Lessons learned from eco-district pilot projects : the importance of stakeholder relations

Le changement climatique devenant de plus en plus une réalité à laquelle les villes du monde entier sont confrontées, les menaces environnementales globales et locales à celles-ci soulignent la nécessité d'un nouveau paradigme dans les disciplines du cadre bâti, un nouveau paradigme autant en termes des processus de conception et de planification que des résultats construits. Afin de répondre à cet appel en faveur d'un développement urbain plus durable et plus résilient, au cours de la dernière décennie, un nombre croissant d’outils de quartiers durables ont vu le jour. Alors que plusieurs études ont cherché à comprendre le contenu, la forme et la structure des outils de quartiers durables, il existe encore des lacunes importantes concernant le « comment » de ces outils : Comment les outils de quartiers durables mènent-ils à de meilleures pratiques dans les domaines de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme? Comment ces outils sont-ils mis en oeuvre et quelles leçons peut-on en tirer ? Comment contribuent-ils à briser les silos professionnels pour favoriser une réflexion plus intégrée et collaborative ? Cette thèse vise à expliquer comment les outils de quartiers durables sont utilisés dans la pratique et dans quelle mesure ils contribuent à l'évolution vers un paradigme plus régénératif et résilient. Ce projet de recherche de nature qualitative repose sur trois études de cas approfondies de projets pilotes d'éco-quartiers qui ont expérimenté avec des outils de quartiers durables : d'abord, les projets pilotes « EcoDistricts » à Portland en Oregon ; deuxièmement, le projet pilote « BREEAM-Communities » à Malmö en Suède ; et troisièmement, le projet pilote « superîlot » et l’outil « Urbanisme Écologique » à Barcelone, en Espagne. Le projet de recherche utilise une stratégie exploratoire dans laquelle des entrevues semi-structurées avec les parties prenantes impliquées dans ces projets pilotes permettent de construire un cadre théorique fondé sur le processus. Les résultats démontrent les nombreuses façons dont les outils de quartiers durables ont un impact sur la pratique, en particulier à l'égard des quatre volets suivantes : la collaboration, la participation citoyenne, les relations entre les parties prenantes et la communication visuelle. Les résultats de l'étude de cas ont également mis en lumière les écarts entre les attentes des outils de quartiers durables et la réalité de leur mise en oeuvre. En effet, les études de cas identifient des obstacles externes et internes qui expliquent la raison pour laquelle le nouveau paradigme se manifeste de façon marginale, par l'entremise des outils. Les résultats servent à rappeler que les outils de quartiers durables ne peuvent être compris en vase clos. Au contraire, comment et quand ils sont utilisés et comment ils sont encadrés sont tout aussi importants. L’application réussie de ces outils dépend de diverses conditions qui peuvent conduire à une meilleure collaboration, participation citoyenne, relations entre les parties prenantes et communication visuelle. Celles-ci incluent, par exemple, l’alignement des atouts, des actions et des attentes des parties prenantes ; favoriser les attributs internes dans les équipes de planification, tels que la capacité renforcée, le leadership fort et la confiance dans le processus ; disposer de mécanismes de résolution des conflits ; et en veillant à ce que la participation de la communauté soit non seulement profonde mais suffisamment précoce pour avoir un impact sur la prise de décision. Sur la base de ces résultats, le projet propose un « cadre de soutien aux parties prenantes » pour les outils de quartiers durables de troisième génération. Au niveau macro, il propose trois principes directeurs pour les outils de quartiers durables. À une échelle plus fine, il fournit une série de concepts et de boîtes à outils pour aider les dirigeants d'éco-districts à développer des processus plus régénératifs, résilients et justes.As climate change becomes more and more a reality that cities around the world face, global and local environmental threats to cities highlight the need for a new paradigm in built environment disciplines, a new paradigm as much in terms of design and planning processes as built outcomes. In order to help answer this call for more sustainable and resilient urban development, over the past decade or so, a rapidly increasing number of neighbourhood sustainability frameworks have emerged. While several studies have aimed at understanding the content, form and structure of neighbourhood sustainability frameworks, important knowledge gaps exist concerning the ‘hows’ of these frameworks: How are neighbourhood sustainability frameworks leading to better practice? How are these frameworks being implemented, and what can be learned from this? How are they contributing to breaking down professional silos to foster integrated and collaborative thinking? This dissertation aims at explaining how neighbourhood sustainability frameworks are used in practice and to what extent they are contributing to the shift towards a more regenerative and resilient paradigm for the built environment. This qualitative research project is based on three in-depth case studies of ecodistrict pilot projects that have experimented with neighbourhood sustainability frameworks: first, the EcoDistricts pilot projects in Portland, Oregon; second, the BREEAM-Communities Masthusen pilot project in Malmö, Sweden; and third, the superblock pilot project and the Ecological Urbanism framework in the Sant Martí district of Barcelona, Spain. The research project uses a qualitative, exploratory approach in which semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in the pilot projects helped to construct an analytical framework – the ‘process-based approach.’ The results show the number of ways in which the neighbourhood sustainability frameworks impact practice, specifically in terms of four dimensions: collaboration, community participation, stakeholder relations and visual communication. The case study results also shed light on the gaps between the expectations of the frameworks and the reality of how they are implemented. Indeed, external and internal barriers are identified in the case studies, which serve to explain why the frameworks are making only modest progress in the shift to a new paradigm. The results serve as a reminder that neighbourhood sustainability frameworks cannot be understood in a vacuum. On the contrary, how and when they are used, and how they are framed are equally important. The successful application of these frameworks depends on a variety of conditions that can lead to better collaboration, community participation, stakeholders relations and visual communication. These include for instance, the alignment of stakeholder assets, actions and expectations; fostering internal attributes in the planning teams; having conflict resolution mechanisms in place; and ensuring that community participation be not only deep but also early on enough to impact decisionmaking. Based on these results, the project proposes a “stakeholder support framework” for third generation neighbourhood sustainability frameworks. At a macrolevel, it proposes three guiding principles for neighbourhood sustainability frameworks. At a finer-grain scale, it provides a series of concepts and toolkits to help eco-district leaders develop more regenerative, resilient, and just processes

Transitioning to regenerative urbanism

This thesis describes a framework for transitioning to regenerative urbanism. Regenerative urbanism represents a new planning paradigm that optimises urban fabric and applies a regenerative design overlay to deliver highly liveable and sustainable urban development. This approach integrates across systems (energy, transport, water, waste, food, biodiversity), and scales (plot, precinct, city). Mainstreaming regenerative urbanism could usher in a period of planetary biosphere regeneration by facilitating a global network of net positive impact regenerative cities

The GHG emission reduction toolkit : a case study of Blacktown City, Australia

This PhD thesis is in line with Australia’s national policy of a 26-28% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions to 2005 levels. According to a review of its climate change policy in 2017, the Australian Government is committed to tackling climate change, while maintaining a strong economy, providing affordable energy and security for industries. This requires new initiatives in existing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or the emergence of new technologies altogether. Whatever the strategy, the final goal is to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This national target is now disseminated among different sectors and governmental bodies in Australia, requesting them to submit their action plans against climate change. This includes all Australian City Councils and incorporates Blacktown City Council as the Case Study for this study. As part of the Blacktown City Council’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, this research study is the result of collaboration between the Council and Western Sydney University. The authorities of both sides have signed a research collaboration agreement, ample evidence of a local university tackling local problems. This research agreement is unique as it opens a door for other local Councils to collaborate with universities. Blacktown City Council, on the other side of this agreement, can improve its body of knowledge through a comprehensive investigation of greenhouse gas mitigation using its available tools. Therefore, this research study developed a toolkit to help reduce the Council’s GHG Emission

Principles and Tools for Designing Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development: A “Process-based” and “Action-oriented” Approach at Neighbourhood Level

Cities constitute essential parts of the solution to many of the current sustainable development challenges. They have a major role to play in sustainable development both as crucial “engines” of socio-economic growth and significant “originators” of environmental loads. The special significance of cities for sustainable development is also reflected in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To organize and to support a sustainable urban development is, however, a particularly complex task to accomplish for any local authority or stakeholder group. The reasons for this complexity are related to the amplitude of the sustainability concept, to the variety and changing nature of the factors to be taken into account, as well as to the challenge for balancing the needs and interests of different stakeholder groups involved in – or affected by – urban interventions. The neighbourhood, as a more manageable urban unit than the city, and as a promising level to test out new ideas and ways of achieving sustainable urban development, has increasingly been acknowledged by research, policy and industry. The thesis therefore investigates new approaches to support sustainable urban development at the neighbourhood scale, with a specific focus on the neighbourhoods in Europe. Existing literature indicates that prevailing approaches are traditionally prescriptive and outcomes-based and fail to acknowledge the process nature of sustainable urban development. Furthermore, their contribution commonly starts and ends with the measurement of indicators and the provision of assessment results in the form of static “snap-shots” without those being reflected in specific possibilities for action in the local area. This hardly solves the problem of the (further) development of existing neighbourhoods. Decoding these results into context-specific strategies and actions, as well as ways of managing these actions, remains a challenge and an area not much researched yet. To remediate these weaknesses and gaps, the thesis proposes a comprehensive and integrated conceptual “process-based” and “action-oriented” overall framework which combines three approaches: (1) a step-by-step structured workflow model that decomposes the process of SUD into manageable tasks and incorporates all necessary quality requirements that should accompany a transition to sustainability; the purpose is to support the preparation phase of sustainable urban development process; (2) a methodology for identifying problem areas, their respective tradeoffs, as well as selecting, organising and describing indicators in an action-oriented fashion; the purpose is to provide a new proposal for linking indicators to possibilities for action so that their use does not only focus on assessing but also guiding development; (3) a methodology for prioritising and selecting concrete strategies and actions for neighbourhoods. The usefulness of the latter is illustrated by the means of a hypothetical case, and with the help of a web-based tool built by the author specifically for the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method ELECTRE III. The originality of this research lies in that such a comprehensive framework, bringing all the above-mentioned elements together into one coherent solution, has not been available until now. The value of the research is that the proposed overall framework can be a helpful decision support tool for any neighbourhood in Europe which is developing a sustainable development plan

VRSC 2021 Conference Proceedings

The biennial conference aims to catalyze ideas and innovation between academia, practice, NGOs and government agencies who work to address analysis, planning, valuation, design and management of visual resources. The aim of the 2021 Virtual Conference is to share ideas and discuss the issues associated with the assessment and protection of visual resources in an era of major landscape change - regionally, national and globally

The Redtail Site : a McKean habitation in south central Saskatchewan

There is a problem in classifying McKean. McKean is known as a variable material culture grouping that spans the Plains. It existed from about 5700 to 3300 years ago (or 5000 to 3000 radiocarbon years B.P.). Variation within McKean is assessed. This is based on the analysis of the Redtail site and systematic comparisons with the Cactus Flower and Crown sites. These, and other general comparisons, indicate that McKean can be considered a tradition, as defined by Willey and Phillips (1958: 37). Syms's (1977: 70-72) taxonomic framework is recommended to distinguish an earlier McKean configuration from a later Hanna configuration. Also, based on varying emphasis of use of plant resources, northern and southern regional composites should be recognized within both configurations. The focus of this study is the Redtail Site (FbNp-10). It is a multicomponent habitation located in a small basin of the South Saskatchewan River in Wanuskewin Heritage Park. This is about three kilometers north of the city of Saskatoon, in south central Saskatchewan. Preliminary tests by Dr. E. G. Walker in 1982 started an ongoing research project. A 44 m2 block area was excavated at the Redtail site during 1988 and 1989. This fieldwork provides most of the data for this thesis. The Redtail site's natural strata are complex accumulations of slopewash, colluvial and fluvial sediments. Cultural stratigraphic interpretations are based on the field excavation done in natural layers, point provenience measurements, and backplotting to detailed profiles. Paleosurface maps of the block area and taphonomic data are used to assess the post-depositional modifications. Features and spatial distribution patterns indicate probable habitation structures in some of the layers. This work provides new information for evaluating variation within McKean

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography (issue 32)

This bibliography list 580 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis