Greenscom

Urban Growth and Green

The interaction of urban development and the conservation of green areas is often perceived as a competition between growth and green. However, experiences show that a spatial structure of multifunctional urban green areas may contribute significantly to sustainable economic and ecological development and to the quality of urban life. Planning concepts, participation of stakeholders in decision making and communication are essential to the development and management of such multifunctional green areas.

In 'Communicating Urban Growth and Green' five renowned European research institutes and universities join forces to improve and develop planning concepts and policy communication instruments for integrated urban planning and mangement. In thirteen case studies, Communicating Urban Growth and Green researches the use and performance of these instruments in the planning context.

Issues like the effectiveness of greenstructure planning, access of different actors to planning and decision making will be addressed. The outcome will be a toolkit of planning concepts and policy instruments. The involvement of cities right from the start of the project should significantly contribute to the practical relevance of the toolkit.

Objectives and work programme

The study focuses on:

Underlying ways of communication and participation in decision making and the governance of the balance between urban open spaces and built up areas, a balance that should contribute to quality of urban life and the conditions for urban nature.

Derived objectives:
As to governance at the strategic level:      
to develop criteria and to use these in the assessment of different concepts and strategic tools that address the role of green areas and other open spaces in cities; to make recommendations based on the assessment.
      
As to governance at the operational level:      
to develop criteria and to use these in the assessment of the effects of different policy instruments used to manage quantity and quality of urban green areas to make recommendations based on the assessment.
      
As to communication issues at both levels:      
To analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of communication between professionals, politicians and stakeholders in urban growth (expansion and restructuring) and green.
      
 For the method of research:       
To develop a methodological base for comparative research of European cities. 

Partners

Carmen Aalbers, phone: ++ 31 317 478713 fax: ++ 31 317 419000      carmen.aalbers@wur.nl	Alterra Green World Research PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands Droevendaalsesteeg 3, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Kimmo Lapintie, phone: ++ 358 9 451 4432, fax: ++ 358 9 4513960  kimmo.lapintie@hut.fi	The Helsinki University of Technology, Institute of Urban Planning and Design PO Box 1300, Fin 020215 HUT, Finland Otekaari1, Fin 02150 ESPOO, Finland
Karen Attwell, phone: ++ 45 45865533, ext.350, fax: ++ 45 45865594,  kaa@by-og-byg.dk	Danish Building and Urban Research PO Box 119, DK-2970 Hoersholm, Denmark Dr. Neergaards Vej 15, DK-2970 Hoersholm, Denmark
Björn Malbert, phone: ++ 46 31 7722438, fax: ++ 46 31 772 2371,  malbert@arch.chalmers.se	School of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology SE-41296, Gothenburg, Sweden Sven Hultins Gata 6, Chalmers Campus, SE-41296, Gothenburg, Sweden
Elizabeth Auclair, phone: ++ 33 1 48247900, fax: ++ 33 1 48247901,  fors@fors-rs.com / elizabeth.auclair@wanadoo.fr	FORS Recherche Sociale – Paris, France 48, rue des Petites Ecuries, F-75010 Paris, France

Cities

	Aarhus, Denmark Naturforvaltningen, Skovvangsvej 97, DK-8200 ARHUS N, Denmark Mr. Troels Bak, phone: ++ 45 fax: ++ 45 89402759, email: tb@nat.aarhus.dk Mr. Ole Skou Rasmussen, phone: ++ 45 , fax: ++ 45 89402759, email: osr@nat.aarhus.dk
	Cergy Pontoise, France EPA de Cergy-Pontoise, PO Box 47, F-95020 CERGY PONTOISE CEDEX France Mrs. Sybil Cosnard, phone: ++ 33 1 34205593, fax: ++ 33 1 34205600, email: sybil.cosnard@epa-cergy.fr SAN de Cergy Pontoise: F-95000 CERGY France Mr. David Nazarenko, phone: ++ 33 1 34414243 , fax: ++ 33 1 34205600, email: david.nazarenko@san-cergypontoise.fr
	Gothenburg, Sweden Town Planning Office, PO Box 2554, 403 17 GOTHENBURG, Sweden Mr. Ulf Moback, phone: ++ 46 31 611000 , fax: ++ 46 31 612202, email: ulf.moback@stadsbyggnad.goteborg.se
	Helsinki, Finland City of Helsinki, City Planning Department, Kansakoulukatu 3, FIN 00100 Helsinki Mr. Matti Eronen, phone: ++ 358 9 1694238, fax: ++ 358 9 1694243, email: matti.eronen@ksv.hel.fi
	Houten, Netherlands PO Box 30, 3990 DA Houten Mr. Jan van Hemert, phone: ++ 31 30 6392611, fax: ++ 31 30 6392899, email: jan.van.hemert@houten.nl Mr. Rob Buijs, phone: ++ 31 30 6392808, fax: ++ 31 30 6392899, email: rob.buijs@houten.nl
	Tampere, Finland Tampere City Environmental Department, City Planning Unit, PO Box 487, FIN-33101 Tampere Mr. Pekka Harstila, phone: ++ 358 3 31466798, fax: ++ 358 3 31466193, email: pekka.harstila@tt.tampere.fi
	Utrecht, Netherlands Gemeente Utrecht, Dienst Stadsontwikkeling, Milieu en Duurzaamheid, PO Box 8406, 3503 RK Utrecht Mr. P. Schildwacht, phone: ++ 31 30 2864867, fax: ++ 31 30 2946634, email: p.schildwacht@utrecht.nl

Related websites

Sites from partners in the Greenscom project:

• The Greenscom toolkit for urban practitioners
• By og Byg, Statens Byggeforskningsinstitut
• Chalmers Arkitektur
• Helsinki University of Technology, Institute of Urban Planning and Design
• FORS Recherche Sociale 
   

  Sites from related projects in the Energy, Environment and Sustainable development programme and to the European Commission

  • SPECTRA, Sustainability, development and spatial planning
  • SUT-GOVERNANCE
  • Cordis, all about FP5 projects
  
   

Documents 

• In dutch: Publicatie Contacten door Contracten
  Bewoners beheren de openbare ruimte in Utrecht
  
  
• Publication of Work Package one: Governance and Communication
  By Chalmers University, Sweden, March 2001, Lisbeth Birgersson, Björn Malbert and Knut Strömberg.
  
  This document covers the identification of current issues and dilemma in communicating urban growth and green amongst the involved stakeholders, the creation of a framework for learning lessons from past experiences and discusses communication situations and tools for interaction
  
  
• Publication of Work Package two: Governance and Policy Instruments
  By Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, March 2001, Kimmo Lapintie, Olli Maijala and Taina Rajanti.
  
  This document covers the identification of current issues and dilemmas in the use of policy instruments for governing urban growth and green amongst the involved stakeholders; creation of a framework for analysing governance and policy instruments and the generation of innovative approaches to governance and policy instruments
  
  
• Publication of Work Package three: Case Study Manual
  By Alterra Green World Research, Netherlands, June 2001, Sybrand Tjallingii, Marleen van den Top and Carmen Aalbers.
  
  This publication gives guidelines for the national and local context essays as well as the method, criteria and research questions for the case studies. It is a working document.
  
  
• Publication of Work Package four: Case Study Houten-Utrecht, (The Netherlands)  
  download the summary here
  
  By Alterra Green World Research, Netherlands, april 2002, Carmen Aalbers, Tamara Ekamper and Sybrand Tjallingii.
  
  The case studies cover the themes of densification, developments in urban fringe and management of green space on national and local levels in the Netherlands.
  
  
• Publication of Work Package five: Case Study Cergy-Pontoise (France)
  download the summary here
  
  By Fors Recherche Sociale, Paris, France, April 2002, Elizabeth Auclair and Didier Vanoni.
  
  The case studies cover the themes of densification, developments in urban fringe and management of green space on national and local levels in France.
  
  
• Publication of Work Package six: Case Studies Helsinki and Tampere (Finland)
  download the summary here
  
  By Helsinki University of Technology, Finland, April 2002, Kimmo Lapintie, Olli Maijala, Taina Rajanti.
  
  The case studies cover the themes of densification, developments in urban fringe and management of green space on national and local levels in Finland.
  
  
• Publication of Work Package seven: Case Study Gothenburg (Sweden)
  download the summary here
  
  By Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, April 2002, Elisabeth Lundgren Alm, Björn Malbert and Pernilla Korhonen.
  
  The case studies cover the themes of densification, developments in urban fringe and management of green space on national and local levels in Sweden. 
  
   
• Publication of Work Package eight: Case Study Aarhus (Denmark)
  download the summary here
  
  By Statens Byggeforskningsinstitut, By og Byg, March 2002, Karen Attwell, Ole Michael Jensen.
  The case studies cover the themes of densification, developments in urban fringe and management of green space on national and local levels in Denmark.

• Publication of Work Package nine: Evaluation of the Case Studies (France) 
  By Fors Recherche Sociale, Paris, France, April 2003, Elizabeth Auclair and Didier Vanoni.
  
  This report presents an evaluation of the above mentioned case studies. In this work package, the conclusions of the cases will be compared, focussing on the fundamental governance and communication issues and on the planning instruments and communication tools. As a result it will be possible to acquire a better understanding of communication processes related to the role of green areas in urban development.
  
  
•  Work Package ten: Digital Toolkit
  
  The Greenscom toolkit for urban practitioners was developed by Knud Erik Hansen from Danish Building and Urban Research, Denmark. It presents the instruments for planning, management and communication of urban growth and green. It comprises different instruments, inspiring examples from the 7 case study cities, and theoretical concepts. It is based on the work from all Greenscom research and city partners, including the workpackages 1 to 9.
  
  
•  Work Package Eleven: Project Evaluation Report
  
  
  

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