NEW BRIDGES presentation UBC Nordregio ECAT final presentations/… · This project is part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund), the Finnish Ministry

This project is part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund), the Finnish Ministry of Environment and the partners.

NEW BRIDGESStrengthening of Quality of Life through Improved

Management of Urban Rural Interaction

Lauri Johannes Hooli, Project Coordinator UBC EnvCom, Turku/Finland

Stefanie Lange, Research Fellow, Nordregio, Stockholm/Sweden

Audronė Alijošiutė, Director, ECAT Lithuania, Kaunas/Lithuania

NEW BRIDGES, Final Conference, 30 November 2011


Table of Contents

• Introduction to the NEW BRIDGES project

• Conceptual framework

• Pilot Actions

• Outputs & Conclutions

• Questions and comments

This project is part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund), the Finnish Ministry of Environment and the partners. This project is part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund), the Finnish Ministry of Environment and the partners.

Lauri Johannes Hooli, Project coordinator, UBC EnvCom

Introduction to the

NEW BRIDGES project


Three-years project (1/2009 – 1/2012) in the Baltic Sea Region

Total budget 2,8 MEUR

Part-financed by the BSR Programme 2007-2013 (75%), National Ministries and partners

11 partners, of which 8 are city-regionalpartners

Coordinated by the UBC Commission on Environment

Other core partners: Nordregio and ECAT-Lithuania



Why this project?Lauri Johannes Hooli, Project coordinator, UBC EnvCom

Mega-trends:

Climate Change

Demographic Change(Ageing, migration)

Structural Change

Digitalisation

Globalisation


Challenges in city-regions:

Fragmented or non-existing city-regional planning(mobility system, provision of services, urban sprawl, inefficient employment pattern etc.)

Residents are not involved in planning

Thrifling competition between neighbouringmunicipalities

Distinction between urban and rural policies

Why this project?Lauri Johannes Hooli, Project coordinator, UBC EnvCom


• Build up new urban-rural partnerships

• Focus on new potentials, not only on solving urban-ruralproblems

• Identify new ways for cooperation, partnerships and lessonsfor best-practices


Improved management of urban-rural interaction towa rds an attractive and competitive Baltic Sea Region:


• Link together the individual perspectives, planning activities and policymaking

• Introduce the concept of Quality of Life in urban-rural planning



Integrated Management System in city-regional planning



Conceptual framework

Stefanie Lange, Research Fellow, Nordregio



Conceptual framework

• Thematic scope: Quality of Life

• Geographic scope: Urban-rural interactions

• Involvement approach



Quality of Life is…

…a broad concept…perceived individually

… addressed in e.g. European Strategy for Sustainable Development

… but not sufficiently integrated

Three main dimensions:

1. `being´ � physical, psychological and spiritual aspects

2. `belonging´ �

everyday life environment

3. `becoming´ �

everyday life activities



Three key elements of quality of life

Provision ofservices

Residentialpreferences

Mobility & accessibility



Urban-rural interactions



City-regions



Involvement approach (April 2009 – June 2010)• Inhabitants• Local stakeholders

– Policy- and decision makers– Interests Groups– Researchers and consultants

ca.300 Participants

in

Information

meetings

ca.250 Participants

in 1st Local

Stakeholder

Meetings

ca.220 Participants

in 2nd Local

Stakeholder

Meetings

Information

Phase

Participation

Phase

Involvement

Phase

ca. 670 Participants

in surveys

and

interviews



Challenges seen in the city-regions

• Declining population, especially in rural areas• Increasing number of elderly (less mobile) people• Decreasing provision of local services in rural areas• Non-existing or ineffective (planning) structures and networks

between city and surrounding areas• Lack of awareness regarding social demands among authority

members• Lack of cooperation/communication with inhabitants on quality of life

related issues



Priority challenges seen in the city-regions

� Long-term provision of private and public services

� Provision of well-functioning public transport connecting rural and urban areas

� Towards Pilot Actions



Reflections

• Operationalisation of quality of life

• Priority challenges identified within the setting

• Work across administrative borders & new partnerships

• Individual level involved to some extent (different cultures)

• Local stakeholders involved & engaged


Audron÷ Alijošiut÷, Director, ECAT Lithuania

Pilot Actions



• Common methodology for 7 city-regions – 7 different outputs• Two types of outcomes • Key message from Pilot Actions


Processoriented

Outcome

oriented

Involvement of citizens



Hamburg:

New “village center” in Dambeck & Strategical co-

operation to strengthen Hamburg Metropolitan Region

Hiiuma:

Detailed plan for close surrounding of Kärdla Harbour

Kaunas district:

Development of regional cycling scheme across borders

Lower Silesia:

Integrated transport planning and the land use

Örebro:

Development of new city-regional master plan & new

tools for participation

Turku and SWF :

City-regional service structure study & sustainable mobility

concept for Turku urban region

Zemgale

Development of Mobility plan for rural areas




Örebro: In-depth Master plan for VINtrosa-Latorp and Hidinge-LanNA

“Quality of life is now better seen as part of the planning process”

RESULTS• A Platform for co-operation across

the boarder of 2 municipalities• Citizens are engaged and involved in

the process of the discussion on Quality of Life

• “Life Quality is on the map” CHALLENGES

• How to keep the results alive after project

• Requires a lot of human recourses

• Difficult to keep politicians involved



Lower Silesia:System of integrated planning (settlement structure with transport planning)

RESULTS • Platform for discussion among

different institutions in the region• Document

CHALLENGES • How to keep the results alive

after project • Difficult to keep politicians

involved


Outputs & Conclutions


The project main outputs

• Implemented Pilot Actions in the partner city-regions

• Guide for more integrated city-regional planning with PolicyRecomendations

• Final report on how to approach the concept of quality of life in the planning of attractive city-regions

• Methodological toolkit for city-regions throughout the BSR on better management of urban-rural interactions



• The highest value asset held by the municipalities is their residents� How to get them work together towards common goals?

• In spite of the varied planning cultures and policy environments Quality of Life was applicable concept to regional planning

� it should be made as concrete as possible

• Increasing residents quality of life is not a game of chance�team work is required

• NEW BRIDGES provided a neutral platform for city-regionalcooperation

�”Municipal therapy”

Conclutions


"If you plan for cars and traffic, you get cars and

traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get

people and places." - Fred Kent


Conclutions

• IMS brings stakeholder involvement and interaction with politiciansto the center of the planning process

� more open, interactive and inclusive planning culture

• There is a need for common planning approach and policies in the city-regional context

� including both the urban area and the surrounding rural areas

• Defined cooperation project in one field can open doors for cooperation also in the other fields

� forming the basis for long lasting partnerships


PLANNING TOGETHER FOR BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE:

• Set of policy and practice recommendations based on NEW BRIDGES project towards coherent planning, implementation and management of urban-rural interactions in BSR

• Generalised step-by-step model for more integrated city-regionalplanning (NEW BRIDGES framework)

• Policy reccomendations for three different levels: Macroregional, National and City-Regional

• The guide will be complemented with Electronic toolkit and the project final report

Lauri Johannes Hooli, Project coordinator, UBC


Thank you for attention!

Questions & Comments?

Contact details:

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Documents

NEW BRIDGES presentation UBC Nordregio ECAT final presentations/… · This project is part-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund), the Finnish Ministry