•Cities and urban areas are facing a strong adaptation imperative.•Spatial planning can support proactive cross-cutting urban adaptation.•Adaptation would benefit from ‘repositioning’ to emphasise ...links to core urban agenda.•Collaborative approaches are vital to meet the urban adaptation challenge.
The significant shifts in climate variables projected for the 21st century, coupled with the observed impacts of ongoing extreme weather and climate events, ensures that adaptation to climate change is set to remain a pressing issue for urban areas over the coming decades. This volume of Progress in Planning seeks to contribute to the widening debate about how the transformation of cities to respond to the changing climate is being understood, managed and achieved. We focus particularly on spatial planning, and building the capacity of this key mechanism for responding to the adaptation imperative in urban areas. The core focus is the outcomes of a collaborative research project, EcoCities, undertaken at the University of Manchester's School of Environment and Development. EcoCities drew upon inter-disciplinary research on climate science, environmental planning and urban design working within a socio-technical framework to investigate climate change hazards, vulnerabilities and adaptation responses in the conurbation of Greater Manchester, UK. Emerging transferable learning with potential relevance for adaptation planning in other cities and urban areas is drawn out to inform this rapidly emerging international agenda. Approaches to build adaptive capacity challenge traditional approaches to environmental and spatial planning, and the role of researchers in this process, raising questions over whether appropriate governance structures are in place to develop effective responses. The cross-cutting nature of the adaptation agenda exposes the silo based approaches that drive many organisations. The development of a collaborative, sociotechnical agenda is vital if we are to meet the climate change adaptation challenge in cities.
•We find geographic and disciplinary variation in conceptualizations of GI.•GI is used as a greenspace planning, urban ecology, & stormwater management concept.•Disciplinary GI literatures represent ...distinct scholarly communities.•Not all GI is created equal and must not be assumed to provide all benefits.•It is critical to clearly define GI, but studies often fail to do this.
While the concept of green infrastructure (GI) is increasingly popular, definitions, terminology, and goals differ based on geographic and disciplinary context. This paper examines these differences through a three-part systematic review: 1) content analysis of academic GI review publications, 2) bibliometric review of academic publications focusing on GI and GI-associated terms, and 3) an online search for grey GI literature. Parsing out conceptualizations of GI, and the agendas they support, helps us better understand its probable outcomes in different contexts. We find that urban planning, urban forestry, ecology, engineering, landscape architecture, and law have epistemic claims to GI, and use divergent conceptualizations to implement the concept. Moreover, there are a number of related concepts, each of which is associated with a distinct scholarly community. These different conceptualizations and terms can be grouped into three primary categories: GI as 1) a greenspace planning concept, 2) an urban ecology concept, and 3) a water/stormwater management concept. Cutting across these categories we find the ecosystem services concept, a focus on specific engineered facility types, and a gradient of implicit GI definitions. A surprising number of publications (41% of those reviewed here) do not define GI, which can cause confusion or lead to implementation of GI projects that fail to meet expectations. We therefore argue that scholars and practitioners need to be explicit and specific about how they are defining GI and its purpose to avoid the siloing of research and practice and to take advantage of opportunities to address multiple agendas simultaneously.
•We developed a framework for relating pluvial flood risk and GI prevalence.•We related pluvial flood risk and GI prevalence to sociodemographic characteristics.•GI prevalence inconsistently ...overlapped with pluvial flood risk.•Non-white and low-income populations were found to be at a disadvantage.•Phoenix and Portland demonstrated transition to equitable flood risk management.
Pluvial flooding is a serious hazard in inland U.S. cities. City managers and communities are increasingly interested in reducing their pluvial flood risk through the development of green infrastructure (GI) features. This research explores the relationship between pluvial flood exposure and GI placement in three inland cities–Atlanta, Phoenix, and Portland–and analyzes the variation of sociodemographic variables in census block groups (CBG) located in pluvial flood zones. Using the Arc-Malstrøm method, we estimated areas of pluvial flooding in the CBGs of our selected cities by relating pluvial flood area to the density of GI in CBGs and assigning CBGs one of four classifications: i) managed (large flood area, abundant GI), ii) prepared (small flood area, abundant GI), iii) vulnerable (large flood area, scarce GI), and iv) least concern (small flood area, scarce GI). Then, using the historical GI data, we examined the proportionality of GI investment over time to pluvial flood area. We found relationships between GI density, flood area, ethnic and racial minority populations, age, educational attainment, and median household incomes that indicated inequalities and potential discrimination in flood risk management, but also some evidence of equitable and appropriate management given differences in flood risk, especially in Phoenix and Portland. In Atlanta, newer GI installation prioritized white and wealthy neighborhoods where relatively higher flood risk exists (less equitable). Our classification framework may assist city flood risk managers to distribute GI more equitably according to equitability and need.
The management of peri-urban development has emerged as a new context of contemporary urban planning. Its dynamic and diverse nature presents major challenges and opportunities for urban ...sustainability. However, a more integrated framework for peri-urban planning has been progressing slowly. An examination of the epistemology of the landscape concept reveals three salient aspects of landscape relevant to multiple domains of peri-urban planning – the unifying, morphogenetic and socialised. Although landscape research has translated into peri-urban management, its full potential has yet to be realised. Among the three landscape dimensions, morphogenesis is relatively neglected. By foregrounding morphogenesis, the three epistemological orientations of landscape can be rebalanced and reintegrated to form the basis of a new planning framework for more continuous, harmonious and sustainable peri-urban development.
Analysing the city through data retrieved from Location Based Social Networks (LBSNs) has received considerable attention as a promising method for applied research. However, the use of these data is ...not without its challenges and has given rise to a stream of polemical arguments over the validity of this source of information. This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities as well as some of the limitations and biases associated with the collection and use of LBSN data from Foursquare, Twitter, Google Places, Instagram and Airbnb in the context of urban phenomena research. The most recent research that uses LBSN data to understand city dynamics is presented. A method is proposed for LBSN data retrieval, selection, classification and analysis. In addition, key thematic research lines are identified given the data variables offered by these LBSNs. A comprehensive and descriptive framework for the study of urban phenomena through LBSN data is the main contribution of this study.
•LBSN data contain dynamic information for the timely study of cities.•LBSN data's competitive edge is immediacy, availability and quantity of data.•In-depth method for retrieving, validating, filtering and interpreting LBSN data.•Opportunities and challenges are addressed in the method for using LBSN data.•Combinations of variables from LBSN data fine tune the research question.
•Novel socio-cultural valuation framework for green infrastructure and climate impacts.•People are more aware of present-day heat waves but more alarmed by future flooding.•People tend to prefer ...diverse, familiar and visually attractive adaptation measures.•Environmental education can increase support for effective adaptation measures.•Results help planners prioritize effective and desired green infrastructure designs.
Cities are particularly prone to the effects of climate change. One way for cities to adapt is by enhancing their green infrastructure (GI) to mitigate the impacts of heat waves and flooding. While alternative GI design options exist, there are many unknowns regarding public support for the various options. This study aims to fill this gap by performing a socio-cultural valuation of urban GI for climate adaptation that encompasses multiple dimensions: people’s notion of and concerns about climate impacts, the degree to which people acknowledge the benefits of GI to alleviate such impacts, and people’s preferences for different GI measures, including their willingness to pay (WTP). Data were collected through photo-assisted face-to-face surveys (n=200) with residents in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and linked to GI GIS data. Respondents had a notion of and concerns about climate impacts, but did not necessarily acknowledge that GI may help tackle these issues. Yet, when residents were informed about the adaptation capacity of different GI measures, their preferences shifted towards the most effective options. There was no information effect, however, on people’s WTP for GI, which was mostly related to income and ethnicity. Our study shows that economic valuation alone would miss nuances that socio-cultural valuation as applied in this paper can reveal. The method revealed preferences for particular adaptation designs, and assists in detecting why policy for climate adaptation may be hampered. Understanding people’s views on climate impacts and adaptation options is crucial for prioritizing effective policy responses in the face of climate change.
•The idea of the smart city is ambiguous, as there are multiple meanings.•Citizenship is evolving, becoming more and more tied to the urban scale.•Four imaginaries of smart urbanism are explored, ...questioning the position of citizens.•All the considered imaginaries locate citizens in a subaltern position.•Smart city visions are largely disconnected from social needs and aspirations.
Imagining tomorrow’s life implies, to a large degree, imagining the kind of cities we will inhabit in the future. In this framework, the smart city is actually a popular vision in discourses on urban development. This paper explores alternative ways in which citizens are positioned within different imaginaries of the smart city. The premise is that most mainstream discourses implicitly assume that smart city projects will empower and improve the lives of citizens. However, their role is often ambiguous. While some visions of the smart city are characterised by the absence of citizen’s voices, others are populated by active citizens operating as urban sensors. Furthermore there are fearful visions of a future in which citizens will be subjugated by technologies that will hamper their freedom. This paper analyses the role of citizens in four alternative smart city imaginaries. The thesis proposed is that all four imaginaries are characterised by citizens playing a subaltern role, and hence the smart city is a relatively poor concept if intended as a model of the urban life of the future.
Rising complexities and uncertainties have emphasized the need to employ scenario thinking in urban design and planning. While different scenario methods have been widely used across disciplines, a ...comprehensive review of scenario approaches in planning literature is limited. Thus, we provide an overview of scenarios and existing scenario approaches currently in practice. We also review a scenario building process to provide a guide for developing scenarios in the context of urban design and planning. The process highlights the different steps that contribute to adaptive planning and improve decision-making.
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