This open access book provides in-depth insights into participatory research and planning by presenting practical examples of its use. In particular, it describes theoretical and methodological ...aspects of participatory research and planning, as well as the implementation of participatory processes in fields such as transport planning, cultural heritage management, environmental planning and post-earthquake recovery. Further, it compares participatory planning experiences from different territorial levels - from the macro-regional, e.g. Southeastern Europe, Mediterranean or European metropolitan regions, to national, regional and local levels.The book will help researchers, planners, public administration officials, decision-makers and the general public to understand the advantages, disadvantages and constraints of participatory planning and research. Using various examples, it will guide readers through the theory of participatory planning and research, its methods, and different perspectives on how to use it in practice.
This article studies the strength, forms, and areas of intermunicipal cooperation, and their advantages, disadvantages, and spatial characteristics based on the example of the Ljubljana urban region. ...Surveys, interviews, data analysis of joint administration and joint companies, and analysis of joint development projects show that cooperation in joint municipal administration is limited to parking authorities and the intermunicipal inspectorate, joint companies dealing with communal infrastructure and traffic, and joint projects mainly focusing on economic infrastructure, tourism, mobility, spatial and development planning, and applying for EU projects. The areas of former municipalities, the municipalities in Ljubljana Marsh Nature Park, and the municipalities that are part of the Development Partnership of the Center of Slovenia connect more often than other areas. The advantages of cooperation include better opportunities for EU funding, economizing, and joint representation of municipal interests, whereas disadvantages include problems with coordinating funding and a lengthy coordination period, which is additionally hindered by unsuitable legislation and a lack of financial incentives, human resources, time, and ideas.
Transportation in urban areas, particularly metropolitan regions, generates congestion and vast greenhouse gas emissions, and thus imposes enormous challenges upon authorities in providing healthy ...living conditions and a supportive environment for businesses. Thus, the overall objective of the SMART-MR project was to support local and regional authorities in improving transport policies and providing sustainable measures for achieving resilient low-carbon transportation and mobility in metropolitan regions. To tackle this issue, ten project partners from eight metropolitan regions (Oslo, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Budapest, Ljubljana, Rome, Porto, and Barcelona) have shared their experience in transport and mobility planning by holding seven topically interrelated workshops. The goal of this publication is not to present all of the project results. It only focuses on the main lessons learned during the seven workshops.
The economic crisis the world has faced since 2007 has had devastating effects on many regions to various degrees. How regions respond to economic shock depends on regional economic structure and ...performance, administrative capacity, resources, human capital, social capital, and other factors, and is perceived as resilience: the ability of a regional economy to withstand, absorb, or overcome an external economic stress. Because one of the future strategic goals for the Alpine Space Programme area is fostering its resilience, we studied the performance of Alpine regions in the pre- and post-crisis period in order to assess the effects of the economic crisis and to provide basic directions on how to make the Alps more resilient in the future. The results have revealed differences among three selected groups of regions as well as some country-specific characteristics of the regional response that can generally be seen in the weaker performance of some Italian and Slovenian regions.
Central settlements in Slovenia in 2016 Nared, Janez; Bole, David; Breg Valjavec, Mateja ...
Acta geographica Slovenica,
01/2017, Volume:
57, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This article presents central settlements in Slovenia and their main characteristics in 2016. We defined central settlements based on services of general interest and the population of an individual ...settlement, and developed the analysis further by using competitiveness indicators. We defined 360 central settlements at six levels of centrality, among which the significance of Ljubljana as a national center of international importance and the significance of intermunicipal, local, and rural centers are increasing. The significance of certain regional centers at the second and third levels of centrality is decreasing. The level of services of general interest supplied to Slovenian territory is relatively appropriate, but it should be improved by promoting competitiveness, especially in centers of national and regional importance.
This article analyzes the legal frameworks of participatory planning in Alpine countries and assesses its role in achieving more sustainable spatial development in the Alps. Our research analyzed ...twenty-seven legal acts from seven Alpine countries and shows that the role of stakeholder participation in spatial planning has gradually increased. However, participation still remains at a rather unsatisfactory level, mainly because of its pro-forma character and practitioners’ insufficient knowledge on how to implement it. To increase the use of participatory processes, it is important 1) to convince planning stakeholders that participation is a key instrument in ensuring sustainable spatial development and 2) to inform practitioners about participatory methods and techniques.
Mercury heritage in Idrija has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List together with the Spanish town of Almadén. Idrija’s rich cultural heritage thus became an important development factor ...that should be appropriately included in development documents, while preserving the integrity and authenticity of heritage, and taking into account its development role. This article presents the key findings of a participatory process whose goal is to form a cultural heritage management plan that will ensure that heritage becomes an important driver of municipal development. It highlights the need for comprehensive planning that includes all stakeholders, transcends divisions between sectors, and contributes to the harmonious and successful development of the area.
This special issue of Acta geographica Slovenica discusses selected topics in spatial development in the Alps from the perspective of spatial planning legislation, stakeholder engagement in spatial ...planning decisions, tools that enable the effective flow of expertise and exchange of instruments, and best practices across the Alps, as well as from the economic perspective using the example of Alpine regions’ reaction to the economic crisis that affected Europe and the rest of the world at the end of the past decade. By including articles written as part of the WIKIAlps project, which was financed through the EU transnational cooperation program Alpine Space, this special issue seeks to invigorate discussions on sustainable spatial development in the Alps and thus contributes to a greater familiarity with this issue and to more prudent decisions.
In order to improve the understanding of the concepts featured in this special issue of Acta geographica Slovenica, this review article presents the Alps as a geographical concept, the Alpine ...Convention, and the Alpine Space transnational cooperation program. All three categories have a different spatial scope and thus must be clearly defined and distinguished from one another.
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