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Green Space Availability and Onset Risk of Covid-19 in Hong Kong: A Spatial Justice Perspective
Get PDFAs concerns arise about the impacts of urban environments on health outcomes and healthy lifestyles, urban researchers are increasingly investigating the associations between the built environment and public health (Ha et al., 2022, Luo et al., 2022). Public Green spaces (PGS) offer various ecosystem services to city dwellers. The literature generally endorses the view that exposure to natural environments, especially green spaces is vital, for its evidenced benefits to people’s health and well-being both through active participation and as a salutogenic environment (Nutsford et al., 2013) (Spotswood et al., 2021). Besides the distance to the nearest green space as a well-known factor, the health benefits of PGS, which has a lag effect and lasts for years (Wang et al., 2021), are also expected to be influenced by the usage frequency, duration, and intensity (Ha et al., 2022). The concept of spatial justice refers to the manifestation of the principle of justice in spatial production and the allocation of spatial resources (Soja, 2013). It is also concerned with PGS provision as one of the health resources. There was a groundswell of opinion that adequate access to green spaces is a common good for society that all citizens should equally benefit from. More accessible green spaces should be provided for building healthy cities in post-pandemic societies (Luo et al., 2022), although urban planners struggle to allocate UGS evenly (Jian et al., 2020). The outbreak of COVID-19 poses an unexpected threat to people’s health worldwide. As scientific models have demonstrated the effectiveness of social distancing restrictions on slowing down the transmission (Chen et al., 2022), a set of regulations to limit activities, particularly the free use of PGS, are imposed (Pan et al., 2021). However, many studies conducted during the pandemic show that inequity in the amount of PGS people can access has the potential to translate into inequities in mental and physical health both during and beyond the pandemic (Spotswood et al., 2021). PGS can provide more benefits to vulnerable groups by offering stronger protective effects. Marginalised groups worldwide may expose to a higher risk of certain diseases than more privileged groups for being excluded from access to PGS, particularly those vulnerable groups who are always labelled with lower income and education levels, age, and gender minorities (Sikorska et al., 2020, Sillman et al., 2022). On the other hand, maintaining a safe distance is challenging in many outdoor areas, especially in increasingly dense urban environments. For instance, despite the number of PGS visitors being decreased at the beginning of the social-distancing restriction, people were reported to have a higher demand for using PGS during the pandemic due to the unavailability of other activities (Liu and Wang, 2021). It is predicted that the total park visitation may exceed the pre-COVID baseline (Geng et al., 2021). Meanwhile, as the recent evidence shows that exposure to airborne viruses further arises from human population movements between places, higher accessibility to PGS also corresponds to a higher risk of infection spread as using PGS further increase the opportunity for people to meet face to face (Pan et al., 2021). PGS in this sense might give rise to the number of new cases, and negatively contribute to managing the outbreak of the pandemic by providing chances for people to cluster and spread the disease (Yao et al., 2021). Eventually, the government needs to release the restrictions to allow citizens to return to “normal” lives. Since the relationship between the availability (i.e., amount and accessibility) of green spaces and covid-19 cases in compact cities remain insufficiently explored (Ha et al., 2022), this research attempts to explore whether PGS with higher availability is linked to higher COVID-19 case rates and whether the PGS access related to COVID-19 case rates is linked to people’s socio-demographic characteristics in compact urban environments. Following this introduction, this paper is divided into four parts. The first part provides a brief account of the PGS visitation during COVID-19, followed by a general discussion of spatial justice with health considerations. We then describe the methods used to answer our research questions. We outlined the patterns of uneven distribution of PGS and explored the relationships between the availability of PGS and the onset risk of covid-19. The final part presents and concludes our findings, and suggests implications for future studies
The Identification of Urban Vitality Center and its Spatial Relationship Based on Multi-Source Big Data in Jinan City, China : Learning from HIC-AL School of grassroots urbanism
Get PDFWith the acceleration of urbanisation in China, most urban spatial structures have changed from "single center" to "multi center"; urban centers are also gradually showing the characteristics of functional compounding. Scholars' research on urban centers has experienced a transformation from geographical centers to functional places providing trade, finance, administration and other services (Christaller, 1933). Since then, the connotation of urban center is no longer limited to the central location of urban geographical structure, but more from the perspective of the functions undertaken by the center itself. In recent years, with the continuous enrichment of the perspective of urban space research, scholars' research on urban space is no longer limited to the dominant elements such as space and function, and begin to emphasise the non-material space in urban research. Sociological content is added to the connotation of urban center, and it is considered that urban center is not only the functional core of the city, but also a material spatial form that condenses the sense of identity of citizens (Shi, Yang,2013,p.86).Taking the temporal and spatial characteristics of residents' behavior as an aspect of describing the urban center, it is believed that the urban center should have a certain use intensity (Zhang, Zhang&Zhou,2017,p.183).For the research on the spatial relationship of urban centers, many scholars took several large cities as examples to analyze the current situation of their urban center system and the influencing factors behind it, and gave the connotation and research framework of the urban center system. However, most of these studies focus on the hierarchical structure or spatial distribution, and use the individual attribute of the center as the research basis for the urban center system (Shi, Yang，2011，p.29; Zhang, 2012,; Wei, Xiu&Wang,2014, p.83). In fact, with the continuous development of information technology, the relationship between the centers is often generated through traffic flow, information flow, capital flow, technology flow, there are also obvious element links between urban centers
Towards a Topology of Planning Theories –Re-organising Planning Knowledge in the 21st Century
Get PDFPlanning is an iridescent term. A glance at the literature shows how diverse the term planning can be understood, for example as state action, as spatial distribution of different zones or infrastructures, as governance arrangements of different actors, or as civil society engagement for the common good, and many more. Planning practice is defined accordingly in abstract terms in the literature: Planning as "linkage between knowledge and organised action" (Friedmann and Hudson, 1974, p. 2), i.e. connecting knowledge and action, or as an attempt to control the future ("planning as future control", Wildavsky, 2018, p. 128) or "planning activity as practice of knowing" (Davoudi, 2015, p. 317). Gunder (2010, p. 299) described planning as the ideology of how we define and use space, whereas Brooks (2019, p. 9) understands planning as the process by which we try to shape the future. These and other definitions do have in common a strong orientation towards the future (i.e. it is not just a description of the present), which is accompanied by a direct normative orientation towards action. As Alexander (2016, p. 92) already noted, the problem with all these definitions is not that they are not true, but rather that they are too abstract for a definition. These definitions are hardly sufficient in narrowing down what is (and especially what is not) meant by the term spatial planning. It is undisputed that the future orientation of spatial planning undermines a concrete analytical understanding, "the object of planning, future action, routinely involves the unique and novel" (Forester, 1982, p. 3). Nevertheless, or perhaps rather because of this, it is essential to explain the underlying understanding of planning
Developing Companionship with the Left-Behinds: University Social Responsibility and a Collaborative Approach to Rural Regeneration in the Badlands Region of Taiwan
Get PDFTransactions of the Association of European Schools of Planning; Vol. 6 No. 1 (2022): Special issue: Left behind regions in Europe and beyond; 14-29The subject of regional inequality has been garnering the attention of scholars over the past decade and has generated debates on territories forgotten by mainstream economic activities. Left-behind places are a global phenomenon yet with various situated conditions in different development contexts that required customized, place-based solutions. This paper discusses a possible approach to work with the left-behinds: using the university as an institutional resource to engage people and places in regional regeneration. Using the [anonymised] project as an example, we describe the learning journey of developing the ground solutions and companionship between a research university and left-behind communities in the rural badlands region. Adopting a hybrid of an asset-based approach to community development and collaborative planning for regional development, this case demonstrates a potential level-up strategy for sustainable development for the lagging region. 
How Can Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment Tools Improve Urban Wellbeing?
Get PDFIn the contemporary world we are facing four megatrends: population growth, population ageing, international migration and urbanization. All these trends interest both developed countries and developing ones, even if there are some differences and disparities among them. Moreover, they directly affect the sustainable development of nations and consequently have influence on people health and wellbeing.
Paying attention on developed countries, and in particular on European (and Italian) cities, urbanization and population ageing are the two main issues to be considered. In fact, here the number of over 65 years old people is growing exponentially and in 2018 it has overpassed the number of under 5 children. In addition, elderly cohort will exceed the 15-24 one by 2050 (UN, 2019a).
The number of people living in urban contexts will increase, reaching about 68% of the world population (UN, 2019b). This estimation means that cities and their public spaces have to be the core of the sustainable development to guarantee equity, health and wellbeing to the citizens. In fact, rapid urbanization exacerbates environmental problems, inadequate basic services, urban sprawl, differences in opportunities for people.
For this reason, it is necessary to recognize the centrality of people in urban transforming processes by providing equal opportunities for all looking at 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and specifically to the 11th goal Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (UN, 2015). The purpose of this goal is to ensure access to housing and good public spaces and improve a more inclusive urban planning through adequate public transport and social cohesion.
According to Fusco Girard (2006, p. 48) «the city that promotes sustainable human development is a city in which the human person, in the relational-community dimension is at the centre with its inalienable rights (health, quality environment, work, culture). It promotes integration from its neighbourhoods which reproduce a network of many micro-communities». Neighbourhood is the “ideal urban dimension” where innovation and public investments are possible.
Therefore, this paper focuses on neighbourhood scale to look at health and wellbeing for people in urban contexts. Specifically, it aims to analyse some of the main Neighbourhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools to underline whether and how the use of them can improve urban wellbeing recognising in social sustainability the key to do that
COVID-19 Response in Freetown’s Slum Communities Embracing Situated Knowledge in Crises and Beyond
Get PDFplaNext-Next Generation Planning Vol. 12 (2022) Governing the Unknown: Adaptive Spatial Planning in the Age of Uncertainty 13-30The difficulties in tackling COVID-19 have shown with unparalleled strength the need to acknowledge alternative epistemologies in planning. Pandemic responses that seem to have been met with relative success were based upon the guidance, knowledge, and embodied experience of communities on the ground. While some recognize the key role of alternative or ‘non-expert’ knowledge in addressing current planning challenges, most have struggled to broaden their definition to include different ways in which community-based organizations generated data, shared knowledge, collaborated with other development actors, and learned from past experiences. This paper studies the response in Freetown´s slum communities to the unprecedented crisis brought by the COVID-19 outbreak. It analyzes how community-based organizations were able to leverage their situated knowledge to negotiate, develop, and occupy spaces of power in their city´s crisis management systems during the first months of the pandemic. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and personal communications with residents of Freetown’s slum communities, workers of international non-governmental organizations (INGO) based in Freetown, researchers, and local government officials. This research discusses what knowledge is, where and by whom it is generated, and how it can be collectively leveraged in crisis situations. We also offer a reflection on what this may mean for the future of planning, in terms of transforming structures of exclusion and sustaining that transformation
Room for Uncertainty in Infrastructure Planning How Continuous Certainification by Decision Makers Results in More Uncertainty
No full textInfrastructure planning is increasingly confronted with a dynamic environment and an engaged society. This necessitates decision makers to interact with their environment, resulting in the adoption of adaptive and participative planning approaches such as combined infrastructure and (organic) area development (De Roo et al., 2020). Giving room to stakeholders and to unforeseen developments implies incorporating uncertainty in planning and decision making and increases the complexity of planning. In current infrastructure planning, decision makers seem to struggle to find a balance between giving room to uncertainties on the one hand, and keeping the decision-making process manageable on the other hand. This often results in attempts to reduce uncertainties, in 'certainification' (Van Asselt et al., 2007; Klijn & Koppenjan, 2016). This focus on certainification prevents adaptive and participative approaches in planning from reaching full maturity (Hajer et al., 2010; Albrechts, 2012).
This paper is based on a recent stud
Planned Out: The Discriminatory Effects of Planning’s Regulation of Small Houses in Multiple Occupation in England
Get PDFPlanning Theory & Practice, 23(2), 2022Some claim that planning has a “dark” side which is expressed in policies and practices that disadvantage minorities and less powerful groups. This article examines how revisions to English planning legislation and the adoption of restrictive local planning policies regulating small houses in multiple occupation may disproportionately affect the housing choices of young, lower-income adults. Drawing on documentary research, secondary data analysis and Yiftachel’s conceptual framework of planning as social control, the paper explores the territorial, procedural, socio-economic and cultural effects of these regulatory measures and reflects on their implications for planning theory and practice.publishedVersio
Cinematic Open Spaces of Flanders : Spatial Planning and the Imagination of Flemish Open Space in the Fiction Films Bullhead and Kid
Get PDFWho does not know An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim & Gore, 2006)? Most people remember this as the title of a documentary film about global warming. Even people who did not see one image of it, know the film raised international public awareness on the subject. In fact, according to various studies (Butts, 2007; Jacobsen, 2011), awareness of climate change translates into behavioral change and in carbon offsets after watching the documentary. In any case, the film and its narrative concerning climate change and its consequences set things in motion.
When coping with the effects of climate change in Flanders (northern region of Belgium), open space is considered to be primordial. In a densely populated and highly urbanized region such as Flanders, open spaces are crucial to retain water in the event of drought or sudden rains, to provide biodiversity and natural resources, raw materials, food production, and more. Although open space is of vital importance, it lacks a strong narrative.
The concept or definition of open space remains often as diffuse and fragmented as its appearance in this so-called ‘rurban’ area, the blurred zone of urban and rural. Morphological differentiation with open spaces as the opposite of the city determined traditional planning discourses of the last 45 years (Leinfelder, 2007). However, this dichotomous planning model, urban development versus conservation of open space, has lost its relevance as the Flemish countryside is also characterized by urban sprawl. The building pattern takes 33% of the total land cover and is scattered over the area without concentration in big metropoles, leaving the remaining open spaces fragmented between the built-up plots. For a long time, open space was considered as the unbuilt area or residual space, which remained after all other developments and served as potential ground for agriculture or residential expansion.
Similarly, comprehension of open space based on functional frameworks in terms of land use and land cover is equally incomplete and does not fully grasp the complex spatial mix of functions. The basic principle for open space is then the unsealed or non-built condition of land units by any unnatural cover. Consequently and according to this interpretation, open space coincides almost exclusively with nature and/or agriculture, the two major conventional land use categories. The increase of newcomers in land use and the transformation into hybrid ‘rurban’ spaces with mixed and multifunctional uses as urban agriculture, private gardens, horse meadows, etc., abolishes this categorization. (Brandt & Vejre, 2004; Dewaelheyns, Vanempten, Bomans, Verhoeve, & Gulinck, 2014; Wilson, 2007)
Moreover, these transformations consolidate the inefficient spatial organization which is accompanied with economic and ecological problems. Prices for farmlands rise as the non-agricultural functions increase in agricultural areas, the cost for construction and maintenance of road and utility infrastructure is seven times more in a dispersed settlement pattern compared to concentrated city centers (VITO, (Vermeiren et al., 2019), traffic jams on these roads as a result of high frequency of daily commuting movements, are only a few examples of economical damage. Furthermore, this spatial organization, with amongst others this high amount of road infrastructure and traffic jams, also generates an ecological impact. Spaces for nature disappear as paved areas provide further development
The mechanics of drawing Helping planners use serious games for participatory planning
Get PDFplaNext-Next Generation Planning Vol. 12 (2022) Governing the Unknown: Adaptive Spatial Planning in the Age of Uncertainty 84-100Participatory planning is a way planners can gather valuable information and improve the planning process. To engage citizens in participatory approaches, planners should explore new interactive methods. Combining drawing as a communication activity, and games as an engaging approach can be one of the participatory methods. We propose to explore games that planners can use as tools for this purpose. We searched for analogue games with core drawing mechanics, where planners could learn how to build their serious games. Board Game Geek (BGG) allowed us to explore the most successful modern board games that use drawing mechanics, focusing on examples of how they engaged players. We discussed these, proposing the Modding Drawing Games for Planning Process (MDGPP) framework, and arguing how these core and auxiliary game mechanics could help planners to make game-based planning approaches. With this contribution, we hope to provide a process to help professional planners deliver engaging experiences to collect data for participatory planning approaches