Collaborative Decisionmaking for Sustainable Urban Renewal Projects: A Simulation – Gaming Approach

Abstract

Differences in stakeholders' perceptions, lack of commitment, unused knowledge, and interfering, ineffective, measures are just some of the problems encountered in sustainable urban development projects. Collaborative decisionmaking approaches tackle these problems by creating a shared understanding of the problems faced and of ways to address them. The authors explore how the combined application of two techniques, a decision-support tool and a simulation game, can support decisionmaking for sustainable urban development. The techniques are applied in decision-making for real and in fictional sustainable urban renewal projects. Benefits and challenges of this combined approach are discussed based on experiences in seven applications. The main finding is that the use of the decision-support tool combined with the simulation–gaming procedure can support agenda setting and help create a shared understanding of problems and potential solutions in the field of sustainable urban renewal.

Towards a Joint Local Energy Transition Process in Urban Districts: The GO2Zero Simulation Game

“…In the multi-player, roleplay settings, such as GO2Zero, games also offer participants the opportunity to freely experiment with different strategies and experience and reflect on the consequences of one's actions [21]. Due to the complex nature of climate change and urban development, serious gaming is a useful support tool in this area [27,28].…”

“…Usually, such formal and informal relationships incentivize stakeholders to coordinate and attune actions. They operate on different scales, pursuing different goals and interests, which could lead to conflicting actions and an inefficient transition process, while, preferably, actions are taken that strengthen each other and maximize the individual and collective benefits [11,36,37].…”

Potential Transformation of Vacant Offices into Housing: a Decision Support Tool

“…This article emphasizes the possibility of using decision support tools to select the most optimal vacant office building that will be used for housing of young tenants. The benefits of using DSS in urban development practice in transformation projects has been already reported [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

Stakeholders’ Expectations in Urban Renewal Projects in China: A Key Step towards Sustainability

“…Those individuals or groups have their own stake or interest in urban renewal projects. Being a complex social-economic system, the urban system requires a wide range of stakeholders to participate and coordinate during the urban renewal projects [69]. The interdependence and coordination between different stakeholders during the urban renewal process is the key element towards success [70].…”