29.3.2017 1Tiina Laatikainen 2014

The evidence base oflivable cityplanning?Marketta Kyttä

Aalto University/ Department of Built EnvironmentSpatial Planning and transportation engineering research group

Ask the person next to you…

What are the things in your everydayenvironment that contribute to it’s livability?

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Melbourne, Australia

Human aspects in smart city discussion

SmartEconomy

SmartEnviron-

ment

SmartMobility

SmartLiving

SmartGovern-

ment

SmartPeople

Is smart city a livable city?

“A city can be considered as "smart" whenits investment in human and social capital

and in communications infrastructureactively promote sustainable economicdevelopment and a high quality of life,

including the wise management of naturalresources through participatory

government.”(Barcelona Mayor/ Azkuna, 2012)

Livability/quality of life/

best places to livehave become

important aspectsin global competition

between cities

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Mercer: Quality of living rankingMethodologyPolitical and social environment(political stability, crime, lawenforcement, etc.).Economic environment (currencyexchange regulations, banking services).Socio-cultural environment (mediaavailability and censorship, limitationson personal freedom).Medical and health considerations(medical supplies and services,infectious diseases, sewage, wastedisposal, air pollution, etc.).Schools and education (standards andavailability of international schools).Public services and transportation(electricity, water, public transportation,traffic congestion, etc.).Recreation (restaurants, theatres,cinemas, sports and leisure, etc.).Consumer goods (availability offood/daily consumption items, cars,etc.).Housing (rental housing, householdappliances, furniture, maintenanceservices).Natural environment (climate, record ofnatural disasters).

The Economist’ Global liveability ranking

The ranking based on 30factors:• Safety• Healthcare• Educational resources• Infrastructure• Environment• Etc.

Monocle’s Global liveability ranking

Ranking based on, forexample:• Number the places that

still serve a good mealafter 22.00

• Number of murders• Number of break-ins• The average response

times of emergencyservices

• Etc.

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New era star architects designinghuman friendly, livable cities

Urban design manager LudoCampbell-Reid, city of Auckland

Amanda Burden, Former director of the New YorkCity Department of City Planning

Something missing?

Can you nametheories/ scientificfindings about thecharacteristics of

livable cities?

The characteristics of integratedurban design theories?

Stephen Marshall (2012):An integrated theory of urban design should combine:• insight into how the world works• a stance on how the world ought to be• a view on how to get from here to there

urban design combine the urban ‘is’ and ‘ought’go beyond scientific knowledge (but should also begrounded on scientific knowledge)should not just be normative artistic or political manifestos

Five classic urban design theoriesMarshall (2012): Pseudoscientific?

The city images can be conveniently classified into five typesof elements: paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks(Lynch, 1960: The image of a city)

The art of relationship is to manipulate the elements of thetown so that an impact on the emotions are achieved’(Gullen, 1961: Townscape)

Lively city: multifunctional, small blocks, diverse buildings,density(Jacobs, 1961: The Death and Life of Great American Cities)

Cities are unplannable because it is impossible to reproducenatural (traditional) cities(Alexander, 1965: City is not a tree)

• Partial positive confirmation of five elements(Aragones and Arredondo, 1985)

• Alternative elements not investigated• No overall testing nor validation of overall linked

hypothesis

• Partial positive confirmation (Isaacs, 2000)• No overall testing nor validation of overall linked

hypothesis

• Limited testing of main hypothesis• Weicher (1973) and Schmidt (1977) find Jacobs’

hypothesis refuted• Fowler (1987) finds some support

• ‘Semilattice’ challenged by Harary and Rockey(1976)

• The ‘cognitive constraint’ hypothesis appears toremain untested

Way forward?

1. Testing existing urban designtheories and generatingalternative ones

2. Urban designers would do wellto have a basic training instatistics and relevant social andnatural sciences

3. Reformulating a more robust”family” of theories

Marshall:As long as urban

design is an academicdiscipline, urban design

theory is surely bettersupported on a

foundationof science thanpseudo-science

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How abouturban planning

and livable cities?

Humanaspects insmart citydiscussion

Socially sustainable environment

Smart ICT assistedparticipation

Smart participants”Super inhabitants”Activists

Equality

Active livingAccessibility

Smart(er) everyday life

SmartEcono

my

SmartEnviron-ment

SmartMobility

SmartLiving

SmartGovern-

ment

SmartPeople

Research on experienced livability• Smooth everyday life• Accessibility• Daily services

• Perceived environmental quality• Safe environments• Environmental aesthetics

• Sense of community, neighbouring• Social cohesion, social capital• Cultural diversity

• Health promoting environments• Environmental stress restoration• Cultural ecosystem services• Etc.

Research onnatural resources

EVERYDAYLIFE,MOBILITY

URBANEXPE-RIENCES

SOCIALLIFE

HEALTHYENVIRON-MENTS

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Livableenvironments

integrate physical and socialwell-being parameters tosustain a productive and

meaningful humanexistense.”

(Kashef, 2016)

Indirect Health promotive characteristics of environment (1990 →)

Two waves of environmental health research

Direct illness producing characteristics of environment (→ 1960 →)

In the Australian urban policydiscourse, the role of the built

environment in supporting healthand well-being as well as

sustainability and productivity, isincreasingly counched in terms of

livability.(Lowe et al 2015)

Planning and healthis big news

(Boarnet, 2006)

Livable = healthy?

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The proportion of overweight 25-65-year-oldsFinns between 1978-2011 (BMI>30)

02468

101214161820

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

% Men

Women

National institute for health and wellfare (THL)

Recent study: 14 cities, 10 countries, 5 continents

Urban structural characteristics promoting active living:

• Population density p=0·001

• Intersection density p=0·019

• Public transportation stop density p=0·0007

• Number of parks p=0·010

68–89 min/week more physicalactivity

Sallis, J.F. et al. (2016) Physical activity in relation to urban environments in14 cities worldwide: a cross-sectional study. The Lancet 6736(16):348.

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Key aspects inlivable city?

Green enough,yet dense city?

Cf. findingsof Urban Happiness –project in Helsinki metropolitan areaKyttä, M. Broberg, A., Haybatollahi, M., and Schmidt-Thomé, K. (2016) Urban happiness – Context-sensitivestudy of the social sustainability of urban settings. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, vol 43,34 – 57.

Our studies concerningchildfriedly urban environmentBroberg, A. Kyttä, M. & Fagerholm, N. (2013) Child-friendly Urban Structures:Bullerby Revisited. Journal of Environmental Psychology. Vol. 35, 110–120.

126inh./ha

240inh./ha

108inh./ha

244inh./ha

populationdensity

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Airquality?

Accessto greenareas?

Activeliving?

Noise?

Morecomprehensivelist of indicatorsfor planninghealth promotivecities(Lowe et al 2015)

How about joint effects?Tainio et al. (2016) Can air pollution negate thehealth benefits of cycling and walking? PreventiveMedicine, Volume 87, June 2016, Pages 233–236

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Some critical questions whenthinking about the evidencebase for livable city planning

???

?• Scale, context• Objective and subjective evaluations• Livability of who?• Visualization of findings• How to produce and process the knowledge?

Scale: disparities within citiesBut: consistent measures/indicators

Contextually sensitive study of urban livability

Here: Urban Happiness studyKyttä, M. Broberg, A. Tzoulas, T. & Snabb, K. (2013) Towardscontextually sensitive urban densification: location-based softGISknowledge revealing perceived residential environmental quality.Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol 113, May 2013 , 30-46.

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Objective and subjective evaluations

Mitchell, R & Popham, F. (2008) Effect of exposure to natural environment on health inequalities: anobservational population study. The Lancet, Vol.372, Issue 9650, 1655-1660.

MIDDLEHIGH

LOW

Livability of who?

Green structure & mortality in various socioeconomic groups

Visualizations of results

Revisiting Donald Appleyard’s Livable Streets (https://vimeo.com/16399180)

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Joint evidence/knowledgeproduction and analysis?

Doing improvementstogether?

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Luckily, you have… some available datasets collected in Otaniemi

Susanna Kari’s Masters thesis (2016) : Pedestrian Experience:Affordances and Habits in Utility Walking – Case Otaniemi Campus

Tiina Laatikainen:Everyday meaningfulplaces and mobility

Perhaps also…ACRE surveysfor students andpersonnel inOtaniemi

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Thank you!