| 1. |
- Eckersten, Sofia, 1989-
(författare)
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Advancing Sustainable Transport Systems : Strengthening environmental considerations and sustainability perspectives in Strategic Choice of Measures
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Addressing cross-cutting issues such as climate change, urbanization, andenvironmental degradation in policy and planning is key for transitioning toa sustainable society. In the work of societal and transport systemdevelopment, the integration of environmental and sustainabilityperspectives has never been more crucial. In urban areas, the interconnection between transport and land use is evident, and integrated transport and land use planning plays an important role in promotingsustainable transport systems. However, both the integration ofenvironmental and sustainability considerations in transport planning and the integration of land use and transport planning are complex challenges.This thesis explores the consideration of environmental aspects andsustainability perspectives in strategic transport planning, with a focus onthe Swedish Strategic Choice of Measures (SCM) approach and lessonslearnt from planning approaches in the Nordic countries. The thesis is primarily based on case studies of SCM processes in the Stockholm region. Empirical material has been collected through observations of SCMs involving public officials from the Swedish Transport Administration,municipalities in Stockholm Region, and Stockholm's public transportauthority, as well as through semi-structured interviews, focus groupinterviews, informal interviews and document studies, with a qualitative research approach.The thesis is a compilation of four scientific papers. Three of the papers (1,2, and 4) discuss the SCM process, and in two of the papers (2 and 4), SCM processes in the Stockholm region are used as empirical cases of howstrategic choices of measures have been made in transport and land useplanning. Paper 3 explores and draws lessons from Nordic planning instruments to coordinate transport and land use planning with the aim of promoting sustainable development. The results highlight the difference between engaging and non-engagingenvironmental aspects and advocate for a systems perspective in planning to understand connections and promote holistic solutions. Planning approaches from different Nordic countries, such as the Finnish MAL and the Norwegian Urban Growth Agreements, demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating transport and land use planning through instruments based oncollaboration between transport and land use actors. The results also identify challenges related to fragmented transport and land use planning,and that actors' vary in their engagement when addressing environmental and sustainability considerations in the SCM planning context. Effective collaboration and sustainable choices of measures relies on knowledgeable professionals being capable of interdisciplinary collaborations and innovative thinking, being part of and coordinating the planning process, i.e.SCM. The use of Integrated Landscape Character Assessment (ILCA) can provide a framework for cross-actor collaboration and has the potential to identify multifunctional solutions contributing to a sustainable societal transition. Overall, the results of the thesis emphasize the importance of integrating environmental and sustainability perspectives into transport planning to promote sustainable development.
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| 2. |
- Eckersten, Sofia, 1989-
(författare)
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New perspectives on Strategic Choice of Measures in Swedish Transport Planning
- 2022
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Rapid changes in the global climate and declining biodiversity pronounces the need for adapting the transport system and transport infrastructure, which influence several sustainability issues and cause direct environmental impact through their use of land, as well as indirect impacts, for example, emissions of pollutants to air and water. The Swedish Transport Administration (STA) is responsible for and conducts a large part of the transport planning in Sweden and the STA endeavor to increase collaboration with other societal actors in transport planning. In 2013, the Strategic Choice of Measure (SCM) process was introduced by the STA to facilitate collaboration among multiple societal actors in the early stages of transport planning. In the SCM process many of the choices are made that will affect the development of the transport system as well as the future transport system's impact on the environment. Integrating environmental aspects at an early planning stage, such as in the SCM process, can help reduce and avoid the environmental impact of the transport system. Therefore, this licentiate thesis aims to explore the consideration of environmental aspects in the SCM process (Paper 1), and to analyze the SCM process from a systems perspective in order to illuminate the consequences of system boundaries on how environmental aspects are considered and what aspects are included or left out (Paper 2). In addition, proposals are being developed to strengthen practice (Papers 1 and 2).To achieve the aims of the thesis, interview studies, document studies and observational studies have been performed. Also, a case study of two SCM processes was conducted. This dissertation shows that there are several challenges associated with the consideration of environmental aspects in SCM processes. For example, the increased element of collaboration in the planning process implies that the coordination of the process will affect which environmental aspects are considered and in what way. Furthermore, land-use and transport planning are coordinated in the SCM process, which often leads to conflicting ideas about how an area should be developed. By finding solutions to transport and land-use related problems with synergetic effects, conflicts may be solved, and transport, land-use and environmental needs may be met simultaneously. To identify this type of measure and packages of measures in an SCM process, tools that enable the identification of links between transport, land-use and environmental aspects can be used as support.
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| 3. |
- Wretling, Vincent
(författare)
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Bending the Curve – the Role and Interplay of Municipal Energy Planning and Municipal Spatial Planning for Climate Change Mitigation in Sweden
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The global climate is changing rapidly, which pronounces the need for imminently bending the curve of greenhouse gases emissions. The local authorities have been recognised as key actors in this decarbonisation, due to their wide-ranging responsibilities, including different mandates for local planning. The Swedish municipalities are no exception in this regard. In contrast, they stand out as being especially critical for Sweden’s efforts to reach climate neutrality in 2045 and multiple other sustainability objectives, since they are instructed to conduct municipal energy planning regarding supply and distribution of energy, have a monopoly on spatial planning and have been given a veto right for larger wind power establishments. There is, however, limited knowledge regarding the municipalities’ planning processes and institutional capacity building for handling climate change mitigation in their municipal planning. The overall aim of this compilation thesis, comprising five scientific papers, is to contribute with new knowledge regarding the role, process and interplay of municipal energy and climate planning, municipal spatial planning and municipal wind power planning for responding to the need for rapid decarbonisation, in order to identify pathways forward for building the municipalities’ institutional capacity. The thesis has a mixed methods approach comprising of semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, participant observation, a survey, statistical analyses, and multiple document analyses of either cross-sectional or longitudinal character that involves elements of both quantitative content analyses and thematic analyses. When synthesising the findings from Paper I-V, it is evident that the municipalities are responding to the climate crisis in multiple different ways. This includes that a proactive strategic energy and climate planning practice with the aim of reducing climate impact has emerged from the sectoral energy planning tradition. However, the impact assessment practice is deficient within municipal energy and climate planning, especially if the planning is conducted in a non-statutory form, in spite of it being indicated that impact assessment can facilitate the consideration of synergies and conflicts between different sustainability objectives as well as enabling to illuminate local benefits of climate action. Moreover, the municipalities have been integrating numerous different strategies for reduced climate impact into their Comprehensive Plans, relating to energy production, distribution and use, transport, and land use, and the findings suggest that such consideration of energy and climate aspects in the Comprehensive Plans have increased in the recent decades. This integration of climate change considerations into Comprehensive Plans has largely been spurred by the existence of a municipal energy and climate strategy or similar, which has enabled a two-way policy integration between these two policy spheres. The presence of energy and climate strategic competence within the municipal concern is an associated vital feature, since this facilitates the influx of knowledge through the participation in different regional-local and inter-municipal networks, which can then be disseminated internally and utilised in the comprehensive planning process. There is also a need for municipal officials to be given time and resources to interact with politicians in order to mobilise support and create a mandate for action.Simultaneously, the results illuminate that many municipalities are struggling with building sufficient institutional capacity for addressing climate change mitigation in their energy and climate strategic planning and their strategic spatial planning. This was manifested for example in the form that the adoption of both energy and climate-focused policy documents and wind power plans followed the temporal patterns of the presence of state-funded financial incentives and that more than one-fourth of the municipalities not having adopted an energy and climate-focused policy document during the studied twelve-year time span. This has also rendered in a more reactive municipal decision-making in relation to the municipal veto for wind power deployment, with implications for its legitimacy and public participation. Given the centrality of the municipalities, it is deemed vital to further promote the process of building institutional capacity for responding to the climate crisis in their municipal planning and decision-making. Increased continuity in the energy and climate strategic planning process, comprehensive planning process and wind power planning process could facilitate building support for integrating different strategies related to climate change mitigation in their planning and contribute to organisational learning. Moreover, the three modes of planning could be further interlinked, for example, by establishing objectives regarding greenhouse gases emissions and renewable electricity production in the energy and climate domain, which brings implications for the strategic spatial planning, and by initiating processes simultaneously and in an integrated fashion. If municipalities come to recognise the potential of a more proactive strategic-thinking SEA process, this could be another vehicle for increased sustainability consideration early in the process, when there is a window of opportunity for influencing the plan’s content to the greatest extent. Overall, this can lead to a more sustainability-led municipal planning, which can contribute to bending the curve of greenhouse gases emissions, while simultaneously providing synergies across other sustainability objectives.
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| 4. |
- Balfors, Berit, Professor, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
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Strategisk miljöbedömning för nationell transportplanering med fokus på inriktningsunderlaget
- 2019
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Denna rapport utgör ett inspel till Trafikverket i en analys om hur strategisk miljöbedömning kan användas i den statliga transportplaneringens tidiga skeden med fokus på inriktningsunderlaget. Rapporten är framtaget inom projektet ”TRAMP- Är långsiktig transportplanering och miljöbedömning kompatibla processer?” som är ett forsknings- och innovationsprojekt (FoI), finansierat av Trafikverket under perioden 2017 - 2019. Deltagande forskare i projektet är Berit Balfors och Ulrika Gunnarsson-Östling, KTH, Kristina Lundberg och Tobias Robinson, Ecoloop, Karolina Isaksson och Linnea Eriksson, VTI.FoI-projektet har planerats för att successivt leverera användbart underlag till Trafikverket. Föreliggande rapport är ett underlag inför Trafikverkets arbete med att ta fram ett inriktningsunderlag.
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| 5. |
- Bast, Sigvard, et al.
(författare)
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(Re)Planning of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions for sustainable urban transition
- 2022
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Ingår i: Book of abstracts. ; , s. 338-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Landscape approaches are important for planning of urban sprawl in peri-urban landscapes, continuously emerging in many metropolitan regions. In the case of Stockholm Region, land-take and incremental urbanisation is a continouous process, while the regional development plan has ambitions to steer the overall development in a sustainable direction. This plan contains a green infrastructure effort building on a set of green wedges, mainly serving as support to the needs of the city and suburbs and their citizens. This initiative differ from the later green infrastructure action plan provided by the county administrative board, related to the EU biodiversity strategy and guidelines. The latter has a different approach, mainly targeting biodiversity goals as well as ecosystem services. These approaches differ from each other in several ways while both have unclear roles when it comes to municipal planning on different levels. Furthermore, the municipalities have their own initiatives when it comes to green infrastructure and nature-based solutions and it is not clear how the different planning tiers are linked to each other, to planning and management, and to multifunctional landscapes. The aim of the REPLAN project is to investigate how the different green infrastructure initiatives are linked to planning, to each other on different scales, and whether they can serve multi-functional landscapes when it comes to biodiversity and different ecosystem services. The REPLAN project involves stakeholders and practitioners on different planning levels for co-producing knowledge, methods and strategies for green infrastructure and nature-based solutions to serve as tools for sustainable transition of metropolitan areas and their peri-urban landscapes.
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| 6. |
- Brokking, Pieter, et al.
(författare)
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Municipal Practices for Integrated Planning of Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Development in the Stockholm Region
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 13:18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urban planning is assumed to play an important role in developing nature-based solutions (NBS). To explore how NBS is addressed in urban development, municipal planning practices are analyzed based on three case studies in the Stockholm region of Sweden. Through focus group discussions, interviews and document studies, the planning and implementation of NBS and their intended contribution to regional green infrastructure (GI) and social and ecological qualities are investigated. The results show that the planning and design of urban green spaces engages the local community. Moreover, different conceptual frameworks are used to strengthen an ecological perspective and nurture expected outcomes, in particular ecosystem services and GI. Through competence development and collaborative approaches, the co-creation of innovative solutions for public and private green spaces is promoted. However, institutional conditions, e.g., legal frameworks and landownership shape the planning process and can challenge the ability to enhance social and ecological qualities. An assessment of the planning processes indicates a strong focus on ecosystem services and local GI, while the potential to contribute to regional GI differs widely between cases. The study concludes that a knowledge-driven and integrative planning process can foster the potential of NBS for green and sustainable cities.
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| 7. |
- Eckersten, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
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Challenges and Opportunities in Early Stage Planning of Transport Infrastructure Projects : Environmental Aspects in the Strategic Choice of Measures Approach
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 13:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Strategic Choice of Measures (SCM) approach aims to integrate different perspectives and identify measures to adapt new infrastructure projects to their local context at an early stage of Swedish transport planning. SCM is a loosely structured framework for collaboration between actors from, e.g., municipalities and the Swedish Transport Administration, in order to facilitate the coordination of transport planning and land use planning. This paper aims to explore the consideration of environmental aspects in early-stage transport planning by analyzing the SCM approach. An explorative research approach is applied based on literature studies, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group interview. The result shows that in the SCM process, environmental aspects such as noise and air pollution generated by road traffic in urban areas, engage the actors, whereas aspects related to landscape and water were perceived as poorly addressed and received less attention. The consideration of environmental aspects in the SCM process is affected by the local and national authorities' different interests and the competences involved. To consolidate environmental aspects in early transport planning, these aspects need to be explicitly addressed in the SCM guidelines and the link between the SCM and preceding and following planning stages needs to be strengthened.
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| 8. |
- Eckersten, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring practices for facilitating integrated strategic land use and transport planning in the Nordic countries
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Transport and Land Use. - : Center for Transportation Studies. - 1938-7849. ; 16:1, s. 409-435
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Drawing on examples from the Nordic countries, this article aims to explore the practical application of strategic policy and planning instruments and approaches that facilitate the integration of land use and transport planning and promote sustainable policy measures through collaboration among stakeholders across various governance levels. This research applies a qualitative research design including literature research, interviews, and workshops involving practitioners from the five Nordic countries. In this paper, we present an overview of the planning structure in the Nordic countries, including institutions that govern land use and transport planning. We identify different approaches to bridge the gap between land use and transport planning, such as the Finger Plan in Denmark, MAL in Finland, Concept Studies in Norway, and Strategic Choice of Measures in Sweden. Many of the examples employ informal collaborative approaches among authorities to form a shared vision and seek consensus on a combination of policy measures and actions. The paper examines collaborative approaches in relation to regulatory planning and discusses the role of these processes in advancing integrated land use and transport planning and fostering sustainable urban development.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Eckersten, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
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Integrated Landscape Character Assessment as a tool to bridge the gap between Strategic Transport and Land Use planning
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study investigate the effectiveness of the Integrated Landscape CharacterAssessment (ILCA) within the Strategic Choice of Measures (SCM) processin transport and land use planning. The research emphasizes a systemsperspective crucial for understanding the complex interdependencies betweentransport, land use and sustainability concerns in planning. The ILCAprovides a structured approach to integrate social, natural, and culturaldimensions into the SCM, enhancing baseline knowledge essential for longtermplanning across various scales. Findings illustrate that ILCA promoteda deeper understanding of landscape interrelations and supported informeddecision-making aligned with sustainable development goals. Furthermore, itrevealed the ILCA's potential in fostering multi-actor coordination andtransdisciplinary collaboration, crucial for addressing sustainability challengesholistically. However, challenges persist, particularly in aligning scale andsectoral engagement, underscoring the need for flexible and inclusiveplanning approaches to effectively address cross-cutting policy issues intransport and land use planning.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
- Högström, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Approaching Sustainability in Local Spatial Planning Processes : A Case Study in the Stockholm Region, Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - Basel : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 13:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The quest for cogent responses to sustainability goals challenges local spatial planning practices across growing metropolitan regions to develop planning approaches that enable transformative capacity in increasingly complex settings. Based on a case study conducted in the Stockholm region, this paper explores the design and organization of local planning processes to provide a basis for a discussion of alternative approaches that may enhance sustainability in plan and project development. More specifically, it aims to analyze the conditions for embedding and consolidating sustainability issues in local planning processes. The results show that the municipalities need to create conditions for an effective interplay between the planning work carried out in individual projects and the organization of resources, knowledge, and skills on which the projects depend to handle sustainability issues. This study contributes to the understanding of the challenges associated with putting sustainability into practice at the local level by identifying and conceptualizing three important barriers. By acknowledging the temporal, locational, and procedural dimensions of knowledge in local planning processes, planning practices may become better at knowing when, and in what ways, different forms of knowledge can become created, introduced, and used in a synergistic manner to aid the realization of sustainability goals.
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| 13. |
- Högström, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring Processes of Contextualization and Concretization : Navigating the Road to Realization in Local Level Spatial Planning Practices in Stockholm, Sweden
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- New governance approaches challenge prevailing statutory planning practices since urban development initiatives emanate not only from central and local government. This study explores the road to realization, i.e. how local planning practices organize the process of assessing the appropriateness of urban development initiatives. The results show how planning organizations face a variety of interrelated organizational and procedural conditions and choices that make planning situations unique and contextual. To deal with this contextuality, planners use processes of contextualization and concretization to relate an initiative to its environment and to gradually transform an initiative to a final land use design.
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| 14. |
- Högström, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Organization of municipal planning processes for enhanced sustainability : examples from peri-urban areas in Stockholm, Sweden
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study analyzes how local planning processes are organized and the possibilities to consolidate sustainability issues in urban development. The results show that the municipalities use different approaches, and that municipalities engage with challenges associated with different phases of the urban development planning process. The case study identifies three main lessons related to the enhancement of sustainability in the planning process. First, sustainability issues need to be brought into the center for consideration at an early stage of the planning process. Second, to have non-technical sustainability issues, which are often in the periphery of the planning process, become embedded in planning process, there is a need to evaluate existing rules for process participation. Third, to enhance sustainability in municipal spatial planning, there is a need to complement the existing project-based approach to planning with an ongoing learning process in which practitioners from different levels can exchange experiences and expectations regarding the existing institutional setting.
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
- Khoshkar, Sara, et al.
(författare)
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Moving from vision to action- integrating ecosystem services in the Swedish local planning context
- 2020
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Ingår i: Land use policy. - : Elsevier. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 97
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Policies and planning processes related to land use play an important role in maintaining and developing ecosystem services. The incorporation of ecosystem services into local plans is considered an indicator of the plan's capacity to implement strategic action. This study provides a national overview of the incorporation of the ecosystem service concept in current municipal comprehensive plans in Sweden and explores the actions taken by three municipalities in Stockholm County to implement the ecosystem service concept in practice. A multi-method design was employed including a qualitative content analysis of 231 municipal comprehensive plans, a statistical analysis analyzing temporal changes from 2005 – 2017, and dialogue meetings with municipal practitioners from the three municipalities. We divided the level of integration to four categories, A (Advanced) - D (Not included). Overall, the integration of the ecosystem service concept has significantly increased in municipal comprehensive plans during the last decade. At national level, 23% of municipalities have explicitly mentioned ecosystem services, and within Stockholm County, 42%. The dialogue meetings with municipal practitioners revealed that the municipalities were at different stages of implementing the ecosystem service concept, with diverse actions being implemented for advancing practice. These included capacity building, participatory processes and development of thematic plans and operational documents. To support the future implementation of the ecosystem service concept from vision to action, both local and national initiatives are needed.
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| 18. |
- Khoshkar, Sara, et al.
(författare)
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Ways Forward for Advancing Ecosystem Servicesin Municipal Planning—Experiences from Stockholm County
- 2020
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Ingår i: Land. - : MDPI AG. - 0023-7531 .- 2073-445X. ; 9:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This case study from Stockholm County, Sweden, explores practitioners’ experiences of barriers and bridges in municipal planning practices to support actions for ecosystem services. This qualitative study is based on information gathered from a focus group, workshops, and semi-structured interviews, which aided in identifying key factors for integrating ecosystem services in municipal planning. We identified 10 key factors divided into three themes: (i) regulatory framework and political support, (ii) local organizational capacity, and (iii) local adaptation of tools and practices. In particular, the practitioners pointed to the need for the development of legal support and regulations for ecosystem services on the national and EU policy levels. Furthermore, the need for local capacity building and understanding of ecosystem services as well as increased regional support to enhance local knowledge exchange and learning was emphasized. Also, in a decentralized local governance system such as in Sweden, to fully implement ecosystem services in urban planning for sustainable development, locally adapted practical tools and monitoring procedures were considered important.
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| 19. |
- Lundberg, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Strategisk miljöbedömning i långsiktig transportplanering
- 2020
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Strategisk miljöbedömning (förkortat SMB) är en lagstadgad process som infördes i Miljöbalken 2004, som ett resultat av EU-direktivet (2001/42/EG) om bedömning av vissa planers och programs miljöpåverkan.Bestämmelserna gäller planer eller program som upprättas av myndigheter eller kommuner,till exempel översiktsplaner, havsplaner, avfallsplaner, transport- eller infrastrukturplaner. Syftet medSMB är att åstadkomma en integrering av hållbarhetsaspekter i ett tidigt, mer strategiskt skede avplaneringen där det finns möjligheter att göra olika strategiska val. I praktiken har det dock visat sig attSMB-processen används i alltför liten utsträckning och att genomförandet ofta är bristfällig. Detta harframkommit i forskning såväl som i utvärderingar av myndigheter.Forskningsprojektet TRAMP – Är långsiktig transportplanering och miljöbedömning kompatiblaprocesser? har under åren 2018–2020 analyserat och utvecklat stöd i utformningen av SMB iTrafikverkets långsiktiga transportinfrastrukturplanering, det vill säga inriktningsplanering ochåtgärdsplanering. I rapporten benämns dessa planeringssteg som nationell transportplanering.Även om resultat och rekommendationer är utformade för SMB i inriktnings- ochåtgärdsplanering är rapporten även relevant för andra aktörer som verkar i regional eller nationelltransportplanering såsom länsplaneupprättare, regeringskansliet och andra statliga myndigheter.Projektet fokuserar på såväl SMB:s roll i den nationella transportplaneringen som kompatibilitetenmellan dels Trafikverkets planeringspraktik, dels den lagstiftning och metodpraxis som finns gällandeSMB. Studien baseras på en utvärdering och analys av de två senaste planeringsomgångarna (2014–2025 och 2018–2029) med fokus på den genomförda SMB-processen. De metoder som använts istudien har varit dokumentstudier, workshops och intervjuer. Workshops och intervjuer har genomförtsmed experter, planerare och chefer på Trafikverket, men även med tjänstepersoner på andranationella myndigheter samt departement och politiker som har varit centralt involverade i, eller avandra skäl har god insyn i, den nationella transportplaneringen under de två senaste planeringsomgångarna(2014–2025 samt 2018–2029).Utifrån resultaten har förslag tagits fram till hur SMB kan utvecklas till en process som ger nytta ochfrämjar en hållbar utveckling.
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| 20. |
- Manolan Kandy, Deepa, et al.
(författare)
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A GIS based integrated participatory approach for wind-farm siting
- 2021
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wind energy plays a vital role to meet growing energy needs and to replace non-renewable energy sources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Sweden has set the goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2040 with a major share coming from wind energy. In this context, Sweden has a national strategy for sustainable wind power development, with suggested development shares for each region. However, wind energy development also faces a multitude of ecological and societal impacts that needs consideration. Therefore, wind power planning face major challenges and there is a need for systematic planning support, integrating scientific knowledge and stakeholder valuation. The REWIND project aims to develop GIS-based methods based on multi-criteria analysis (MCA) for sustainable wind power planning.In the case study of the County of Västernorrland, stakeholders are engaged in the main MCA steps, the design step with factor selection, treatment and aggregation, as well as weighting, and the evaluation step. Preparing this, to gain credibility, we analyse not only scientific literature but also existing planning documents and legal judgments in order to find relevant factors and their treatment and valuation. For the MCA process, we built the REWIND–GIS toolbox in Python for ArcGIS where factor parameters can be easily altered and conflicts in terms of different criteria can be aggregated and scrutinized. Through this a wide array of uncertainties can be tested, such as graded safety distances or conflict areas in varying degrees. Weights of factors from stakeholders are integrated into the model to arrive at different scenarios for suitable sites which are evaluated.The evaluation and ranking of alternatives can then use the original factors, weights and conflicts while adding also new emerging factors, spatial or non-spatial. In this stage different methods of evaluation are also compared and tested. Through the systematic and transparent approach, planners have various options to choose from the decision space with improved understanding about the trade-offs in a quantified manner. REWIND bridges the knowledge gap in treatment of diverse factors and their performances spatially, through development of the transferable REWIND-GIS tool. This planning support tool will enable sustainable wind power planning on regional level, considering main sustainability aspects and diversified perspectives.
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| 21. |
- Manolan Kandy, Deepa, et al.
(författare)
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Spatial multicriteria framework for sustainable wind-farm planning – accounting for conflicts
- 2024
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Ingår i: Renewable & sustainable energy reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 1364-0321 .- 1879-0690. ; 189
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Considerable pressure is placed on wind power in Sweden due to the country’s goal of generating 100 % of its electricity from fossil free resources. The aim was to develop the REWIND methodological framework to support wind power planning, built on spatial multi-criteria analysis (SMCA). In addition, the purpose was to develop a conflict score as a novel component of this framework, for handling goal conflicts. This framework includes the scoping, design and evaluation stages. It was applied in a case study of Västernorrland County with extensive involvement of stakeholders throughout the process. The conflict score allows a separate analysis of trade-offs between factors, highlighting potential conflicts across the landscape to increase transparency. Thus, users are allowed to decide on a threshold on how much conflict among factors should be allowed for areas to qualify as planning alternatives. Critical issues that will need further attention concern quality and availability of data, creation of representative spatial indicators for the factors, weighting methods, and uncertainty analysis. The REWIND framework is open-ended and allows for further development to provide planning support that gives more control of factors and conflicts to be acceptable in real-world planning. Capacity building involving stakeholders in the design of planning alternatives are crucial. In Sweden, it can promote a more proactive planning process in the municipalities, supported by the regional actors, leading to a more predictable permitting process for developers. This will be useful for inclusive wind power planning in any country, since it is applicable on different scales.
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| 22. |
- Mörtberg, Ulla, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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REWIND-GIS – Integrating biodiversity issues in wind power planning
- 2021
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Wind power is one of the renewable energy solutions to meet the challenges of climate change. However, it comes with potential conflicts with other sustainability goals, such as biodiversity. These need to be addressed in regional wind power planning, taking multiple sustainability aspects into account. This project aims to develop methods and the related Rewind-GIS tool for integrating biodiversity in wind power planning on regional level, targeting to meet multiple sustainability goals and to support municipal planning. The REWIND-GIS tool is based on spatial multi-criteria analysis methods to find and evaluate suitable areas for wind farm development. In cooperation with stakeholders, we integrate factors representing wind resources with biodiversity, with subfactors representing sensitive birds, forest and wetland ecosystems, as well as social and other main planning factors. After aggregating and weighing the factors in cooperation with stakeholders, we designed scenarios using opportunistic and defensive approaches. Finally a set of sites were selected for evaluation regarding potential energy output and suitability from wind power developer, social and biodiversity perspectives. In this way, synergies and trade-offs could be quantified and visualised, and main conflicting factors could be localised and discussed during the process. The methodology and the Rewind-GIS tool has potential to be useful for transparent and strategic landscape planning on regional and municipal scales.
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| 23. |
- Mörtberg, Ulla, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Wind power planning with a multicriteria approach - integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services in the REWIND-GIS tool
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wind power is one of the renewable energy solutions to meet the challenges of climate change. However, it comes with potential conflicts with other sustainability goals, such as biodiversity and ecosystem services. These social and ecological constraints and benefits need to be addressed in regional wind power planning, taking multiple sustainability aspects into account. This project aim to develop methods and the related Rewind-GIS tool for integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services in wind power planning on regional level, targeting to meet multiple sustainability goals and to support municipal planning. We used spatial multi-criteria analysis (SMCA) methods and developed a tool to find and evaluate suitable areas for wind farm development. We integrated expert knowledge, such as green infrastructure applied on county level, and structured the decision problem in cooperation with stakeholders. Main factors were wind resources and relevant infrastructure, biodiversity with subfactors representing sensitive birds, forest and wetland ecosystems, cultural ecosystem services related to residential areas as well as outdoor recreation, reindeer hearding, and other land use and claims. After aggregating and weighing the factors in cooperation with stakeholders, we designed scenarios using offensive and defensive approaches. Finally 7 sites of 10 km2 were selected for evaluation regarding potential energy output and suitability from wind power developer, social and ecological perspectives. In this way, synergies and trade-offs could be quantified and visualised, and main conflicting factors could be localised and discussed during the process. The methodology and the Rewind-GIS tool has potential to be useful for transparent landscape planning on regional and municipal scales.
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| 24. |
- Paul, Seema, et al.
(författare)
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Hydrodynamics of Lake Victoria: Vertically integrated flow models in COMSOL Multiphysics.
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 2014 COMSOL Conference in Bangalore. - : COMSOL.
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Konferensbidrag (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Lake Victoria is the largest tropical lake in the world and is very important for environment andeconomy in East Africa. The hydrodynamic processes in the shallow (40-80 m deep) watersystem are unique due to its location at the equator which makes Coriolis effects noticeable alsofor vertical transport. The limited river inflow, and the large surface area compared to its volumemake Lake Victoria vulnerable to climate changes. A model of the circulation patterns, mixing,dispersion and stratification will be necessary to devise strategies for management of the naturalresources. The goal of this project is to improved water quality of Lake Victoria.COMSOL Multiphysics® software supports models for the different processes to be included,and we are developing interfaces used by the geo-hydrodynamical community, such as theDigital Elevation Map (DEM) file format. However, much data remains to collect and coordinatebefore the goal is reached. It turns out that modern depth soundings covering the whole lake maynot be available so scarce and old data have to be used initially. To assess the data collected, amodeling approach can be employed. Data for river in- and outflow as well as evaporation andrainfall have been collected for many years and can be correlated with data series for lake waterlevels in the simulation model.As a first step we have built a vertically integrated St. Venant shallow water model to look at theeffects of bottom topography on large-scale flow patterns and the water level variation. TheCOMSOL® coefficient form PDE represents streamline artificial viscosity, Coriolis forces, andbottom friction, with boundary conditions representing river in- and outflow. The topographymodel must have continuous gradients, and a combination of Kriging with Delaunay triangulationis used to produce the surface model. Results of the long-time simulations will be presented aswell as numerical experiments with other approximate flow models to represent the moving watersurface.
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| 25. |
- Wretling, Vincent, et al.
(författare)
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Are Local Authorities Building Their Capacity to Plan for Reduced Climate Impact? : A Longitudinal Analysis of Swedish Comprehensive Plans
- 2021
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Ingår i: Land. - : MDPI AG. - 2073-445X. ; 10:6, s. 652-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spatial planning conducted by the local authorities has been identified as a key part of shaping carbon-neutral societies. Nevertheless, the question of whether local authorities are building their institutional capacity for integrating climate change mitigation aspects into spatial planning remains under-researched. This paper aims to fill this gap while also analysing the role of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in facilitating organisational learning. The methods employed were a longitudinal document analysis of Comprehensive Plans belonging to eight municipalities in Stockholm County, complemented by a focus group interview. A significant difference was identified, as the recently adopted Comprehensive Plans included more strategies for climate change mitigation and, to a greater extent, linked these strategies to reduced climate impact or energy efficiency than previously adopted Comprehensive Plans. However, numerous additional strategies could have been given further consideration in each studied Comprehensive Plan. Thus, this calls for more continuous and cyclical comprehensive planning processes to facilitate capacity building, primarily by being a vehicle for mobilising political support. Lastly, the findings indicate that SEA can lead to organisational learning of both single-loop and double-loop nature, where the latter can enable SEA to shape the planning process in a more profound and sustainability-oriented manner.
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| 26. |
- Wretling, Vincent, et al.
(författare)
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Balancing wind power deployment and sustainability objectives in Swedish planning and permitting
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- BackgroundWind power can be a critical renewable energy technology in efforts to achieve the global climate targets. However, local impacts do occur, which demands careful consideration in planning and permitting. Sweden has set an ambition to triple land-based wind power by 2040, and municipalities play a key role in both the planning and permitting process, due to a planning monopoly and veto power in the permitting process. This calls for an investigation of Swedish wind power governance, with a particular focus on recent trends in municipal wind power planning, how wind power is balanced in relation to sustainability objectives in planning and permitting, and insights from practitioners regarding their capacities and drivers.ResultsThe results show that about two-thirds of Swedish municipalities have conducted wind power planning in some form, but this basis for decision-making has become outdated due to a lack of institutional capacity at the municipal level. Secondly, the study finds that many municipalities perceive that there are insufficient incentives for a continued wind power expansion. Lastly, the study sheds light on a large heterogeneity within wind power planning practice concerning how trade-offs between wind power deployment and other sustainability aspects are handled, as well as a lack of coherence between planning and permitting.ConclusionsIt is concluded that the current state of municipal wind power planning raises questions regarding the legitimacy of municipal decision-making in terms of perceived justice among local inhabitants and highlights the need for updated wind power plans. Moreover, to promote local acceptance in the future, formalised financial compensation and strategic initiatives that enable the localisation of electricity-intensive industry within municipalities with large-scale wind power production can be two key components. The results also highlight the need for additional support at the municipal level, including access to critical competencies and relevant knowledge to enable trade-offs between the different sustainability considerations in an informed and balanced manner. Finally, regional dialogues with key actors would facilitate the handling of inter-municipal issues, in particular by fostering co-operation regarding inter-municipal wind sites.
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| 27. |
- Wretling, Vincent, et al.
(författare)
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Balancing wind power deployment and sustainability objectives in Swedish planning and permitting
- 2022
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Ingår i: Energy, Sustainability and Society. - : Springer Nature. - 2192-0567. ; 12:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Wind power is a critical renewable energy technology in efforts to achieve the global climate targets. However, local impacts do occur, which demands careful consideration in planning and permitting. Sweden has setan ambition to triple land-based wind power by 2040, and municipalities play a key role in both the planning and permitting process, due to a planning monopoly and veto power in the permitting process. This calls for an investigationof Swedish wind power governance, with a particular focus on recent trends in municipal wind power planning, how wind power is balanced in relation to sustainability objectives in planning and permitting, and insights frompractitioners regarding their capacities and drivers.Results: The results show that about two-thirds of Swedish municipalities have conducted wind power planning in some form, but this basis for decision-making has become outdated due to a lack of institutional capacity at the municipal level. Secondly, the study finds that many municipalities perceive that there are insufficient incentives for a continued wind power expansion. Lastly, the study sheds light on a large heterogeneity within wind power planning practice concerning how trade-offs between wind power deployment and other sustainability aspects are handled, as well as a lack of coherence between planning and permitting.Conclusions: It is concluded that the current state of municipal wind power planning raises questions regarding the legitimacy of municipal decision-making in terms of perceived justice among local inhabitants and highlights the need for updated wind power plans. Moreover, to promote local acceptance in the future, formalised financial compensation and strategic initiatives that enable the localisation of electricity-intensive industry within municipalities with large-scale wind power production can be two key components. The results also highlight the need for additional support at the municipal level, including access to critical competence and relevant knowledge to enable trade-offs between the different sustainability considerations in an informed and balanced manner. Finally, regional dialogue with key actors, such as the military, Sami representatives and grid operators, would facilitate the handling of inter-municipal issues, in particular by fostering co-operation regarding inter-municipal wind sites.
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| 28. |
- Wretling, Vincent, et al.
(författare)
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Building Institutional Capacity to Plan for Climate Neutrality : The Role of Local Co-Operation and Inter-Municipal Networks at the Regional Level
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI. - 2071-1050. ; 13:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The institutional capacity of local authorities to integrate climate change mitigation aspects into spatial planning is of vital importance. This paper sets out to investigate this capacity in the county of Stockholm, Sweden, by surveying 26 municipalities and analysing two case study municipalities through participation in workshops and interviews. The study shows the need both for a local energy and climate policy domain that can be integrated into spatial planning as well as dedicated personnel to maintain this policy, thereby securing knowledge resources within the organisation. Additionally, the importance of relations to and repertoires for interacting with politicians is highlighted. Lastly, the study demonstrates the complementary added value of a regional-local network administered by the County Administrative Board, spreading learning examples and diffusing theoretical knowledge, as well as sub-regional, inter-municipal networks that enable the transfer of more practical knowledge and provide a platform for concrete action.
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| 29. |
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