Conformist singularities. Standardized discourses on the local specificities of urban projects

Private Sector-led Urban Development Projects. Management, Partnerships and Effects in the Netherlands and the UK

Private Sector-led Urban Development Projects. Management, Partnerships and Effects in the Netherlands and the UK

Private Sector-led Urban Development Projects. Management, Partnerships and Effects in the Netherlands and the UK

Central to this research lays the concept of private sector-led urban development projects (Heurkens, 2010). Such projects involve project developers taking a leading role and local authorities adopting a facilitating role, in managing the development of an urban area, based on a clear public-private role division. Such a development strategy is quite common in Anglo-Saxon urban development practices, but is less known in Continental European practices. Nonetheless, since the beginning of the millennium such a development strategy also occurred in the Netherlands in the form of ‘concessions’. However, remarkably little empirical knowledge is available about how public and private actors collaborate on and manage private sector-led urban development projects. Moreover, it remains unclear what the effects of such projects are. This dissertation provides an understanding of the various characteristics of private sector-led urban development projects by conducting empirical case study research in the institutional contexts of the Netherlands and the UK. The research provides an answer to the following research question: What can we learn from private sector-led urban development projects in the Netherlands and UK in terms of the collaborative and managerial roles of public and private actors, and the effects of their (inter)actions? Indications for a market-oriented Dutch urban development practice Urban development practice in the Netherlands has been subject to changes pointing towards more private sector involvement in the built environment in the past decades. Although the current economic recession might indicate otherwise, there are several motives that indicate a continuation of private sector involvement and a private leadership role in Dutch urban development projects in the future. First, a shift towards more market-oriented development practice is the result of an evolutionary process of increased ‘neoliberalization’ and the adoption of Anglo-Saxon principles in Dutch society. Despite its Rhineland roots with a focus on welfare provision, in the Netherlands several neoliberal principles (privatization, decentralization, deregulation) have been adopted by government and incorporated in the management of organizations (Bakker et al., 2005). Hence, market institutionalization on the one hand, and rising civic emancipation on the other, in current Western societies prevents a return towards hierarchical governance. Second, the result of such changes is the emergence of a market-oriented type of planning practice based on the concept of ‘development planning’. Public-Private Partnerships and the ‘forward integration’ of market parties (De Zeeuw, 2007) enforce the role of market actors. In historical perspective, Boelens et al. (2006) argue that Dutch spatial planning always has been characterized by public-private collaborations in which governments facilitated private and civic entrepreneurship. Therefore, post-war public-led spatial planning with necessary government intervention was a ‘temporary hiccup’, an exception to the rule. Third, the European Commission expresses concerns about the hybrid role of public actors in Dutch institutionalized PPP joint ventures. EU legislation opts for formal public-private role divisions in realizing urban projects based on Anglo-Saxon law that comply with the legislative tendering principles of competition, transparency, equality, and public legitimacy. Fourth, experiences with joint ventures in the Netherlands are less positive as often is advocated. Such institutionalized public-private entities have seldom generated the assumed added value, caused by misconceptions about the objectives of both partners grounded in incompatible value systems. This results in contra-productive levels of distrust, time-consuming partnership formations, lack of transparency, and compromising decision-making processes (Teisman & Klijn, 2002), providing a need for other forms of collaboration. Finally, current financial retrenchments in the public sector and debates about the possible abundance of Dutch active land development policies point towards a lean and mean government that moves away from risk-bearing participation and investment in urban projects and leaves this to the market. Importantly, Van der Krabben (2011b) argues that the Dutch active public land development policies can be considered as an international exception, and advocates for facilitating land development policies. In this light, it becomes highly relevant to study private sector-led urban development as a future Dutch urban development strategy. Integrative urban management approach This research is rooted in the research school of Urban Area Development within the Department of Real Estate and Housing at the Faculty of Architecture (Delft University of Technology). It is a relatively young academic domain which views urban development most profoundly as a complex management assignment (Bruil et al., 2004; Franzen et al., 2011). This academic school uses an integrative perspective with a strong practice-orientation and carries out solution-oriented design research. Here, the integration involves bridging various actor interests, spatial functions, spatial scales, academic domains, knowledge and skills, development goals, and links process with content aspects. Such a perspective does justice to complex societal processes. Therefore it provides a fruitful ground for studying urban development aimed at developing conceptual knowledge and product for science and practice. Such integrative perspective and practice-orientation forms the basis of this research and has been applied in the following manner. In order to create an understanding of the roles of public and private actors in private sector-led urban development, this research takes a management perspective based on an integrative management approach. This involves viewing management more broadly as ‘any type of direct influencing’ urban development projects, and therefore aims at bridging often separated management theories (Osborne, 2000a). Hence, an integrative management approach assists in both understanding urban development practices and projects and constructing useful conceptual tools for practitioners and academics. Integrative approaches attempt to combine a number of different elements into a more holistic management approach (Black & Porter, 2000). Importantly, it does not view the management of projects in isolation but in its entire complexity and dynamics. Therefore, our management approach combines two integrative management theories; the open systems theory (De Leeuw, 2002) and contingency theory. The former provides opportunities to study the management of a project in a structured manner. The latter emphasizes that there is no universally effective way of managing and recognizes the importance of contextual circumstances. Hence, an integrative management approach favors incorporating theories from multiple academic domains such as political science, economics, law, business administration, and organizational and management concepts. Hence, it moves away from the classical academic division between planning theory and property theory, and organization and management theories. It positions itself in between such academic domains, and aims at bridging theoretical viewpoints by following the concept of planning ánd markets (Alexander, 2001) rather than concepts such as ‘planning versus markets’, public versus private sector, and organization versus management. Also, such an integrative view values the complexity and dynamics of empirical urban development practices. More specifically, this research studies urban development projects as object, as urban areas are the focus point of spatial intervention and public-private interaction (Daamen, 2010), and thus collaboration and management. Here, public planning processes and private development processes merge with each other. Thus, our research continues to build upon the importance of studying and reflecting on empirical practices and projects (e.g. Healey, 2006). In addition to these authors, this research does so by using meaningful integrative concepts that reflect empirical realities of urban projects. Thereby, this research serves to bridge management sciences with management practices (Van Aken, 2004; Mintzberg, 2010) through iterative processes of reflecting on science and practice. Moreover, the integrative management approach applied in this research assists in filling an academic gap, namely the lack of management knowledge about public-private interaction in urban development projects. Despite the vast amount of literature on the governance of planning practices (e.g. DiGaetano & Strom, 2003), and Public-Private Partnerships (e.g. Osborne, 2000b), remarkable little knowledge exists about what shifting public-private relationships mean for day-to-day management by public and private actors in development projects. Hence, here we follow the main argument made by public administration scholar Klijn (2008) who claims that it is such direct actor influence that brings about the most significant change to the built environment. An integrative urban management model (see Figure 2.3) based on the open systems approach has been constructed which forms a conceptual representation of empirical private sectorled urban development projects. This model serves as an analytical tool to comprehend the complexity of managing such projects. In this research, several theoretical insights about publicprivate relations and roles are used to understand different contextual and organizational factors that affect the management of private sector-led urban development projects. Hence, a project context exists

Post-war urban reconstruction is a crucial task for Ukraine and the entire civilized world, as it requires comprehensive urban planning and risk management of urban development projects. Significant challenges include infrastructure restoration, housing rehabilitation, economic system revival, resilience to natural disasters, addressing socio-economic disparities, and achieving balanced sustainable development in cities after the cessation of hostilities. In the context of post-war urban reconstruction, effective risk management of urban planning projects becomes a problem that demands a deeper understanding and a systematic approach. The majority of urban reconstruction projects face various threats, including financial risks, socio-cultural challenges, and natural disasters. The aim of this study is to develop and analyze risk management strategies for urban planning projects in the context of post-war reconstruction. The author intends to identify effective methods and tools to reduce risks and enhance resilience to the challenges of post-war reconstruction in cities. The object of the research is urban planning projects within the framework of post-war reconstruction in Ukraine, and the subject is the risk management strategies for these projects. The following methods were employed in this study. Review and analysis of previous research and theoretical approaches to risk management in post-war urban planning. Using mathematical models to forecast risks and their impact on urban planning projects. Comparing different risk management strategies and their impact on the success of urban planning projects. Accomplished Tasks. In this research, key risks affecting urban planning projects in a post-war context were identified. The author developed risk management strategies and assessed their effectiveness based on an analysis of empirical data and mathematical models. The research revealed that effective risk management of urban planning projects in post-war conditions is achievable through thorough analysis, consideration of socio-cultural peculiarities, and the use of risk modeling tools. It is recommended to implement these strategies in urban planning practice to ensure sustainable development and resilience in cities in post-war conditions. This article makes a significant contribution to the understanding and practical implementation of risk management strategies for urban planning projects in post-war reconstruction in Ukraine, contributing to sustainable development in cities and regions.

The research investigates the relationship between cities and climate change by examining how urban projects shifted to mitigation and adaptation for climate change at an urban scale. The article is based upon two complementary approaches, a multilevel analysis from sustainable transitions theory and a framework of interrelations of urban mitigation and adaptation projects. The methodological design is a case study; we analyzed the case of Medellin that, at the beginning of the 2000's, implemented public transport projects, urban parks, educational and cultural facilities, and risk mitigation projects in the surrounding hills. The main findings are that specific projects at an urban scale are operating as niches or experiments, taking advantage of windows of opportunities, and triggering changes in the urban design routines, framing a new sociotechnical system. It is found that governance, leadership, teams of experts and urban planners are drivers for the transition of urban projects, which were initially designed for social and transport needs, to urban mitigation projects for climate change. At the same time, urban mitigation projects such as the Metropolitan Green Belt are transiting to adaptation projects for climate change. The conclusion for this case study is that while most urban projects retain their traditional role, a new generation of projects with mitigation and adaptation features is emerging in the context of climate change. This article contributes to expanding the empirical analysis of the literature on the theory of sustainable transitions specifically related to cities and urban projects. The theoretical framework of urban projects and their linkages with climate change are enriched. The conceptual framework of the analysis is replicable and useful for practitioners in the field of urban design and researchers interested in comparisons to identify patterns or typologies. In addition, the article contributes to sensitize actors involved in public urban design policies in their roles as managers of transitions.

En el presente artículo se pretende enfatizar sobre la importancia que tiene la participación de la ciudadanía en la elaboración de los proyectos de diseño urbano que se están realizando en las poblaciones que conforman el ámbito urbano de la actualidad, también destacar la trascendencia que tiene esta participación en cada una de las fases que se van presentando en el proceso de conformación de estos proyectos de diseño. Para realizar adecuadamente un proyecto de diseño urbano es recomendable seguir un proceso metodológico de diseño, el cual en su momento es definido por cada diseñador; en el proyecto de investigación, del cual se generó este artículo, se definieron las etapas que conforman este proceso por medio de la revisión de varias metodologías del diseño, es así como se establecieron las siguientes etapas: la planeación urbana, los estudios que fundamentarán la elaboración de los proyectos de diseño urbano, el plan maestro, el esquema, el anteproyecto urbano, el proyecto ejecutivo urbano, la implementación del proyecto urbano y el seguimiento control y evaluación. Dos etapas fundamentales para un proyecto de diseño urbano que podemos apreciar en este proceso son la etapa del plan maestro y la etapa del esquema de diseño, ya que son las etapas donde se comienza realmente a plasmar sobre el papel, el proyecto de diseño a realizar, por lo cual es primordial que en estas etapas se vea reflejada la participación de la ciudadanía efectuada en la etapa que antecede a estas, la etapa de los estudios que fundamentarán la elaboración de los proyectos de diseño urbano, ya que esta participación será la que dará los sustentos necesarios al plan maestro y al esquema de diseño, para que estas etapas, de forma efectiva, den respuesta a los requerimientos y necesidades de la población, para que además, este proyecto urbano a realizar sea aceptado, cuidado y protegido, por sus próximos usuarios, y por consiguiente sea un espacio de éxito. En estas etapas donde se requiere tener definido el árbol del sistema y las premisas de diseño, es indispensable, que las propuestas, recomendaciones, ideas, sugerencias, necesidades y requerimientos, expresadas por la ciudadanía por medio de su participación, se vean reflejadas en estos trabajos del proceso de diseño, para que este reflejo de la ciudadanía se vea manifestado, a su vez, en el plan maestro y el esquema de diseño, los cuales generarán con este fundamento un proyecto urbano aceptado por sus usuarios, en los cuales producirá un sentido de identidad y de apropiación. Como resultado del aprovechamiento de la información obtenida por medio de la participación de los próximos usuarios del espacio urbano a proyectar, se podrá elaborar un plan maestro donde se conseguirá apreciar de forma adecuada la estructuración y el ordenamiento óptimo de los espacios de acuerdo a su funcionamiento y a las actividades que se desarrollarán en ellos, los cuales conformarán el sistema del proyecto en todas sus jerarquías: sistema, subsistemas, componentes y elementos, de acuerdo al árbol del sistema elaborado, en este plan maestro se podrá apreciar, además, algunas intenciones de diseño que se implementaran en los diferente espacios que conformarán el sistema, estas intenciones serán definidas en las premisas de diseño, para las cuales, como ya se mencionó anteriormente, será también indispensable las sugerencias y recomendaciones de la población. En el caso de la etapa del esquema de diseño, se considerará, al igual que las etapas anteriores, de manera primordial, la información obtenida por medio de la participación de la ciudadanía, para que esta refleje, de forma adecuada, los criterios de diseño referentes a los accesos primarios, secundarios y de servicio, los criterios de vestibulaciones primarias, secundarios y terciarios, y los criterios de circulaciones primarias, secundarias y terciarias, además de intenciones de diseño que complementen las consideradas en la etapa anterior; para que finalmente el espacio urbano a generar, presente un proyecto urbano que sea funcional y de acuerdo a las expectativas de la ciudadanía.

This article aims to evaluate urban planning instruments and projects’ urban creativity performance and their capacity to offer favorable conditions for the evolution of Constantine towards the model of the creative city. Thus, we have opted for a multicriteria analysis, and we have constructed an “urban creativity index”, from a review of the literature and from empirical and theoretical indices. 14 dimensions and 100 criteria were identified. The results show that creativity is represented by reference to culture and innovation, and by reference to the process of modernization and transformation implying renovation in thinking in the urban. Constantine’s three main planning instruments contribute to urban creativity and to the city’s evolution towards the ‘creative city model’ by providing the most necessary factors. Both hard and soft infrastructures, through urban projects, events, urban renewal, requalification, and restoration operations aim to contribute to urban and economic development, attractiveness and competitiveness, and quality improvement. The cultural and strategic dimensions have enregistered the high scores in the three instruments with the dominance of: social dimensions in the Modernization Plan for the Constantine Metropolis, innovative and business dimensions in the Urban Modernization Project, and Cultural dimensions in Constantine Capital of Arab Culture. In terms of creative action, the urban planning in Constantine since 2007 has become strategic planning. Three creative city strategies and policies have been employed: ‘image transformation’, ‘place marketing’, and ‘territorialized production systems’. With these projects and events, urban development and planning is moving from an urban engineering-driven approach to creative city-making.

In the book “Puissances de la norme” 1, Catherine Thibierge talks about “standards’ densification”: both an increase in the number of existing technical standards, and an extension of the field of standardization. Technical standards were, in fact, initially developed to provide a common framework in the product's market; their application by enterprises, although voluntary, ensures greater interoperability and dissemination 2. In the 2000s, standardization started to turn to new fields such as the management of cities and territories, and, to date, almost 600 environmental standards have been produced by ISO (1). This interest in environmental issues eventually led to the creation of a technical committee (2), the ISO/TC 268 “Sustainable cities and communities”. This committee published, in 2016, the standard ISO 37101, which provides territories with recommendations for adopting a methodological approach to sustainable development. This standard belongs to the category of Management System Standards (MSS), standards that provide all types of organizations with a continuous improvement process model, the Plan-Do-Control-Act process.The ISO 37101 represents an innovative document compared to other MSS, adding an element to the classic process: a 6x12 matrix that outlines 6 long-term goals and 12 areas of action for sustainable development. Through an iterative cross-analysis of this grid, organizations can assess their contribution to the goals and how the different areas of action are taken into account. Therefore, ISO 37101 aims to give territories a “management tool” capable of “conveying a common language”, enough flexible to be used in conjunction with other existing policies and to be territorialized in different local conditions.The French government recognized the potential of this standard and so the French Ministry of Ecological Transition engaged in the dissemination of this standard through an experimental action 3 with about 25 territories. These territories are appropriating the standard in different ways, mainly using the matrix and not the entire proposed process. Indeed, the implementation of a management system with the Plan-Do-Control-Act process could require times that don’t necessarily fit with a political mandate. On the other hand, the matrix allows territories to “not omit anything” from public policies and to then add up their ambitions.One of the first territories to implement ISO 37101 was Grenoble, within the Presqu'Île development project. Here, the matrix has been used to review the project’s main goals and to couple them with the existing local and national regulations, allowing the evolution and prioritization of these goals. Furthermore, demonstrating the matrix’s flexibility, the grid was filled with the project’s requirements to compare and choose between different project managers’ offers.The French experimental action shows how this methodological framework allows the implementation of larger objectives even at smaller scales. Therefore, this contribution wishes to open a reflection on the role that ISO 37101, and standards in general, could have as a bridge between planning policies and urban plans and projects. Notes1. International Organization for Standardization;2. Thematic groups that elaborate standards;References1 [Joan Le Goff et al, 2017] Joan Le Goff, Stéphane Onnee, Puissances de la norme. Défis juridiques et managériaux des systèmes normatifs contemporains, EMS, 2017.2 https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/product-requirements/standards/standards-in-europe/index_it.htm3 https://www.ecocites.logement.gouv.fr/l-utilisation-du-standard-international-iso-37101-a172.html

The article takes into account the experience of organizing the educational process and teaching at the graduate department of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education in the field of Landscape Architecture on 03/35/10, according to educational standard No. 736 dated 08/01/2017 (as amended on 02/27/2023) in the discipline Landscape Design and contains proposals for discussing the methodology of teaching the discipline at the stage of transition to specialization. New approaches within the framework of the methodology of "project-based learning" are discussed, which correspond to the profile of the specialty, taking into account the specifics of the subject area and the practical tasks of transition to specialization for students studying in the specialty "Landscape Architecture". It is proposed to improve the content of the curriculum and working curricula of disciplines used in the educational process in this area from the 1st to the 5th years of study, increased attention is paid to theoretical training based on a systematic approach, the complexity of studying the problems and practical tasks of modern landscape design. It is shown that during the transition to specialization, it is necessary to increase the level of requirements for interdisciplinary pre-project training and students' mastery of the regulatory framework, knowledge and methods of related fields of study and academic disciplines. As never before, in the practice of landscaping and landscaping of cities and rural settlements, there is a shortage of specialized specialists – urban planners, geographers, hydrologists, geologists, hydrogeologists, geoecologists, biologists, land reclamation specialists, hygienists, specialists in the protection of natural and cultural heritage, as well as professional sociologists, without whom it is impossible to organize the design process, taking into account suggestions from the public, which is necessary according to the current legislation. This indicates the need to train specialists in the discipline of Landscape Design who possess knowledge and methods of related disciplines. We propose a "draft" of the content of the curriculum and working curricula of disciplines used in the educational process in the field of Landscape Architecture in general, and in more detail a draft of a "Lecture Course" for students of 2-4 years of study. The experience, problems and promising tasks of organizing the educational process at the State University of Land Management (GUZ), including the digitalization of Landscape design education, scientific, methodological and practical experience in teaching the discipline "Landscape Design" in 2023-2024, were taken into account. In preparing the article, the author's approaches and methods of substantiating urban improvement and greening projects using open information resources and other methodological and methodological developments obtained by the author, E.L. Belyaeva, during her dissertation research "Methodology of landscaping historical cities", as well as during lectures, practical classes and educational practice in the discipline "Landscape Design". The experience of Candidate of Social Sciences E.M. was taken into account. Akimkin's experience gained over the years while teaching sociology of management and conflict management at universities in Moscow.

Urban design throughout the world, is considered as a field of compromise between urban planning and architecture and as a tool that directs the urban development process. This article emphasizes the impact of the lack of definition of the implementation tools on the underdevelopment of urban design in Turkey. In recent years, especially in Istanbul, large-scale urban regeneration and renewal projects are not dealt within a holistic planning approach. They have issues in integrating with each other and the rest of the city. In this article, the Zeytinburnu Urban Regeneration Project, one of the urban projects developed in Greater Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Istanbul Metropolitan Planning and Urban Design Centre (IMP), is evaluated in terms of the place of urban design projects within the Turkish planning system in order to question this approach in the planning system. Zeytinburnu reflects the average state of Istanbul’s built-up environment in terms of its physical conditions, the state of its building stock and legal status, together with earthquake damage risk. Therefore, it has been selected as the case study area. In contrast, the Hamburg-HafenCity Urban Regeneration Project has been selected in order to establish the urban planning-design-project relationship, and to analyze the place and significance of this relationship within the planning hierarchy. This project will expand the city centre by 40% and create a new centre which reflects a strong port character. Although their main aims differ, the two case study projects have provided insight for comparative evaluation in the planning system in terms of reorganization of a problematic urban area. Key words: Urban design, urban project, planning system, planning implementation, planning process.

In France, there is increasing interest in health impact assessments (HIAs) and most are performed on urban projects. The field of expertise is still under development and mostly established within the public health sector. To date, in France, all HIAs conducted in urban planning are stand-alone HIAs disconnected from the required environmental impact assessment (EIA). The paper opens with an introduction of the close and complex relationship between health and urban planning, HIA and a description of key elements needed for understanding the French context. Then, the paper analyses the context and the implementation process for four HIAs in progress in order to understand the specific characteristics of urban development, identify the key stages for introducing a health perspective into urban projects, and extract avenues to be explored when adapting HIAs applied to urban planning in France. Using a qualitative multiple case study design, an analysis framework was built to compare several aspects of the four HIAs and made it possible to highlight three pathways for adapting HIA to the urban planning sector: the schedule, links between the EIA and HIA, and the complementarity of the initiatives to involve residents. Legal measures enable a point of contact that brings health institutions and cities closer together. HIA is yet another tool that public authorities now have at their fingertips to work together in strengthening democracy and in reducing social, geographical and environmental health inequalities. More research must be undertaken to develop an understanding of the practice-related context; to judge HIA's capacity to draw on existing approaches in different fields; and to explore the different avenues leading to increased health, wellbeing and equity.

Already in the early 1980s it was recognisable in Hungary that a contradiction between the prevailing mechanisms of urban physical planning and the public perception of property rights was evolving. Lead by the fundamental changes of the ownership patterns after the political changes this contradiction continued to grow while the old planning mechanisms survived almost unchanged. Up to 1997 when the new Act on the Built Environment and the relevant bylaws were finally adopted cities and villages made and amended their plans according to the old planning legislation that goes back to as early as 1964. In the first part of the paper the three main functions: concept/strategy formulating, developmental and the regulatory of urban planning are analysed. It is stated, that in the developed industrial countries there is a decisive effort to get to a balance between the three functions of planning. After the political and economic changes Hungarian planning legislation focused mainly on the regulatory function, while the planning and developmental function of cities became relatively weak. The new urban planning law introduced some legal mechanisms in order to assist cities in the implementation of their physical plans but some innovations are yet missing, among others the introduction of a planning permission procedure. The next part of the paper focuses on the developmental function of planning. This function is viewed as an integral part of the planning process comprising those active measures of the communities that facilitate the implementation of urban projects in the interest of the general public. As public involvement in urban development is in most cases associated with negotiations with the private property development sector about financial settlements the paper first examines the dual source of betterment: It is stated that a clear distinction is to be made between betterment (and also worsenment) caused by the changes in the demand patterns and those changes in land values that result from public capital improvements, i.e. from infrastructure programs. A simple explanartory is presented here. It is arranged along two variables: the "strength" of the development function of the public sector ("pro-active" or "re-active" policies) and the "complexity" of the planned urban development projects. The latter variable refers both to physical complexity and to those characteristics of projects that are associated with the social/economic complexity of public interests to be met, e.g. avoidance of segregatory trends, facilitating local economic development, preserving local urban districts. Based on the survey of the legislation and practices of the countries mentioned above the model indicates that planning tools used in Anglo-Saxon and European planning practices differ according to the cities' measure of active involvement in the realisation of urban plans. In America, where most urban projects are initiated by the private sector, and where the "weak" development function of the communities is restricted to the implementation of the basic elements of the public infrastructure, various tools of dedication in land or in money and of impact (development) fees are used for partially financing the associated public developments. It is stated in the paper that these instruments – very similar to those proposed by the 1937 Act on Planning in Hungary – are inadequate to the influential private developments towards the complexity of public goals. In Europe, where the development function of the public authorities has traditionally been stronger, the use of a comprehensive urban land policy is more wide-spread. Cities are invested with wider powers for the usage of this tool if they officially declare their commitment to start and – partially – finance complex urban projects, e.g. urban renewal, development of agrarian land. By purchasing, temporarily taking over land communities are put in a better position to enforce public claims through private contracts with developers and also to recapture at least a part of the betterment. Finally, it is pointed out that the development function of planning has been diminished in Hungary after the changes and proposals are made for the introduction of some tools discussed.

The widespread dissemination of sustainability, the rapid urbanization of the world, and the global rise of ICT are the three most important global trends at play across the urban world today. They will most likely change the way cities can be managed and developed drastically. They are also rendering the tasks of urban management increasingly more challenging on many scales with regard to city development. This implies that the management of urban systems and what they entail in terms of operations, functions, processes, and services in the context of smart sustainable cities require complex interdisciplinary knowledge pertaining not only to project management and multiscale and participatory governance, but also to the administration of ICT and related computational and data analytics processes. These three urban management functions are particularly associated with significant risks and challenges that need to be managed and overcome, respectively, in the process of making decisions as part of the development of smart sustainable cities of the future. However, topical studies on project management, governance, and risk management approach these topics from a general perspective predominantly. From a somewhat specific perspective, the focus in this chapter is rather on these urban management functions in relation to smart sustainable cities as having distinctive characteristics with respect to both the ubiquity presence and massive use of ICT and what this entails in terms of information security risks as well as the complexity of multiscale and participatory governance structures and project management processes. This chapter intends to explore urban and ICT project and related risk management in the context of smart sustainable cities, as well as the various models of governance of their functioning and development. The emphasis in risk management is placed on both urban development and ICT projects as well as information security in relation to the use of cloud computing as an increasingly widely applied solution for big data and context-aware applications. As to governance models, we put emphasis on polycentric, participatory, and big data forms. This is deemed of particular importance to providing insights into workable, practice-oriented solutions for the management of the complexity of smart sustainable cities increasingly being sought by urban planners, strategists, policymakers, and decision-makers.

The article presents the results of the theoretical and practical foundations of information support for the management system in the field of urban planning. The relevance of this topic is related to the need to provide comfortable living conditions for Russian citizens in the urban environment. It is pointed out that the new economic conditions for the development of Russia require a rethinking of the dominants of urban planning, a shift in emphasis on the implementation of economically sound urban planning projects, a significant reduction in the timing of urban planning and the coordination of urban planning projects. In view of the foregoing, the main direction of modern urban planning is the introduction of technologies for urban forecasting, territorial and legal zoning and the formation of a sustainable urban environment, in which information modeling technologies for urban planning play a significant role. The methodological basis of the study was general scientific and special methods of cognition, namely, methods of analysis, classification, generalization, methods for systematizing approaches to information modeling, as well as methods for studying semi-structured systems. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that the use of information technologies, intelligent systems, computer models for managing the development and operation of urban planning systems allows taking into account many variables, foreseeing the development of non-linear processes occurring in the urban environment, and performing research on synergistic effects. The application of the proposed integrated approaches will make it possible to predict the socio-economic development of the city, to determine the management actions that will lead to the most favorable development of events. The dominant trend in the study of complex systems, which includes the city, is the interpenetration of all types of modeling, the widespread use of information technologies using different models, methods and tools. Such an approach will make it possible to more thoroughly study the structure of the urban system, the dynamics of its development, integrity, give a rationale for the development of the city, carry out the reconstruction of buildings, plan the development of territories, determine the technical condition of buildings, etc. It is substantiated that modern information technologies make it possible to use quantitative and qualitative indicators of the state of development of the city, to substantiate management decisions in conditions of incomplete information, to form classifications of the studied phenomena, to analyze the content, to widely use heuristic rules, etc. by creating fundamentally new models of knowledge representation. At the same time, it is necessary to develop information technologies that will focus on the multi-level structure of city management, the multi-stage nature of managerial decision-making, the uncertainty and ambiguity of situations that exist in municipal government.