Local Planning Process Research Articles

Complexity and interdependence in local mineral extraction planning: The Nasa Mountain Quartz Case in Northern Norway

The Green Transition demands mineral extraction. The importance for Europe to gain independence from China within this area is also high on the political agenda, which has resulted in a renewal of interest in mineral-extraction in the Nordic countries, including Norway. Despite the increasing demand at the global, European and national level, the planning process itself though takes place at the local level, raising issues of complexities, contradictions and dependencies. This study focuses on the Nasa Mountain Quartz Case in Northern Norway,and finds that the local mineral extraction planning process is best described as a “wicked problem”. Different local concerns – regional development vs environmental concerns and violation of reindeer areas in a cross-border context - as well as different global demands and conventions - contradict each other, making the presumably limited local planning process of Rana municipality quite demanding, crossing sectorial and the local, national and global/EU domain. Increased understanding and awareness of this is needed at all levels.

Conceptual framework for the participation of children in local area planning decision-making processes through primary geography education

ABSTRACT According to Article 12 of the UNCRC, children have a legal right to have their views heard and acted upon as appropriate. In Ireland, this applies to local planning processes concerning children’s localities whereby legislation was specifically enacted to recognise children as a group who were entitled to participate in the local planning process. However, while provisions are being made at policy level, children’s participation in practice is extremely limited. Furthermore, recent research into the teaching of primary school geography in Ireland has found that didactic and text-book approaches are significant with teachers neglecting to teach about the local area and to use experiential learning methods such as fieldwork. Through a qualitative analysis of current research in primary geography education and children’s participation in the planning process, this research presents a conceptual framework which enables children to participate in the local area planning process in Ireland through primary school geography. This conceptual framework provides a systematic and coherent way of approaching children’s participation and the teaching of primary school geography. The key findings from this research centre around the positioning of schools and particularly the primary geography curriculum (PGC) to be the ‘space’ within which children’s participation can and should occur. Enabling children’s participation in planning processes to occur through the PGC serves to bridge the policy-practice gap pertaining to children’s participation, building their capacity to participate, and ensuring the broadest possible sample of the population are included. It also addresses the policy-practice gap in the teaching of geography by ensuring the teaching of lessons involving experiential methods focused on the local area. This conceptual framework sets out a stepped, progressional approach to enabling children to participate in local area planning decisions by carrying out geographical investigations of their localities.

Regeneration in an ecological perspective. Urban and territorial equalisation for the provision of ecosystem services in the Metropolitan City of Milan

In Italy, the current reform of the planning system intends to modify the land-use planning model and to address regeneration and environmental issues in contemporary cities, involving both public and private actors. In this perspective, Performance-based planning can use market-based tools such as urban and territorial equalisation, compensation and local taxation to support and incentivise the design of Nature-based solutions, Green and blue infrastructures and Ecosystem services. This article presents research developed for the Metropolitan City of Milan. The research identifies a number of environmental indicators that evaluate the outcomes of the metropolitan and local planning process and actions. The evaluation will allow the Metropolitan City to differentiate financing policies and promote multiple actors to achieve sustainability goals using the territorial and urban equalisation tool and a connected bonus reward system.

Greened out: mitigating the impacts of eco-gentrification through community dialogue

Cities are increasingly employing green infrastructure, defined as a network of multi-functional open spaces within cities and between cities – including green corridors, green streets, formal parks and street trees – to promote resilience and provide clean air, flood protection and erosion control. Yet there is a growing link between these efforts and rising property values and – in some cities, including Washington, DC – displacement. This history of greening and subsequent displacement can hinder successful green-infrastructure implementation. The geographical areas with the greatest need for these amenities and other resilience strategies are often those with high concentrations of low-income, racial minorities who have traditionally been disenfranchised from local planning and development processes due to a lack of knowledge and limited access, as well as institutional racism. In these areas, the perception of green infrastructure is that of something planned by others, for others, with little direct benefit to the community. This exploratory research, which examines lived experiences, builds upon the quantitative documentation of gentrification and demographic shifts in Washington, DC. Through a series of listening sessions, the study explores residents’ experiences of green infrastructure, gentrification and civic engagement in their community. The study uncovers ways in which policymakers and planners can increase support for and the success of green-infrastructure implementation by amplifying the voices of stakeholders, including communities with vulnerable populations, in the planning process.

Wildfire risk governance from the bottom up: linking local planning processes in fragmented landscapes

Wildfire risk governance from the bottom up: linking local planning processes in fragmented landscapes

Climate change adaptation cycle for pilot projects development in small municipalities: The northwestern Italian regions case study

More than half of the European population live in small and medium size municipalities, where climate adaptation planning is an under-researched topic within the climate change field. Many constraints might hinder the implementation of adaptation pilot projects due to lack of economic, knowledge, and technical available resources. Local institutions find difficulties in building a coherent local adaptation planning and design processes with international and national frameworks. In this context, this article proposes a methodology based on the available international frameworks to support the small communities with the aim to implement adaptation pilot projects within different sectors. In doing so, this paper tests a climate change adaptation cycle for pilot projects development in small municipalities; the first in Italy for small municipalities under 20.000 inhabitants. The proposed methodology could lead local adaptation initiatives in climate change risk assessment by supporting the research communities in developing a coherent vision for the local territories and to identify proper oriented measures to enhance demonstrative pilot projects and to increase the level of resilience in small municipalities, avoiding maladaptation.

The Position of Marginalized Groups in the Elite Captured Local Level Planning Process in Nepal

The participatory planning and budgeting process at the local level encourages citizens to participate in the selection, implementation, and management of development plans. Over the last few decades, the elite captured planning process in Nepal is criticized for being unfair to the marginalised groups. This paper, through a critical qualitative assessment of the local level planning process, explored the role of political actors and the marginalised communities in the local level decisions. It adapted the Weberian idea of power networks where elites can implement their will, even against the will of others. It revealed that the influence of traditional political elites - i.e., Panchas – has shifted to the newly elected or selected political elites, the neo-elites, represented by the local leaders including elected Mayors, with some exceptions. The neo-elite control in the local planning process is as strong as it was in the past despite there being progressive provisions in the constitution, laws and systems. The distribution of plans among influential leaders, bhagbanda, is widely practised at the local level. As a result of these progressive provisions and the follow-up of the seven-step planning process, the neo-elites started consulting with the representatives of the marginalised communities in planning-related decisions. It is recommended that the political parties re-orient the neo-elites to be pro-people. Neo-elites who are inclusive, and follow the progressive laws and the formal systems of the nation, are to be prioritized.

Evaluating the integration of transportation planning in municipal official plans

ABSTRACT Municipal official plans are useful for mainstreaming transportation objectives into local development planning and decision-making processes. Using a plan quality evaluation, this article assesses whether and how well transportation planning is integrated in municipal official plans of the 30 most populous municipalities in Canada. The results suggest this integration is weak, with a notable absence of rigorous data to inform transportation content in official plans, and poor monitoring and evaluation of transportation goals and policies. Furthermore, few plans provided details about how transportation-related policies would be implemented.

Barn or building lot? A cross-case comparison viewing the role of agricultural interests in Austria’s local spatial planning processes

Due to ongoing urbanisation processes, farmland and the number of farms in Europe are declining. In the regions affected, spatial planning plays a substantial role in securing agricultural production requirements. The extent to which planning decision-makers actually consider agricultural interests, however, has been little investigated so far. Based on two Austrian case studies, this paper explores the presence of agricultural interests within local spatial planning as well as potential preconditions for their perception and implementation.A systematic case study selection through a weighted linear combination (WLC) brought up the two agro-structurally contrasting municipalities Aderklaa and Leopoldsdorf, located at the Viennese city border. Problem-centred interviews with 27 local spatial planning actors, supplemented by the analysis of planning documents, provided insights into the local spatial planning processes. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework served as the conceptual basis for the qualitative data analysis and the subsequent cross-case comparison.Aderklaa has preserved its rural characteristics in the past decades. Almost 90 % of the municipal area is used as farmland; there are about 25 farms in the village of 196 inhabitants. Leopoldsdorf, on the other hand, experienced an urbanisation of its former village structure. Farmland makes up 50 % of Leopoldsdorf’s area. The municipality has 5230 inhabitants; three farms still exist today. Regarding the integration of agricultural interests into local spatial planning, the municipalities show significant differences: While Aderklaa aligns its spatial planning policy to a large extent with the interests of local farmers, this is not the case in Leopoldsdorf. The study was able to identify the political commitment of local farmers as crucial for the integration of agricultural interests into local spatial planning and to confirm the impact of spatial planning decisions on agriculture.

Spatio-temporal characterization of surface water dynamics with Landsat in endorheic Cuvelai-Etosha Basin (1990–2021)

Socio-economic damages caused by extreme floods have been increasing rapidly in recent years, mainly driven by changes in the climate and modulated by increasing human population in deltic areas and floodplains. The Cuvelai-Etosha Basin (CEB) in southern Africa, covering southern Angola and northern Namibia, experiences socially and economically devastating extreme floods. Yet, accurate information on past and current surface water changes and dynamics is lacking. Here, we estimate and map the surface water extents in the CEB and its surroundings (CEB + S) for 32 years (1990–2021) from Landsat data using random forest models to provide long-term baseline information on surface water changes and dynamics. Based on the reference data, a total of 15,677 ± 1080 km2 have been inundated by surface water in the CEB + S during 1990–2021. This extent was accurately mapped by our local water extent product (mapped area = 16,273 km2, user’s accuracy = 91.5 ± 2.5%, producer’s accuracy = 91.1 ± 6%). With user’s and producer’s accuracy of 91%, our overall water extent provides the first most accurate long-term baseline information on surface water inundation in CEB + S necessary for local spatial planning processes to minimise future negative impacts of floods in the basin. Interannual variability of surface water extent is, however, high, with water extent ranging from 520.8 ± 375.7 km2 to 12372.3 ± 1154.7 km2 during the 1990–2021 period. The largest annual water extents (>10,000 km2) were recorded in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2017, whereas the smallest extents (<1000 km2) were recorded in 1992 and 2019. We found that over 40% of the area inundated in the CEB + S during 1990–2021 was inundated less than 9 times. With human population increasing rapidly in the CEB + S, rarely inundated areas with short water residence could become a prime target for human settlements, which may lead to huge socio-economic damages during extreme floods if no preventive measures are put in place. Globally available surface water maps from the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) and European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) did not provide realistic surface water extent for CEB + S, especially during years with extreme floods. Therefore, locally adopted product for operational monitoring of surface water in the CEB + S is needed to provide accurate information for informing spatial planning processes and surface water resource management strategies in this endorheic basin and help minimise future negative impacts of floods.

Local Knowledge of Coastal Population to Sea Level Rise and Climate Change – A Case Study in Fishermen Community, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, India

This research synthesises two evaluations of a local level climate change adaptation and planning process in the southernmost coastal region, Kanyakumari, India which was supported through community-based appraisals. First, understanding the public perception of climate change factors is crucial in generating support for climate change response. Second, generating enough grass-root level support from the local population to assess the long-term climate change impacts on decision-making to design the adaptation strategies for sea-level rise. These two results highlight the level of understanding and awareness of climate change’s impact by the local population in the coastal region of Kanyakumari. A well-designed questionnaire with structured interviews, to collect data on local knowledge and local perception of climate change and sea-level rise from 100 respondents was distributed each in 44 coastal villages in the study area. The finding showed that 20.7% of the local population have knowledge of climate change and its impacts and 18.4% of the population agreed that the impact of sea-level rise is experienced in the coastal region. This study is to provide insight into the communities’ knowledge of the adaptive capacity of the local population to cope with climate change towards the treaty of sea-level rise.

Budget Allocation System of a Highly Urbanized Local Government Unit in Central Luzon, Philippines

The study determined the local planning and budget process of a highly urbanized local government unit (LGU) in Central Luzon, Philippines. It involves all department concerns and civil society organizations (CSOs) that use the City's local governance performance management system (LGPMS). The researchers used a descriptive research study to obtain the necessary data from a survey to seventy-five (75) rank and file employees. The researchers used a purposive sampling technique to gather the respondents involved in planning, budgeting, and managing programs and projects. With a self-made instrument that underwent validity, the researchers gathered the essential data for the study. The data were statistically analyzed using frequency, percentage distribution, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and t-test for independent variables. Preliminary results illustrated that respondents' status was in regular status as division head level, and their years of service were more than sixteen (16) years. The statistical analyses revealed no significant variations in the assessment on the budget allocation system of the local government unit (LGU) as determined on its indicators. The management also agrees that employees work effectively in the budget allocation of the local government unit. The study recommended the orientation and assessment on the current allocation and budget process wherein the department's prioritization can review the objectives and policy decisions.

Intersections of (infra)structural violence and cultural inclusion: The geopolitics of minority cemeteries and crematoria provision

Building on embodied and de‐colonial approaches to geopolitics, this paper examines the relationship between forms of governance in municipal cemetery and crematorium provision and the needs of established minorities, arguing that inadequate infrastructure and services can constitute harm. Crucially, it is contended that forms of governance impact not only on the living, but also on perceptions of the wellbeing of the dead. Grounded in a study of four towns in England and Wales, the paper identifies firstly how intersectional identity fundamentally shapes people’s experiences of deathscape governance; secondly, the possibilities of infrastructural benefits of inclusive services; and thirdly, the harms done by non‐inclusive forms of governance, implicit territoriality and inadequate infrastructure. This is evidenced in the negative impact of poor municipal cemetery organisation and management on specific minority groups, such as inadequate burial space, high burial costs, hindrances to timely rituals, and reduced access to services as a result of government austerity measures; as well as protracted local planning processes. The conclusion calls for a wider conceptualisation of necropolitics, based on a critical‐feminist‐decolonial geopolitics of deathscapes in multicultural societies, and offers insights for the practical governance of inclusive cemeteries and crematoria.

Double BP Q-Learning Algorithm for Local Path Planning of Mobile Robot

Aiming at the dimension disaster problem, poor model generalization ability and deadlock problem in special obstacles environment caused by the increase of state information in the local path planning process of mobile robot, this paper proposed a Double BP Q-learning algorithm based on the fusion of Double Q-learning algorithm and BP neural network. In order to solve the dimensional disaster problem, two BP neural network fitting value functions with the same network structure were used to replace the two Q value tables in Double Q-Learning algorithm to solve the problem that the Q value table cannot store excessive state information. By adding the mechanism of priority experience replay and using the parameter transfer to initialize the model parameters in different environments, it could accelerate the convergence rate of the algorithm, improve the learning efficiency and the generalization ability of the model. By designing specific action selection strategy in special environment, the deadlock state could be avoided and the mobile robot could reach the target point. Finally, the designed Double BP Q-learning algorithm was simulated and verified, and the probability of mobile robot reaching the target point in the parameter update process was compared with the Double Q-learning algorithm under the same condition of the planned path length. The results showed that the model trained by the improved Double BP Q-learning algorithm had a higher success rate in finding the optimal or sub-optimal path in the dense discrete environment, besides, it had stronger model generalization ability, fewer redundant sections, and could reach the target point without entering the deadlock zone in the special obstacles environment.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Nutrition Workers on Climate Change in Laguna, Batangas and Cavite Provinces, Philippines

Climate change and malnutrition are two global phenomena that affect millions of population groups. The Philippines is considered one of the most vulnerable countries for extreme natural events and at the same time has a high prevalence of underweight (19.0%) and stunting (28.8%) in 2019 among under five children. The nutritionally vulnerable groups are children, pregnant and lactating women, and elderly. These groups are also greatly affected by climate change-related events then the malnutrition situation is exacerbated. The local nutrition workers are the frontline workers who plan, implement, and monitor nutrition programs. Mainstreaming climate change in the local nutrition planning processes will be facilitated if nutrition workers are knowledgeable. This study aimed to determine the current knowledge, attitudes and practices of nutrition workers and perceptions on how to mainstream climate change in the nutrition sector’s local planning system. A survey was conducted among local nutrition workers. Ninety-five percent of nutrition workers were highly knowledgeable, 86% were with high level of attitudes and 50% were exhibiting moderate level of practices related to climate change. The gaps can be narrowed by capacity building and possibly this can lead to mainstreaming climate change in the local nutrition planning process.

Social mobilization and tackling the performance of local government in rural Nepal

Abstract Based on extensive fieldwork in two rural villages, this paper qualitatively examines how social mobilization initiatives influence local government (LG) performance in Nepal. LG mobilized community people to empower them for their effective participation in local planning and decision-making processes. Comparing with the prior period of mobilization, evidence demonstrates that mobilization promises to boost LG performance through empowering communities to enhance their agency and entitlements, promoting democratic and effective citizen participation, and strengthening LG responsiveness and social accountability. But these connections are not straightforward, as there appeared discrepancies in parallel in recognizing equal participation rights of disadvantaged groups and equitable distribution of public resources among social groups. The findings imply that mobilization can be an effective strategy for tackling many challenges of participatory institutions, as it tends to create social pressures for making participatory institutions more democratic and changing the local power dynamics in favour of disadvantaged groups.

Sub-national Energy Access Planning Model for Sustainable Development Goals: A Case Study of Barpak

As most nations have adopted the Sustainable Development agenda to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, it is vital that planning of energy systems at local, regional and national levels also align with the agenda in order to achieve the goals. This study explores the sustainability of primary energy resources of a rural community to meet growing demands of the community, in order to achieve SDGs for energy access Goal no. 7 (SDG7) at local level. Using a linear back-casting techno-economic energy access model that informs the expected change in energy demand in order to reach SDG7 targets, this study examined whether local energy resources would be enough to achieve the targets for Barpak VDC (named such at the time of data collection before Nepal’s administrative restructuring), and explored the possibility of importing electricity from national grid to attain SDG7 targets. By analyzing the outputs of the model for Barpak, we found that currently assessed local energy resources are insufficient to meet the energy access targets. Importing electricity from national grid, in addition to the mini-hydropower plant currently in operation at Barpak is needed to achieve the targets. Huge cost investment and timely expansion of transmission and distribution infrastructure is crucial. By 2030, total energy demand is expected to grow up to 50,000 Gigajoules per year. Electricity import from national grid grows steadily, reaching up to 45,000 Gigajoules in 2030. The social costs of energy will continue to be dominated by household sector till 2030, reaching up to 30 million Nepali Rupees per year in total. Use of wood as fuel, the only significant source of emission in the model is modeled to decrease linearly and stop by 2030, as required by SDGs. Emission of 17 Metric Tonnes of Carbon-dioxide and 4.5 million kg Methane equivalent is reduced to zero at 2030. This model serves as an innovative approach to integrate SDG targets to local and regional energy planning process, and can be adopted for energy systems and policy planning for various regions in Nepal.

Public Values and Public Participation: A Case of Collaborative Governance of a Planning Process

Research on public participation in community planning processes often focuses on the design of participation activities and the tensions therein. Past research, however, gives little attention to the question of who makes these design decisions, what public values they hold, and how those values affect decisions about design. Addressing this gap, this study empirically illustrates the connection between public value frames, design choices, and public participation in a collaborative policymaking process. The case analyzed is a local public planning process designed collaboratively by public and private organizations. The analysis uses participant observation, documents, and interviews. Results demonstrate how effective collaborative governance of the design process and interorganizational power-sharing forced partners to reveal, recognize, and interrogate their own public values while navigating others’ values. The collaborative governance of the planning process allowed the organizations to capitalize on, rather than suffer from, differences in values frames by changing tensions in planning to opportunities and increasing equity in public participation. Findings suggest that research attention should be aimed not just at which stakeholders are invited to participate (and how), but at who designs the participation agenda in the first place. Furthermore, findings suggest that public values frame reflection and collaborative governance of participation design can be key practices improving planning and policy outputs.

Responsiveness of local government officials: insights and lessons from participatory planning and budgeting

Ensuring effective service delivery to the citizens has become a common agenda for all the governments of the welfare states. Keeping this importance in mind, the government of Bangladesh enacted the Local Government (Union Parishad) act, 2009 (hereinafter the UP act, 2009) for ensuring people’s access to its local level planning and budgeting process. In this connection, the UP functionaries are responsible to perform double roles: ensuring the participation of people in the participatory planning and budgeting process, and providing services as per their demands. This paper is based on data collected from the UP functionaries of a total of six UPs. A questionnaire was developed having nine statements relating to the roles of the UP functionaries about UP planning and budgeting process. Using factor analysis, this study shows that three important capacities of the UP functionaries, including the capacity to inform citizens, compliance responsibilities and organising and networking among actors, made planning and budgeting processes workable at the local level. It was also revealed that along with legal enforcement; monitoring of the processes by the government and donor’s officials and personal quality of the UP functionaries had made them responsiveness to their duties.

Synchronous Maneuver Searching and Trajectory Planning for Autonomous Vehicles in Dynamic Traffic Environments

In the real-time decision-making and local planning process of autonomous vehicles in dynamic environments, the autonomous driving system may fail to find a reasonable policy or even gets trapped in some situation due to the complexity of global tasks and the incompatibility between upper-level maneuver decisions with the low-level lower level trajectory planning. To solve this problem, this paper presents a synchronous maneuver searching and trajectory planning (SMSTP) algorithm based on the topological concept of homotopy. Firstly, a set of alternative maneuvers with boundary limits are enumerated on a multi-lane road. Instead of sampling numerous paths in the whole spatio-temporal space, we, for the first time, propose using Trajectory Profiles (TPs) to quickly construct the topological maneuvers represented by different routes, and put forward a corridor generation algorithm based on graph-search. The bounded corridor further constrains the maneuver's space in the spatial space. A step-wise heuristic optimization algorithm is then proposed to synchronously generate a feasible trajectory for each maneuver. To achieve real-time performance, we initialize the states to be optimized with the boundary constraints of maneuvers, and we set some heuristic states as terminal targets in the quadratic cost function. The solution of a feasible trajectory is always guaranteed only if a specific maneuver is given. The simulation and realistic driving-test experiments verified that the proposed SMSTP algorithm has a short computation time which is less than 37ms, and the experimental results showed the validity and effectiveness of the SMSTP algorithm.