Encyclopedia
Please note this is a comparison between Version 1 by Rob Roggema and Version 3 by Bruce Ren.
The context of urbanism is changing rapidly. The context for working in the field of urban design and planning is influenced by the pace of change; uncertainty; and massive transitions. The urban professional, however, is still used to planning for small changes and repeating traditional approaches. In this paper, we have investigated major future tasks and problems that require rethinking the skills required from people working in the urban arena. By conducting in-depth conversation with leading thinkers in the field, the tension between idealism and the urgency to act versus realism and the trust in current systems dominated by economic laws is present. This results in the conclusion that a different skillset is required in order to face future complexities and to be able to connect design creativity with process sensitivity in short- and long-term periods and at small and large scales.
- transformation
- urban planning
- urban design
- urban professional
- urgency
1. Introduction
Urbanization has, amongst many other factors, an impact on nature and health [1], avian diversity [2] and biodiversity in general [3]; groundwater quality [4]; soil [5]; prices and affordability of housing [6]; energy consumption [7]; land-use change and climate [8]; the regional climate [9]; and urban heat impact [10]. Global urban land expansion [11][12][11,12] has significant climate impacts [13]; it influences deforestation [14], biodiversity [15] health, such as increasing obesity [16] and mental health issues [17]. Climate variability and change can exert profound stresses on urban environments, which are sensitive to heat waves, droughts and changes in the frequency and magnitude of flash floods [18]. At the same time, urban areas are centers of wealth, human population and built infrastructure and are, therefore, considered to be ‘first responders’ to climate change [19]. Moreover, cities are the fundamental units for climate change mitigation and adaptation [20].
Currently, with over 50% of the global population living in cities [21], a number that is expected to rise to 70% in 2050 [22], these impacts deserve attention from urban professionals. Additionally, future problems, such as climate impacts [23][24][23,24]; social unrest [25][26][25,26] and migration [27][28][29][27,28,29]; increased inequality [30][31][32][30,31,32]; and the limitations of natural resources [33][34][35][33,34,35], i.e., the limits to growth [36][37][38][36,37,38], potentially accelerate the need for urban responses. Thus far, the urban professional, being an urban planner or designer or an urbanist, is confronted with an enormity of subjects, complexities and uncertainties, which makes it a next to impossible task. The question raised is as follows: what can the urban professional act on in order to deliver a distinguished contribution to creating urban environments that are providing a sustainable, resilient and healthy place for people to live in?
2. Urban Planning, Urban Design and Urbanism
In order to understand urban responses to social, ecological or economic developments in the city, the core attributes of professions active in the urban realm need to be comprehended. A “profession” is a special form of community of persons who share the same special type of occupation, whose practitioners assume responsibility for the affairs of others and provide services that are indispensable for the public good [39]. Urban planning, urban design and urbanism each have their own viewpoints on their own profession.2.1. Urban Planning
There is a saying of the following: ‘(Urban) planning is not politics, but it is in politics’ [40]. Politics is primarily concerned with resource distribution, and the role of planning and planners is, inter alia, to provide a reasoned, rational and socially sensitive contribution to political decision making [41]. The nature of planning as a profession comprehends the promotion of general welfare in the public interest, submerging any personal interests to the interests of the client; it is intellectual and varied in character, discrete and just and requires an advanced type of knowledge [42]. The planner fosters awareness; promotes public involvement; and establishes and maintains clear ethical standards [41]. ‘Planning with/for people’ enhances the ‘quality of life’ for ‘all’ in the ‘built environment’ [43]. Planning must consider not only the interests of the current generation but also the wellbeing of future generations, and it is inherently related to some form of ‘common good’ [44] (p. 465), which includes cities, towns and their regional surrounding and is aimed at both economic and social goals [45]. Therefore, planning considers the big picture, involves the entire community and looks ahead [46]. However, ‘the public image of the planner depicts him as an artist; as the master planner who intuitively prepares the best plans for the community. Planners, through their professional organizations, try to maintain an image of comprehensiveness. Neither explains why the plans prepared by the urban planner fail to gain real social commitment. What urban planners do and why they do it becomes more understandable when they are seen as governmental functionaries.’ [47].
“The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher—in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular, in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man’s nature or his institutions must be entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood, as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near to earth as a politician.”2.2. Urban Design
The following has been said of urban design: ‘ThWe researchers know what urban design is not. It is not architecture, not even big architecture. It is not land use policy, sign controls, and street lighting districts. It is also not merely sensitivity to design in the drafting of public policy, nor respect for the urban fabric in which architectural designs are wrapped. The researchers aWe also know that it is not strictly Utopian or procedural, and that it is not necessarily a plan for downtown, however architectonic, nor a subdivision regulation no matter how particular’ [48] (p. 67). Urban design is the art of making places in an urban context, which involves designing groups of buildings and the spaces and landscapes between them and to further improve the creation of frameworks for successful development [49]. City beautification was the fundamental purpose of urban design at the time it was introduced as a separate profession. Over time, the scope and objectives of urban design have changed, and urban design currently plays a vital role in city development. Today, urban design functions at the crossroads of architecture, landscape architecture and city planning. It has become a collaborative discipline functioning with other disciplines to create three-dimensional forms and spaces for people that function effectively [50]. Urban design is the art of three-dimensional city design at a scale larger than a single building, and the urban designer acts as a ‘fixer, coordinator, or stimulator rather than a detached observer churning out observations or reports’ who is concerned with the total built form, i.e., the production of acceptable townscape. The scope of urban design is primarily the area on the edge of architecture and planning. The urban designer is responsible for the three-dimensional form of the city at the local planning level as both a designer, i.e., a person who engages in a specific creative act that produces a design, and as a controller/negotiator who ensures that an adequate design evolves [51], providing a ‘physical design direction to urban growth, conservation, and change.’ [52] (p. 12). In addition, quality of life, the public realm and process are seen as significant aspects of the ‘thresholds of scale’ whereby interrelationships of building site, neighborhoods and districts; the city; metro regions; and ‘corridors’ are building blocks of design intervention [53]. Therefore, urban design seeks to enhance the life of the city and its inhabitants in socio-economic and environmental terms [54].2.3. Urbanism
The following has been said about urbanism: ‘Urbanism is about what happens inside cities, the form and function of cities, and how cities relate to the rural. It often refers to the study of how inhabitants of urban or urbanizing areas interact with the social and built environments of cities. The concept of urbanism is linked to the professions associated with the physical and social design and management of urban structures and communities’ [55].2.4. Flaws
Cities have been variously defined and analyzed by population density; geographic size; integrated economies with a diversity of goods and services; the proliferation of specific building types or changes in urban form such as high-rise buildings; high population recreational spaces such as stadiums and theatres; new forms of government and urban governance; or the increasing detachment of a population from directly providing their own food and energy needs [56][57][58][59][60][61][62][56,57,58,59,60,61,62].2.5. Global Problems
The urbanized world is and will be confronted with an accelerated and complex set of problems at the global level, which will impact the urban environment and society in every location. The main issues with which the life in cities will experience are in the fields of climate, biodiversity, health and equity.2.5.1. Climate Change
The following has been said about climate change: ‘The scale of recent changes across the climate system are unprecedented and human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century, global warming of 1.5 °C and 2 °C will be exceeded during the 21st century. Many changes in the climate system become larger in direct relation to increasing global warming. They include increases in the frequency and intensity of hot extremes, marine heatwaves, and heavy precipitation, agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions, and proportion of intense tropical cyclones, as well as reductions in Arctic Sea ice, snow cover and permafrost. Many changes due to past and future greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible for centuries to millennia, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets and global sea level’ [24].2.5.2. Biodiversity
Climate change impacts and biodiversity loss are two of the most important challenges and risks for human societies. Climate change exacerbates risks to biodiversity and natural and managed habitats. At the same time, natural and managed ecosystems and their biodiversity play a key role in the fluxes of greenhouse gases, as well as in supporting climate adaptation. Nature’s contributions to attenuating climate change, partly provided by the underpinning biodiversity, are at risk from ecosystem degradation resulting from progressive climate change and human activities. In fact, ecosystem degradation through land-use changes and other impacts on natural carbon stocks and sequestration is a major contributor to cumulative carbon-emissions and, therefore, an additional driver of climate change. Therefore, treating climate, biodiversity and human society as coupled systems is a key to successful outcomes from policy interventions, and transformative change in the governance of socio-ecological systems can help create climate and biodiversity resilient development pathways [76].2.5.3. Health
In 2021, the world is overwhelmed by an ongoing global health crisis, which has made little progress to protect its population from the simultaneously aggravated health impacts of climate change. Climate-sensitive infectious diseases are of increasing global concern, and the environmental suitability for the transmission of all infectious diseases is increasing. High temperatures resulted in extreme heat-related health impacts, affecting the emotional and physical wellbeing of populations around the world and resulted in more frequent extreme weather events and increased wildfire exposure; moreover, it has profound effects on food and water security. Measures to curb emissions have been grossly inadequate, contributing to millions of deaths [77][78][77,78]. Climate action aligned with Paris Agreement targets could save millions of lives due to improvements in air quality, diet and physical activity, among other benefits [79]. The health co-benefits from climate change actions offer strong arguments for transformative change and can be gained across many sectors, including energy generation, transport, food and agriculture, housing and buildings, industry and waste management [80][81][80,81]. Many of the same actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions also improve air quality [82], while other measures—such as facilitating walking and cycling—improve health through increased physical activity, resulting in reductions in respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, some cancers, diabetes and obesity [83], and urban green spaces facilitate climate mitigation and adaptation while also offering health co-benefits, such as reduced exposure to air pollution, local cooling effects, stress relief and increased recreational space for social interaction and physical activity [84][85][84,85]. A shift to more nutritious plant-based diets [86] could reduce global emissions significantly; ensure a more resilient food system; and avoid up to 5.1 million diet-related deaths a year by 2050 [87].2.5.4. Equity
The New Urban Agenda [88] incorporates a new recognition of the correlation between good urbanization and development. It underlines the linkages between good urbanization and job creation, livelihood opportunities and improved quality of life. This implies a vision of cities for all, referring to the equal use and enjoyment of cities and human settlements; seeking to promote inclusivity and ensure that all inhabitants of present and future generations without discrimination of any kind; inhabiting and producing just, safe, healthy, accessible, affordable, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements to foster prosperity and quality of life for all. The New Urban Agenda is guided by the following interlinked principles:
2.6. Urgency
In conclusion, the signs are clear, climate change, biodiversity loss, health impact and increasing inequality show that the urgency to create a fair and livable planet is high. This century will be the era of saving the planet’s climate [89]. Will governments act to stop this disaster from becoming worse [90]? The need is high, and the pace at which changes occur only accelerates. In the next 100 years, thwe researchers will experience many changes that have happened in the last 1000 years [91], implying that processes of change take place ten-fold faster on average. Warnings and making plans for upcoming risks and change are often blown into the wind. Illustrative in this context is the work of Johan van Veen, who in the decades prior to the last major flood in The Netherlands (1953) warned and, based on scientific investigations, predicted that the country will face a severe risk and experience a major flood. His advice was trivialized, and he was counteracted upon until the 1 February 1953, three days after he presented his plans for the Deltaworks to the Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management [92][93][92,93]. This points at the need for making advanced plans. Indeed, there is a need for raising awareness and to conceive a new story, a story that is not afraid of envisioning a new landscape [94]. The question, however, is whether this urgency is sincerely felt and whether thwe researchers will value novel thinking and create the anticipative plans that are needed to turn the serious problems of the future to the researchersour advantage?2.7. National Confrontations
These global problems impact every region in a different manner and are of great concern. In The Netherlands, for instance, global problems impact energy, food, biodiversity, climate adaptation and housing agendas:
- -The pace of carbon emission reduction needs to be doubled to reach the reduction target for 2030 in order to reduce emissions by 49% compared to the level of 1990 [95]. The reductions realized by end-users, renewable heat and fuel and the reduction in energy demand are all behind schedule. The energy transition, although on its way, lacks the impact required.
- -The Dutch food system in its current form is not maintainable. Food is essential for life, but the way it is produced causes environmental and climate problems. The amount of land and resources used threaten biodiversity and is unhealthy, and overconsumption of food increases obesity and other food-related diseases [96].
- -The deposition of nitrogen has profound impacts on biodiversity and the quality of nature and prevents building activities. Not everything is possible anywhere [97]. Moreover, there are stealthy effects of nitrogen on nature and health [98], and reducing deposition is surrounded with doubts about its execution [99].
- -The country needs to adapt to the local impacts of climate change, such as fast change in climatic conditions; effects on sea level rise; larger differences between high and low water levels in rivers; and increased probability of droughts. Specific weather conditions occur over prolonged periods (dry, hot, cold and wet), and urban areas will face extreme precipitation events, heat and rainfall [100].
- -The country has a shortage of affordable and quality of housing. In the period 2021–2034, the total amount of households increases with 849.000, a growth rate of 10.5% [101]. Moreover, the Delta Commissioner has announced that a large part of the current housing development areas is in highly risky areas, and it can be questioned whether these houses should be built in these areas and, if so, with what fundamental adaptations [102].
