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The compact city has become a leading concept in the planning of peri-urban areas. The compact city concept is often advocated as 'sustainable', because of claims that include lower emissions and conservation of the countryside. The literature shows, however, that there are certain trade-offs in striving for compaction, especially between environmental and social aspects of sustainability. In this paper, we describe expressions of the compact city concept in the planning practice of several European urban sample regions, as well as policies and developments that contradict the compact city. We look at examples of positive and negative impacts of the compact city that were observed in the sample regions. Further, we discuss attempts by planners to deal with sustainability trade-offs. Being aware that developments in the peri-urban areas are closely connected to those in the inner city, we compare the sample regions in order to learn how the compact city concept has been used in planning peri-urban areas across different contexts in Europe: in Western, Central and Mediterranean Europe, and with growing, stable or declining populations. We conclude with recommendations with respect to balance in applying the compact city concept.

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Background Climate change, urban poverty, financial instability and many other 'grand challenges' of the 21 st century, are not easily tackled with current systems of strategy and decision-making, in either public or private sectors (DG REGIO, 2011). This also applies to problems for cities in the UK, such as the North-South divide, the housing crisis, low productivity and social fragmentation. But at present much urban policy and governance appears to be short-termist, disconnected, and lacking capacity to 'join the dots'. This calls for more radical and creative thinking at all levels. One approach is with strategic and futures thinking, and particularly the methods and tools known as foresight. Looking into the future, building the best evidence and acting on the implications, should in principle be a key role of urban policy and governance. But in reality it seems there are so many barriers and gaps, pressures and crunches, that public policy often doesn't get near to the future: and when it does, such knowledge is often problematic. City devolution context Following the UK General Election 2015, the Chancellor invited "England's big cities to join Manchester in bidding for devolved powers, as long as they agree to be governed by a directly elected mayor" (Tomaney and McCarthy 2015). This so-called 'Devo-Manc' model could be potentially a major change in the fortunes of major cities: or it could be set up to fail, as in Moran & Williams (2015): ".... 'devo Manc' is not doing enough if it only offers bits of money and devolved authority to an elected mayor, whose role will be to manage more cuts and preside over unsolved structural problems. Centralisation has certainly disappointed, but this kind of 'devo Manc' decentralisation is bound to fail." Whether or not successful, the 'Devo' agenda is topical and urgent, and at the moment seems to crowd out discussion of longer term issues. But behind the rhetoric and excitement about new political structures, there are deep concerns: lack of political trust: low productivity: divided and insecure society: crumbling infrastructure: regional disparities, and so on. Cities in the UK may shortly have more aspiration with less resources to fulfil them. It follows, that building their native Page 2 of 38 Foresight capacity for learning, collaboration, strategic thinking and shared intelligence, may be the only option for real progress. Meanwhile in Europe, many cities and city-regions seem to enjoy longer range strategic planning for 20-40 year horizons (CoR, 2011). A major European Commission initiative on 'Cities for Tomorrow' linked a diverse urban agenda with reform of the Cohesion Funds (DG REGIO, 2011). But from UK city foresight projects, there is a common view, that what knowledge there is not well connected: that simplistic policies ignore complex problems, and that strategic planning is locked in departmental silos. For instance the UK National Infrastructure Plan contains few links to the urban or spatial dimensions of housing, economic, environmental or other ...

The PLUREL project (2007-2011) envisaged research on urban, peri-urban and rural interaction and strategies focusing on sustainable land use changes such as the preservation of green open areas, agricultural lands and other unbuilt areas under urbanization pressures. The research was done through close cooperation with the stakeholders from the case-study regions. For the purpose of better cooperation, a Board of Stakeholders was formed-to follow the research closely and recommend improvements in the way of communication between research and policy. The research addressed important issues for all the regions with urban cores, peri-urban edges and rural hinterlands. The stakeholders, representing planners, local politicians, NGOs, nature protection organizations or networks of relevant actors, took an active role in the discussions, analysis and choices on the way to the end results. The expectations were high on both sides. The stakeholders expected userfriendly recommendations, models, scenarios and interactive tools. The amount of work delivered in the end was impressive. The experience, through the interaction between researchers and policy makers, was highly valuable. The two worlds with different languages and perceptions came closer to each other. Ideas were freely exchanged and common strategies worked out. PLUREL offers a wide range of products which will indisputably have impact on policies. These products include analysis and recommendation on governance and sustainable peri-urban land use, planning and financial instruments in peri-urban areas that will enhance sustainable land use, strategies for growth management, urban containment by conservation and densification, development of consistent blue and green infrastructure, promotion of local production and short transport circles, development of eco-services, and ways of assessing impacts on quality of life. All these are numerous examples of successfully worked out recommendations for preserving and developing the peri-urban areas as open, green and vital areas. Three European regions from Western Europe, three from the former Eastern Europe and one from China-all with different traditions in planning and land use-learned a lot from each other in the process. The regions which are traditionally strong in planning-Montpellier, The Hague and Manchester could offer their v

The European Union has made the development of a vibrant knowledge-based economy a key policy objective, and increasingly national and local governments worldwide are seeking to harness information and communication technologies to provide government services more effectively and for the benefit of their citizenry. The paper reports on the first phase of the ongoing European Union IntelCities integrated project that seeks to integrate electronic governance of cities and urban planning. The background to the project in terms of the e-Europe Action Plan is explored and the outcome of surveys of user needs and requirements carried out in the cities of Marseilles (France), Siena and Rome (Italy), Helsinki (Finland), Leicester and Manchester (UK), and Dresden and Berlin (Germany) are explained. The outcomes identify a range of implications for digital or electronic planning in terms of increasing the efficiency in e-urban planning and the need to develop digital methodologies for widening public participation. Thus, the importance of e-skills development in new forms of e-planning for planners, developers and citizens is highlighted and shown to be important for achieving a wider e-enabled sustainable knowledge society.Parmi les objectifs politiques majeurs que s'est fixée l'Union Européenne, figure le développement d'une économie dynamique basée sur la connaissance; de plus en plus, dans le monde entier, des gouvernements, au niveau national ou local, cherchent à maîtriser les technologies de l'information et de la communication pour fournir leurs services avec davantage d'efficacité et pour le bénéfice de leurs citoyens. Cet article rend compte de la première phase du projet intégré IntelCities que mène l'Union Européenne et dont l'objectif est d'intégrer l'électronique dans la gouvernance des villes et dans l'urbanisme. L'auteur rappelle l'historique de ce projet dans le cadre du Plan d'action eEurope et commente les résultats des enquêtes sur les besoins et les exigences des utilisateurs, qui ont été menées à Marseille (France), Sienne et Rome (Italie), Helsinki (Finlande), Leicester et Manchester (UK) ainsi qu'à Dresde et Berlin (Allemagne). Ces résultats font apparaître un large éventail d'implications pour la planification numérique ou électronique en termes d'amélioration de l'efficacité de l'e-urbanisme et la nécessité de développer des méthodologies numériques pour élargir la participation du public. L'auteur met ainsi en lumière et démontre l'importance du développement des e-compétences dans les nouvelles formes de e-planning pour les planificateurs, les promoteurs et les citoyens dans la perspective d'une société du savoir basée sur les technologies numériques

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