Requirements for local quality of life and the potential of consensus building for a sustainable development of space and mobility

Project Information

This project aims at establishing a basis for a more sustainable spatial planning by trying to find out a) which spatial development and which ways of decision making meet the needs of the residents best and b) to what extent a more sustainable spatial planning can contribute to a reduction of leisure mobility. In particular, the project has the following two objectives:

which demands residents make regarding their everyday-living space, how they make use of it, how they perceive the quality of their surroundings, and why they frequently visit areas far away from their residential area
and which is the effect of participatory decision making on landscape development and the relation between residents and living space.

In several municipalities, standardized surveys were conducted among inhabitants, as well as qualitative interview studies and a quasi-experimental study to investigate a participative landscape development process.

The project was part of the WSL Research Program "Land Resources Management in Peri-Urban Environments".

Publications

Höppner, C., Frick, J. & Buchecker, M. (2008). What drives perople's willingness to discuss local landscape development? Landscape Research, 33 (5), 605-622.

Höppner, C., Frick, J. & Buchecker, M. (2007). Assessing psycho-social effects of participatory landscape planning. Landscape and Urban Planning, 83, 196-207.

Frick, J., Degenhardt, B. & Buchecker, M. (2007). Predicting local residents' use of nearby outdoor recreation areas through quality perceptions and recreational expectations. Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, 81(1/2), 31-41.

Höppner, C., Frick, J., Buchecker, M. & Elsasser, H. (2005). Evaluating a new participatory planning approach for sustainable landscape development in Switzerland – Participatory techniques and social effects of Landscape Development Concepts (LDC). In C.A. Brebbia, A. Kungolos and E. Beriatos (Eds.) Sustainable Development and Planning II. Ashurst, UK: WIT Press.