The contingent of large housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s accounts for almost a half of all high-rises in Finland. The primary ideology in their genesis was to combine industrially prefabricated urban housing development with the surrounding forest landscape-together with a policy of spatial social mixingto prevent social disorder and segregation. These policies seemed to work as intended until the early 1990s, but have since proved to be insufficient. With Western integration and new information and communication-based economic growth, new trends of population differentiation have emerged. As new wealth has moved out to the fringes of cities, the large housing estates have declined socioeconomically and have been enriched ethnically. This differentiation is structurally produced, works through the regional housing market and, as such, is beyond the scope of the preventive policies pursued. Recent attempts at controlling the regional markets and new forms of spatial social mixing have so far proved difficult.
What are the unintended outcomes produced by Finland's planning system? This analysis of present-day planning in Finland addresses how positive aims and promised designs and plans are diluted by the planning process. It shows how changes in the legislation governing planning are empowering the role of institutional needs rather than fostering the desired outcomes. Three levels are analysed: the development and crucial boundary conditions of planning-related legislation; the structure of urban development within the region; and a case study of the 30-year development of an orbital light-rail project. In contrast to claims in the planning literature, the communicative turn has not led to clear positive changes in the process and implementation. This research shows how institutional stakeholders are empowered in current planning practice. The attempt to make planning more inclusive and participatory has paradoxically led into the empowerment of institutional players. The actual outcomes of the planning process are side-tracked, and the evaluation is outsourced in the process, which calls into question the legitimacy of planning actions. There is a need for planning-related studies to address the legislative boundaries and the concrete outputs of the planning process.
The quantification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is increasingly important in spatial planning for regions, cities, and areas. The combination of territorial and consumption-based accounting (CBA) approaches can currently be considered best practice for calculating GHG emissions at sub-national levels, in terms of informing local decision-making about the different climate impacts of spatial planning policies, both within the boundaries of a given region and for the inhabitants of that region. This study introduces four European case studies that were conducted using the two quantification approaches to assess the climate impacts of locally relevant planning policies. The case studies represent different scales of spatial planning, different European planning systems, and different situations in terms of data availability. Territorial results are not suitable for inter-regional comparison, but rather for internal monitoring, while CBA allows for comparison and provides a comprehensive picture of the global carbon footprint of residents, however, with indications that are more difficult to link to spatial planning decisions. Assessing impacts, and in particular interpreting results, requires both methodological understanding and knowledge of the local context. The results of the case studies show that setting climate targets and monitoring the success of climate action through a single net emissions figure can give false indications. The study shows that the two approaches to quantifying GHG emissions provide complementary perspectives on GHG emissions at the sub-national level and thus provide a more thorough understanding of the GHG emission patterns associated with spatial planning policies. The identification of the regional differences in GHG emission sources and mitigation potentials are the main functions of sub-national GHG inventories and the impact assessment for spatial planning. Harmonization of the data collection for sub-national GHG inventories and the transparency of underlying assumptions would greatly support the coherence of climate action and the implications to spatial planning.
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