is renewing planning processes. Background Local Agenda 21 (LA21) is based on UN's Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro 1992 (UNCED 1992). In the Summit's action plan, Agenda 21, it was recommended to all local authorities in the world to initiate their own Local Agenda 21 process supporting sustainable development. ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) estimated in 1997 that more than 1800 local governments in 64 countries have established a Local Agenda 21 process (ICLEI 1997). The Association of Finnish Local Authorities (1998) has announced the number of Finnish municipalities working with local Agenda as 252 (total number of municipalities 452), and in Sweden all municipalities (288) are implementing LA21 (Svenska Kommunförbundet 1995). Strategies for local sustainability are thus now dominated by LA21 (Selman 1996:107). Different organisations have defined what local Agenda 21 could mean in practice. Also the municipalities which have been forerunners implementing LA21 have moulded general understanding of LA21. Irrespective of who has defined LA21, the importance of participation and communication between different actors is highly emphasized. During the interactive process people try to find a common view of the sustainable community. Sustainability is seen to be secured only if there is widespread popular involvement in the process. Justification for broad public participation is seen as a social justice and as a functional legitimation.
Open Access
Re-understanding Property Rights, Land Invasions and Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: The Case of Western Maranhao
(AESOP, 1999) Puppim de Oliveira, Jose A.
This research examines the main causes of agrarian land invasions and conflicts in the Brazilian Amazon frontier, and how, in some cases, these conflicts can become related to uncontrolled deforestation. Some of the literature has mentioned that insecure property rights over land are possible causes of land conflicts12 and deforestation.13 After analyzing the data and evidence that I have collected from my field research, I show how land invasions are caused not only by insecure property rights over land, but also by abrupt social changes and insecure property rights over timber, which result from the insecurity over land rights and poor enforcement of environmental regulations. In the case of Buriticupu, Brazil, the problems of insecure property rights over land and over timber, under certain social conditions, give incentives to land invasions and then deforestation. The paper also takes a different look at the most common explanations of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The conventional wisdom in the literature generally assumes the process of deforestation and environmental degradation in the region are caused by independent private actors – construction companies, loggers, farmers, - stimulated by different government policies.
Open Access
Residential Differentation in the Transition from Socialism to the Market Economy. The Case of Tallinn, Estonia
(AESOP, 1999) Ruoppila, Sampo
In my PhD-thesis titled «Urban Transition - the Residential Differentation of Eastern European Cities in the Transition to the Market Economy» I will compare the effects of transition on residential differentation in Tallinn, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. In the PhD workshop at Finse I would like to present a paper discussing the socialistic heritage of these four cities in general, and in particular the effects of the transition on the social structure of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The emphasis will be on the socioeconomic differentation, although the ethnic differentation is also discussed when relevant. The method I will use in my PhD-thesis is comparative urban research. My empirical data consists of official statistics and the real estate market reports done by the real estate firms. I also intend to conduct interviews with key groups of urban development: real estate developers, finance managers, real estate market analysts and urban planners. In my presentation at Finse I will first discuss the results of my Master's thesis (January 1999) and secondly, the new empirical material consisting of interviews with experts and newspaper articles I have collected in Tallinn. The discussion on residential differentation in socialist cities was launched by Iván Szelényi's study Urban Inequalities under State Socialism (1983). Because it was written already in the early 1970's, it no longer depicted the situation in the late 1980's.
Open Access
Social Cohesion in Housing Rehabilitation; A Study of Three Housing Areas in Istanbul
(AESOP, 1999) Ögdül, Hürriet
Planners are usually in favour of creating strong social ties in housing areas. Lots of models developed in history - from garden city to neighbourhood unit - intended to create social ties in newly developed urban areas. Existing community, on the other hand, is something that modern planning tends to ignore. Housing rehabilitation process is one of the cases in which planners inevitably have to involve local communities. Taking the term community within the framework freed from modern-traditional dichotomy, the thesis deals with especially low income immigrant urban communities who are living in bad environmental conditions, but seemingly have strong community ties. The aim of the thesis is to see whether these ties can constitute a base for an organization of housing rehabilitation. Approach to the modern and the traditional The thesis begins with some groups of questions; 1. What happened to the community in 'modern' cities of non-Western countries in the «global age»? How is the community distorted during so-called modernization and globalization processes? What kind of combinations is established between "modern" and "traditional" aspects of social life? 2. What is happening in low income immigrant neighborhoods in terms of "solidarity"? Can social relations be defined as "social cohesion" in these areas? What kind of social networks are established between low income nighborhoods and remaining parts of the city? 3. Can these social relations be developed as a base for further local organizations for housing rehabilitation?
Open Access
The Community Reinvestment Movement: How Community Based Organizations are Shaping Their Futures
(AESOP, 1999) Schmitt, Brian
This dissertation project investigates whether the Community Reinvestment Act and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act have substantially strengthened community-based organizations' capacities to influence residential credit availability in US cities and neighborhoods. The community reinvestment movement developed as a response to extensive post-war urban disinvestment and racism in US housing markets. While these problems persist, the community reinvestment movement appears to have made great strides in promoting homeownership opportunities for minority and low-and-moderate income borrowers. This abstract briefly recounts the history of urban disinvestment in the US, describes the research questions and methodology of my dissertation, and then couches the work in the broader context of local control of capital. My goal is to connect the mechanics of these two laws to Agenda 21's concerns with participatory planning and community-based issue analysis (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, 1996). In 1950 central cities, as distinct from their suburbs, accounted for nearly 6 of 10 persons living in metropolitan areas in the US. By 1970 central city residents accounted for barely 4 of 10 persons. The dramatic population shift from cities to suburbs, indeed the deep distinction between the two, is a particularly American urban phenomenon with many explanations. Strong and persistent consumer preference for new homes in the suburbs has played a significant factor in the process.
Open Access
The Diffusion of Government Responsibilities: Movement Towards Regional and Neighborhood-Centered Policy-Making in Brazil
(AESOP, 1999) Williamson, Theresa D.
Changing economic, social, and political conditions worldwide are rapidly affecting the way governments are organized. Emphasis on efficient government is growing as democracy and market-based economics spread throughout the globe. In the past 20 years, many nations have pushed for decentralization. Central governments accumulated excessive debts, requiring that state and municipal authorities take on greater roles, while at the same time attention was focused on the effectiveness of democratic participation and localized planning at providing services. This marks the first recent shift in the distribution of responsibility within government. Today, a second shift is occurring. Municipal governments are finding ways to shift responsibility for service provision and planning away from their offices in two directions "up" to regional agencies (see Kirlin 1993) and "down" to neighborhood associations. Regional planning agencies are gaining significance as certain problems require regional cooperation (see Turok 1995, Prud'homme 1995, Popper 1992, 1993, Doherty 1992, Gilbert 1992, Gore 1984). At the same time, many municipal governments are moving certain municipal functions down to the community level, in an effort to improve efficiency (see Bens 1994) by including the community in the decision-making (see Ortiz), and even the implementation, process (for associated problems, see Fulton 1996, Beatley 1994).
Open Access
The institution of Euroregions: Prerequisite for success?
(AESOP, 1999) Novotny, Gabor
Hungary is in a special situation regarding cross-border co-operation . by having seven neighbouring countries, . by being so small that each of the - now planned - regions (7) are border regions, . by having significant Hungarian minority in almost every adjacent regions (this factor differentiate the situation from the one of Austria and on the other hand is a very important one since this makes the co-operation more sensitive). During the 1990s - according to this important role - each level of administration (Government, the formulating regions, counties, districts, municipalities) set clear objectives in their spatial development concepts regarding cross-border co-operation emphasising the ever popular connecting feature of borders. Under the socialist regime borders had a dividing, even isolating character, they were difficult to cross - in some cases regarded almost as forefronts - and in the centralised states permission from the capitals were needed even for the limited and occasional co-operation. At the beginning of the previous decade parallel to the political détente some promising processes had begun. These were however concentrated mostly on the Austrian border. The Austrian - Hungarian Spatial and Land-use Planning Committee, established in 1985 on governmental level played a significant role. One of the subcommittees, the Cross-border Co-operation Work-Group - where Burgenland, and the Hungarian Gyr-Moson-Sopron and Vas counties were represented on the highest level - served later as a basis for the Interreg-Phare CBC programmes (35 Million ECUs for the 1995/99 period on the Hungarian Phare CBC side), and the establishment (1998) of the West-Pannon Euroregion.
Open Access
The Long-Term Position of Public Transport in Medium Sized Cities
(AESOP, 1999) Vries, Jaap S. de
Since the Second World War the use of public transport in the Netherlands has fallen from a major transportation mode to a somewhat quieter role. The main reason for this downward slope has been the widespread introduction of the car in the fifties, followed by the process of suburbanisation in the sixties. Since then, the government has been trying to influence the flow of people by building new towns around the major cities at a distance of about twenty kilometres. When this turned out to drain the main cities of their resources and to worsen the accessibility problems the focus changed to the four major cities again. The policy of "the compact city" was adopted and new housing sites were only built in or in the immediate vicinity of the main cities. Despite results on the sustainability of the cities themselves, this policy did not have any influence on the transportation problems, simply because the jobs in the cities are taken by the commuters from the suburban towns around the cities. Looking at the increasing congestion in this area, one could say there is some potential for the public transport. It is sad, but true that the public transport did not benefit from the enormous rise in mobility since the sixties. Despite large investments in public transport infrastructure in recent years, the portion of public transport in the modal split has rather diminished than grown. Part of this can be explained by the fact that the public transport network does not match the current transport patterns of the people in the region. The public transport is not able to match the nowadays 'cris-cross-relations in the region (le Clercq, 1996; Raad voor Verkeer en Waterstaat, 1996). Another problem is the fact that the 'quality' of the public transport compared to that of the car is low. For public transport it is almost impossible to compete with the characteristics of the car.
Open Access
The Political Economy of Transport Policy and Planning in the Baltic Sea Region: Evidence from Four Trans-European Network Projects
(AESOP, 1999) Peters, Deike
In the 1990s, the advent of the European Union and the breakup of the Soviet Union have brought profound new challenges to all levels of planning and policy making across the European continent. A new, increasingly border-free «Europe of Regions» is emerging, constituting a new, supra – national geography. Within the context of European cohesion, integration, and enlargement, the expansion and optimization of transport infrastructures is one of the most hotly debated issues. Twentieth century transport innovations have caused dramatic increases in the accessibility and mobility of goods and people, arguably even providing the original, spatial foundation for European integration long before the political idea of the European Union was born. Today, transport infrastructures are now no longer simplistically assumed to be guarantors for accelerated economic growth. The inter-regional effects of highways and high-speed railways are particularly complex, generally disproportionally benefiting areas with existing agglomeration economies (Hey et al. 1996, SACTRA 1998, T&E 1995). But this has not deterred the European Union from declaring that the completion of a Trans-European Transport Network (TEN) is a prime prerequisite for the successful economic integration of Europe. Since 1992, the European Investment Bank, the «house bank» of the EU, has allocated 42 billion Euro towards infrastructure projects related to European integration.
Open Access
The role of the planner for resolving conflicts in the cooperative local landscape planning
(AESOP, 1999) Meyer-Oldenburg, Torsten
Relevance for planning knowledge The resolution ot the environmental conference of Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the passed Agenda 21 suggest a special resonsibilities to the communities for the solution of environmental problems in the next century. Landscape planning as a tried and tested instrument is at the german communities disposal, to enable environmental planning for development in the precaution prinicple. The task of local landscape planning is to describe the local requirements and measures for realising the aims of the german national nature protection law and also to put these aims into practise (BNatSchG § 1(1)). Local landscape planning specifies ideas concerning nature and landscape of the higher levels of planning in the country- and regional planning; it prepares the decisive steps for realising these contents. In landscape planning many objecitve and connected social conflicts are raised on the way to sustainibility. Conflicts of this kind often occur between individual local interests and the general interest in nature protection (Hardin 1968). These conflicts can grow so affecting that the success of landscape planning is in danger and it has been often spoken of it's failure (Rat von Sachverständigen für Umweltfragen 1987 T2 411; Kiemstedt et al. 1996:1, Egli et at. 1995). This is why it is very important for the practice of planning, to give the planner insight and tools to be able to handle the appeard conflicts in a constructive way. It is the aim of this work, to develop a procedure and a method of planning, which does not only deliver professional good results but also facilitate the handling and resolving of conflicts and enable the communities, to really grasp the suggested responsibilty for nature protection (Apel 1993). This knowledge can be used in every kind of environmental planning and in the same way in the local Agenda 21 process, in the practical nature protection or in the environmental education.
Open Access
Urban Design Guidelines: a Planning Instrument for shaping the Superblocks in Jakarta, Indonesia
(AESOP, 1999) Poerbo, Heru W.
Main Theme The dissertation focuses on the control of the development that determines the form of the city, particularly in special districts and superblocks within a city. Other themes include the computer application for urban design and the social planning in urban environment. Relevance for planning knowledge The research will contribute in closing/narrowing the gap between the generally two-dimensional planning practice and the three-dimensional architectural design (1). An objective of the research is to improve the urban design control mechanism that has just begun its implementation in Indonesia. The research is also intended as a demonstration of computer application in supporting urban planning and design activities. Motivation The conventional plans and building regulations have resulted in the segregation of land parcels in the city center of Jakarta. Each building is a freestanding structure on its parcel of land. The result of this kind of development is a city that is lacking visual interest, inconvenient for pedestrian, and exacerbates the traffic jam. The city has also neglected other aspects besides visual beauty: small street vendors/hawkers, the handicapped and the old are not given facilities or support to live well in the harsh urban environment. Socially marginal groups such as street vendors need to be supported and given appropriate space in urban areas. The city government of Jakarta has tried to overcome this problem by using the Urban Design Guideline for controlling several superblock-type developments in the capital city since 1993.
Open Access
Urban Form and Activity Patterns
(AESOP, 1999) Snellen, Daniëlle
Main theme of the PhD In recent years national and local governments in the Netherlands have started the implementation of the so-called VINEX-policy in order to comply with the expected housing needs in the decades ahead. This means that vast building sites are being developed. In doing so far-reaching decisions are made on the spatial structure of these new neighbourhoods and districts and on the way in which they are embedded in the existing built environment. The consequences of these choices with regard to policy goals set by Dutch governments, like sustainability, reduction of (car)mobility, sufficient economic and social base for services, are not clear. Empirical underpinnings for chosen policies are only available for some aspects of the choices made. And where empirical evidence is lacking, choices are made based on 'common sense'. The aim of this PhD-study is the development of an evaluation methodology that can be used to assess the effects of existing and new concepts for spatial structures on a large number of aspects, translated in evaluation criteria for policy goals. The knowledge gained in this way can be utilised to make better choices for locations and design of new development sites. Research methodology Theory behind the study is that new (or existing) urban areas form an environment for individuals and households to live in. Individuals and households have their basic needs and personal preferences, while the environment they live in poses them with opportunities and constraints. The fulfilment of the needs and preferences within the context of the urban environment results in activity participation of individuals and households.