Netherlands study tour 2012 Report

The purpose of the study was for participants, who all have leadership roles in relation to local authorities in the United Kingdom, to visit exemplary case studies overseas and to see how healthy sustainable urban development works in practice. This experience was an inspiration for better coordinated policy and action in the United Kingdom. The contextual elements leading to success in the places visited were examined and the necessary conditions for successful implementation within the United Kingdom policy and institutional environmentswere drawn out.A key benefit from the study was building understanding between public health and planning professionals. This is especially important during the phase when public health are settling in to their new role in local authorities. Good working relationships and common agendas need to be established between Directors of Public Heath and those taking a lead in city development and regeneration.This report was compiled and edited by Sarah Burgess with photographs from Graham Sims, Pamela Akerman and Marcus Grant. Thanks also to our guide in the Netherlands, Jan Meijdam, and local guides Rob Derks in Houten, AnnemiekHakkers in Leidsche Rijn, Fritz can den Berg in Amsterdam, the residents of DWL Terrein and Pascal Bisscheroux in Rotterdam. © UW

Transforming cities: mapping opportunities to deliver sustainable urban form

Cities are dynamic settings that are constantly evolving. Physical changes, at varying scales, occur across time. These changes are often complex and slow-moving but all contribute to ongoing transformation of the urban form. The urban form of a city, town or settlement is important as it defines the size, shape and configuration of that urban area. It is within this structural framework that the functional qualities of the city are played out; the movement of people and information, the activities and social interactions and the ecological systems that coexist with urban life. Over the last two decades, there has been a significant focus in planning discourses on how the physical design of the urban environment can influence health and sustainability and ultimately, achieve a sustainable urban form. However, the notion of a ‘sustainable urban form’ has been debated, and several theoretical models have been put forward that aim to achieve sustainability. This paper puts forward a conceptual framework to better understand the physical manifestation of sustainable urban form and the urban development processes that have the potential to deliver them.Eje 2: Forma y estructura urbana, organización del territorio, orientación del crecimiento.Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanism

Critical Acts of Recognition: Reading Law Rhetorically

On July 11, 2002, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) set the scene for a significant shift in the way the United Kingdom legally defines sex and the status of transsexual and transgender people (trans people) within British society. The ECHR, in Christine Goodwin v. The United Kingdom, found that British laws defining sex according to a set of biological criteria applied at birth prevented trans people from enjoying the full spectrum of rights guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights. Barring individuals from changing their sex for legal purposes on official documents, such as birth certificates and insurance forms, these laws, according to the court, created discordance between the lived experience of trans individuals — who they present themselves to be—and their legal status — who the law says they are. The ECHR recognized the potential and real harm of this disjunction “between social reality and law”: left in an “anomalous position,” trans people were subject to discrimination and misrecognition without the protection of law

Transforming cities: mapping opportunities to deliver sustainable urban form

Cities are dynamic settings that are constantly evolving. Physical changes, at varying scales, occur across time. These changes are often complex and slow-moving but all contribute to ongoing transformation of the urban form. The urban form of a city, town or settlement is important as it defines the size, shape and configuration of that urban area. It is within this structural framework that the functional qualities of the city are played out; the movement of people and information, the activities and social interactions and the ecological systems that coexist with urban life. Over the last two decades, there has been a significant focus in planning discourses on how the physical design of the urban environment can influence health and sustainability and ultimately, achieve a sustainable urban form. However, the notion of a ‘sustainable urban form’ has been debated, and several theoretical models have been put forward that aim to achieve sustainability. This paper puts forward a conceptual framework to better understand the physical manifestation of sustainable urban form and the urban development processes that have the potential to deliver them.Eje 2: Forma y estructura urbana, organización del territorio, orientación del crecimiento.Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanism

Divine Fluidity: Shifts of Gender and Sexuality in Conservative Christian Communities

This thesis draws on ethnographic research from three communities of conservative Christian women who find empowerment and agency through their religious traditions. Two communities are politically active, outspoken women who also believe strongly in traditional roles for women, and one community idealizes conservative standards of sexuality while accepting women who work as sex workers. These women did not view their positions as contradictory, rather, they used religious beliefs and religious practices to enact, embody or explain their complex genders and sexualities. This thesis draws on ethnographic, feminist and queer theories while showcasing the diversity within a movement largely believed to be monolithic. The researcher aims to encourage more dialogue between liberal feminists and conservative Christians

Towards healthy sustainable communities: A journey of learning, critical thought and creativity

Educating our future planning, property, housing, geography, energy and climate change specialists about the influence of the built environment on health and sustainability is a fundamental component of their learning. However, trying to get first year students to grasp the complexity and breadth of what constitutes a healthy sustainable community and why it is important is no mean feat. This paper, from the perspectives of past student, Ben Hockman, and new lecturer, Sarah Burgess, reflects on the approach taken in the Healthy Sustainable Communities module to address this challenge. With an emphasis on participatory learning, the module seeks to engage students in the topic and emphasises the need for individual thought, research and motivation. Whilst the students are initially averse to this approach, Ben Hockman identifies the benefits that he gained as a student as well as the lessons of hind-sight that he is able share with current students as a Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) leader for the module. Sarah Burgess shares her experience in assisting with the delivery of the module and in assisting students to think creatively about health, sustainability and the built environment.Sarah Burgess is a senior lecturer in the department, working in the WHO (World Health Organisation) Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities and Urban Policy. She is a tutor for the first year planning module, Healthy Sustainable Communities. Ben Hockman is a second year planning student who completed the Healthy Sustainable Communities module in 2010

Developing a multi-pollutant conceptual framework for the selection and targeting of interventions in water industry catchment management schemes

In recent years water companies have started to adopt catchment management to reduce diffuse pollution in drinking water supply areas. The heterogeneity of catchments and the range of pollutants that must be removed to meet the EU Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC) limits make it difficult to prioritise areas of a catchment for intervention. Thus conceptual frameworks are required that can disaggregate the components of pollutant risk and help water companies make decisions about where to target interventions in their catchments to maximum effect. This paper demonstrates the concept of generalising pollutants in the same framework by reviewing key pollutant processes within a source-mobilisation-delivery context. From this, criteria are developed (with input from water industry professionals involved in catchment management) which highlights the need for a new water industry specific conceptual framework. The new CaRPoW (Catchment Risk to Potable Water) framework uses the Source-Mobilisation-Delivery concept as modular components of risk that work at two scales, source and mobilisation at the field scale and delivery at the catchment scale. Disaggregating pollutant processes permits the main components of risk to be ascertained so that appropriate interventions can be selected. The generic structure also allows for the outputs from different pollutants to be compared so that potential multiple benefits can be identified. CaRPow provides a transferable framework that can be used by water companies to cost-effectively target interventions under current conditions or under scenarios of land use or climate change