Managing local knowledge about NBS in spatial planning. A group model building approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6093/1970-9870/10810Keywords:
Sustainable measures, Participatory approach, Planning strategies, System dynamicsAbstract
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly adopted as measures for enabling climate change mitigation and adaptation, reducing flood risks and enhancing urban ecosystems. However, several barriers hinder the implementation of NBS in urban areas, in planning activities and strategies. These include the inadequacy of some existing methods based on hard and top-down approaches, the complexity and uncertainty associated with the network of citizens involved and the structuring of the knowledge deriving from that, in urban strategies. Local knowledge could help to understand the success or failure of actions designed only by expert knowledge. To this aim, this paper contributes to a current debate about methodological approaches to knowledge assessment to adopt in urban planning processes. Specifically, this paper proposes a Group Model Building approach for one of the activities carried out within the planning process for the Master Plan draft of the city of Brindisi, to support NBS implementation. The results, among others, highlight three important aspects: the importance of building a model to support the elicitation of participants' knowledge, the need to create a well-structured process leading to consensus, and the need to involve the young population in the participatory processes.
Downloads
References
Aerts, J. C. J., H, Botzen, W. J., Clarke, K. C., Cutter, S. L., Hall, J. W., Merz, B., Michel-Kerjan, E., Mysiak, J., Surminski, S. & Kunreuther, H. (2018). Integrating human behaviour dynamics into flood disaster risk assessment. Nature Climate Change, 8 (3), 193–199.
Akbari, H. (2005). Energy Saving Potentials and Air Quality Benefits of Urban Heat Island Mitigation. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, H_Akbari@lbl.gov, http://HeatIsland.LBL.gov/
Akkermans, H.A. & Vennix, J.A.M. (1997) “Clients’ opinion on group model-building: an exploratory study”. System Dynamics Review, 13 (1), 3-31. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1727(199721)13:1<3::AID-SDR113>3.0.CO;2-I
Alexander, D. (2015). Disaster and Emergency Planning for Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1093/ acrefore/9780199389407.013.12
Alpopi, C. & Manole, C. (2013). Integrated Urban Regeneration – Solution for Cities Revitalize. Procedia Economics and Finance, 6, 178-185. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(13)00130-5
Andersen, D.F. & Richardson, G.P. (1997). Scripts for group model building. System Dynamics Review, 13 (2), 107-129. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1727(199722)13:2<107::AID-SDR120>3.0.CO;2-7
Armitage, D., Dzyundzyak, A., Baird J., Bodin, O., Plummer, R. & Schultz, L. (2017). Approach to Assess Learning Conditions, Effects and Outcomes in Environmental Governance, Environmental Policy and Governance. Wiley online Library, https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1781
Balletto, G., Borruso, G. & Donato, C. (2018). City dashboards and the Achilles’ heel of smart cities: putting governance in action and in space. In Computational Science and Its Applications, Proceedings of ICCSA 2018, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, July 2-5, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95168-3_44
Gervasi, O., Murgante, B., Misra, S., Stankova, E., Torre, C. M., Rocha, A. M. A., Taniar, D., Apduhan, B. O., Tarantino, E., & Ryu, Y. (2018). Computational Science and its Applications – ICCSA 2018. In Lecture notes in computer science. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95165-2
Bangash, R. F., Passuello, A., Sanchez-Canales, M., Terrado, M., López, A., Elorza, F. J., Ziv, G., Acuña V. & Schuhmacher, M. (2013). Ecosystem services in Mediterranean river basin: Climate change impact on water provisioning and erosion control. The Science of the Total Environment, 458-460C, 246–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.04.025
Bell, W. (2003). Foundations of Futures Studies: History, Purposes, and Knowledge; Transaction Publishers: New Brunswick (NJ).
Bérard, C. (2010). Group Model Building Using System Dynamics: An Analysis of Methodological Frameworks. The Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 8 (1), 35 - 46. Available online at: https://academic-publishing.org/index.php/ejbrm
Berkes, F. & Ross, H. (2012). Community Resilience: Toward an Integrated Approach. Society & Natural Resources,26 (1), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2012.736605
Blečić, I., Carrus, A.S., Muroni, E., Saiu, V. & Saliu, M.C. (2023). Engagement and Inclusion Experiences for Energy Communities. An Ongoing Case Study in Cagliari, Italy. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2023 Workshops. ICCSA 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 14109. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-3-031-37120-2_33
Borri, D., Camarda, D. & Pluchinotta, I. (2014). Planning for the microclimate of urban spaces: Notes from a multi-agent approach. In Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering, Luo Y (ed.); Springer, Berlin, Germany, 179-182. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10831-5_27
Brown, T. (2008). Design thinking. Harvard Business Rev. 86 (6), 84-95.
Brown, T. (2019). Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. 2nd ed. New York. NY: Harper Business.
Camarda, D. (2010). Beyond citizen participation in planning: Multi-agent systems for complex decision making. In Handbook of research on e-planning: ICTs for urban development and monitoring, Nunes Silva, C., Ed.; IGI Global: Hershey PA, 195-217.
Camarda, D. (2018). Building sustainable futures for post-industrial regeneration: the case of Taranto, Italy. Urban Research & Practice, 11, 275-283, doi:10.1080/17535069.2018.1498196.43
Carnelli, F. & Pedoth, L. (2023). Enhancing Risk Governance by Addressing Key Risk Communication Barriers during the Prevention and Preparedness Phase in South Tyrol (Italy). Sustainable Development, Wiley online Library.
Château, P. A., Chang, Y. C., Chen, H. & Ko, T. T. (2012). Building a stakeholder’s vision of an offshore wind-farm project: A group modeling approach. Science of the Total Environment, 420,43-53.
Chen F., Yang X. & Zhu W. (2014). WRF simulations of urban heat island under hot-weather synoptic conditions: The case study of Hangzhou City, China. Atmospheric research, 138, 364-377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2013.12.005
De Liddo, A. & Concilio, G. (2017). Making decision in open communities: Collective actions in the public realm. Group Decision and Negotiation, 26, 847-856, doi:10.1007/s10726-017-9543-9
De Noia, I., Favargiotti, S. & Marzadri, A. (2022). Renaturalising lands as an adaptation strategy. Towards an integrated water-based design approach. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 15 (2), 263-286. https://doi.org/ 10.6093/1970-9870/9074
Ernst, A. (2019). Review of factors influencing social learning within participatory environmental governance. Ecology and Society, 24 (1). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26796921
Farrugia, S., Hudson, M. D. & McCulloch, L. (2013). An evaluation of flood control and urban cooling ecosystem services delivered by urban green infrastructure. International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 9 (2), 136–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/21513732.2013.782342
Ferber, J., Stratulat, T. & Tranier, J. (2009). Towards an integral approach of organizations in multi-agent systems. In Handbook of Research on MultiAgent Systems: Semantics and Dynamics of Organizational Models, Dignum, V., Ed.; IGI: Hershey, 51-75. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-256-5.ch003
Forester, J. (1999). The deliberative practitioner: Encouraging participatory planning processes. MIT Press.
Freeman, L. C., Borgatti, S. P. & White, D. R. (1991). Centrality in valued graphs: A measure of betweenness based on network flow. Social networks, 13 (2), 141-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(91)90017-n
Friedmann, J. (1992). Empowerment: The politics of alternative development. John Wiley & Sons.
Friend, J.K. & Jessop, W.N. (1969). Local Government and Strategic Choice. Tavistock: London.
Gardner, J. (2002). Natural Hazards Risk in the Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh, India. The Geographical Review, 92 (2), 282-306. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2002.tb00008.x
Gunawardena, K. R., Wells, M. J. & Kershaw, T. (2017). Utilising green and bluespace to mitigate urban heat island intensity. Science of The Total Environment, Volumes 584–585, 1040-1055. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.01.158
Haraldsson, Hördur V. (2004). Introduction to System Thinking and Causal Loop Diagrams. Lund: Lund University.
Hazer, M., Formica, M. K., Dieterlen, S. & Morley, C. P. (2018). The relationship between self-reported exposure to greenspace and human stress in Baltimore, MD. Landscape and Urban Planning, 169, 47–56. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.08.006
Healey, P. (2003). Collaborative planning in perspective. Planning Theory, 2, 101-123. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 14730952030022002
Heft, H. (2013). Environment, cognition, and culture: Reconsidering the cognitive map. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 33, 14-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2012.09.002
Hernantes, J, Labaka, L., Laugé, A., Sarriegi, J. M. & Gonzalez, J. J. (2012). Group model building: a collaborative modelling methodology applied to critical infrastructure protection. International Journal of Organisational Design and Engineering, 2 (1), 41-60. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJODE.2012.045904
Hewitt, K. (1983). The idea of calamity in a technocratic age. In Interpretations of Calamity from the Viewpoint of Human Ecology, 1st ed.; K. Hewitt ed; Routledge, London, UK.
Houlden, V., Weich, S., Porto de Albuquerque, J., Jarvis, S. & Rees, K. (2018). The relationship between greenspace and the mental wellbeing of adults: A systematic review. PloS ONE,13 (9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203000
Howard, E., Hubelbank, J. & Moore, P. (1989). Employer evaluation of graduates: use of the focus group. Nurse Educator 14 (5), 38–41. 10.1097/00006223-198909000-00019
Howard, L. (2012). The Climate of London: Deduced from Meteorological Observations, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Imperiale, A., J. & Vanclay, F. (2023). Re-designing Social Impact Assessment to enhance community resilience for Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Action and Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development, Wiley online Library. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2690
Innes, J.E. & Booher, D.E. (2004). Reframing public participation: Strategies for the 21st century. Planning Theory & Practice, 5, 419-436. https://doi.org/10.1080/1464935042000293170
ISPRA (2023). https://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it/istituto-informa/comunicati-stampa/anno-2022/dissesto-idrogeologico-quasi-il-94-dei-comuni-a-rischio-frane-allu-vioni-ed-erosione-costiera (accessed on 26 June 2023)
Khakee, A., Barbanente, A. & Borri, D. (2000). Expert and experiential knowledge in planning. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 51, 776-788. https://doi.org/10.2307/253959
Khakee, A., Barbanente, A., Camarda, D. & Puglisi, M. (2002). With or without? Comparative study of preparing participatory scenarios using computer-aided and traditional brainstorming. Journal of Future Research 6, 45-64.
Kitzinger, J. (1994). The methodology of Focus Groups: the importance of interaction between research participants. Sociology of Health & Illness 16 (1), 103–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11347023
Lafortezza, R., Chen, J., Van Den Bosch, C. K. & Randrup, T. B. (2018). Nature-based solutions for resilient landscapes and cities. Environmental research, 165, 431-441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2017.11.038
Lai, S., Isola, F., Leone, F. & Zoppi, C. (2021). Assessing the potential of green infrastructure to mitigate hydro-geological hazard. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Special Issue, 109-133. https://doi.org/10.6093/1970-9870/7411
Lee, J., Burton, H. & Lallemant, D. (2018). Adaptive decision-making for civil infrastructure systems and communities exposed to evolving risks. Structural Safety. 75, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strusafe.2018.05.001
Lee, Y. J. (2018). Relationships among Environmental Attitudes, Risk Perceptions, and Coping Behavior: A Case Study of Four Environmentally Sensitive Townships in Yun-lin County, Taiwan. Sustainability, 10 (8), 2663.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082663
Lichfield, N. (Ed.) (1998). Evaluation in planning: facing the challenge of complexity, 47, Springer Science & Business Media.
Limburg, K.E., O’Neill, R.V., Costanza, R. & Farber, S. (2002) “Complex systems and valuation”, Ecological Economics, 41, 409-420. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(02)00090-3
Martín, E. G., Giordano, R., Pagano, A., Van Der Keur, P. & Costa, M. M. (2020). Using a system thinking approach to assess the contribution of nature-based solutions to sustainable development goals. Science of the Total Environment. 738, 139693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139693
Mazzeo, G. & Polverino, S. (2023). Nature-based solution for climate change adaptation and mitigation in urban areas with high natural risk: Proposals of possible measures for a municipality in the Vesuvius area. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 16 (1), 47-65. https://doi.org/10.6093/1970-9870/9736
Merton, R.K., Fiske, M. & Kendall, P.L. (1990). The Focused Interview: A Manual of Problems and Procedures, 2nd edn. Free Press, New York.
Morabito, M., Crisci, A., Guerri, G., Messeri, A., Congedo, L. & Munafò, M. (2021). Surface urban heat islands in Italian metropolitan cities: tree cover and impervious surface influences. Sci. Total Environ, 751, 142334. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142334
Morçöl, G. (2005). A new systems thinking: implications of the science of complexity for public policy and administration, Public Administration Quarterly, 29, 297-320.
Pelorosso, R., Gobattoni, F., Geri, F., Monaco, R. & Leone, A. (2015). Evaluation of Ecosystem Services related to Bio-Energy Landscape Connectivity (BELC) for land use decision making across different planning scales. Ecological Indicators, 61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.01.016
Poortinga, W., Bird, N, Hallingberg, B., Phillips, R. & Williams, D. (2021). The role of perceived public and private green space in subjective health and wellbeing during and after the first peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, Landscape and Urban Planning, 211.
Puskás, N., Abunnasr, Y. & Naalbandian, S. (2021). Assessing deeper levels of participation in nature-based solutions in urban landscapes–A literature review of real-world cases. Landscape and Urban Planning, 210, 104065. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104065
Recanatesi, R., Petroselli, A., Ripa, M. N. & Leone, A. (2017). Assessment of stormwater runoff management practices and BMPs under soil sealing: A study case in a peri-urban watershed of the metropolitan area of Rome (Italy). Journal of Environmental Management, 201- 6-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.06.024
Rocha, H., Filgueiras, M., Tavares, J.F. & Ferreira, S. (2023). Public Transport Usage and Perceived Service Quality in a Large Metropolitan Area: The Case of Port. Sustainability, 15 (7), 6287. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15076287
Rouwette, E.A.J.A., Vennix, J.A.M. & van Mullekom, T. (2002) “Group model building effectiveness: a review of assessment studies”. System Dynamics Review, 18 (1), 5-45. https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.229
Samaraweera, H. U. S. (2023). Exploring complexities of disaster risk and vulnerability: Everyday lives of two flood-affected communities in Sri Lanka. Sustainable Development, Wiley online Library, https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2723
Sandercock, L. (2003). Out of the closet: The importance of stories and storytelling in planning practice. Planning theory & practice, 4 (1), 11-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/1464935032000057209
Santoro, S., Totaro, V., Mastrodonato, G. & Balena, P. (2023). Mapping Citizens’ Knowledge and Perception. What Support for Flood Risk Planning? Some Tips from Brindisi Case Study. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2023 Workshops. ICCSA 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14109. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37120-2_2362
Santoro, S., Totaro, V., Lovreglio, R., Camarda, D., Iacobellis, V. & Fratino, U. (2022). Risk perception and knowledge of protective measures for flood risk planning. The case study of Brindisi (Puglia region). Safety science, 153, 1057961.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105791
Santoro, S., Stufano Melone, M.R. & Camarda, D. (2020). Building strategic scenarios during Covid-19 lockdown. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 13, 229-240. https://doi.org/10.6092/1970-9870/6917
Schön, D.A. & Argyris, C. (1996). Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method and Practice; Addison-Wesley: Reading MA.
Sinatra, F., Balletto, G. & Borruso, G. (2023). Minimum Environmental Criteria and Climate Issue in the Metropolitan Urban Ecosystem. In Computational Science and Its Applications, Proceedings of ICCSA 2023, Athens, Greece, July 3 – 6, 2023 Gervasi O., Murgante B., Rocha A.M. A. C., Garau C., Scorza F., Karaca Y., Torre C.M (Eds.), Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 49-65. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37120-2_4
Sterman, J.D. (2000). Business dynamics: systems thinking and modeling for a complex world, New York: Irwin-McGraw-Hill.
Tayefi Nasrabadi, M. (2022). How do nature-based solutions contribute to urban landscape sustainability? Environment, Development and Sustainability, 24(1), 576-591. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01456-3
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): The United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, https://www.ipcc.ch/ (accessed on 12 June 2023)
Twinn, S. (1998). An analysis of the effectiveness of focus groups as a method of qualitative data collection with Chinese populations in nursing research. Journal of Advanced Nursing 28 (3), 654–661. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1998.00708.x
Van den Berg, A. E., Maas, J., Verheij, R. A. & Groenewegen, P. P. (2010). Green space as a buffer between stressful life events and health. Social Science & Medicine, 70 (8), 1203–1210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.01.002
Velarde, Ma. D., Fry, G. & Tveit, M. S. (2017). Health Effects of Viewing Landscapes – Landscape Types in Environmental Psychology. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 6 (4), 199-212. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.ufug.2007.07.001
Zurlini, G., Petrosillo, I., Jones, K.B. & Zaccarelli, N. (2013). Highlighting order and disorder in social -ecological landscapes to foster adaptive capacity and sustainability. Landscape Ecology, 28 (6), 1161-1173.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following:
1. Authors retain the rights to their work and give in to the journal the right of first publication of the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons License - Attribution that allows others to share the work indicating the authorship and the initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors can adhere to other agreements of non-exclusive license for the distribution of the published version of the work (ex. To deposit it in an institutional repository or to publish it in a monography), provided to indicate that the document was first published in this journal.
3. Authors can distribute their work online (ex. In institutional repositories or in their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges and it can increase the quotations of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access)
