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Assumptions of the concept of spatial justice in the theory and practice of urban planning processes

The topic of justice and equality in Lithuania has been studied mostly from the sociological point of view and the most commonly used concepts are segregation, differentiation, and polarization. The article analyzes the concept of spatial justice, its theoretical and practical assumptions discuss urban policy, how the public understands spatial justice and how it is taking part in the decision-making in Lithuanian city planning processes. For the case study, the examples of public participation in urban planning processes in Kaunas city are analyzed. Keywords: participatory planning, public participation in urban planning processes, spatial justice, the right to the city

XIX a. pašto kelių paveldas. Kelio Varšuva-Sankt Peterburgas atkarpa Kaunas-Zarasai

Reikšminiai žodžiai: Pašto keliai. Infrastruktūra. Architektūra. Paveldas. Panaudojimas

Cultural-recreational potential and its use possibilities by developing water tourism

A river is an element of natural framework, performing important action at nature's circulation system. The river is also a path of transportation, that is able to give people not only the economic profit, but also to become one of the most important derivative coupling entertainment activities. In last decade there were many investigations in Lithuania related with development of water tourism: many regions made water tourism tracks development strategies, infrastructure projects, analysis of recreational potential, society opinion and needs for water tourism. Many of these works are under implementation at the moment. Nevertheless it does not solve main problems arising in this field. Present tourism infrastructure and use of recreational sources does not fit the water tourism size and needs of travelers. The touristic infrastructure of rivers is not always used corresponding to its essential mission. Territories that are focused on recreation and tourism usually are designed not taking about aspects of antropocomfort conditions, number of places of interest and ect. Very often cultural cognitive tourism, using traveling by water ways loses its interest and meaning, and the river streams are used more for sport tourism purposes

Transformation and usability of engineering heritage objects in Lithuania

The first navigation channels in Lithuania were excavated at the periodo of Great Duchy of Lithuania (at beginning of 17th century) in order to connect the Baltic and Black sea regions. In 19th century built King Wilhelm Canal has connected Minija River with the Curonian Lagoon. At present the navigation channel is left as the historical relict, important cultural heritage object. It is important not only as engineering, historical relict, but also has landscape and ecological meaning. Different economic conditions and their public value, from different periods of their formation, have defined their diverse visual-landscape meaning and present use, protection at present times. In order to adopt historical navigation river channels for new functions, many problems arise from different areas: ecology, technical, social, cultural, nature and heritage protection. The purpose of the article is to assess King Wilhelm Canal valuable properties and their changes as well as an overview the possible management methods and tools

Community participation in decision making processes in urban planning: the case of Kaunas

Participation in decision-making processes means enabling citizens, communities, non-governmental organizations and other interested parties to influence the formulation of policies and laws affecting them. What are the real opportunities to influence urban planning? The purpose of this article is not only to review Lithuanian legal documents but also to analyse recent processes in Kaunas city planning. Kaunas city is undergoing various urban processes, which do not always meet the needs of the community. The paper presents an analysis of the forms of community involvement in the urban planning processes and survey data on the effectiveness of community involvement. The article was prepared using a sociological survey with representatives of the city community. Also here were used comparative analysis between legal obligations and actual urbanization process

Investigation of heritage building information modeling possibilities in Lithuania

The paper discusses the possibilities of HBIM usage in foreign countries and Lithuania. Methods used in the paper are analysis of the literary sources, review of legal documents relating to the digitization of buildings, and analysis of case studies in foreign countries. The aim of the paper is to present the main stages of HBIM process for the historical buildings renovation. Nowadays HBIM process in Lithuania focuses on scanning heritage sites and reproducing realistic images and the attribute data for cultural heritage sites and incorporating them into HBIM models. The process is in the initial stage

Modeling of Changes in Four Urban Capitals Using Up-to-Date Information Systems and Mathematical Graph-Based Simulative Models for Urban Regeneration (Kaunas Case)

There are numbers of various new infill constructions and renovations occurring in many cities annually that are based more on bottom-up initiatives by various stakeholders rather than top-down initiated plans according to a city master plan. Such infill modifications of urban structure might look small, not very numerous and insignificant at the first glance, but even small changes in a complex system such as a city can cause significant shifts in the functioning of the urban network. The presented research, developed on mathematical graph simulative modeling, including space syntax but not restricting the model to it, and employing the theory of four urban capitals by Lars Marcus, offers a way to analyze how the spatial, social, ecological and economic capitals of Kaunas will change if all the currently confirmed and publicly announced construction projects are implemented. The urban spatial network is seen as an integrator and enabler of interactions between the other three capitals. Each of the capitals is represented by quantitative data in the weighted mathematical graph: spatial capital by the perimeters of buildings accessible from a public space; social capital by the number of inhabitants; economic capital by the mean values of land prices; and ecological capital by the size of green areas and their infrastructure. All the data for modeling of changes in the capitals, except the future land prices, was based on information from implemented and planned projects. In order to predict them, a neural network tool was applied. Considering that changes in the absolute values of capitals are in essence limited by local context (e.g., number of inhabitants, market size, natural geographical conditions, and limits of spatial structure for densification), the idea of a positive synergy between urban capitals is proposed and explained in this article. All the presented simulation models are validated using independent open data as density of points of interests, etc. The results of the investigation reveal that synergy between capitals will decrease in Kaunas and that complex top-down coordination of bottom-up initiated urban projects is needed

Modeling of changes in four urban capitals using up-to-date information systems and mathematical graph-based simulative models for urban regeneration (Kaunas case)

There are numbers of various new infill constructions and renovations occurring in many cities annually that are based more on bottom-up initiatives by various stakeholders rather than top-down initiated plans according to a city master plan. Such infill modifications of urban structure might look small, not very numerous and insignificant at the first glance, but even small changes in a complex system such as a city can cause significant shifts in the functioning of the urban network. The presented research, developed on mathematical graph simulative modeling, including space syntax but not restricting the model to it, and employing the theory of four urban capitals by Lars Marcus, offers a way to analyze how the spatial, social, ecological and economic capitals of Kaunas will change if all the currently confirmed and publicly announced construction projects are implemented. The urban spatial network is seen as an integrator and enabler of interactions between the other three capitals. Each of the capitals is represented by quantitative data in the weighted mathematical graph: spatial capital by the perimeters of buildings accessible from a public space; social capital by the number of inhabitants; economic capital by the mean values of land prices; and ecological capital by the size of green areas and their infrastructure. All the data for modeling of changes in the capitals, except the future land prices, was based on information from implemented and planned projects. In order to predict them, a neural network tool was applied. Considering that changes in the absolute values of capitals are in essence limited by local context (e.g., number of inhabitants, market size, natural geographical conditions, and limits of spatial structure for densification), the idea of a positive synergy between urban capitals is proposed and explained in this article. All the presented simulation models are validated using independent open data as density of points of interests, etc. The results of the investigation reveal that synergy between capitals will decrease in Kaunas and that complex top-down coordination of bottom-up initiated urban projects is needed. Keywords: mathematical graph model; four urban capitals; infill urban development; modeling of changes; neural network-based predictions; Kaunas