Energy
Waste
Water and Sewage
Transport
Green Blue
Buildings & land use
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Framework summary

Greenscom logo

Name of the Framework
Greenscom

Brief description of the framework and tools within it
The Greenscom green planning toolkit provides information on how to balance the built environment in the cities with the urban green areas. It is based on experience from 14 case studies with green planning in very different situations. They include both information about what have been done and about the context for the activities. It has also drawn from different theories on planning and participation. The most important theoretical concepts are presented in the toolkit and related to the practical experience from the case studies. The Greenscom considers planning as a societal process with two important issues: communication and governing. This form of planning is called communicative planning in the tool-kit. There are three entry points to theories: planning theory, communication theory, governing theory. A set of lessons learned is based on the review of case studies that illustrate the main theoretical entry points.

The tool-kit contains three main types of tools:
• Tools for action - used to plan and implement changes in the urban/green field;
• Tools for interaction - tools for promoting communication;
• Tools for transition - tools for new settings in the societal structure.

The aim of the tool-kit is to provide information assisting planners to see and understand the situation they are in and to understand how instruments or certain actions work in certain contexts.

The final product is therefore a knowledge database facilitating the decision-making processes in the green/blue sector. It is addressed to planners and decision-makers

Specific topic focussed on by framework
The focus is on Green/blue sector, particularly on
a) the governance of the balance between urban open spaces and built up areas
b) underlying ways of communication and participation in decision-making.

Web link
http://www.greenscom.com/

How are the tools organised within the framework?
The framework contains: a) database with 14 case studies with critical analyses and lessons learned; b) set of tools; c) the points of view of theories and practice on the urban green/blue sector - concerning the planning, the communication and the decision-making in the governing process, and d) guide for using the tool-kit.

The tool-kit comprises three main types of tools:
Tools for action - used to plan and implement changes in the urban/green areas. Such tools are used and developed for both the strategic and comprehensive levels of planning or for the development, maintenance, or protection of qualities in the urban landscape at more detailed levels.
Tools for interaction - tools for promoting communication. They support the exchange of knowledge and arguments across disciplinary and cultural boarders in order to support shared actions for the development of urban green areas. This is to be considered in: a) a short-term perspective - for instance, how to involve relevant actors to develop and implement a specific plan, and how to avoid deadlocks and wasting energy in futile disputes, and b) a long-term perspective - for the support of a continuous process for shared trust and sustainable development.
Tools for transition - tools for new settings in the societal structure. They are innovative tools that can work under and adapt to continuously changing conditions of the social context - creating interfaces between different practices (to enable mutual trust and learning) or changing the societal context (forming new networks, new planning bodies or forming new societal spaces for action).

The case studies description covers three levels:
The national level regards issues of: spatial development, environment issues, governing.
The city level regards issues of: urban growth and the green areas, environmental issues, policy instruments, governing.
The case study level regards: a) growth and green issues and b) growth and green discourses.

Sector/s covered by framework

Waste

Energy

Water

Transport

Green/Blue

Building & land use

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What language/s is the framework available in?
English

What organisation developed the framework and in what country?
GREENSCOM, E.U. FP5 project, EVK4-CT-1999-00006
Coordinator: Alterra - Green World Research Wageningen, The Netherlands
Contractors:
• Urban Planning and Design Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki, Finland
• Danish Building Research Institute, SBI Hoersholm, Denmark
• School of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
• FORS Recherche Sociale Paris, France

Where is the framework available from?
http://www.greenscom.com

What are the strengths of the framework?
• Classification of tools by types of action and interaction;
• Abundant database on both case studies and the tools applied;
• The toolkit is easy to use without expert help;
• Strong focus on real (vs. proclaimed) communication and mutual learning throughout all the stages of the green areas life-cycle.

What are the weaknesses of the framework?
• The web-site structure is rather confusing (one needs too much time to understand the structure and to find the information needed);
• The web-site navigation is a bit complicated (the links between the web-site sections are not very clear);
• The language is oversimplified.

What other interesting information is available about the framework?
At the moment of reviewing (June 2005) no testing of the framework effectiveness is reported yet. The FAQ section is under construction and no end-users´ feedback is available.