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Hållbar utveckling och i synnerhet hållbar stadsutveckling används idag som ett ledord för hur de flesta städer önskar utvecklas. Hållbarhetsindikatorer har etablerats som ett verktyg för att underlätta beslutsfattande åtgärder genom att förenkla, förtydliga och samla information. Tanken är att indikatorer ska styra och följa upp hållbarhetsarbetet men även fungera som ett verktyg för att kommunicera idéer, tankar och värderingar. I denna studie ämnar vi att beskriver hur hållbarhetsindikatorer kan bidra med att effektivisera hållbarhetsarbetet. Genom att undersöka hur tre svenska kommuner använder sig av indikatorer tillsammans med forskning inom området presenteras en slutsats som visar att det finns stora brister i de system som idag tillämpas. Litteraturen förespråkar ett fåtal indikatorer som bygger på både kvalitativa och kvantitativa värden där kommunikation blir centralt vilket går helt emot vad kommunerna gör. Nya indikatorsystem som bygger på deltagande där den tänkta målgruppen är i fokus skulle leda till en förståelse kring hållbarhetsmålen vilket är en förutsättning för att kunna nå dem. Indikatorerna ska underlätta beslutsfattande åtgärder där rollen som styrnings- och uppföljningsverktyg2blir central samtidigt som kommunikationen blir viktig i hållbarhetsarbetet. Som medborgare blir det svårt att påverka eller förstå hållbarhetsarbetet när det inte redovisas på ett begripligt sätt och när det är svårt att följa utvecklingen. Avslutningsvis presenteras en förstudie till ett projekt där ett förslag på hur en intern process vid framtagandet av ett nytt indikatorsystem skulle kunna gå till. / Sustainable development and in particular sustainable urban development are now catchphrases for how most cities wish to develop. Sustainability indicators have been established as a tool to facilitate decision-making measures to simplify, clarify and gather information. The idea is that indicators should control and follow through sustainability efforts but also serve as a tool to communicate ideas, thoughts and values. The aim of this study is to describe how sustainability indicators can help to streamline sustainability efforts. By looking at how three Swedish municipality use indicators along with research in the theoretical field a conclusion that shows that there are major weaknesses in the systems applied today is presented. The research advocates a few indicators based on both qualitative and quantitative values where communication is central which completely goes against what the municipalities are doing at the moment. New indicator systems based on participation where the intended audience is primary would lead to a broader understanding of sustainability goals, which is a requisite for achieving them. Indicators could facilitate decision-making where the role of management and monitoring will be key along with communication towards sustainability. As a citizen it is difficult to influence or understand sustainability projects when they are not presented in an understandable way and when it is difficult to monitor development. In the end of the study a preliminary project on how an internal process in developing a new indicator system is presented.

Utgångspunkten för denna kandidatuppsats är att den byggda miljön påverkar våra liv och vårt handlingsutrymme. Den byggda miljön kan möjliggöra eller begränsa olika typer av aktiviteter. Leken är en av de mest grundläggande aktiviteterna i vår sociala utveckling och är en del av den sociala interaktionen med andra människor. Leken förknippas ofta med barn, men leken förkommer och är viktig för alla ålderskategorier.Syftet med studien är att ta reda på hur den byggda miljön kan skapa möjligheter för leken att etableras. Vi undersöker om man kan planera och styra leken och vad leken kan tillföra i ett miljonprogramsområde.Många av de miljonprogramsområden som byggdes i Sverige under 1960- och 70-talet är ofta problemtyngda och den byggda miljön lider av ett eftersatt underhåll. Området Gårdsten i Göteborg är ett område som genomgått ombyggnadsprojekt med inriktning på hållbarhetsfrågor, med de sociala frågorna i huvudfokus. Vi har genomfört en fallstudie av området och genom analys utvärderat hur den byggda miljön skapar förutsättningar för lek. / The basis for this candidate essay is that the built environment affects our lives and our freedom of action. The built environment can facilitate or limit different types of activities. Play is one of the most basic things in our social development and is part of the social interaction with other people. The play is often associated with children, but the play is as important for all age groups.The purpose of this study is to investigate how the built environment can support the opportunity for play to establish itself in one place. We investigate to what extent you can plan and control the play and what play can supply to a Million Programme area.Many of the Million Programme areas that were built in Sweden during the 1960s and 70s are often problematic and the built environment suffers from deferred maintenance. The area Gårdsten in Gothenburg is an area that has undergone renovation projects with a focus on sustainability issues, with social issues in the main focus. We have conducted a case study of the area and through analysis evaluated how the built environment can create conditions for play.

People with disabilities will experience discrimination in many ways during their daily life; one way being the presence of physical barriers in the public built environment which prevent their full participation. Within the EU and in Germany, regulations and building standards are the primary tool used for ensuring accessibility within the built environment, however, full and equal access for people with disabilities has not been achieved. This discrepancy indicates the limitations of accessibility through standardization and regulation. Physical barriers, such as stairs, have long been identified and understood to prevent access for people with disabilities, however, there seems to be relatively little scientific literature discussing temporary forms of barriers which also prevent access in the built environment. This research project aims to identify and understand barriers which create temporary inaccessibility for people with disabilities. These barriers may reflect unregulated or unenforced situations within the public built environment, one example of this type of situation being construction sites. Of particular interest is the role temporality plays within the development of barriers and accessibility. The primary research takes the form of go-along case studies with three participants, each having a different disability or impairment. The setting for these case studies is Europaplatz, a plaza at Berlin’s central train station; this location can be considered as a critical case, findings here should be archetypal and can be expected to hold true in other similar situations. The research shows the existence of many temporary barriers which have long lasting inaccessible impacts for people with disabilities. These barriers primarily stem from the presence of nearby construction sites and activities. In most cases a small amount of initial consideration towards accessibility would have prevented these temporary inaccessibilities. Even after their creation, very minor changes could remove these barriers and create a more accessible environment. My research indicates that there are serious problems around construction related activities which create barriers for people with disabilities. A clear lack of consideration for accessibility during the planning, approval and oversight of construction activities is shown.

<p>Land use planning has gained popularity as a travel demand management strategy for the last two decades. Many urban authorities in North America have adopted smart growth policies in order to curb auto use and promote sustainable forms of travel, namely, public transit, bicycle and walking. The purpose of this study is to examine whether someone’s travel behavior is influenced by the characteristics of the built environment where one lives and works. The study area is Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. Two aspects of travel are analyzed for a weekday: total distance travelled by auto and average tour complexity. Separate models are developed for worker and non-worker by applying ordinary least square and spatial lag modeling techniques. The built environment variables are measured near home and workplace and at different geographical scales. The average auto distance and tour complexity are separately regressed against the built environment variables while personal characteristics, household attributes, preferences for residential location and transport mode, and meteorological conditions of survey days are accounted for. The results of auto distance models suggest that people living and working in high accessibility areas with mixed land uses make shorter travel by auto, which supports the claims of smart growth proponents. The built environment variables make significant contribution to the fitness of auto distance models. In case of tour complexity models, built environment variables also appear to be significant but with lower contribution to model <em>R²</em>. The results suggest that non-workers, who live in poor accessibility areas, make more complex tours. Workers living in poorly accessible neighborhoods and working in highly accessible areas make complex commuting and work-based, non-work tours. It means that, workers compensate poor neighborhood accessibility by trip chaining near workplace. The findings would be helpful to evaluate the existing growth strategies in Halifax Regional Municipality. In addition, it makes several contributions to the literature.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Yes / This project built on research from university and employer perspectives exploring relationships between expectations of employers, professional bodies, students and universities on what constitutes a good work placement. Qualitative information on good practice was gathered in order to identify areas for improving placement practice and to illuminate employer engagement processes. Impact and benefits of different approaches to placements and curricula and/or staff Continuing Professional Development (CPD) implications were identified, together with recommendations on how improvements in understanding are shared and disseminated among employer groups and universities. Findings included that, although there were already guidelines on placement practice from a number of bodies, good practice identified at a wide range of points seemed more the result of academic staff drawing on their own experience, formed in the light of good knowledge of professional institution requirements, rather than use of guidelines. Employers mentioned professional institution requirements almost as a matter of course. That guidelines are not used as intended by those that produce them may be a general tendency, but this project¿s guidelines specifically reflect the organised voice of employers thanks to the involvement of their senior groupings, Sector Skills Councils and similar, in addition to individual employers. This project¿s guidelines are also more up to date than others identified, including particular issues affecting provision of placements that may face universities over the next few years. Students seem to recognise the benefits of placements more in retrospect than in advance. Some universities seem more flexible than others, adapting provision of placements as economic and other conditions have changed and to meet the needs of employers and placements. As one employer put it, ¿employers gravitate towards universities that make it easier¿. Employers also want to see academic credit awarded for placement learning and understandable processes with which they can help in support of this. The guidelines will be made available through a number of channels. / Royal Academy of Engineering

It is often assumed that traditional regulatory regimes centered on governmental action will benefit from greater private sector involvement. And, under the catchy phrase ‘from government to governance’ globally a wide variety of hybrid forms of governance has emerged. However, little empirical insight exists in the actual effects of such hybridization. The author aims at filling up this knowledge gap.He introduces a heuristic tool for comparative policy analysis, and applies this on a series of case studies. Following different building regulatory enforcement regimes in the Netherlands, Canada and Australia the author explains how different forms of private sector involvement play out in different settings. The thesis contains a wealth of scholarly and applied findings. It is insightful in showing different regime types and in suggesting meaningful differences in implementation and potential effects. The thesis adds both to studies on regulation of the built environment and its enforcement, and to studies on governance reform.

Teknisk utveckling ger oss nya sätt att skapa möjligheter att uppleva staden på fler sätt. Graffiti och street art är omdiskuterade ämnen i relation till stadsbyggnad och urbana rum, hur kan de bidra till stadsrummet på nya sätt genom att använda dessa nya tekniker och hur skulle det kunna se ut. Denna uppsats tar upp frågan om graffitis platsskapande egenskaper i en virtuell mijö.Genom litteraturstudier och praktikbaserad forskning samlar den information och forskning för att skapa en diskussion kring detta. Resultatet tyder på att det fortfarande är en relativt kompliceradprocess och därför inte tillgänglig för alla att skapa samt att de platsskapande egenskapergraffitimålande har inte går att jämföra med att konstruera AR. Som upplevelse är dock AR jämförbart med en graffitimålning, och har kanske än mer möjlighet för platsskapande.

Community resilience to disasters is an affected area’s ability to rebound after a catastrophic event. The mounting frequency and scale of natural disasters, increasing urbanization, a growing reliance on interdependent technologies and infrastructure systems, and inflated expectations of interventions are responsible for greater disaster vulnerability and demonstrate the need to develop more resilient communities. Given the increasing shocks of natural disasters, a more complete understanding of resilience is important for creating safer, more sustainable communities. One factor that is known to impact resilience is social networks. Urban planning research has shown that walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods can encourage the development of social networks and place attachment through an increase in interactions and a higher density of neighborhood amenities, including characteristics of the built environment that influence social networks, such as varied land uses and pedestrian-oriented design. The built environment connects residents to a place and can serve as a benchmark for recovery. Therefore, it is possible that the traditional planning domain of urban design can be harnessed to foster greater resilience by facilitating stronger social networks. In order to determine the legitimacy of this supposition, this research examines how social networks and the built environment create greater resilience to disasters. Given that social networks increase community resilience to all types of disasters, social networks are shown to be influenced by certain types of space, and the built environment is a common intervention for planners, this research explores the potential for creating cities that are more resilient by creating spaces that foster social networks. The Mississippi Gulf Coast was chosen as a case study area in order to explore the above relationships. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the region, resulting in massive wind and storm surge damage to the Mississippi Coast. Communities in the area have recovered at varying rates and levels. Therefore, this region provided an opportunity to contrast higher and lower resilience communities and to test the above research questions. The research was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, a quantitative model was developed in order to address whether there are statistically significant effects on resilience due to the built environment. In the second stage, a qualitative case study analysis of communities was undertaken using interviews with local residents. The results demonstrate that certain aspects of the built environment are associated with greater resilience, including intersection density, net residential density, the density of historic sites, and community amenities where social networks gather. Furthermore, urban design features with the greatest capacity to increase resilience were also useful features for the types of local social networks that were found to be most important for resilience.