Zorica Nedovic-Budic

Are SDIs serving the needs of local planning? Case study of Victoria, Australia and Illinois, USA

National spatial data infrastructures (SDI) have been built throughout the 1990s in both Australia and the USA, conceptualized and initialized by the Australia New Zealand Land Information Council (ANZLIC) and the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), respectively. Numerous SDI-related activities at the national, state, and local levels in both countries share similar core objectives to stimulate coordinated collection, dissemination, and use of spatial data by public and private entities. This coordination is to result in digital databases that would be easily accessible and seamless across administrative and organizational boundaries and that would contribute social, environmental, and economic benefits to the involved communities. Improved information resources, at the local level in particular, are expected to aid decision-making process and to enhance cooperation between government and non-government sectors. This paper raises a question about the effectiveness of existing SDI developments and about outcomes of the related interactions between the local, state, and national levels. Case studies of local governments in Victoria, Australia and Illinois, USA are used to evaluate the utility of existing SDIs to local planning activities and to make suggestions for increasing their effectiveness.

Adjustment of Planning Practice to the New Eastern and Central European Context

Abstract The urban planning profession and its activities in Eastern and Central Europe have been affected by the political and economic transformation in these countries. The new, still evolving societal and institutional frameworks present urban planners with a highly dynamic context to which they must adapt. In contrast to relatively predictable centrally planned and controlled development, the cities there are now subjected to multiple forces and immense pressures on their already fragile environments. This article reviews the frameworks, trends, and issues that characterize the planning practice in this transitional period as evidenced in the capital cities of Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest. Planners in the U.S. and Western Europe will find many of these topics relevant to past, present, and future circumstances they face. The article provides for mutual learning and exchange of experiences, and for better understanding and improvement of planning systems and practice. It relates to the core dilemma in justifying planning as government intervention vis-a-vis free market rule.

The Impact of GIS Technology

In this paper the empirical findings and basic frameworks used in the evaluation of GIS are reviewed. In the studies reviewed, a variety of evaluation criteria are employed, but they still contribute sporadic, unsystematic, and inconclusive evidence. Going beyond a discussion about the need for measuring GIS impacts, and an uncritical and unselective adoption of computerized tools, I emphasize here the importance of assessment and feedback for better adaptation of GIS technology to the needs of urban planning. Comprehensive, multidimensional, context-based, and process-based evaluations can contribute valuable information to guide the developments in GIS technology and to facilitate efforts in GIS implementation in public and private organizations.

Information Sharing in an Interorganizational GIS Environment

The increased acceptance and use of computerized GIS and digital data sets in private and public organizations in the United States has been in recent years further encouraged by the Federal initiatives which promote sharing of geographic data. In spite of the obvious benefits in terms of efficiency and effectiveness to be derived from sharing geographic information both within and between organizations, the idea continues to be resisted, leading to inefficiencies from duplication of data collection and storage. Using case-study methodology, we examine in this research the mechanisms and behavioral factors that can facilitate or inhibit the willingness of organizations to share GIS and databases. Five cases, including organizations with varied levels of joint GIS and database activities, were studied to determine the characteristics underlying successful interorganizational GIS. Our findings offer a number of suggestions for organizations seeking to derive maximum benefits from the interorganizational GIS activities.

The urban mosaic of post-socialist Europe

The book explores urban dynamics in post-socialist Europe 15 years after the fall of communism. The ‘urban mosaic’ metaphor expresses the complexity, diversity and uniqueness of the processes and spatial outcomes in post-socialist cities. The book examines the urban development and the policy and planning processes that have resulted from the socio-economic, political, and institutional transformations characterizing the move to markets and democracy. The emerging urban phenomena are illustrated with indepth case studies, sensitive to historical themes, cultural issues and the socialist legacy. Cities featured in the book include: Kazan, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Prague, Komarno, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia and Tirana. The edited volume is organized around the following four themes: the driving forces of post-socialist change; urban processes and spatial change; housing and retail sector transformation; and urban planning and policy responses.

Measuring Patterns of Urban Development: New Intelligence for the War on Sprawl

Abstract In this article, we compute a variety of measures of urban form (or sprawl) for neighbourhoods of varying age in five study areas in the US to illustrate urban development patterns. Our analysis suggests that some characteristics of development patterns differ significantly within and across study areas and over time; this raises doubt about the utility of sprawl indexes for entire metropolitan areas. The findings suggest, for advocates of ‘smart growth’, that the good news is that single family lot sizes are falling, density is getting higher and neighbourhoods are becoming more internally accessible. For the same advocates, the bad news, however, is more extensive: houses are becoming larger, neighbourhoods are becoming more isolated, land uses remain separated and pedestrian accessibility to commercial uses is falling. If these trends continue, it is likely that housing will remain unaffordable, traffic congestion will only get worse and developments will be unsustainable.

Organizational (soft) GIS interoperability: lessons from the U.S.

Abstract Despite the numerous difficulties, many agencies and institutions in the United States and worldwide practice sharing of geographic information systems (GIS) and data, amounting to local, regional, national and international spatial data infrastructures. While the evidence on coordinated GIS development and spatial data sharing accumulates, there have been a few systematic evaluations of mechanisms and factors that facilitate or obstruct interorganizational GIS efforts. Moreover, the issue of “interoperability” has been addressed primarily in technical terms with its “soft” or organizational side mostly neglected. This paper presents results from several recent studies in the U.S. context. It explores the nature and effectiveness of interorganizational interaction, coordination and implementation processes, and assesses the benefits from achieving organizational interoperability.

Integrating spatial planning and flood risk management: A new conceptual framework for the spatially integrated policy infrastructure

Flooding is a widely occurring natural hazard that noticeably damages property, people, and the environment. In the context of climate change, the integration of spatial planning with flood-risk management has gained prominence as an approach to mitigating the risks of flooding. The absence of easy access to integrated and high-quality information, and the technologies and tools to use information are among the factors that impede this integration. Limited research has been conducted to develop a framework and to investigate the role of information and technologies in this integration. This study draws primarily on the European experiences and literature and identifies three dimensions of the integration of spatial planning with flood-risk management: territorial, policy, and institutional. To facilitate integration and in accord with these three dimensions, a Spatially Integrated Policy Infrastructure (SIPI) is conceptualised that encompasses data and information, decision support and analysis tools, and access tools and protocols. This study presents the connections between SIPI elements and integration dimensions, which is important for a better understanding of roles of geographic information and technologies in integration. The conceptual framework of SIPI will govern further development and evaluation of SIPI.

A GIS-BASED TRAFFIC ANALYSIS ZONE DESIGN: TECHNIQUE

The main purpose of this paper is to develop an efficient method to design traffic analysis zones (TAZs), which is necessary for implementing a planning process with Geographic Information System (GIS) for Transportation (GIS‐T), using statistical spatial data analyses and GIS technology. The major roles of GIS in this method are: (1) to produce basic spatial units (BSUs) with topological data structure; (2) to integrate various procedures during the TAZ generation including computer program routines; and (3) to visualize the output of each TAZ generation. One of the most significant reasons for obtaining well‐defined TAZs is the fact that they are defined at the outset of transportation demand modeling, used from trip generation to trip assignment, and will ultimately affect transportation policy decisions. Toward obtaining well‐defined TAZs, this paper concentrates on two important constraints: homogeneity and contiguity. Iterative partitioning technique is adopted to promote the optimum homogeneity of ...

Waves of planning: a framework for studying the evolution of planning systems and empirical insights from Serbia and Montenegro

With increasing internationalization of urban planning throughout the twentieth century and in the past several decades in particular, planning ideas and practices have been exported from a few, and imported in many countries. However, this ‘trade’ happens without clear expectations about the ensuing dynamics between the internal context and external influences. This paper attempts to enhance understanding of how planning systems evolve and which factors affect them. The conceptual frameworks and typologies used to characterize planning systems and their determinants are reviewed. Building on previous work, an integrated framework is proposed that captures the process, factors and outcomes of urban planning systems. The history of planning in Serbia and Montenegro is used to illustrate how a planning system evolves under changing circumstances and influences and to demonstrate the complexity of such process. The case study is not intended to provide a detailed historical account of the country’s planning trajectory, but to highlight the applicability of elements of the framework in a real setting. In particular, the focus is on conditions of imposition versus voluntary adoption of planning ideas as a way of examining the interaction between the local context and imported models, as well as the implications of such interaction. The article concludes with several pointers about the necessary research on the nature of planning exports and imports and their effects on the resultant urban systems, processes, environments and quality of life.