Speaker
Description
Cities face the wicked problem of dealing with the conflicting policy objectives of urban densification and climate adaptation. This problem is also known as the sustainable city paradox. Addressing and finding a solution to this problem is crucial regarding the present-day challenges of the pressing housing shortage and the perceivable consequences of climate change on the urban landscape, endangering the livability of our cities. In recent spatial planning practices, integration has become a buzzword and is seen as a promising answer to address these conflicting policy objectives. However, integration remains ambiguous in scientific planning literature and empirical evidence shows that different perceptions and interpretations exist, resulting in different practices of integration.
This research aims to detangle the concept of integrated planning, explore different practices and assess the impact and potential of these specific manifestations to solve the conflicting policy objectives of densification and climate adaptation in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. Through a comparative case study focusing on two urban development projects in the Netherlands (Little C in Rotterdam and Bajes Kwartier in Amsterdam), it explores the two dimensions of substantive and processual policy integration, translated into sixteen indicators that allow for systematic analysis.
The results of this research showed that the practice of integrated planning does indeed manifest differently across cases and impacts the quality of spatial planning. Moreover, the observed municipal efforts to integrate policies in spatial developments are often undermined by various obstacles, especially within the processual dimension of policy integration. Therefore, this research argues that the main challenge to improve practices of policy integration and thereby spatial planning quality, lies within the processual dimension rather than the substantive dimension.
References
Balikçi, S., Giezen, M., & Arundel, R. (2022). The paradox of planning the compact and green city: analyzing land-use change inAmsterdam and Brussels. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 65(13), 2387-2411.https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2021.1971069
Eichhorn, S., Rusche, K., & Weith, T. (2021). Integrative governance processes towards sustainable spatial development – solvingconflicts between urban infill development and climate change adaptation. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management,64(12), 2233-2256. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2020.1866509
Candel, J. J. L., & Biesbroek, R. (2016). Toward a processual understanding of policy integration. Policy Sciences, 49(3), 211–231.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-016-9248-y
| Keywords | densification; climate change adaptation; policy integration |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
