Smart Urban Governance for Climate Change Adaptation

Climate change will affect the way cities work substantially. Flooding and urban heating are among the most tangible consequences in cities around the globe. Extreme hydro-meteorological events will likely increase in the future due to climate change. Making cities climate-resilient is therefore an urgent challenge to sustain urban living. To adapt cities to the consequences of climate change, new ideas and concepts need to be adopted. This oftentimes requires action from different stakeholder groups and citizens. In other words, climate adaptation of cities needs governance. Facilitating such urban governance for climate adaptation is thus a big and increasing challenge of urban planning. Smart tools and its embedding in smart urban governance is promising to help in this respect. To what extent can the use of digital knowledge technologies in a collaborative planning setting be instrumental in facilitating climate adaptation? This question entails visualising effects of climate adaptation interventions and facilitating dialogue between governments, businesses such as engineering companies, and citizens. The aim of this thematic issue is to explore how the application of technologies in urban planning, embedded in smart urban governance, can contribute to provide climate change adaptation. We understand smart urban governance in this context both in terms of disclosing technical expert information to the wider public, and in terms of supporting with the help of technologies the wider governance debates between the stakeholders involved. The contributions reflect this dual focus on socio-technical innovations and planning support, and therefore include various dimensions, from modelling and interacting to new modes of urban governance and political dimensions of using technologies in climate change adaptation in urban areas

'Do the resilient things.' Residents' perspectives on responsibilities for flood risk adaptation in England

Residents should take adaptive action to reduce flood risk – this claim increasingly resonates in the academic debate on flood risk management (FRM). Hence it must be assumed that a change in the division of responsibilities between actors involved is an imperative, i.e., beyond the public authorities, residents should become more responsible for their own flood resilience. However, residents’ perspectives on their own and other’s responsibility for adaptive action has not yet been explored extensively. In this contribution, we distinguish between four notions of responsibility in analysing the perspectives of residents regarding flood risk adaptation measures undertaken by public authorities, insurance companies and residents themselves. A qualitative study in England shows how residents perceive responsibilities for flood risk adaptation across the various notions and actors, including themselves. We found that residents have clear expectations and perceptions on how they think responsibility is divided among stakeholders and how they would like it to be. Additionally, the discourse on responsibility division in FRM raises questions and causes mismatches between the formal legal parameters and residents’ perceptions. With the insights into residents’ perceptions, opportunities arise to better inform and encourage them to take flood risk adaptation measures and thereby improve flood resilience

Social media for collaborative planning: A typology of support functions and challenges

In recent years, the widespread use of social media has increasingly impacted planning practice and policy making. Although a growing body of literature examines the impact of social media on urban governance and planning, there is a lack of theoretical understanding on the extent to which social media can support collaborative planning. This study identifies a typology of support functions of social media: information sharing refers to one-way information flows from government to citizens or from individuals and organizations to a wide audience in real time; social networking is about the networking of individuals and organizations, perhaps crossing geographical boundaries for collective actions; citizen participation is related to different levels of citizen power that may be enhanced by social media; and communication is diverse, characterized by multimodal, interactive and mass self-communication in various online public spheres. These support functions can be employed to assist different phases and scales of collaborative planning. Nevertheless, there are several potential challenges of using social media in urban planning, including population bias, privacy concerns, information credibility, (self-)censorship, and opinion polarization. The integration of social media, digital tools and traditional participation methods can help to support more inclusive planning processes

An Introduction to Spatial Planning in the Netherlands

This book provides an introduction to spatial planning in the Netherlands. It explores the academic underpinnings of the discipline and its practical implications, making use of insights on planning practices from the Netherlands. As an academic book with relevance for spatial planning teaching and practice, the relation between planning practice and planning as an academic discipline are discussed. A key analytical concept is introduced to discuss the different dimensions of planning: the planning triangle. This framework helps to bridge the strategic and conceptual elements of planning with its realization. The object, process, and context of planning and its relations are discussed. The core of the academic discipline and profession of spatial planning entails looking (far) into the future, stimulating discussion, formulating a desired future direction through an informal and collective planning process, and then formalizing and placing current action into that future perspective. In that sense, spatial planning can be understood as the strategic organization of hopes and expectations. As a study book it is suitable for students of planning at various universities, but also for students in higher professional education. For those involved in the professional field of spatial planning, this book offers a sound foundation

Planning support science: Developments and challenges

In this paper, we provide an update of recent developments and forthcoming challenges in the field of planning support systems, following earlier reviews in 2003 and 2009. The rationale for this update is the rapid development of information and communication technologies and their impact on planning support systems. After a brief retrospective assessment of past planning support system developments, the paper presents a synthesis of the experiences and views of a worldwide sample of invited planning support system experts, whose innovative contributions comprise a new Handbook of Planning Support Science. The developments documented by the experts together substantiate our impression that a fundamental transformation is taking place – a paradigm shift – wherein the field of planning support systems is maturing into a planning support science. From this perspective, it is expected that planning support systems will become indispensable instruments in the planning process in the not too distant future. The signs of this maturation are already visible in research, education and practice

Using Social Media for Citizen Participation: Contexts, Empowerment, and Inclusion

Social media have been increasingly used by governments and planning professionals to gain public opinions, distribute information, and support participation in planning practices. Nev-ertheless, few studies have been conducted to understand the influence of local contexts and the extent to which social media can enhance citizen power and inclusion. This study investigates the role of social media in citizen participation by taking case studies in the Netherlands. It adopts a mixed methods approach that combines interviews, web scraping, and content analysis to understand the characteristics of social media participation. There are several key findings. First, support policies and a high level of social media penetration rate are preconditions for more inclusive par-ticipation. Second, social media enhance social inclusion by engaging many participants, who may not be able to participate via traditional methods. Third, they facilitate interactions and different levels of citizen power, though the government still plays a leading role within top‐down ap-proaches. Finally, they improve the effectiveness of participation regarding transparency, accessi-bility, and workable solutions. However, there are several potential political and social bias associated with social media technology. The combination of online and offline participation methods is properly necessary to engage different groups in the planning process

Assessing collaborative planning and the added value of planning support apps in The Netherlands

Although a growing body of literature has examined a variety of planning support systems, few studies have been conducted to understand emerging planning support apps for mobile participation and its impact on collaborative planning. This research develops a conceptual framework for assessing different phases of collaborative planning processes and the added value of planning support apps in stakeholder interaction and management. The case studies include four Dutch regeneration projects, which are ongoing pilot projects of the new Environment and Planning Act and supported by a variety of planning support apps. The data for each case study were collected from multiple sources, including policy documents, interviews with stakeholders and online information. The results show that the apps support to engage many participants, provide real-time communication and facilitate effective interactions between the stakeholder managers and local residents. However, their performance is largely dependent on the user-friendliness of the system. Besides, a good consensus building process in the planning phase has a positive effect on stakeholder management and the performance of the apps in the execution phase