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A land capacity analysis method using GIS tools, as exemplified by the city of Warsaw, Poland
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The generation of forecasts regarding the further physical development of urbanised areas is a key part of spatial planning, and indeed integrated planning as conceived more broadly. A key role in the process is played by land capacity analysis, which permits both an assessment of the current state of utilisation and management of an area and the possibilities for development – by transformation or augmentation or else the de novo designation of land for building; along with indications as to how that land may be used. Further upgrading of methods by which to analyse land capacity can thus be seen as a priority where the improvement of planning methodology is concerned. According to Kotarbiński [1973], a method is a planner’s way of pursuing a complex task that entails a defined selection and juxtaposition or configuration of component activities that seek to bring about a single, identified objective, while at the same time being suitable for multiple (repeat) use. However, the methodological issues actually representing such a key aspect in effective urban planning (here conceived of as an inherent feature of the process by which development is managed) are only taken up very rarely in Poland, and if they are – this is mostly as some kind of side issue. It is now evermore typical to see authors [like Markowski 2010] espousing the idea that post-1990 Poland has experienced regress (“gone backwards”) when it comes to urban-planning methodology. In this, it is also worth recalling how the output from Polish urban-planning thought is seen to include many examples of applied methods that have now passed into history. To be included among these is the threshold analysis method after Stanisław Malisz1, as well as the ”Warsaw Optimisation” method2 after Kolipiński [2016].Published versio
Winter buzz and summer siesta in Zagreb - perceptual differences in soundscape of the sequence of urban open spaces
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017What makes a good public space? There are many answers to this question, but no definite ones. This ongoing research focuses on perceptual differences within sequences of urban open spaces in the historical city centres of Zagreb, in Croatia, and Sheffield, in the United Kingdom, in the hope of providing some new insights. A harmonious historical setting is perhaps one of the most recognisable visual factors, while soundscape is one of the most elusive. The former can be protected by law as cultural heritage, but the latter changes according to activities and weather conditions, regular or irregular daily or weekly rhythms, or even seasons. Yet both contribute to personal assessments of comfort in public space and in the end, directly to the quality of city life (Carr et al, 1992). Both the chosen locations were recognised as containing sequences of acoustically specific urban open spaces, with different visual presence of historical elements. Studying their perceptual differences and similarities may lead to a better understanding of the importance that soundscape and the authenticity of a heritage setting have in the management and enhancement of urban open spaces. The paper focuses on the sequence in Zagreb known as the Green Horseshoe. It consists of seven squares and one park of approximately the same sizes and shapes, with similar traffic regulation, but different ambiences in their central parts, due to different types of foliage, pavilions and activities. No square on its own conveys a particular aural experience, but in a sequence, they are worth investigating, as the fact that they are nearly the same shape and size eliminates the influence of these factors during comparison. The visual and acoustic properties differ from one square to the next, like the rooms within a Baroque enfilade from the salon to the boudoir – from the square housing the opera building to the Botanical Gardens. The complex was built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Today, it forms a vital part of Zagreb’s city centre, where the historical setting has been well preserved (Knežević, 1996). However, not all the urban open spaces in the sequence are equally important or adequately used in terms of their potential.Published versio
Urban rehabilitation and sustainable mobility options for residents - an example from social housing in Vienna
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The City of Vienna, a very important owner of social housing complexes built from the 1920ies onwards, has for some years carried out several renovation projects with a focus on thermal-energetic redevelopment measures. Presently the renovation and modernization of social housing blocks originating from the 1950ies to 1970ies is a challenging task for Vienna, as for many other European metropolises, too. Considering the expected population increase, technological progress and lifestyle changes, and responding to ecological goals it will be necessary to adapt municipal housing rehabilitation procedures and to exploit potentials unused until now. A recent co-operative exploratory project (Smart City im Gemeindebau, 2016), aiming at the initialization of a smart modernization process, dealt with a wide range of themes: How to provide high-quality and affordable living conditions? How to integrate the residents in planning procedures? How to consider new accommodation needs due to demographic and societal changes? How to make use of new technologies? How to improve the residents’ mobility options, the traffic situation and the quality of the urban environment? Although mobility and traffic are important topics for the concept of smart and sustainable cities, until now they have scarcely been considered in social housing rehabilitation projects in Vienna. During such projects people living in social housing complexes could be supported with various measures to improve their daily mobility. This paper presents selected results from the above-mentioned project, concerning mobility and traffic themes.Published versio
Contribution of spatial planning to affordable housing in Austria
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Developing the affordable housing stock is an ongoing political and social challenge with great relevance for ensuring equal living conditions and social peace. With the aim of providing a certain share of low-priced dwellings, planning authorities seek to mobilise suitable plots of land and support developers with subsidies. These mechanisms are complex and therefore the coordinating board for planning in Austria, the Austrian Conference on Spatial Planning, started a so called ‘partnership’ by bringing relevant stakeholders together to evaluate the actual contribution of spatial planning to affordable housing. As a result, recommendations were formulated that now serve as policy guideline for the further development of planning instruments towards a flexible and demand orientated Affordable Housing production. The paper sums up the stakeholder discussion and depicts the current challenges and potentials spatial planning faces in Austria. Thereby, the paper contributes to the international discussion of developing planning instruments and approaches.Published versio
Embracing uncertainty without abandoning planning
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The uncertainties that are part of the development trajectories of cities challenge spatial planners in designing productive interventions. This paper explores how complexity theory can support planners in dealing with these uncertainties intelligently. It presents a dynamic, time-sensitive understanding of spatial transformations that helps to clarify the interconnected and changeable nature of the underlying processes. The paper continues by proposing an adaptive planning approach that strengthens the responsiveness of urban areas to both expected and unexpected changes. The argument is made that adaptive planning first and foremost implies a focus on influencing and creating conditions for development, followed by attention to content and process. Based on an imaginary case of inner-city transformation, the paper distinguishes key conditions for guiding spatiofunctional configurations and supporting capacity building of local actor coalitions.Published versio
The school travel behavior characteristics and its constraint of the primary schools in xi’an city
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The urban primary school travel in China is the necessary life behavior in the family daily life. For the adjustment of the urban population structure and the diversification of the transport means, as well as the unbalance public education resources and the school choice behavior, there are large spatial-temporal differences among the family’s school travel modes, all of the factors above cause the unsuitable of the urban primary school layout method which is only dependent on the service radius and the thousand people index. Combining the travel behavior with the layout of the urban primary school is one of the leading directions to improvement the urban primary school planning (Zhang,2014). Xi’an is the dominant city in the northwest area in China. The types of the urban primary school in Xi’an is multiple, and the city also concentrates more excellent educational resources and students enrollment. The paradox between the pupil number and the land area, and the spatial-temporal accessibility of the school travel issues become more fierce. This paper takes Xi’an as the example and analyzes the school travel constraint mechanism based on the summarization of the urban primary school travel characteristics, as well as doing the basic job for the future study which is to optimize the urban primary school layout from the perspective of the urban land and transportation integration.Published versio
The spatial distribution of urban heat vulnerability and coping strategies in Beijing
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Under 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.Published versio
Тowards consensus between stakeholders with conflicting interests: experiences from urban areas Kalaranna, Tallinn аnd Mezapark, Riga
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The case studies examine the conflicts between local communities and developers during the design and adoption of detailed plans for urban areas Mezapark, Riga and Kalaranna, Tallinn. The conflicts are examined via a series of semi-structured interviews with the actors involved in the conflicts, the communities, developers, designers and municipality. Stakeholder opinions are complemented with expert opinions. The case studies aim to discover the causes of conflict during the design and adoption process. The conclusion is, the conflicts arouse due to (1) mutual bias between the stakeholders, (2) inadequate engagement strategy and (3) the lack of flexibility and initiative in the actions of municipality.Published versio
Everyday nationalism and urban culture – normalizing nationalist representations, discourses and practices in public space
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Public space research has engaged in depth with progressive social and political movements which have appropriated and reframed public space as a political sphere and a space for local, lived democracy. However, urban public spaces have not only been the place of these progressive movements’ protests and occupations in the face of crisis and austerity policies. I want to briefly sketch some of the different phenomena that show that public space has also become the place of anti-pluralist, xenophobic and nationalist protests: The Brexit-vote, a result of anti-immigrant sentiments and Euro-skipticism, brought increased xenophobic violence to public space. When the unleashed violence of terrorists has disconcerted public space yet again, the French government has extended the state of emergency curbing citizen’s rights such as the right to assembly and protest. Another example of urban space being used for rightist and nationalist strategies is Turkey. After the failed coup in Turkey, thousands followed the call of Erdogan for a “Democracy Watch” in Taksim square, re-appropriating the symbol of the 2013 Gezi Park Protests against the government with national symbolism. In 2015 the rightist movement Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident (PEGIDA) came to a head with 10.000 citizens protesting in Dresden (Zeit.de). These observations point to the relevance of urban public spaces in the operation of rightist political organisation. They postulate a closer look at urban public space as a central arena of the right’s antipluralist, xenophobic and nationalist agenda. Furthermore, they expose the city a contested space of both progressive and rightist appropriations. The aim of this paper is to pay attention not to the overt protests and demonstrations but to expose everyday and popular nationalism in public space. It seeks to address the representations, discourses and practices that normalize nationalism in public space. The research therefore challenges the notion of rightist spaces as rural phenomena as well as it challenges the notion of urbanity at the heart of inclusive and cosmopolitan societies. Based on Bulut’s (2006) definition of popular nationalism as “the exacerbation of nationalist feelings and the increased attachment to the idea of the nation in everyday representations, discourses and practices” (p.125) this paper points out the return of nationalisms to public space, drawing on the democracy watch protests and the popular festivities of the Austrian National Day. It aims to present first explorations of rightist appropriations and nationalism in public space to develop future research propositions.Published versio
Social topography: learning spatial inequality through 3d regional model
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The aim of this research is to develop a digital sand table to facilitate dynamic decision making capable of eradicating spatial inequality. The proposal’s innovation lies in the interface it creates between a theory of spatial inequality and a unique laboratory that facilitates 3-D visualization of the mapping of social disparities. This interface, and the unique platform for the formulation of socio-spatial policy it yields, stands to constitute a turning point in the manner in which decision makers ‘see’ (literally and figuratively) space and subsequently make policy. This proposal’s point of departure is the premise that the world ‘out there’ contains inequality that continues to expand and intensify on different scales in different parts of the world. In recent years, scholars have reported an increase in inequality, as observed, for example, on various scales in the United States and different countries in the European Union (OECD, 2016: 74; Hopkin & Lynch, 2016). Inequality is also intensifying in Israel1 and its southern periphery2.Published versio