This case study portrait is part of a series of 20 case studies on urban green infrastructure planning and governance in European cities, undertaken in the course of the GREEN SURGE project. GREEN SURGE is a trans-national research project funded through the Eu-ropean Union’s 7th Framework Programme. GREEN SURGE is an acronym for “Green In-frastructure and Urban Biodiversity for Sustainable Urban Development and the Green Economy”. The project is identifying, developing and testing ways of connecting green spaces, biodiversity, people and the green economy, in order to meet the major urban challenges related to, e.g., climate change adaptation, demographic changes, human health and well-being.
Chicago — Urban Design Strategy Report
As commute times lengthen, energy prices rise, and housing preferences change, compact, walkable urban designs have gained a higher profile nationwide. The Chicago region is no exception. Affluent suburbanites are returning to the central city and new mixed-use, transit-oriented developments are emerging in communities like Glenview and Grayslake. Recent research links compact, mixed-use developments to improved health, vibrant economies and many other social and environmental benefits. As the GO TO 2040 plan develops, good urban design will serve as the foundation on which many other regional strategies are built.
This report defines “good urban design,” identifies elements of this concept, and provides examples of how it can be measured. It also describes the effects of implementing urban design, rather than conventional development, in terms of economics, transportation, environment, and other areas. Finally, the report describes the differing effects of applying urban design in different parts of the region. This report addresses transit oriented development (TOD), which is essentially the application of urban design principles near transit; the redevelopment of greyfield sites; and the planning of new greenfield development sites using urban design principles within the development.
Dutch Spatial Planning: From Implicit Towards Explicit Sustainable Urban Development
Since the 1960’s the containment of urban growth and the maintenance of a certain level of concentration within the urban pattern are policy goals In the Netherlands. With hindsight this so-called ‘concentrated deconcentration’ can be understood as an implicit strategy towards sustainable urban development. The explicit discussion on sustainable development that started around 1987 focused strongly on environmental issues, and lead amongst others to environmental standards.
More recently urban development strategies are more explicitly focused on sustainable development using the well-known frame of people, planet and profit. Together with this shift of focus the future – or the long term – became a more intrinsic part of the policy formation process. The triple-P frame of reference has been used for a strategic study for the Randstad Area for the period 2020-2040 currently undertaken. Striking in this study is that with the shift of focus towards triple-P the environmental issues have disappeared from the spatial agenda. Using the Randstad case as a pièce de résistance we will discuss the continuities and discontinuities in the ways of understanding of and intervening in sustainable urban development in the Netherlands.
Spatial Planning in Denmark
Denmark will not become beautiful and well-planned spontaneously. Visions are required about what type of country, landscapes and municipalities are desirable. This requires strategies and planning to create and maintain high-quality surroundings – in nature, in the environment, in landscapes and in cities and towns.
Spatial planning creates the surroundings in which people will be living their lives. Political decision-making processes with public participation and balancing of various interests are therefore an important and exciting part of democracy.
Spacial Planning in Denmark
Spatial planning aims to create and maintain the qualities of urban areas and the countryside. The challenges of spatial planning change as society develops.
From the early 1950s to the mid-1970s, Denmark’s population grew, the standard of living increased and the population migrated from rural to urban areas. Large new suburban estates were created outside the historical town centres. The industrialization of construction and increasing affluence enabled unprecedented growth in the size of dwellings and in business construction. These new suburbs, which were planned to have spatially differentiated residential estates, business districts, urban centres and service functions, now encompass more than half the developed urban land in Denmark.