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As cities increasingly adopt diverse ethnic, social, and cultural characteristics, there is an emerging logic for planning and policy to reflect this hyper-diversity (inclusion) while resolving the looming sustainability-related challenges. However, what is not adequately addressed in the current literature on urban planning – which could also solidify the justification for more citizen inclusion – is what happens when citizens are involved in planning from the perspective of sustainability. In response, this paper asks a key question: "What are the implications, in the case of urban foodscape, when citizens are involved in planning from the perspective of sustainability?" This question is investigated in this paper in the domain of urban foodscapes and through qualitative interviews, with the support of maps, in the Dutch city of Almere. A novel theoretical combination of just sustainabilities and social licence to operate (SLO) was utilised to frame citizen inclusion in foodscape planning. The findings showed that based on everyday practical experiences of food access in the city, citizens were more concerned about social interaction, the representation of food from cultural origins, and local food production. This theoretical combination, as a way of deepening inclusion, would help avoid the tendency of urban planning being used as an instrument for glossing over social injustice under the guise of citizen participation. This paper, therefore, argues that SLO can be a key pathway for actualising just sustainabilities in both urban planning research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This practice paper identifies and examines four multi-functional urban design approaches dealing with urban flooding. These combine flood protection measures such as levees and water reservoirs with parking, retail, plazas, and parks. This paper explains the emergence of these multi-purpose solutions to flood management in the Netherlands. It then examines the characteristics of four types, including inland multi-purpose levees, coastal multi-purpose levees, water plazas, and integrated carparks and water reservoirs. It discusses the challenges of these approaches compared to mono-functional flood strategies. Finally, it identifies their potential applicability for urban design activities elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current widespread attention on the concept of smart city in both policy and practice has stimulated academic discussion regarding the scope and applicability of this concept. An important question is whether cities and regions are truly advanced in implementing the concept in their policies and practices relative to its conceptual elaborations in academia. The aim of this paper is to analyse this congruence between theory and practice in the context of the ongoing transformations of railway station areas in European urban regions. Based on in-depth interviewing using aspects of Q-methodology, this paper investigates whether and how smart city concepts are implemented by stakeholders in three station redevelopment projects in the Netherlands. The results show that the current implementation of smart city concepts in practice is varied but modest and not (yet) very advanced. Knowledge exchange and innovations are currently hampered by a lack of acceptance and know-how among stakeholders, as well as by institutional and competitive constraints. For instance, stakeholders stress that data privacy regulations should be well organized before further implementation can occur. Transparency about how and what data are used may create more willingness among users to assist in developing and accepting new data technologies. However, the technologies are not yet completely developed, and concerns about the “loss” of personal privacy are holding back the widespread and advanced use of data supplied technologies. Although stakeholders seem to be aware of the opportunities the smart city concept offers, for now, the widespread implementation of innovative and advanced smart city concepts remains in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, converting office buildings to residential use became a high-profile issue in the UK and in the Netherlands. There has, however, been differentiation in the policy response between England and Scotland (planning policy being devolved within the UK), and the Netherlands. We conceptualize this differentiation through the lens of variegated neoliberalism in the forms of hard, soft and thin governance spaces. England, where planning deregulation is more strongly adopted, represents a thin governance space. Scotland, where there has been little policy change, illustrates a hard governance space. The Netherlands represents a soft governance space, where proactive partnerships between government and developers predominate. This paper characterizes these distinct governance spaces and explores their impact on housing delivery and place-making, and the impact of underlying ideologies and planning culture(s) in governing office-to-residential conversions in the three countries. Drawing on national government assessments and statistics, interviews with stakeholders, and case study data from three cities: Leeds, Glasgow and Rotterdam, we conclude that while both hard and soft governance spaces, to different degrees and with different merits, are environments that enable planning, thin governance spaces – being driven more by ideology than notions of good governance – imply weak planning and place-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic crisis that started in 2009 has negatively impacted in the Netherlands the available financial resources for urban development. Dutch municipalities struggle since then with falling local financial sources, especially since active public land policy, traditionally an important additional financial source, became not so profitable anymore. One supposed effect is the limited degree to which municipalities can nowadays finance public infrastructure that serves wider areas, thus more than one specific development site (i.e. ‘large’ public infrastructure). Until now, however, there are no data available that support this claim. In this paper, we explore this and the role that developer obligations can play as an alternative, compensating financial source. Developer obligations are in many countries a growing popular public value capturing instrument, but in the Netherlands, a relative new phenomenon. On the basis of surveys, interviews and policy analysis, we conclude that at least a quarter of Dutch municipalities use developer obligations to obtain financial sources for large infrastructure. This seems, however, so far not to compensate for the diminishing of other municipal financial sources. The paper ends with some speculation about the future evolvement of developer obligations in the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Netherlands after the Second World War, the design of urban expansion districts was at the heart of a programme to build a welfare state. Inspired by the idea of the Garden City, buildings and landscape were considered complementary to create a modern, spacious, healthy living environment. Most studies of these expansion plans have focused on urbanism and architecture. This paper discusses the ideas and designs of landscape architects Jan Bijhouwer, Wim Boer and Mien Ruys for outdoor spaces in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Supported by post-war urban ideas, the landscape architects sought to restore the contact of citizens with nature in order to create a 'complete' living environment. In design practice, sociospatial ideas about the character and form of nature turned out to diverge. A better understanding of the landscape architectural perspective will nuance the historical knowledge that is used as a reference for the renewal of post-war districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining insights from the urban design and criminological literature, this paper explores the degree to which conviviality, feeling welcome, and feeling at home are related to peoples' experiences of safety. A questionnaire was distributed on four squares in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands. While participants valued the positive qualities of the squares differently, feeling safe was connected to a wider, positive evaluation of the quality of space and especially to feeling at home. By investing primarily in public spaces that are 'homely' or 'domesticated', a 'supplemental safety' might therefore be nurtured. This poses important insights for safety management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban quality is increasingly considered important for long-term urban competitiveness. Diversity, in a broad sense, is an essential aspect of this. However, in the development of large-scale international business locations, urban quality may easily suffer from efficiency requirements. Based on an extensive case study of the Zuidas project in Amsterdam, this paper addresses the questions as to how urban quality, and in particular diversity, is taken into account in the planning of large-scale international business locations, which actors are responsible and to what extent they base their actions on a distinct long-term perspective on urban quality. It is concluded that even in such a prestigious, quality-oriented project the role of urban quality is not necessarily guaranteed; the paper therefore advocates a more flexible and open development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dealing with conflict through dialogue receives considerable attention in current planning approaches. However, debate and negotiation are also inevitable features in the planning of urban redevelopment projects. Insight into the negotiation process contributes to current planning practice as negotiation provides a strong basis for addressing conflicts and satisfying both individual and common interests. In this paper the concepts of integrative and distributive negotiation are explored and analysed in two urban redevelopment projects involving cultural heritage buildings in the Netherlands. The paper shows the negotiation dynamics over time and argues that openly formulating joint ambitions and making strong statements to fulfil individual interests are both essential in coming to a mutually beneficial agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that many of the key notions associated with spatial planning, such as ‘sustainabilit y’, are essentiallyfuzzyin their nature. The paper introduces a method of data collection and analysis that seeks to clarify such situations, which might lead to the identification of more realistic spatial policy that reflects the thoughts, aspirations and motives of crucialactors, being limited in number and having a common and positive understanding regarding the issue at hand. The paper refers to two examples from the UK and the Netherlands respectively of how such a method can be used to explore realistic ways for ward for a sustainable housing policy. In both cases it was considered necessary to explore aspects of policy that go beyond the conventional boundaries of spatial policy for housing in order to learn how to pursue more sustainable approaches. The actor-consulting model was effective in unpacking the fuzzy notion of sustainability in a way that assisted the planning authority to learn how policy might be more realistically framed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Housing and its distribution over groups of households dominates debates on urban socio-spatial justice. Amsterdam even received the label 'Just City' as the large stock of social housing in the core of the city is said to increase societal equity. Within the Netherlands, however, the Greater Amsterdam housing market is perceived to be the most dysfunctional. As the discussion is fed by highly political and ideological perspectives, it is difficult to assess at face value how balanced the housing mix of a housing market is and to what extent it meets the community's needs. Consequently, it is difficult to inform politicians about strategies that contribute to a healthy and sustainable housing mix and address the lack of affordable housing which is high on urban policy agendas worldwide. In an attempt to go beyond ideological and political discussions, the aim of this interdisciplinary paper is to develop a metric to measure and compare the theoretical balance of housing markets across regions and across groups of households based on income. The metric will be applied to the case of the Netherlands. The findings of the theoretical model show that large-scale provisions for low-income households may not always result in an improved housing market balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dutch planning practice in recent decades witnesses the emergence of private sector-led urban development projects. Such projects are ‘led’ by property developers and ‘facilitated’ by local planning authorities aimed to realize both planning and market objectives. However, remarkably little academic attention has been paid to how public and private actors decisively organize and manage these projects in practice. This paper explores the roles planners and developers perform by generating empirical lessons from Dutch and UK planning practices. The findings are of importance to planners and planning theory, as the current social-economic circumstances require them to redefine their roles in urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development plans are central tools in spatial planning practice. They create a vision of how places should develop and prescribe how desired patterns of development will be realized. However, development plans are increasingly regarded as inflexible and even rigid when confronted by changes in their context. Conceptualizing urban districts in terms of complex adaptive systems (CAS), this paper identifies ways in which more flexible development plans can be designed. This is investigated through a case study of a development plan for Blauwestad in the Netherlands, which enabled sources of rigidity to be analysed. The paper concludes with the view that from a CAS perspective, development plans are part of the structures necessary to facilitate self-organization, and if designed with certain principles in mind, can play a key role in assisting the endogenous evolution of spatial developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban redevelopment projects at brownfield sites are challenging, especially when heritage conservation needs to be integrated into urban development plans. In these processes, close cooperation between various actors is essential to develop and implement plans. However, many projects seem to fail or opportunities are missed. This paper sheds light on the barriers and drivers in the planning process of these projects and shows that cooperation and interaction strategies might enable actors to implement joint ambitions. Therefore, we conducted a comparative case study of 10 urban redevelopment projects involving cultural heritage buildings in the Netherlands. Our results show that there is no standard strategy. Various cooperation arrangements and interaction types are effective in dealing with complicating contextual factors and conflicts in the planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The post-war reconstruction years of the 1940s and 1950s are generally referred to as the breakthrough of modernism in urban planning. The Netherlands in particular stands out internationally as a country, which transformed itself with plans and buildings conceived within the vanguard of a modernist vision. Examining the redevelopment of the Dutch city of Eindhoven, this paper suggests, however, that an alternative development of reconstruction planning emerged that ran parallel to the modernist planning project; one that displaced the authority and austerity measures of planned modernism. This development was very much influenced by the ‘pillarization’ of Dutch society, and the resulting tension between Catholic and Socialist parties, which had different ideas on town planning. By analysing the discourse of the ‘big city’ advisory committee, set up in the early 1950s by the North-Brabant regional authority to advise on the urban development of Eindhoven, this paper exposes the contested appropriation and use of modernist planning ideals and principles. Although the historiography on Dutch urban planning has minimized religion's role and presence in post-war reconstruction planning, it is being argued in this paper that it was an important theme, especially in areas like the predominantly Catholic province of Brabant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Amsterdam Red Light District is locally and internationally significant as one of the oldest venues for visible and legal urban prostitution. Internationally it is perceived as a free-for-all zone of entertainment, a kind of ‘theme park’ for adult fun. Locally the Red Light District is a controversial place that stirs debates on Dutch ‘progressive’ policies, the impact of cultural globalization and importantly, whether or not prostitution should be allowed to exist in this kind of visible format in Amsterdam's center. Recent urban planning changes in the area, instigated by City authorities, show the Red Light District is directly implicated in municipal gentrifying efforts, efforts that put at risk historic margins like the Red Light District. The paper introduces themes that will be discussed in depth by the special feature contributors: the red light district as a ‘moral region’, historical and legislative perspectives, political understanding and enactment of ‘liberal’ policies and municipal use of these concepts to self-brand, commercial and aesthetic character of the zone in view of the global sex industry, and the role of artists as cultural producers and marginal gentrifiers. This introductory paper to the special feature on the Red Light District of Amsterdam offers an overview of key perspectives on red light zones and specifically addresses how the Amsterdam Red Light District both fits, and is an exception to visible urban zones of prostitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of restrained car access on preferences for new residential areas and to investigate how expected negative effects can be compensated for by other transport-related characteristics of residential areas. In this study, restrained car access is operationalized by means of concentrated parking facilities, implying that occupants cannot park their cars near their homes. The outcome of this research is relevant for designers and developers of residential areas. Stated choice experiments are used to measure the effects of six transportation related design variables. Data are collected in four Dutch cities. The results indicate that most people prefer to live in non-car-restrained residential areas. However, it appeared that negative effects of concentrated parking facilities can be compensated for, at least partly, by providing secured parking facilities, good non-motorized transport facilities and access to public transport at a short distance from home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the substratum and infrastructure networks as relevant components of spatial planning. Since 2001, in Dutch government documents on spatial planning the Layers Approach has been presented, with three layers: substratum; networks; occupation patterns. The Layers Approach assumes that the characteristics of the substratum provide conditions for infrastructure networks and that these infrastructure networks then condition the occupation patterns, including the locations for housing, business activities and related services. These more or less hierarchical relationships are supposed to produce clear ground rules for the spatial planner. The Layers Approach seems to offer a robust methodology for spatial planning. This contribution presents the background of the Layers Approach, adds some critical notes and proposes an amendment: the Network Approach, connecting different spatial scales. After the presentation of a typology of networks a preliminary overview of the dynamics of transport networks is given. The spatial relevance of information and communication technology (ICT) networks, that support transport networks, is discussed. Nodes are presented as links between infrastructure networks and occupation patterns. The paper concludes that actors, dealing with regional spatial plans in a decentralized planning system, have to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the technology, economy and governance of current networks and the qualities of the substratum, which form a conditioning and stimulating framework for the spatial planning of urban and regional areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban planning in many Western cities in the period 1945–1970 has been defined as modernist. Although this is generally true, it is an oversimplification. This paper presents a more complete picture by identifying urban ideal images in the public debate in Rotterdam in 1946 and comparing them with popular international ideas about the ideal city at the time. Several groups of participants are identified on the basis of their urban ideal images. Both within and between these groups there was great variation in the number and character of modernist elements used, derived from various international urban developers and as a result of the differences between their urban ideal images. It seems, however, that these images did not influence the final plans. Had the planning authorities been aware of these ideal images, they could have not only improved the quality of their urban planning, but also increased public support for their plans. In order to extend the knowledge about urban modernist post-war planning, this paper identifies different urban ideal images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the separation of heritage conservation concerns and spatial planning concerns – a spectre of post-war modernism – is being criticised. Numerous commentators argue that heritage conservation needs to rethink its purpose and role if it is to maintain its place in the planning system specifically and urban and rural development more generally. This paper analyses the Belvedere Memorandum and its incentive programme (1999–2009) by which the Dutch government actively encouraged the integration of heritage conservation with spatial planning. It is a first attempt to identify the impact of Belvedere on Dutch heritage planning practises. We argue that Belvedere has contributed to a reorientation of heritage conservation. At the same time, however, heritage conservation now faces new challenges as a result of the fact that the government is reducing its involvement in spatial planning, of a turn-around in socio-economic and demographic development (from growth to shrinkage) and of a crisis in property development. We believe Belvedere can be called a success only if the heritage sector manages, under these changed circumstances, to actively respond to spatial challenges and forge links with social actors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Throughout recent decades, socially-mixed neighbourhoods have become a key element of urban policy and debate. This paper argues, with Amsterdam as an empirical case, that the design, layout and everyday use of social space—including public and private space—is of key importance in understanding the experiences and perspectives of social-mix policies amongst ‘urban practitioners’, such as planners, architects and management personnel. While the promotion of ‘liveability’, through the management of social problems, is often highlighted as a key element of social-mix policies, the findings presented indicate the degree to which the mixing of different groups according to ethnicity, race and social class presents a number of new challenges for liveability and management within both public and private space. Furthermore, it is argued that these challenges play a significant role in dictating the scale at which social mixing takes place, from the urban block to the street and at the neighbourhood level. It is concluded that a greater amount of attention is needed to such factors in understanding the dynamics of social interaction in public and private communal space when seeking to understand the everyday realities of socially-mixed neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on the case of Dutch regional planning in the 1950s to investigate how ‘urban space’ and ‘rural space’ have traditionally been perceived as opposing concepts. During this decade, politicians, planners and policy-makers constructed an image of an overdeveloped, urban, industrial centre on the one hand, and an underdeveloped, rural, agricultural periphery on the other. Rooted in a debate about the ‘harmonious’ development of the Netherlands, this image made a substantial contribution to the schematic understanding of urban and rural space. Examining this frame as an historical construct helps to reveal the anachronistic character of many of the urban-rural differentiations that are made today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, an attractive urban environment has increasingly been recognized as a factor of local competitiveness in a globalizing world. Notably, Richard Florida and Charles Landry have stressed the importance of the concept of quality of place. The implications of their often criticized, but nevertheless widely adhered ideas for current planning practices are, however, not unequivocally clear, especially with regard to large-scale redevelopment areas where notions of quality of place may clash with short-term profits goals. This paper assesses the role of quality of place in current planning practices by examining two projects, the Zuidas in Amsterdam and the Central Station area in Rotterdam. It analyses public and private actors' perceptions of quality of place, the role of quality of place in the complex arenas of decision making, and the respective responsibilities of public and private actors based on an examination of the plans and on a series of interviews with key actors involved in these projects. The expectation that public actors would be crucial, if not alone, in aiming at quality of place issues turns out to be too simple; private sector developers also tend to rely on a long-term perspective that stresses quality of place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1998, a stratified model that distinguished spatial planning tasks on the basis of the differing spatial dynamics of substratum, networks and occupation patterns—i.e. three layers—was introduced in the national debate on spatial planning in the Netherlands. Although using layered models was not a new thing, this model hit a nerve in spatial planning practice, initially, in particular, on a national level, but later also on provincial and municipal levels. Since 1998, this “layers model” has developed into an approach to spatial planning and design: the Dutch layers approach. In the process, it got transformed in different ways. In this paper, we aim to provide information on and insight into the development of the layers approach between 1998 and 2009 both from a theoretical angle and from its application in practice, focusing on the variations of the layers approach that have been constructed since its introduction. We then add our own comments to the ongoing Dutch discourse concerning the layers approach, both in general and from the point of view of the relation between “time” and “space”. Concluding, we also answer the question posed in the title. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is searching for new ways to position itself on the global economic stage as a full-fledged and sustainable European metropolis. While repositioning, the City of Amsterdam and its surrounding municipalities have made a shift to a more urban-regional narrative to serve the region and tackle its planning challenges. This paper will discuss the current situation of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and analyse the scale and scope of the metropolitan thinking, with emphasis on the importance of international competitiveness and sustainability policies - and the balance between them - in this process of metropolitan capacity-building and consciousness-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse the successful local/regional opposition to a proposed new town north of the Dutch city Leiden in terms of pathways, sites and techniques of object formation. In the struggle over spatial plans and policies, new objects are constructed and played out. In some cases, the new objects became institutionalized and codified future development in the region. We focus on the strategic role of the construction of heritage and nature in the planning process, concepts utilized by opponents of the urban plans. Revisiting Foucault's concepts of power/knowledge and discourse, we present a detailed analysis of the process of emergence, solidifying and institutional embedding of new forms of heritage and nature as new discursive objects. We argue that such a retour a Foucault is important, allowing for an elucidation of object formation, still understudied in planning and governance studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integrated approach to environmental policy and urban spatial planning has not yet been adopted by many local administrations in Europe. However, such integration is likely to provide a more streamlined planning process that incorporates environmental measures in the physical development of urban areas. In this paper, we argue that among many local governments there is already a growing wish to apply environmental policy integration (EPI) principles in spatial planning in an effort to achieve better quality of life in the cities and to preserve natural resources. Within Europe, most attempts to develop EPI approaches can be found in western countries, while efforts to find integrated approaches to the urban environment and spatial planning in Eastern Europe are in their infancy. The main reason for this is that most of the post-communist countries are still addressing the challenge of reconstructing their political, social, and economic systems. In this research, we analyse and compare policy practices for EPI in urban planning in the Netherlands and Bulgaria. We first discuss the Dutch area-oriented policy approach, which has gained popularity during the last decade as a means of integrating environmental qualities in urban land use plans. We then go on to analyse the effectiveness of specific area-oriented methods developed and applied in Rotterdam, and define their applicability in the planning practice of the local authorities of the city of Burgas in Bulgaria. The main conclusion of the study is that the degree of effectiveness of an area-oriented policy is dependent on the impact of specific success factors. Despite the differences between Rotterdam and Burgas in terms of the presence of these success factors, we assert that the area-oriented policy approach applied in Rotterdam can be transferable, and can be adapted to the specific local circumstances in Burgas and used as an instrument for integrating EPI into urban land use planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1960s, flexibility was often seen in planning literature as a negative feature, whereas today it is perceived by planners and policy-makers as a positive asset to cope with the challenges of growing complexity, opportunism and diversity in cities. The discussion seems to rest between two approaches. While planning should be flexible to facilitate a non-linear and multi-layered decision-making system, implementation should not be too flexible as the public sector might lose the controlling power and the private sector might gain increasing influence in urban development. This paper uses empirical data from case-based research on British, Spanish and Dutch urban regeneration projects, and provides an analysis of the effects of an important feature of flexibility on public-value capturing. Public-value capturing is the level at which public bodies manage to make developers pay for public infrastructure—infrastructure provision, public roads and space, public facilities and buildings, affordable and social housing—and eventually capture part of the economic value increase. This important aspect of flexibility is the level of certainty about future development possibilities before negotiations between developers and local planning bodies take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, new governance processes have been put in place throughout the Western world. In practice, unfortunately, cooperation in the networks does not always work as expected. In this paper, we identify the factors that contribute to success and failure with respect to network working in urban restructuring and the lessons that can be learnt. A Dutch case study exemplifies these processes. The perceptions of local stakeholders about satisfying or dissatisfying processes and results were used to elicit the information. Our main conclusion is that changed institutional conditions affecting the local authorities and housing associations and economic developments strongly intervene in the processes. Consequently, the functioning of a network cannot be explained by the quality of network management alone. These findings indicate that there is a gap between the suggested importance of the instruments in network theory and their relative usefulness in everyday practice. Dealing with all kinds of constraints in the management of networks will be an ongoing process of trial and error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the outline of a biographical approach to landscape as developed in the Netherlands during the last 15 years by archaeologists, thereby integrating perspectives formulated by the social anthropologists Appadurai and Kopytoff and the cultural geographer Samuels. The result is a historicising longue duree perspective, that runs from the later prehistory up to the present-day, and that focuses on the study of the interrelationships between spatial transformations, social and economic changes and the construction of regional and local identities in the region. This approach also offers interesting possibilities for applications in the sphere of heritage management, landscape design and spatial planning. The implementation of this biographical approach to landscape is illustrated by presenting a case-study for the southern Netherlands, a semi-urban region which ranks among the most intensively studied cultural landscapes of Western Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, the Dutch government published a policy paper on spatial planning that sets out a framework for the designation of so-called 'National Landscapes', large areas of inhabited countryside with specific historic elements, geomorphology, natural character and openness. This represents the latest attempt to introduce IUCN Category V protected areas into the Netherlands. National Landscapes are of international importance because they are either unique to the Netherlands or are seldom found elsewhere. The main policy goal is to preserve the existing landscape quality while, at the same time, stimulating social and economic development of the designated area. This article is intended to provide insight into the best ways of sustainable landscape protection in National Landscapes. In order to do so, the Dutch landscape policy is put into a European perspective by comparing National Landscapes with similar large protected landscape areas in Great Britain, France and Germany. In contrast to these well-known European examples, Dutch National Landscapes do not fully acknowledge the new conservation paradigm that protected landscapes combine social, economic and ecological objectives. Although, in theory, National Landscapes could support regional sustainable development, they currently fall short as test beds for an integrated landscape philosophy. It is argued that policy reform is needed to improve the policy for National Landscapes through more rigorous enforcement of sustainable development goals. A further collaboration and exchange of landscape protection systems across EU countries could support this reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investments in development in station areas are complex decisions because both transportation and urban development issues need to be dealt with. In this paper we present a conceptual framework that identifies four disciplinary approaches to the development of railway station areas. Combining these approaches creates both opportunities for synergy and threats of antagonisms. We apply and test this framework in one of the most successful station redevelopment projects in the Netherlands, and conclude that understanding of the opportunities for synergy should make the actors involved aware of each other's approaches and come to a common course of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a wide interest in the effects of forced relocation in the context of urban restructuring. This interest is also inspired by debates on gentrification and displacement. The prevailing idea is that the lowest income groups particularly suffer from displacement in terms of their housing quality and increased rents. In addition, increasing proportions of forced movers are assumed to harm the housing opportunities of other house seekers, while competing within the social rented sector. Although several studies deal with the consequences of forced relocation, a broader perspective on housing chances is currently lacking. Moreover, most studies are qualitative, whereas a larger-scale quantitative analysis is needed to test assumptions mentioned above. This paper addresses these matters by analysing housing allocation data of the Haaglanden in the Netherlands and two cross-sectional surveys among forced movers in the region's central city, The Hague. Findings indicate that housing chances for both forced and regular house seekers have not declined substantially since 2000. Moreover, most forced movers experienced dwelling progress, partly thanks to the design of the housing allocation model. However, low-educated, as well as middle- and higher-income households less often report dwelling progress. Explanations for these findings are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban renewal policies in The Netherlands already have a long history, which is characterised by varying attention for either smaller-scale (neighbourhood) or larger-scale (city) issues, and for either physical, social or economic questions. These variations run parallel with more general discourses on urban dynamics and perceptions of processes in (urban) society at large. In this paper the recent history of urban renewal policies will be briefly sketched, including their main orientations. Recent Big Citie Policies, currently in the third generation, will receive special attention and the actual policy discourse will be critically evaluated and confronted with some essential empirical findings. In this process, the Dutch policy on integrated urban renewal shows clear parallels with the experience in other Western European countries, demonstrating that a Western European paradigm of urban policies is in the making: integrated, area-based, with involvement of both public and market partners and residents. Nevertheless, the Dutch case is more outspoken than the approaches in other Western European countries, by paying more attention to the issue of social cohesion or integration and to the promotion of social mix as a solution for a lack of social cohesion in neighbourhoods. At the same time it is clear that this new paradigm of urban policies shows the characteristics of a discourse that is not based on research and on empirical facts, but that develops its own momentum from shared beliefs regarding the nature of urban problems and the appropriate policy responses. This new paradigm needs reconsideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new European Reform Treaty, which was agreed politically in 2007, includes a separate protocol which allows European member states considerable freedom to organize and run their social amenities - including social housing. It appears that housing associations are eligible for state support, but only provided certain conditions are met. This arrangement is unlikely to finally resolve the tension between European competition policy and national autonomy in social housing policy. This tension has been highlighted by a recent complaint from the Association of Institutional Property Investors in the Netherlands (IVBN) concerning state support for Dutch housing associations. This paper discusses the nature and background of this complaint. As there is still very little experience of policy or case law in this area, it is difficult to predict how Brussels will respond to the IVBN complaint. The implications of EU competition policy on the position and remit of the Dutch housing associations are still unclear. What is clear, however, is that, once again, the social housing providers in the European Union in general, and the housing associations in the Netherlands in particular, face a long period of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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During the last few decades mixed-use development has become an important planning paradigm in various European and North American cities. However, the concept of mixed-use is ambiguous in both theory and practice. In this paper a typology of mixed-use developments is revealed to identify its major components. This typology is then applied to the case study area Eastern Docklands in Amsterdam which is a major urban transformation area in which the concept of mixed-use development has been implemented. It is concluded that in this area there is a good deal of mixing between housing and employment, but it is still unclear whether the strategic goals are reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the Netherlands has been pursuing a new policy of urban renewal. Old urban renewal concentrated on pre-war urban districts and had a technical orientation. The predominant shift in tenure was from commercial to social rented housing. New urban renewal focuses on post-war urban districts and tries to solve the mismatch between a differentiated demand for housing and a one-sided supply. The shift in tenure is now mainly from social rented housing to owner-occupied housing. The physical agenda is combined with social, economic and safety issues.This paper presents an overview of the transition from old to new urban renewal. We shall begin with a few observations and then present some current dilemmas. We shall comment on the recent report by the Dutch VROM Council‘Acceleration and Deceleration in Urban Renewal’and offer some recommendations for successful urban renewal. These recommendations are geared to the current situation in the Netherlands, but they may also be relevant for other countries in and outside Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents an evaluation of the consequences of the Netherlands national physical planning policy for an individual's travel behaviour. Four components of this policy are considered: the concentrated decentralisation of the 1970s and 1980s; the strict compact-city policy of the 1980s and 1990s; the A-B-C location policy; and the spatial retailing policy. Using data from the 1998 Netherlands National Travel Survey, the article addresses the following questions. Did physical planning reduce the use of the private car and promote the use of public transport together with cycling and walking? Did physical planning lead to shorter travel distances and times? The analysis suggests that national spatial planning has been most effective in retaining high shares of cycling and walking in the large and medium-sized cities, in particular for shopping trips. In terms of travel time, however, spatial policy seems to have been less successful. The building of new towns and, more recently, the development of greenfield neighbourhoods close to cities do not appear to have reduced commuting times. Alternative strategies to promote the use of public transport, the bicycle and walking through the regulation of land use are discussed. Relaxing some of the present spatial planning controls is suggested to reduce car use and travel times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews plans for a new building programme for Amsterdam, a growing city in the Netherlands. This plan ignores children's needs and 'devoires' responsibility to the boroughs. This is alarming as the boroughs are not addressing threats to the quality of children's neighbourhood lives. It is argued that this neglect will undermine Amsterdam's reputation as a child friendly city by design. There is an urgent need to make children's presence more visible, to set minimum space standards and to involve children in the planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT All over the world compact urban development is a topic of debate. However, practitioners and academics in many countries seem slow to synthesize suitable policies. Therefore, in this paper 30 years of experience with compact urban development is projected against the backdrop of the international discussion on this issue. The Dutch experience confirms the legitimacy of many arguments and findings presented in the international literature. Yet, Dutch practices put the policy's success into perspective. It appears to be less successful when related to mobility effects and the spatial consequences of urban growth. The relative success of compact urban development was mainly owing to the specific conditions under which the policy was implemented. As these conditions are now changing, it remains to be seen whether this policy will be seriously jeopardized. In the event that planners elsewhere pursue compact urban development within their territory, cognizance of the Dutch experience may help them to shape their policies to achieve their full potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban morphology is important in a broad range of investigations across the fields of city planning, transportation, climate, energy, and urban data science. Characterising buildings with a set of numerical metrics is fundamental to studying the urban form. Despite the rapid developments in 3D geoinformation science, and the growing 3D data availability, most studies simplify buildings to their 2D footprint, and when taking their height into account, they at most assume one height value per building, i.e. simple 3D. We take the first step in elevating building metrics into full/true 3D, uncovering the use of higher levels of detail, and taking into account the detailed shape of a building. We set the foundation of the new research line on 3D urban morphology by providing a comprehensive set of 3D metrics, implementing them in openly released software, generating an open dataset containing 2D and 3D metrics for 823,000 buildings in the Netherlands, and demonstrating a use case where clusters and architectural patterns are analysed through time. Our experiments suggest the added value of 3D metrics to complement existing counterparts, reducing ambiguity, and providing advanced insights. Furthermore, we provide a comparative analysis using different levels of detail of 3D building models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current projects to upgrade public spaces in Western cities seek to produce secured space by improving safety and decrease feelings of fear, and to produce themed space by promoting urban entertainment or fantasy. This study examines how 'fear' and 'fantasy' influence urban design and management of two public spaces in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It traces social antecedents for the development of secured and themed public space, such as a growing differentiation of urban lifestyles, and proposes a new technique for analysing public spaces. The case studies differ in design and management: one is secured, the other themed. However, each secured space contains an element of 'fantasy', and each themed space an element of 'fear'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart city urban development seems inevitable for the future of our cities, but who should decide what that future should be like and whose interest's smart urbanism serves? The 'Right to the City' calls for citizens as 'users' of cities to be integral parts to the socio-technological processes that shape urban space. This article explores how citizens can participate meaningfully, and whether data protection rights can be instrumental to this objective. It does so by analysing several smart city projects in Belgium and the Netherlands that were affected by the GDPR. The findings illustrate that data protection impacts smart city developments, but meaningful influence of citizens, as in the Right to the City, remains very limited. The article argues that already dominant actors and decision-makers remain in control of 'smart' urban developments, while citizens often lack awareness and data literacy. We suggest that participatory methods for city-making are valuable if they bring about small, incremental changes and that researchers can play an active role in lowering barriers to meaningful participation in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the revolution in the approach to the design of urban green areas, such as parks, housing landscapes, shelter-belts, roadside plantings and incidental open spaces which together make up the landscape framework of towns and cities in Holland, Sweden and Great Britain. It states that the revolution was manifest in the exuberant use of naturalistic design approaches and ecological techniques, and was fuelled by a reaction to the barren housing schemes of the fifties and sixties.

Cities in EU-member states increasingly involve governmental and non-governmental stakeholders in developing strategic urban mobility plans to increase the legitimacy of policies. The question is, to what extent urban transport experts and other stakeholders acknowledge the added value of the involvement of stakeholders in a sectoral policy field as urban mobility planning? This article analyses governmental and non-governmental involvement practices of the cities of Malmö (Sweden) and Utrecht (the Netherlands) using the New Institutional Approach. Both countries strive to a large extent for more stakeholder involvement. However, urban transport professionals in both countries also explicitly emphasize the disadvantages of stakeholder involvement in urban mobility planning. According to them, non-governmental stakeholders are not able to think on the needed strategic level, groups are biased, and many other stakeholders do not feel the need to get involved in the policy process. As a consequence, policy processes often result in delays. This study shows that participation of stakeholders in the strategic urban mobility policy process is, according to professionals working in the field, not always the panacea that many scholars expect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural impacts in planning increasingly receive attention from both academics and practitioners around Europe. However, comparative planning cultures studies face the challenges of lacking systematic comparison and empirical evidence, especially at the micro level of planning actors' behaviour in interaction. This article aims to fill these gaps by (1) operationalizing the concept of planning culture; and (2) measuring and comparing it. We base our operationalization on the culturized planning model (Knieling, J., & Othengrafen, F. (Eds.). (2009). Planning cultures in Europe: Decoding cultural phenomena in urban and regional planning. Farnham: Ashgate). We complement its explanatory power by building a link between planning culture and planning outcome through attitudes of planning actors. This article focuses on three attitudes: risk, trust and co-operation. To measure and compare these attitudes, we adopt three experimental economic games and conduct an experiment with public and private planning practitioners in three European countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway. Both cross-country and public-private differences in these attitudes are tested in the experiment. Our experimental findings suggest that Dutch planning actors value risk aversion and trust; Norwegian planning actors value cooperation; while (French-speaking) Belgian planning actors do not value these variables that much. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical transport models are commonly relied upon in planning practice for the development of urban rail infrastructure projects. By considering the assessment and management of social impacts in the planning and decision-making of two rail megaprojects (the North-South Metro line in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the Parramatta Rail Link in Sydney, Australia), we found that technical approaches continued to overlook social impacts, and had an overemphasis on economic and engineering considerations. We conclude that good practice Social Impact Assessment (SIA) offers opportunities to better consider social issues as a critical component of transport projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient mobility is an essential driving force for the development of cross-border (CB) regions. The different settings and visions of neighbouring CB entities may lead to unsatisfactory transport connections across the border. This case study of a CB connection focuses on this issue and highlights, by means of a comparative analysis, how the differences in six perspectives (the economic context; urban and regional planning in Belgium and the Netherlands; the structure of the rail network; barriers in the exploitation of the railway; the current travel demand by rail; and the governance, public planning and policy context) lead to an unsatisfactory rail connection between Liège (Belgium) and Maastricht (the Netherlands). Based on the results of the analysis, we suggest reinforcing cross-mobility connections through several tools such as (i) the development of a common governance, not only at the institutional level but also at the counter level of institutional level, by including economic and social stakeholders; (ii) the development of joint technical projects in relation to the infrastructure, communication systems and the rolling stock; and (iii) the strengthening of flows between the two sides of the border, especially the home-work flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate vulnerabilities of the built environment are increasingly recognised. Mainstreaming adaptation concerns in urban development and redevelopment projects is commonly propagated as an effective policy strategy. Adaptation mainstreaming research often studies public actors. This article investigates the adaptation practices by housing associations, in the institutional and discursive developments of the social housing domain in which they are embedded. The analytical concepts of mainstreaming and adaptation barriers are combined with the discursive-institutional policy arrangement approach to answer the question: what factors influence the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation measures in development and renovation projects in the social housing domain in the Netherlands? We conclude that anticipatory and deliberate adaptation action to date was very scarce and attention limited in the social housing domain. On the project implementation level, factors that hampered adaptation mainstreaming in housing development were limited awareness, low priority in relation to other issues, financial constraints, regulatory constraints, lacking cooperation, and no materialisation of adaptation concerns in procedures and performance agreements. On the level of the policy arrangement, adaptation is weakly institutionalized in the Dutch social housing domain. The institutionalisation of a competing 'core activities' discourse hampered the legality of climate adaptation measures and eroded financial resources, dispersing the power to mobilise them over the arrangement. Uncertainty over the meaning of the new regulations, in combination with the absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework for adaptation and the self-identified culture of risk aversion by housing associations, delimits adaptation action becoming a standard operating procedure of social housing associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]