Joe Ravetz

Integrated Assessment for Sustainability Appraisal in Cities and Regions

Abstract This paper looks at a very topical challenge: how to appraise the sustainability of a city, a region, a policy, or programme. As the theme of sustainability is intrinsically multidisciplinary and multisectoral, this suggests that effective appraisals should likewise be based on a holistic or integrated assessment (IA) approach. This paper outlines a conceptual framework and a practical tool for such an approach. We first review the concepts of sustainability for an urban–regional unit, drawing on an investigation of integrated planning for long-term sustainable development in a case study of Greater Manchester, UK. From this we develop a IA framework which helps to map linkages between environmental, economic and social factors. One practical application is the Integrated Sustainable Cities Assessment Method (ISCAM), a scenario accounting system for the total environmental metabolism of a city or region. These scenario accounts are also useful for strategic assessment and sustainability appraisal of policies and programmes, where indeterminate and cumulative effects can be placed in a whole-system context of trends, projections, goals and targets.

Dealing with Sustainability Trade-Offs of the Compact City in Peri-Urban Planning Across European City Regions

The compact city has become a leading concept in the planning of peri-urban areas. The compact city concept is often advocated as “sustainable” because of claims that include lower emissions and conservation of the countryside. The literature shows, however, that there are certain trade-offs in striving for compaction, especially between environmental and social aspects of sustainability. In this article, we describe expressions of the compact city concept in the planning practice of several European urban sample regions, as well as policies and developments that contradict the compact city. We look at examples of positive and negative impacts of the compact city that were observed in the sample regions. Further, we discuss attempts by planners to deal with sustainability trade-offs. Being aware that developments in the peri-urban areas are closely connected to those in the inner city, we compare the sample regions in order to learn how the compact city concept has been used in planning peri-urban areas across different contexts in Europe: in Western, Central and Mediterranean Europe, and with growing, stable or declining populations. We conclude with recommendations with respect to balance in applying the compact city concept.

The Dynamics of Peri-Urbanization

The peri-urban (sometimes also called the urban fringe) may be the dominant urban form and spatial planning challenge of the twenty-first century. In older industrial or post-industrial countries the peri-urban is a zone of social and economic change and spatial restructuring, while in newer industrializing countries, and most of the developing world, the peri-urban is often a zone of chaotic urbanization leading to sprawl. In both cases the peri-urban can be seen as not just a fringe in-between city and countryside, a zone of transition, rather it is a new kind of multi-functional territory. While it resists simple definitions, there are common features wherever such areas are found, such as a relatively low population density by urban standards, scattered settlements, high dependence on transport for commuting, fragmented communities and lack of spatial governance. Many global challenges arise from the ways that cities grow and change, especially the emerging mega-cities in developing countries where massive social and environmental problems can be found in their peri-urban hinterlands.

Citizens' expectations of information cities: implications for urban planning and design.

The European Union has made the development of a vibrant knowledge-based economy a key policy objective, and increasingly national and local governments worldwide are seeking to harness information and communication technologies to provide government services more effectively and for the benefit of their citizenry. The paper reports on the first phase of the ongoing European Union IntelCities integrated project that seeks to integrate electronic governance of cities and urban planning. The background to the project in terms of the e-Europe Action Plan is explored and the outcome of surveys of user needs and requirements carried out in the cities of Marseilles (France), Siena and Rome (Italy), Helsinki (Finland), Leicester and Manchester (UK), and Dresden and Berlin (Germany) are explained. The outcomes identify a range of implications for digital or electronic planning in terms of increasing the efficiency in e-urban planning and the need to develop digital methodologies for widening public participation. Thus, the importance of e-skills development in new forms of e-planning for planners, developers and citizens is highlighted and shown to be important for achieving a wider e-enabled sustainable knowledge society.

Toolkits for regional sustainable development

T HIS SPECIAL ISSUE is dedicated to work informing the new regional agenda for sustainable development. Whichever definition is applied to sustainable development, the authors suggest that an integrated and long-term approach is an essential element of any strategy. In practice, however, they argue that the majority of policy and action is short-term and fragmented between sectors and stakeholders. To address these shortcomings, and to facilitate ‘joined-up’ thinking and action, it is increasingly clear that we need new kinds of information systems and communication channels to promote positive change. The papers in this issue were presented at the ‘Toolkits for Sustainable Development’ seminar, a research-practitioner workshop held at the Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology, Manchester, UK1 in September 2000. It aimed to bring together best practice from research and policy communities in an action-research format, reviewing the state of the art and generating tangible outputs, with a dual approach:

Integrated assessment models—from global to local

This illustrated commentary looks at two very different types of integrated assessment models in context. On one hand the current generation of integrated climate models has achieved a significant role in environmental policy. On the other, integrated models for urban and regional systems have declined in their relevance for the policy process. However, the global models should be closely linked to urban models, which provide a very significant part of their inputs. This leads us to consider the modelling paradigm and future directions in technical tools which link science and policy. A city-region case study provides one example of a response—a deliberately simple and transparent scenario-building model, as a practical link in the problem-solution cycle.

Managing the Flow of Construction Minerals in the North West Region of England

Summary This article, focusing on the flow of bulk construction minerals, establishes a mass balance framework for the North West of England, a region that imports more aggregate material than any other in the United Kingdom. The problems associated with construction minerals are of a different nature than most other resource flow issues: Depletion of resources and contamination are not considered major problems; rather it is the environmental impact resulting from life-cycle stages from extraction, transport, processing, through to final disposal that is most important. A mass balance framework can promote a better understanding of the regional flow of materials, and the impact of human activity on surrounding ecosystems, and hence underpin informed decision making. This is of particular relevance at the current time because increasing political emphasis is placed on sustainable resource management and resource productivity at the United Kingdom and European Union levels. Using a mass balance framework to analyze the sustainability impacts of construction and mineral flows in the North West of England, this study finds that flows resulting from construction activity account for 34,075 terajoules (TJ) of energy resulting in 2,701 gigagrams (Gg) of carbon dioxide emissions related to energy use, and 387 Gg of carbon dioxide emissions related to the transportation of the minerals. Against these impacts, the flow of bulk construction mineral salso supports 147,000 jobs within the region.

Foresight in cities: on the possibility of a “strategic urban intelligence”

Purpose This paper aims to review the challenges of urban foresight via an analytical method: apply this to the city demonstrations on the UK Foresight Future of Cities: and explore the implications for ways forward. Design/methodology/approach The methodology is based on the principles of co-evolutionary complex systems, a newly developed toolkit of “synergistic mapping and design”, and its application in a “synergy foresight” method. Findings The UK Foresight Future of Cities is work in progress, but some early lessons are emerging – the need for transparency in foresight method – and the wider context of strategic policy intelligence. Practical implications The paper has practical recommendations, and a set of propositions, (under active discussion in 2015), which are based on the analysis. Originality/value The paper aims to demonstrate an application of “synergy foresight” with wide benefits for cities and the communities within them.

Manchester: Re-Inventing the Local–Global in the Peri-Urban City-Region

Some of the most populous parts of England are neither urban nor rural, but somewhere in between: a new kind of peri-urban landscape emerging in the fringes and hinterlands of cities and city-regions. Such peri-urban areas reflect both a more networked, mobile, globalised society, and also one which increasingly values local character and quality of life. The Manchester city region is one of these areas, a poly-centric agglomeration of several large towns and cities, between which an extensive peri-urban zone flows, linking them together like a form of connective tissue.

Seeing the wood for the trees: Social Science 3.0 and the role of visual thinking

Social Science is increasingly called on to address “grand challenges”, “wicked problems”, “societal dilemmas” and similar problematiques. Examples include climate change, the war on drugs and urban poverty. It is now widely agreed that the disciplinary structure of academic science, with its journals, curricula, peer communities, etc., is not well suited to such trans-disciplinary, ill-bounded, controversial issues, but the ways forward are not yet clear or accepted by the mainstream. The concept of a next generation paradigm of “Science 3.0” has emerged through work on sustainability systems analysis, and for this multiple channels for learning, thinking and communications are essential. Visual thinking in its many forms (from technical representation or mapping, to photography or video, to design or illustration, to fine art) can bring to the table tacit and “felt” knowledge, creative experience and links from analysis with synthesis. This paper first sketches the contours of a Social Science 3.0, and then demonstrates with examples how visual thinking can combine with rational argument, or extend beyond it to other forms of experience.