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Lecturer’s Notes and Instructions on
Sustainable Urban mobility and
Urban planning
Lecture 2: Problems and challenges in the
governance of sustainable mobility and urban
planning
I
NTRODUCTION
The second lecture introduces the problems and challenges of
sustainable mobility and urban planning initiatives. The sense
of urgency will be demonstrated through the released
greenhouse gas emissions by transport mode and the
greenhouse gas emissions by sector with the use of
EUROSTAT
problems,
data.
Beside
governance
the
related
environmental
problems
will
technical
be
also
highlighted. The characteristics of governance, persistent
problems, planning flexibility, goal-setting, integrated policymaking, policy implementation, land use and mobility as sociophysical systems will be introduced. On the basis of the discussion an analytical framework will be
developed that is helpful to analyze sustainable mobility and urban planning projects.
CONTENT
The lecture opens with some graphic that illustrate the situation of the greenhouse gas emission.
Figure 1: This graph on European transportation system shows GHG emissions in 21 years in 5
different sectors (Roads, navigation, civil aviation, railway and others), from 1990-11. Reporting a
solid emission increase up to 2007 as result of more than 150 years of industrial activity and
economic growth recognized by developed countries (Huang, W. et al.). The last being the year
where more tons were emitted, mostly due to emissions related to transportation on roads. The
emission decrease (2008-11) has a strong relationship to the first commitment period of Kyoto
Protocol (2008-12) “an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change, which commits its parties by setting internationally binding emissions reduction
targets” (UN, 1998).
Figure 2: The graph shows European GHG emission reduction until 2011 and the target stablished
on the Kyoto Protocol agreement only 6/26 countries where able to reach their emission reduction
targets. The reduction of GHG emissions was stronger on public electricity and heat production with
more than 70 million tons/CO2 reduction, manufacturing industries (excl. iron and steel) sector
decreased their emissions by more than 10 million tons/CO2, followed by road transport with similar
figures, among others (European Environment Agency, 2010). The strong sense of urgency
establish as the countries around the globe are not able to reduce their emissions with the so
needed haste meanwhile, the environmental depletion continues by a population growing rapidly
around the world.
Figure 3: The graph shows the GHG emission by sector, showing the fuel combustion of energy
industries producing the biggest amount of GHG emissions followed by fuel combustion in transport
and manufacturing industries and construction. While other energies, agriculture, and industrial
processes are main contributors to the emission, being waste, fugitive emissions from fuels and
solvent/product use the smaller contributors in this pie graph.
The aim of the previous data should show the way to a change that would lead to a sustainable
society. A “sustainable society” is a society with a balance within economic, ecological and social
development sectors. Very few countries showed to have embraced such direction. At the same
time, the world ecosystem is changed faster during the last 50 years than any other previous period
in the Human history also due to the increased number of the world population that have lead to an
increasing demand of ecosystem functions such as food, water and energy.
Despite
the
analyzed data, it’s still possible to create a sustainable society through a wide raging societal
renewal processes.
Changes in the system should be accompanied by greater efficiency, improvement in quality and
more innovation. Different range of problems, of the different sectors of the present society
(education system; health system; energy sector and so on), are generally characterized by a range
of similar elements: the problems have been there for a long period; many parties are involved in the
coordination of the sectors; problems have been addressed by the same actors for a long period;
predominance of supplier’s interests.
Persistent problems can be generally considered to be symptom of an unsustainable society. And
these problems can not be resolved only using current policies but a new governance management
approach that could lead to society transformation/transition.
One possible way is the so called “Transition management” that is designed to encourage and
stimulate societal innovation toward a sustainable society. Here the connection with governance
approach: these necessary changes can not be lead by force or in a top-down manner. The
transition management approach invokes multi-actors approach, a multi-level coordination, integral
policies (multi-domain) and so on.
A significant contribute to environmental problems in our society (i.e. air pollution, noise pollution)
arrive from public infrastructure systems. The underlying causes for this state of affairs is often
attributed to the current (technological) governance regimes that seem to block the emergence,
development and breakthrough of more sustainable innovations in public infrastructure systems (cf.
Hekkert and van den Hoed, 2006, Rotmans, 2003).
Sustainable mobility in particular has proved to be a perennial challenge to realize. In recent years,
many experiments to develop a more sustainable transport infrastructure have been held with
positive results (van den Bergh et al., 2007, van der Straten et al., 2007). But, so far, any
progress in this respect to reach a more sustainable transport infrastructure has been offset
by a more intensive use of transportation. This holds true for both air transportation (cf. De
Haan, 2007) as well as road transportation (e.g. Geels, 2007, Rotmans, 2003) and concerns
both the development and use of innovative technologies as well as efforts to bring about
behavioral change. To increase the chance of success, a governance approach and a solidified
multi-actor systems have been formulated in different disciplines, ranging from network
and
stakeholder management to strategic and innovation management.
In the last decade, transition management has been developed as a specific approach to
reach a more sustainable society. Transition management defines a transition as “a gradual
process of societal change in which society or an important subsystem of society structurally
changes” (Rotmans et al. 2000, p. 19). The transition management approach assumes that
transitions can be guided or ‘managed’ through a multi-level governance approach. Different actors
are involved in the development and implementation of innovations and changes in the mobile
system, which together push and pull processes of dynamics and change (end users, technical
developers, infrastructure operators, governments, etc.). For example, user requirements and
perceptions play an important role in the adoption of successful transport innovations (cf. Wiegmans
et al., 2007; van der Straten et al., 2007). This means that the adoption of innovations results from
the interaction between different actors (e.g. both developers of innovation as well as users of
innovations) and that no single actor has the ability to overrule other actors. In doing so, transition
management positions itself as a new policy approach that focuses on new forms of governance (cf.
Hendriks and Grin, 2007, Elzen and Wieczorek, 2005) and self-organization that recognizes
the need for multi-issue and multi-level governance whereby state and non-state actors are
brought together to co-produce and coordinate policies in an interactive way (Rotmans et al., 2005,
Loorbach, 2007). Different types of transitions can be identified (cf. Smith et al., 2005) and in the
last decade, transition management has been developed as a specific approach to reach a
more sustainable society.
Sustainable development has a distinct spatial dimension. Decisions about the locations of
workplaces, housing, retail and leisure facilities and the spatial interactions between them have a
significant impact on the achievement of sustainability goals. These decisions are largely made
by private actors (firms and households), but to a substantial part also by public actors, from
local governments to the European Union. In recent times, under the influence of neo-liberal
economic theories, more and more decision powers have been transferred to private actors and,
in the interest of public participation, from higher to lower levels of government. The traditional
model of government setting the frame-work for private decisions has been replaced by a flexible
system of communication and adjustment between public and private actors called governance.
In a situation in which long-term ecological challenges, such as climate change and energy
scarcity, need to be faced, it is necessary that decisions are made at the appropriate level of
government. Not always the municipal level seems to be the most appropriated. Due to the evolution
of transport systems, the problem of sustainable spatial development has long exceeded the
jurisdiction of local communities. The growing influence of strong private stakeholders on local
government decisions and a tax system rewarding competition between municipalities rather
than co-operation has led to urban sprawl and more unsustainable transport, in particular if
under the motto "less government, more market" regional planning above the local level has
been disempowered or entirely abandoned. The most effective policies to achieve sustainable
spatial development, policies that make mobility more expensive, can be implemented anyway only
at the national or European level. The conclusion is that sustainable spatial development requires
the reinforcement of democratic decision making at higher levels of government as the local one.
REFERENCES
Recommended Reading:
Beenakker, I. (2013) A historical perspective on urban planning in the face of complexity and
uncertainty. PhD research plan / unpublished paper.
Meijers, Evert (2004) Policy integration. A literature review. In: Stead, D., Geerlings,
H. & Meijers, E. (2004) Policy integration in practice. The integration of land use planning, transport
and environmental policy-making in Denmark, England and Germany, DUP Science, Delft, pp. 9-21.
Rotmans, Jan (2005), Societal Innovation: between dream and reality lies complexity. Erasmus
University Rotterdam, Inaugural Address.
LECTURERS’ PROFILE
Professor Harry Geerlings is Professor in the Governance of Sustainable Mobility in the
Department of Public Administration at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Furthermore he is
member of SmartPort 2.0 (a cooperation between the Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Delft
University of Technology) and he is chair of SmartPort@Erasmus and the PhD research school
TRAIL. For more than 25 years he is specialized in research in the domain of sustainable transport
and the interaction with environment and spatial planning.
An important milestone in this work was the projects Transumo A15, dealing with the challenge of
transition making in the Rotterdam port area. Valorization is also one of his key priorities in the
actions he undertakes as associate member of the Council for the Living Environment and
Infrastructure (RLI). He holds a Ph.D. degree in economics (1997) from the Free University in
Amsterdam. Harry is promoter of 3 PhD’s and is currently supervising 5 PhD candidates.
Somesh Sharma works with the ‘Managing and Financing Urban Infrastructure (MFUI)’ group at the
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is
involved in teaching, research, advisory and designing tailor made training programs. He also offer
courses at the Faculty of Social Works, Erasmus University and at the Erasmus College, Rotterdam.
He is in-charge of the 3-months post graduate diploma course on ‘Urban Management and
Development Theories (UMDT)’. He is also the coordinator for the professional training program on
‘Green Cities for Eco-efficiency’. In the past Somesh has worked with the Planning and Marketing
Research Services, Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG),
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), and German International Services (GIZ-IS).
His educational qualifications include Bachelor in Civil Engineering, Masters’ in Urban Planning and
Masters’ in Urban Management and Development. His main areas of focus are sustainable urban
transport, environmental planning and policy, green and smart infrastructure, and climate change
adaptation and mitigation planning. He specializes in designing decision support systems for urban
management and governance. He has developed Sustainable Benefits Assessment Methodology
(SBA), Travel Demand Forecasting Model, Transport Emission Estimation Model, and Integrated
Model for Low-cost Sustainable Transport Planning, and web-based decision support system for
Climate Change and Variability Assessment. In addition to environment and climate change he has
a working experience in the areas of urban governance, municipal finance, urban management,
performance measurement, and management information systems. Somesh is an expert on Remote
Sensing and Geographical Information Systems (RS and GIS) and has developed several
applications of GIS applied in climate change impact assessment, vulnerability assessment, national
and local level policy making, land-use planning and sustainable development planning. He also has
an experience in education, training, and conducting tailor made capacity building programmes
related to his areas of work.
ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
The Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) is an international centre of
excellence of the School of Economics (ESE) and the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) of the
Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, operating on a global scale by offering postgraduate education, training, advisory services and applied research.
Today more people live in cities than ever before. Our urban future confronts us with great
innovations and challenges. Cities need urban professionals who can understand, face and manage
these developments to create urban futures that improve the quality of life in cities. IHS trains and
advises these professionals on a global scale through its integrated approach in education, advisory
services and research that offers practise and theory on urban management and development.
Learn more about IHS: http://www.ihs.nl/.
ABOUT SUSTAIN PROJECT
The SUSTAIN project aims to improve the quality of tertiary education in Sustainable
Urban Development in Europe and partner universities in Asia; develop standardized
education modules related to SUD and furthermore enriching them with international
perspectives and academic and vocational skills and competencies; promote
collaboration and international cooperation between European and Asian Higher
Education Institutions in SUD but also collaboration and sharing between Erasmus
Mundus programmes; establish links and bridge European Higher Education and
practice in SUD; increase the visibility and access to European Higher Education in
Asia in the field of SUD, attracting prospective Asian and international students.
The SUSTAIN project is co-ordinated by the Institute for Housing and Urban
Development Studies (IHS) with the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions, the
Netherlands, the Rotterdam School of Management, the Netherlands, Darmstadt
University of Technology, Germany; National Technical University of Athens, Greece;
European Academy of Bolzano, Italy; Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy; Gadjah
Mada University, Indonesia; Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology,
India; Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, China; and
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, Germany.
www.sustainedu.com