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The profile of risk governance (in municipal planning) in Portugal
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017This 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.Published versio
Group decision making
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017How to take into account various players’ values? How to balance interests of various parties engaged in city development? How to divide resources between various groups? How to prepare city strategies so that no one feels omitted? Urban planners face these questions all the time during their work. It is a challenge to meet the needs of several groups: developers, local authorities, lobbyists, environmental activists, and – last but not least - citizens. These are just few groups whose interests shall be considered and taken into account while preparing new plans and strategies. The purpose of the paper is to encourage a discussion on possible solutions and answers to the questions listed above. An overall description of the Polish spatial planning law is followed by presentation of methods derived from operational research as it seems that multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) might serve urban planners with several promising tools. Methods such as Analytic Hierarchy Process or PROMETHEE Group Decision Support System could aid the planning process at local or regional level. The paper offers a brief description of these methods and discusses examples of how to use them in everyday work of urban planners in order to make the policy making process more transparent and objective.Published versio
Changing mobility behaviours in academia under austerity: the case of FEUP
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The purpose of this paper is to explore how commuting patterns of university students have changed, in face of the recent austerity that has been occurring in Portugal. Our findings based on two surveys carried out in 2006 and 2012 (before and during the austerity period) reveal that students have changed their travel patterns during economic crisis, becoming more multimodal, friendly of public transport and less dependent on private car. Interestingly, the results also indicate that this change on modal choice was particularly significant for distances longer than 8 km. Indeed, in 2012, students travelled longer distances taking advantage of the improvements in the public transport system, namely in the local Light Rail System that was not yet fully available in 2006. On the other hand, transport costs seemed to be able to explain, to a larger extent, the travel behaviour of those who did not use the individual car. In 2006, the main reason pointed out to move on foot was the time and comfort in short distances, whereas in 2012, the main reason was the overall cost of the journey. Although the overall evolution of the students’ travel behaviour pointed towards greater sustainability patterns, the identified changes also reveal that the social contexts gained more importance. Keywords: University students, travel patterns, mode choice, private, public and non-motorized modes, austerity.Published versio
Reclaiming streets as places of dialog: car-free Sundays in Istanbul as an experience of social dimension of transportation
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017In parallel with the economic, environmental and social problems in the world, tendency for alternative and sustainable transportation approaches have increased. As a solution to these problems, people-centred and sustainable transportation policies are developed on the bases of their successful and permanent results in long term. This study, discusses streets as spaces of dialog by focusing on social dimension of transportation. Existing trend changes in transportation, which considers human movements and accessibilities as their focus rather than vehicles are questioned in local scale. In this context, the study introduces experience of Istanbul in Turkey concerning the social dimensions of transportation in order to reclaim the streets as public spaces for dialog. The study conveys the experiences of Carfree Sundays events in Istanbul in order to discuss the reflections of people-centred transportation approach and its socio-spatial effects on streets. Based on these ideas, "Street Belongs to Us Organisation" was founded in 2010 as a non-profit organization, which focuses on people-centred cities and streets for a livable future in Turkey. This organization was involved in different projects, campaigns, interviews, events, workshops to make citizens aware of the transportation problems and alternatives, different usages of public spaces in terms of peoplecentred and livable cities. The main project of "Street Belongs to Us Organisation Once in a Month" - Carfree Sundays organized by ‘Street Belongs to Us Organisation’ in Istanbul aimed to produce longterm solutions for traffic culture. In addition to this, another main objective was providing information, governance and communication networks where all the actors of the process are included. Collaboration with other organizations such as municipalities, local residents, NGOs, sponsors, and local initiatives to achieve efficient participatory urban processes was the main structure of this project. This experience indicates that change in transportation can help reclaiming street as places for dialog, interaction and communication as well as a fundamental parameter of transportation network.Published versio
A closer look into how land-use, social networks and ict influence location choice of social activities
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Technology now enables individuals to travel more flexibly, thanks to ICT and the numerous social networks. The choice of location for social activities has become very flexible, sometimes allowing changes to a previous decision on the move. In addition to this, the characteristics of the residential and university location also play a vital role in the choice of location for social activities. It would be quite exciting to uncover the behavioral patterns associated with these decisions. Hence, this study pursues the following objectives: 1. to analyze the influence of ICT, social networks and land-use characteristics of the residence and university in choice of location for social travel. 2. To analyze the similarities and dissimilarities in the choice of activities pursued during weekdays and weekends. Students from the two different campuses of Instituto Superior Técnico were presented with an online questionnaire, intended to collect information about the use of ICT and social networks, in addition to the travel characteristics and socio-demographics. Emphasis was made in capturing the characteristics of social networks and ICT usage. Information on the land-use characteristics was later obtained from secondary sources. Factor analysis was initially carried out to extract factors related to use of ICT and social networks, which were to be later used in the model for choice of location. The alternatives considered for location choice include: location within 800 m from the residence, location within 800 m from the university, locations away from home and university and evenly spread locations. The analysis was performed separately for travel during weekdays and weekends, to understand the differences and similarities in behavior during these different time periods. A multinomial logit model was estimated to model this choice. This adds to the literature, the understanding of influence of use of ICT, social networks and land-use characteristics, in the context of social travel.Published versio
Complexity and asymmetry within the border cities in the Basel metropolitan area. Towards an analysis of recent spatial and organizational processes
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017In the European context, changes derived from the globalization process and those concerning cooperation and integration -intensified at the end of the Cold War- have led to an increasing border permeability in a number of cases. Under this framework, border urban systems become contact areas, where new opportunities for cooperation and collective development arise, but also new challenges, pressures and risks. The case of the Basel metropolitan area, where urban systems from France, Switzerland and Germany converge, is a valuable example for analysing these issues. It is a paradigm of cross-border cooperation. Nevertheless, significant asymmetries persist and new unbalanced dependencies and internal conflicts have arose. Some of the most representative projects involving transnational coordination and development, which have led in some cases to losses of complexity at the local scale, serve as an example. Cooperation, coordination and/or exploitation of cross-border differentials (Wages, prices, costs, land availability…) might be essential for the development of new optimization solutions, but they should not reduce either the complexity or the individual capacity of the urban nuclei located on both sides of the border to face uncertainty. Thus within a context of complexity, not only the potential benefits of collaborative development must be analysed, but also its implications at the local scale.Published versio
Social resilience and natural hazards – analzying multiple social levels of resilience in the context of planning and risk governance
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017The paper conceptualizes resilience as a matrix of social levels (intra-organizational, organizational-, and inter-organizational) and social capacities (coping, participative, adaptive, and transformative). The paper reflects on some advantages and limitations of this resilience conceptualization. The concept is, for instance, strong in considering processes of interpretation and social change. However, it has only limited usefulness in simple quantitative attempts to measure and assess resilience in “the real world”. Furthermore, some implications for future research and practice are discussed.Published versio
Visual interactive support for cross-domain simulation and new information flows in early stage planning processes
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017For 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.Published versio
Е-campus space revisiting the life and death of the campus urban life
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017How has Wi-Fi and smartphones changed the excitement of the Campus urban space? To what extent has it de-engaged students from themselves and their surrounding? How has the culture of smart phones affected the on-campus communication style in public spaces among the younger generation? The study is a continuation of the dialogue generated by Keith Hampton, Lee Humphreys and others on the impact of mobile phones in public spaces. However, it chooses to focus on ME Gulf City Campus Life. Campus life has traditionally been one of the most memorable and engaging experiences of student life. The common age-group, shared major of study, interest and common agenda has branded the university life to become so memorable in the development and growth of a student, perhaps so much more than any other urban space in the city. Ever since the introduction of virtual space, that aspect seems to have changed. This study aims to investigate the effects of smart phones on how people interact, connect and perceive campus urban spaces. It investigates some aspects of the culture of smart phones on the design of urban spaces. These aspects of how people connect and perceive urban spaces, their cognitive abilities, communication skills, behaviour and face to face interactions are just few effects of smart phones in shaping the identity of people and places. The study finally investigates whether the design of the space affects how people use their phones or are there other factors that play a role in that. For this research, the students of the American University of Sharjah (AUS) are surveyed for the case study. The findings include insights about what motivates people to use their phones in public spaces and how physical elements of a space such as the provision of various seating options, soft-scape, good views, etc. would affect the likelihood of using smart phones.Published versio
Spatial pattern analysis of mixed-use and verticalized urban manufacturing industry in the seoul metropolitan area of south Korea
No full textBook of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Despite long-term job losses, manufacturing remains a critical part of the economic base of most metropolitan areas in South Korea. Most of the existing literature on urban manufacturing is focused on the locations of manufacturing and its economic impacts. Very little empirical research has been conducted on the spatial patterns of urban manufacturing industries which are characterized by mixed-use and verticalization. Using the Establishment Census Spatial database (DB) in 2013 of the Korea National Statistical Office, this research attempts to examine mixed-use patterns of urban manufacturing industry in the Seoul metropolitan area of South Korea. It calculates the urban industrial space mixed-use index, which is a modified entropy index, for each building unit based on individual establishments. Further, it attempts to examine the verticalization patterns of the urban manufacturing industry by calculating the average number of floors of establishments with respect to manufacturing subsectors.Published versio