Handling conflict in compact city/centra development: How is local sustainable planning managed through new planning tools and practices?

The project illuminate how the ideal of the compact city can be said to belong to an ecological modernization tradition, which means that economic growth can continue, but it should happen in a way that charges the environment and natural resources as possible. But this does not imply a radical restructuring of the economic system, the social organization, consumption pattern or lifestyle. Our findings show that there is a bias in the practice of the compact city model. Market considerations, ie regard to earnings and return on investment, is an important driver of urban development. The project has highlighted how tensions between and within each of sustainability dimensions appear in compact urban development. Firstly, the classic dichotomy between growth and conservation intensified. Compact urban development puts more pressure on land within the building plan, and this intensifies the contradiction between development and conservation. The level of conflict surrounding areas in the city center increases, particularly relating to green structures and existing buildings. The most common contradictions are developer earnings on one side as opposed to the interests of existing buildings and residents on the other. In addition we see an intensification of the discussion on the compact city limits - the farmland, the forest boundaries and the small houses settlement. Secondly we find new contradictions within the environmental dimension of sustainability ideal. The arguments for compact urban development is largely based on that such a city would be less dependent on fossil fuels. Main reason is that reliance on road transport is reduced. Concern for the preservation of green infrastructure was high on the agenda in the early formulations of environmentally sound urban development. Consideration is not forgotten in the 30 years in which the ideal of compact city and densification has been implemented. In the revised Planning and Building Act of 2008 green infrastructure emerged as a new land-use objective. The towns have great awareness of green infrastructure as an element planning to safeguard, like built structure and infrastructure. However, we see an "internal" conflict between the weighting of the various considerations that green structure must fulfill. Here, in particular the consideration of recreation and concern for the preservation of biodiversity stand against each other. Although landscape ecological principles highlighted as key elements of sustainable urban development, the intentions do not always carry over to actual planning. Densification has for many years taken place without taking into account that the climate is changing, and that the future will get wetter, hotter and wilder climate in Norway. With several sealed surfaces and reduction of flooding roads have surface water management has become a major challenge for cities. Greenstructure contribution to safeguarding stormwater management is a new element. Densification is not necessarily a problem in itself, even in a wetter and wilder climate. What matters however is how densification occurs. Thirdly, we see that the safeguarding of the social sustainability dimension impinges on economic considerations. We see this example in the discussion about urban and formal qualities. The compact city-model highlights abstract principles density and short distances, while the less discussed the architectural expression and appearance of the dense city. While functionalism relied on to demolish the existing buildings in order to build an entirely new city, was not such a procedure appropriate policy debate on the increased density. After Architectural Heritage Year in 1975, the qualities of the historic town centers have been highlighted as key elements to take care of. The question of the physical layout is partly a question of what not to change, how the new will be accommodated in existing structures, and partly how large areas will be converted and how these new structures should look like. The project highlights the varied infill projects. Mixed functions are also a feature of many of the new infill projects. The question is whether the actual qualities in the city denser buildings - especially residential buildings - are present? Several studies indicate that concerns that can be categorized in the social sustainability dimension that to the least degree are regulated and addressed in compact urban development in practice. The project provides insight into how the repeal of quality standards and differing purchasing power gives considerable variation in living quality. We see signs that the variation in housing quality has been greater than was the case when the Housing Bank's rules on housing quality was related to loan opportunities. Housing quality concept has recently been replaced by living quality. Housing standards understood as a broader term that encompasses the apartment or dwelling qualities in itself, but it also includes qual

The project addresses how cities and municipalities handle in-built tensions and goal conflicts in compact city/centre development, when responding to national goals for sustainable land-use and to what extent new and current planning tools and practices serve to facilitate the balancing of conflicting concerns, and to secure inter- and intragenerational justice. The project will investigate how contemporary planning practices and new planning tools ensure participation and a broad knowledge-base for spat ial planning, as well as the realisation of different core dimensions of sustainable development. The project will study the handling of goal-conflicts in two ways. Firstly, by studying the process dimension how key actors in planning (planners, politic ians, developers, local organisations) are perceiving goal-conflicts, and their handling, weighing and balancing of conflicting goals. Secondly, the project will study the output-dimension, and examine how two specific goals related to inter- and intra-ge nerational justice has been ensured in the actual plans. The project will also examine if there exists systematic variations in municipalities handling of goals conflicts due to institutional context. Variations in local practices related to market- and n etwork oriented practices, participatory practices and how new planning tools are used will be examined to see how these variables influence the balancing of goal conflicts. The project will combine an institutional perspective focusing on network gover nance, an actor perspective and communicative planning theories. Building on a broad range of quantitative and qualitative data including broad surveys and embedded case studies of four municipalities and 8 zoning plans, the project will produce both gen eral mappings and in-depth knowledge. The project has an explicit comparative approach by comparing findings in similar projects in Finland, Denmark, UK and the Netherlands.