Plan-making Process Research Articles

Rethinking urban spatial planning and industrial development approaches in Ethiopia: bridging gaps for better outcomes

Urbanization is occurring at an unprecedented rate in developing countries like Ethiopia, especially with the rapid growth of industrialization. However, this urbanization and industrial development surge puts immense pressure on preparing and implementing city spatial plans. Urban spatial planning plays a crucial role in shaping the development of cities, aiming to create livable and sustainable urban development. The plan-making process and its subsequent implementation often encounter challenges that hinder the realization of planned objectives. Galan and Dukem, cities near Addis Ababa’s capital, have seen substantial industrial investment in recent decades. This article explores the challenges associated with urban spatial planning and industrial development while proposing alternative approaches. The paper relies on information gathered from primary and secondary sources, including expert surveys and key informants’ interviews. The research highlights that industrial developments have led to significant and uncontrolled changes in urban land use and urbanization in the study areas. Due to the lack of clear planning guidelines and institutional capacity, the study cities are experiencing haphazard development without effective urban spatial plans. Proximity to Addis Ababa has driven the urbanization process through increased investments. The article contends that effective management of urbanization and industrialization can create enjoyable living conditions and foster job growth. Macroeconomic policies, including industrial policies, should pay attention to spatial elements and prevent policy-making processes that are “space-blind”. This, however, requires clairvoyance and a high level of expertise, integrating inputs from advocacy planning and community participation to bridge gaps and ensure effective urban spatial plans and industrialization processes.

Addressing uneven development through state-steered intercity cooperation? Insights from Shenzhen–Ganzhou cooperation plan-making

ABSTRACT Attention being paid to the implications of intercity networks on uneven development is increasing. To inform the discussion, this study examines China’s state-steered matching programme that is characterised by ‘forming city networks under hierarchy’. By investigating the interactive dynamics of the plan-making process and the nature of the collaboration plan generated under the particular institutional arrangement, we argue that the presence of the nation-state and the ‘left-behind’ city’s proactive strategies are important to ensure commitment from the developed city and thus make the cooperation plan fulfil both parties’ needs. We conclude by discussing the potential mechanisms and implications of the state-steered matching programme on addressing uneven development.

Empowering the public in environmental assessment: Advances or enduring challenges?

Public participation is a cornerstone of good plan-making and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), allowing local information and concerns to be captured, residents to be engaged in assessment and plan-making processes, and opposition to plan implementation to be reduced. Effective public participation in SEA depends on who is involved, how they are involved, and what influence they have over the SEA and plan-making processes. Using this who-how-what framework, this paper presents research findings on the effectiveness of public participation in SEA from expert interviews and an international online survey. The findings indicate that current SEA practice remains limited in all three dimensions, with particularly little emphasis on the public's influence. The paper reflects on these enduring challenges, to further debates and practice on more transparent and inclusive assessments and decisions.

A framework for human-computer interactive street network design based on a multi-stage deep learning approach

Limited attention has been given to human-computer interactions in the plan-making process to capitalize on the relative strengths of both. This paper proposes a methodological framework for an interactive street network design that complements user-driven (i.e., procedural-based tools) and example-driven (i.e., learning-based tools) approaches in urban planning and design. The proposed framework consists of three components: (1) a data preparation module to link open-source road networks with human-labeled planning guidance, (2) a multi-stage deep learning (MSDL) model to reinforce the user-defined guidance in the automatic generation of street networks, and (3) a human-computer interaction (HCI) interface to enable the progressive design process. The performance and the working mechanism of the proposed framework were examined through experiments in four European cities (i.e., Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, and Prague). The experiments demonstrate that the proposed MSDL model can achieve a better predictive performance compared to benchmark models, particularly when limited planning guidance is given. These finding are revealed using either computer vision- or street network-related metrics. With less than 40% of the ground truth planning guidance used as an input, the MSDL model can perform as well as other models using 100% of the information. Furthermore, when embedded within an HCI system for user trials, the model can facilitate a human-computer collaborative design process. This advantage is derived from the model's ability to provide initial prototypes, timely responses to changed guidance, and quantifiable evaluations of the generated proposals. Suitable for professionals and laypersons, the proposed tool can inform plan-making and public engagement by offering realistic, enriched, and human-centered spatial proposal alternatives for comparison.

E-participation and engagement in urban planning: experiences from the Baltic cities

ABSTRACT Based on an analysis of plan-making processes in 12 Baltic cities, this study explores public engagement strategies and dominant ICT-enabled engagement approaches and processes in the post-socialist context. The results show that e-participation is an integral part of the city planning practices in all three Baltic States, primarily contributing to the diversification of informing and consulting processes. More meaningful participation is achieved by combining e-participation with follow-up deliberation, demonstrating the potential of blended and iterative participatory strategies. Moreover, ICT-enabled self-organization is forcing a shift towards greater transparency, accountability, and civic involvement that is transformative for the post-socialist context.

The regressive planning practice of private sector planners under the pressure of political and market forces in Turkey

ABSTRACT Private-sector planners in Turkey have been operating in a planning system that has been restructured within the framework of neoliberal urban policies for the last forty years. Especially after 2000, while the model of growth over construction was adopted as a basic economic policy, the planning practices that implemented these policies were seen as a means of capital accumulation by wider social groups. In this economic political environment, private-sector planners have entered into new relationships with politics, markets, and bureaucracy, and have settled in the centre of criticism with professional practices that fall behind the basic principles of the profession, such as land speculation and serving certain pressure groups instead of the public interest. This article focuses on the conditions in which private-sector planners realize their planning practices and the problems they encounter in their plan-making processes. According to private-sector planners, the most important problem is the increase in the determination of rent-oriented interest relations between public institutions and local market actors instead of public benefit in the planning process. Private-sector planners believe that at every stage of the planning process, politicians and market actors exert pressure on planners, and that these forces have caused Turkey's planning practices to decline.

Public transport accessibility mapping and its policy applications: A case study of Lucknow, India

The current chaotic state of Indian cities in terms of lack of effective public infrastructure systems implies a failure of the practice of urban planning. One of the reasons for this failure is often a compartmentalised approach to urban planning. An integrated approach, wherein urban development and public infrastructure systems are analysed and implemented as interconnected systems is likely to yield more efficiently functioning cities.This study explores one such approach to integrate the urban plan-making process with the public transport systems, using public transport accessibility levels (PTAL) as a tool. The methodology involves adaptation of London’s PTAL method to measure the accessibility of the public transport network and exploring its possible applications to several aspects of urban plan-making, in Lucknow, a city with a population of about 3.7 million residents (World Population Review, 2020) and an emerging regional hub.A baseline (2020) and three future PTAL scenarios (2031) are developed that are based on the current plans and our analysis. These scenarios are assessed vis-à-vis the population distribution and public affordable housing locations. The applications of PTAL in delineating high-intensity development zones and enhancing local area plans are also explored. The study demonstrated that PTAL can be a useful tool to enhance urban planning policy decisions such as in preparing spatial plans (e.g., land use zoning, FAR determination, delineating transit-oriented zones, and preparing local area plans) and providing public transport infrastructure and making it more inclusive.The study concludes that planners working on different facets of urban planning such as land use, housing, transport efficiency and inclusivity, among others, can benefit from PTAL mapping. The recommendations can be taken a step further through creation of a holistic digital platform for analysis, which would complement the Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission.

Integrating nature-based solutions in flood risk management plans: A matter of individual beliefs?

The formulation of management plans as required by EU environmental policies such as the Floods Directive may facilitate the uptake of nature-based solutions (NBS) into practice. Previous research has indicated that the uptake of NBS in water management plans is still low and hindered by various elements of the existing water governance system. However, research so far neglected the role of water managers as “plan-makers” of solution strategies and programs of measures, as well as their beliefs in choosing certain measures in the plan-making process. The aim of this study is to shed more light on the plan-makers' reasoning for integrating, or not integrating, NBS into specific flood risk management plans (FRMPs). We conducted ten qualitative interviews with plan-makers from Germany and adopted a grounded theory approach to identify their beliefs that underlie the process of formulating FRMPs as well as their perceived role in this process. The analysis reveals a dominance of shared substantive and relational beliefs that are obstructive to a greater uptake of NBS in FRMPs. In particular, identified beliefs about NBS often do not align with their self-perception of their role in being the “plan-makers”. We present a differentiated portrait of water managers as key actors in the decision-making on FRMPs, illustrating that while water managers are belonging to the same distinct professional group with a similar social role in the decision-making process, they do not necessarily share the same preferences.

20 years Collaborative Governance and Action Research: Evaluation Process of the Regional Spatial Planning of Mappi Regency, Papua

This paper evaluates planners’ capacity to influence the plan-making process where it often involves actors and institutions with various interests. Relegating planners’ roles by providing mere technical inputs to those who seek advice would not alleviate spatial imbalance and unequal power structure embedded in the community. Planners should be reflexive and accountable, as it will lead them to aspire to a contested ideal rather than to simply optimize the current system in which they are in. Drawing from our experience in reviewing regional spatial plan of Kabupaten Mappi, providing an alternative approach to current development strategies would help balancing the local community’s power structure. Planners should master the politics of planning as it would help them influence the decision-making process.

The third sector in collaborative planning: Case study of Tongdejie community in Guangzhou, China

Collaborative planning, along with the socioeconomic transition of China, has considerable potential in transforming Chinese planning practice. However, given the strong government and limited public participation in Chinese planning practice, introducing the third sector (TS), which can play a crucial role in the collaborative planning process, is necessary. In this study, we first briefly review the connotation of collaborative planning with particular focus on its discussion in China and clarify the characteristics of the TS. We then analyze TS participation and mechanism in collaborative planning practice. A case study of a local TS, Counseling Supervision Committee (CSC) in Tongdejie, a low-income residential area in Guangzhou, China, is applied to interpret the TS's role. Data are gathered from text analysis, virtual ethnography, in-depth interview, and questionnaire survey with a total of 775 valid samples on the field and online through our participation of the two rounds of Tongdejie community planning and our four surveys within thirteen years. Our observation through the empirical study are as follows. First, a diverse-in-member and neutral TS is the foundation for connection bridging and consensus building, although multi-stakeholders had participated in the plan-making process. Second, CSC had built relationships among stakeholders and performed supervisory and evaluation roles throughout the collaborative planning process and the late-stage management of Tongdejie area. Third, CSC had helped implement a fair collaborative planning to complete the institutional design of the local planning. On the basis of these findings, we argue that institutionalizing TS participation can further promote collaborative planning practice.

Relationship between Participation and Social Inclusion

Studies show that within most countries, there are generally many different socio-cultural, ethnic and religious groups and this diversity inevitably creates a level of inter-group tension, with income disparities, cultural differences, and intergroup segregation leading in turn to social exclusion. This paper set out to develop a conceptual framework to examine the relationship between that participation and the social inclusion outcomes in the plan-making process. It addressed how social inclusion can relate to the plan-making process culturally, politically and institutionally, economically and socially with high level participation. In doing this, it adopted a case study approach using the Metropolitan Area of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria as the study sample of multi-ethnic, cultural and religious area. The research finds that participation in the plan-making process has a direct impact on social inclusion outcomes, helping to: break down cultural barriers; create intergroup cohesion; alleviate poverty; increase economic opportunities; and promote good governance. It finds that the relationship between participation and social inclusion varies across different indicators of social inclusion. It shows a very strong or moderately strong relationship across different indicators. However, the significance of relationship is very strong across all the indicators.

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Rural Land-use Planning in Poland: A Case Study of Zawidz Commune

ABSTRACT The most important document in spatial planning in Poland is the local plan. The article considers the possibility of using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to select the location of local plans in cooperation with experts. The results of the study show that the use of the AHP method makes decisions made by local authorities credible. The paper demonstrates the utility of the tool for deciding where local plans should be developed. The case of Zawidz commune is used to illustrate how the priority of the land-use plan-making process can be decided using the indicators and methodology.

Shaping up the Future Spatial Plans for Urban Areas in Pakistan

Since 2007, more than fifty percent of our planet’s population is living in urban areas. In the coming decade, the rate of urbanization will be fastest in Asia and Africa. Within South Asian countries, urbanization has attained its fastest pace in Pakistan. Urban planners and agencies in Pakistan have tried various spatial plan making solutions to manage urban areas, but none have given the desired results. After a 20% increase in declared urban areas within last two decades, urban planners and policy makers are looking for a more innovative and realistic spatial planning solution, which could adjust to the uncertainties and complexities of real world. This research uses a mixed method approach comprising a two phased survey of professional planners, analyzed through the selective lexicon approach to document planners’ opinions about the reasons behind the poor performance and conformance of spatial plans. This study documents the planners’ understanding of the contemporary concept of ‘scenario planning’. To explore the solution, this paper presents a semi-systematic review of the literature on the application of the ‘scenario method in urban spatial planning’. As a result of this research, a comprehensive digital inventory of all spatial plans ever made in Pakistan has been developed. It has been found that 83% of the urban settlements in Pakistan are growing without a spatial plan and require immediate attention. Furthermore, in terms of the plan making process, twenty-seven major factors contributing to the failure of past plans have been identified and categorized under seven distinct plan making stages. Finally, a new process of spatial plan-making has been proposed, which is the fusion of scenario planning and the traditional plan-making process, backed by digital planning tools. In an era of smart cities and digitization, it is expected that the advancements in scenarios planning, coupled with a new data portal, will assist in addressing the implementation gap in practice, and result in more comprehensive data-driven spatial plans.

Practicing transformative planning: the territory-landscape plan as a catalyst for change

This paper advocates the need for transformative planning practices to cope with contemporary crises of climate change and intensifying economic inequality that regions, city-regions, and cities are increasingly confronted with. In-depth examination of planning processes is useful to grasp some crucial promises and problems of transformative planning and open up new possibilities for practice. Accordingly, the paper includes an investigation into the Territory-Landscape plan-making process developed in the Apulia region, Italy. This explicitly and intentionally aimed at promoting a radical discontinuity in regional planning culture and practice by changing the well-established relationship between territory-landscape protection and spatial planning. The process revealed that ‘landscape’ could function as a constructive picklock for proposing an alternative to the development-as-growth model firmly entrenched in the region, and envisioning desirable futures focused on the concept of ‘local self-sustainable development’. This implies subverting the hegemony of the ‘economic’ that has reduced dwellers to consumers, and the territory to a mere physical support for any kind of land transformation and urban development which exclude dwellers participation. Using the lens of transformative theory and building on an interpretive research approach that included also direct experience, the paper provides insights on changes in vision and concepts, discourses and practices, approach and instruments experienced in such a planning process. In conclusion, it reflects on lessons learned, and highlights some difficulties and contradictions with which the way towards transformative planning is paved for researchers engaged in turning their ideas into significant achievements in the real world.

Planning Particularities: Reinterpreting Urban Planning in China with the Case of Chengdu

ABSTRACTThe concept of neoliberalisation is increasingly applied to China to explain its unprecedented urban transformation. This paper argues against fitting China into a prototype neoliberal model. Instead it proposes a fresh interpretation of its urban planning particularities within a continuity-contestation framework, embodied in the context, governance and practice of planning. Chengdu, the gateway in West China, is chosen as a case study to illustrate this framework. Analysing the successive city Master Plans of Chengdu, it was found that there was a strong path dependency in Chengdu’s plan-making process. Yet contestations from the planning context and planning practice pressured for planning transformation. Interestingly, inconsistencies within its Master Plans sometimes worked in line with the market and mediated the conflicts between plan-led and market-led development logics.

Reclaiming Indigenous Planning as a Pathway to Local Water Security

Access to drinkable water is essential to human life. The consequence of unsafe drinking water can be damaging to communities and catastrophic to human health. Today, one in five First Nation communities in Canada is on a boil water advisory, with some advisories lasting over 10 years. Factors contributing to this problem stretch back to colonial structures and institutional arrangement that reproduce woefully inadequate community drinking water systems. Notwithstanding these challenges, First Nation communities remain diligent, adaptive, and innovative in their efforts to provide drinkable water to their community members. One example is through the practice of source water protection planning. Source water is untreated water from groundwater or surface water that supplies drinking water for human consumption. Source water protection is operationalized through land and water planning activities aimed at reducing the risk of contamination from entering a public drinking water supply. Here, we introduce a source water protection planning process at Muskowekwan First Nation, Treaty 4, Saskatchewan. The planning process followed a community-based participatory approach guided by trust, respect, and reciprocity between community members and university researchers. Community members identified threats to the drinking water source followed by restorative land management actions to reduce those threats. The result of this process produced much more than a planning document but engaged multiple community members in a process of empowerment and self-determination. The process of plan-making produced many unintended results including human–land connectivity, reconnection with the water spirit, as well as the reclaiming of indigenous planning. Source water protection planning may not correct all the current water system inadequacies that exist on many First Nations, but it will empower communities to take action to protect their drinking water sources for future generations as a pathway to local water security.

Mapping public transport accessibility levels (PTAL) in India and its applications: A case study of Surat

Rapid urbanisation is a key factor in making public urban infrastructure systems in developing countries overstressed. A public transport system of a city is one of its vital urban infrastructure systems. Good public transport enhances connectivity and mobility, especially for lower income groups making them better participate in the labour market, eventually fostering economic growth and social equity. Therefore, it is important in cities of developing countries to ensure the best possible public transport system given the limited availability of resources.One of the ways to enhance a public transport system is to improve its accessibility with regard to population distribution. The first step is to measure the level of accessibility offered by the current system. Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL) is a tool to measure accessibility at various location in a city and spatially visualise it. A case study of Surat, India is used to implement the PTAL. Surat PTAL maps are created for a base year (2016) and future year (2021), superimposed with population density, and compared with Ahmedabad city. PTAL maps could be useful in several ways. Key applications and lessons for planners include guiding future public transport investments, enhancing the urban plan-making process by integrating transport and land use decisions, better informing the parking policy, improving residential location choice, optimising supply locations of affordable and low-cost housing, and better understanding the mobility needs of the urban poor.

Design strategies to respond to the challenges of shrinking city

ABSTRACTUrban design decisions for shrinking cities need to take into account the quality of daily life of the community alongside with the built environment characteristics. However, little is known about why certain urban design strategies should be adopted in response to shrinkage. This paper examines approaches to influencing shrinkage through design, such as building a visible safety net for vulnerable populations, creating place-based social networks and reconfiguring the city’s stigmatized image. Based on the effects of each, four strategies are suggested for design practitioners and policy makers to choose and adopt during the plan-making processes.

Evaluating the quality of municipal climate change plans in Canada

Plan quality has become an established framework for analyzing the contents of plans and assessing their strengths and deficiencies. The research presented in this paper contributes to academic scholarship on plan quality by evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of climate change plans in 63 of the most populous communities across Canada. Plans were evaluated using a coding protocol consisting of 46 indicators based on eight plan quality characteristics: fact base, goals, policies, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, inter-organizational coordination, participation, and plan organization and presentation. The analysis revealed three key findings that are important for policy and practice. First, Canadian municipal climate change plans prioritize climate change mitigation over adaptation. Second, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation are relatively weak aspects of municipal climate change plans in Canada. Finally, despite the importance that scholars and practitioners ascribe to stakeholder engagement, Canadian municipalities appear to have given insufficient consideration to this element of the climate change plan-making process.

Stakeholder Participation in Marine Spatial Plan Making Process in Lampung Province

Lampung Province has coastal areas, seas and small islands facing conflicts of interest between tourism, conservation areas for defense, environmental conservation, and the threat of unsustainable marine resource utilization. Indonesia (including Lampung Province) has committed itself to achieving the objectives of conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources in view of sustainable development. One of the instruments used to achieve this goal is by using marine spatial planning (MSP). The purpose of this research was to analyse the marine spatial plan making process in Lampung Province. This research also evaluated the participation process and participation level based on plan-making process criteria and the stakeholder participation ladder. This research can be useful as a recommendation in the evaluation step to improve the plan-making process in order to address conflicts of interest between various related interest groups, so that planning can be accomplished with the involvement of all relevant parties to reach consensus on how to achieve a sustainable marine environment. This research used a qualitative research method as well as a case study approach. The scope of this study was limited by the conceptual framework of marine spatial planning and the stakeholder participation ladder. The authors recommend study of the preparation of marine spatial planning in addition to a technocratic approach considering the results of the study aspects of spatial allocation and physical aspects of marine resources, while prioritizing building consensus among various interest groups related to the utilization of marine resources. Thus, it is necessary to develop technical steps to build consensus in the marine spatial plan-making process.