Central Baltic Project Database - Regional planning and development

MAREA developed a framework for mapping of marine ecosystem services

Ari Brozinski — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 07:48:20 +0000

The MAREA project developed a framework for mapping of marine ecosystem services. Ecosystem services were modelled using a set of methodologies depending on the data availability and the service in question.

Ecosystem accounting models were further developed and applied in the project. This was a response to the need to develop ecosystem accounting both globally and on Europe’s level. Ecosystem accounting integrates economic sectors to the benefits that ecosystems provide.

A sustainability compass was developed during the project. It is a method and a tool for bottom-up social learning on sustainable practices in pursuit of prosperity and human well-being within ecosystems boundaries. The compass is targeted to companies operating in marine areas.

The project also developed subsections of the Geoportal (PlanWise4Blue): cumulative impact assessment tool, Sustainability compass tool and tools for customized socio-economic models. These are tailored to the Baltic Sea region's key actors/stakeholders. The geospatial portal is a user-friendly communication tool for decision-makers, allowing participation and continuous update of knowledge, data and analyses. The portal provides an indication of the best practices for improvement and alternative scenarios in support of joint decision-making.

Tags:

Coastal management and maritime issues

Regional planning and development

Attachment:

Conceptual model of Natural Capital Accounting

Explore the relations between cultural services and environmental condition

Infographic about MAREA results

High-resolution maps on the intensity and extent of ecosystem services supply in the transnational pilot area

MAREA POLICY BRIEF I / 2022

MAREA POLICY BRIEF II / 2022

User guide for the social-economic models implemented in the geoportal

Category:

Marine/coastal area with improved management

At a glance text:

Ecosystem service mapping framework
Bottom-up social learning tool for companies
Geospatial portal

Project link:

From MARine Ecosystem Accounting to integrated governance for sustainable planning of marine and coastal areas

Augmented Urbans improved urban planning

Ari Brozinski — Wed, 11 May 2022 08:20:27 +0000

The Augmented Urbans project focused cooperation efforts on three important aspects of the urban planning: local participation and involvement of stakeholders, urban resilience and applying new technologies (XR).

1. CO-DEVELOPING OF PARTICIPATORY PLANNING PROCESSES AND INTEGRATED PLANS FOR URBAN RESILIENCE

Five integrated urban plans were co-created in the following local actions sites.

TALLINN. The diversity of bees and insects, of which over ten are protected species, inspired the urban planners to focus on pollinators as a central concept in the development of the urban area. Landscape architecture solution largely consisted of meadows and sustainable mobility options.

Important part of the urban planning was activating local community by gardening activities, organizing events.

AvaLinn AR application updated and tested. People can walk on site and point their phones on a mural and receive extra information about city plans for the future of the area.

Read more on Tallin local action area: https://augmentedurbans.metropolia.fi/local-action-in-tallinn-estonia/
Read more about the current developments on Tallinn local action area (maintained by B.Green project) https://www.putukavail.ee/?lang=en

VIIMSI. Project addressed challenges related to sustainable mobility, environmental resilience and access to public services of Viimsi as one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Estonia (namely Haabmeeme main street). Haabneeme Main Street vision and contributions for the Haabneeme Master Plan, stakeholder interactions were accomplished during the project. Also the survey made and 3D model, 360 visualisations and videos developed together with an interactive portal of the site for communicating the plan to local stakeholders.

Visualisation platform of the Haabneeme General Plan: https://haabneeme.viimsi.ee/
Newsletter to the local inhabitants about the project activities in Viimsi: http://database.centralbaltic.eu/sites/default/files/Augmented%20Urbans_Viimsi_newspaper_2020_EST.pdf
Read more about the Viimsi local action area: https://augmentedurbans.metropolia.fi/local-action-in-viimsi-estonia/

CESIS. A thematic plan for Gauja river surroundings was developed. Project contribution: a holistic approach of collecting environmental data of the biotopes, stakeholder inputs from a variety of stakeholder groups (both via events & online platform), innovation actions to find new business opportunities on-site and combining these into spatial concept designs by architect students.

Read more about the Cesis local action area: https://augmentedurbans.metropolia.fi/local-action-in-cesis-latvia/
Thematic plan of Gauja surroundings: http://database.centralbaltic.eu/sites/default/files/CESIS%20Thematic%20planning%20Gauja.pdf

HELSINKI. Teollisuuskatu outline plan and participatory methods for outline planning process previously undefined. Utilising three pop-up events, surveys and VR visualisations to facilitate stakeholder participation.

Read more about the Helsinki local action area: https://augmentedurbans.metropolia.fi/local-action-in-helsinki-finland/

GÄVLE. Management plan for outdoors areas in Gavlegårdarna housing areas, and biodiversity supporting management practices that can be applied to the other properties as well. workshops and events with both tenants and outdoor maintenance personnel were organised, practical actions to engage tenants with their surroundings such as mini gardens, planting meadows, setting up bee hotels and habitats.

Read more about the Gävle local action area: https://augmentedurbans.metropolia.fi/local-action-in-gavle-sweden/

While working with the planning, the project had active cooperation with students and universities. It was designed in a way that project-inspired challenges embedded within university courses, have facilitated collaboration between urban planners and students. The students have also participated in the project activities as interns with various project-related tasks.

The student involvement has provided Augmented Urbans with fresh ideas and perspectives. Student concepts are often not burdened by the conventions of designing certain things or the day-to-day procedures of the city administration.

You can read more about this cooperation and the concrete out of box outcome in Cēsis, Gävle, Tallinn and Helsinki here: https://augmentedurbans.metropolia.fi/collaborating-with-universities/

2. URBAN RESILIENCE WITHIN PARTNER REGIONS AND THE CB AREA

Project partners had special focus on resilience aspects in 7 local sites. The aim was to develop the Matrix of Indicators which would make the concept of resilience more comprehensible and applicable to planners. The matrix was developed to be used more as a pedagogic tool to identify resilience-thinking and sustainability values in each Local Action site and bring those forward for joint discussion to crystallise the policy recommendations.

The final version of the Matrix of Indicators consists of the seven resilience principles where the users are asked “Do the plan and process address the seven principles and how?”. Secondly, users are asked to fill out the four sustainability dimensions by describing the following aspects:

factors & planning actions that support sustainability,
unsustainable factors and
remaining questions.

By pointing out unsustainable factors, it is possible to map out aspects that still need to be addressed in the future.

More information on project experience working on this you can read here https://augmentedurbans.metropolia.fi/the-matrix-of-indicators-process-and-results/
The fillable PDF version of the Matrix-of-Indicators can access here: http://database.centralbaltic.eu/sites/default/files/Matrix-of-Indicators-empty-fillable.pdf

3. INCREASING PLANNERS EXPERTISE OF XR AS A TOOL IN DEVELOPMENT FOR RESILIENT CITIES

The Augmented Urbans project has explored ways for extended reality (XR) technologies to support integrated urban planning. The current project has developed and tested twelve XR tools in seven Central Baltic cities and municipalities within this project.

Practice-based insights collected throughout the project; from its reports, workshop discussions and presentations by the partner urban planners and other experts are presented in the articles available here: https://augmentedurbans.metropolia.fi/augmenting-urban-planning-and-management/

Tags:

Urban Development

Regional planning and development

Attachment:

Augmented Urbans Viimsi newsletter

CESIS Thematic planning Gauja

Helsinki integrated urban plan

Matrix of indicators

Augmented Urbans - Data analysis report summary

External link:

Tallin local action area

Category:

Urban area covered with integrated urban management

At a glance text:

Project link:

Visionary, Participatory Planning and Integrated Management for Resilient Cities

Coast4us project resulted in 8 sustainable development plans for pilot regions around the Baltic coast

kersti — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 09:51:54 +0000

The aim of the project Coast4us was to develop a holistic and inclusive approach to the spatial and community development planning process by involving stakeholders of different interests to create sustainable marine and coastal development plans at different levels, including at community grassroots level.

During this project, partners worked in three main, interlinked areas:

mapping and collecting data;
the planning process and the development of plans;
evaluation of the tools and methods used.

Mapping and assessment of values (e.g. ecological, cultural and social) as well as mapping of the present use of resources and local demands for economic development was done. Planning tools (e.g. GIS, planning IT tool, LEA and Smart City Planning) were developed i to facilitate the planning process. Meeting points, both physical and web-based, were established.

The main results of the Coast4us project were 8 sustainable development plans for pilot regions around the Baltic coast:

Arkösund: A Future Analysis of Arkösund archipelago THE ROAD TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE PLACE 2030 (Arkösund is a small community with 160 year-round habitants, 2000 summer residents and up to 40 000 tourists/visitors, 50 km from Norrköping)
Bergön: Future Analysis for Bergön (Bergön is an old coastal artillery base which is situated on an island in Sweden that is part of the Helcom MPA (marine protected area) area with high nature values, especially shallow water area that is included as part of the pilot area).
Ekön: Detailed plan for properties in Gryt (Ekön is a nature preserve located in the archipelago of Gryt in east Sweden of the municipality of Valdemarsvik).
Mariehamn and Sund: Summary Proposal for a Sustainable Coastal Zone (Mariehamn is an urban area in Aland with many buildings and concrete roads where the challenge was run offs from of the storm water; Sund is an agricultural dominated rural area where the challenge is are nutrient run off from the land to the water and many lakes and ditches are highly affected by eutrophication.
Kökar: Our Habitability: Sustainable Development of Kökar 2020-2030 (2050) (Kökar is a small island in Aland with 236 all-year inhabitants and 32,000 visitors/year). The goal was to make a sustainability plan for the island.
Saarema: Master Plan. (Saarema municipality in Estonia consisting of 4 bigger islands: Saaremaa, Abruka, Vilsandi and Kõinastu and lots of smaller islands, with 1300 km long coast line of Saarema island only). The main aim was to generate valuable input material for the Saaremaa Municipality´s general plan regarding coastal area region.
Tūja: Village Development Plan 2020-23 (Tūja is a village 33 km from the county centre Salacgriva and 75 km from Riga in Latvia).
Garupe: Garupe Village Development Plan 2020-2024 (Garupe is one of the most growing villages in the municipality of Carnikava, Latvia). The goal was to develop a sustainable, holistic and locally adapted marine and coastal zone plan for Garupe village and agree on priority activities.

A key activity, and new practice developed in the project, was informal local society involvement in the planning process, inspiring and motivating people to engage and act, as well as to strengthen collaboration between local communities and local governments. In that regard capacity and skills of various NGO’s, local communities and local governments were improved regarding development planning and society involvement issues. In addition, the scientific studies put the work of the project in a broader context and pinpointed important parts of the processes.

Project results, partners experience and recommendations are available in the project story map which is available here.

Tags:

Coastal management and maritime issues

Regional planning and development

Attachment:

Brochure

Future analysis of Arkosund Archipelago

Kokar our habitability

Plan for properties in Gryt

Plan for Tuja village

Future analysis of Sankt Anna archipelago

Aland summary proposal for sustainable coastal zone

Garupe village development plan

Manual for planners 2020

Practice and Recommendation Report

Article_Indicators for the Smart Development of Villages and Neighbourhoods in Baltic Sea Coastal Areas

Article_Innovation in public planning

Publication Involving citizens in community planning_SWE

Publication Black box of civic participation sorting and valuing opinions in community building processes SWE

Category:

Marine/coastal area with improved management

At a glance text:

The main results of the Coast4us project were 8 sustainable development plans for pilot regions around the Baltic coast. During this project, partners worked in three main, interlinked areas:

mapping and collecting data;
the planning process and the development of plans;
evaluation of the tools and methods used.

Project link:

Coast4us

Four new plans "where the land meets the sea" and a guide for Integrated Coastal Zone Management provided by SustainBaltic

ester.miiros — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 08:54:55 +0000

The aim of the SustainBaltic project was to ensure that sea-land interfaces would be preserved and further developed.

The challenge was tackled by defining the most crucial planning criteria. What needs to be considered when you want to create Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) plans?
The partner organisations gathered information about human activity, land use and nature areas in four case areas, two in Finland and two in Estonia. The areas are in total 6505 km2, and the total length of the Baltic Sea shoreline is around 280 km. In addition, another FIN case is located around 80 km along the river Kokemäenjoki.

During the first project year, the project integrated data from nature and human activities to present integrated human-ecological networks. Especially produced GIS information about environmental research projects and of participatory planning were utilised. Outcomes were visualised with thematic maps covering the Finnish and Estonian project areas.

During the second project year the Integrated Coastal Zone Management ICZM drafts were prepared for the case areas.
Different kind of interests were integrated in the preparation of the plans considering the sea-land interface (e.g. human and nature values, recreation areas, maintenance of blue-green networks, construction of housing). The plans were first tested and thereafter assessed by using both e-platforms and working group sessions of stakeholders and end users. Numerous local residents, stakeholders, and steering group members were involved in evaluating the drafts. The purpose was that all major stakeholders were represented with the power of giving feedback on the drafts in the participatory phase.

The new approach of SustainBaltic was the close co-working to define the most crucial ICZM planning criteria to be utilised and implemented further in Central Baltic Programme area. The project partners learnt from each other's experiences on different methodologies and shared the novel ones as land use zoning, ecosystem service approach in the spatial planning and map-based web surveys on the public evaluation of the draft plans. In addition, they became aware of different coastal land use traditions and different marine area-coastal planning rules between Finland and Estonia.

The e-guide shows a flowchart for regional level planners in the Central Baltic area.

The four plans differ from each other depending on local circumstances, regional development and the availability of data. The ICZMs act as a part of current regional plans and development programmes. The plans are ready for implementation and further development.

The implementation of the plans also points to the conclusion that the key features to consider when implementing socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable coastal and spatial plans are based on the diversification of the coastal land use. Entrepreneurial activity should be based on regional specificities and on careful management of the coastal nature. Respecting these principles enables the promotion of sustainable tourism.

After the project end, the plans are monitored by the Finnish regional councils and EST Ministry of Finance responsible for spatial planning in their areas.

The plans and the e-guide facilitate for similar approaches in other regions. The plans are both in English and in local languages.

The most useful communication activities to disseminate the work progress and achievements of the project seemed to be the face-to-face meetings with the local and regional stakeholders.

Tags:

Coastal management and maritime issues

Regional planning and development

Attachment:

ICZM_Läänemaa_case_Estonia.pdf

ICZM_Lääne-Viru_case_Estonia.pdf

ICZM_Satakunta_Coastal_Tourism_case_Finland.pdf

EST_Data-Integration_1.phase_.pdf

EST- HARA NEEME_Läänemaa-ICZM.pdf

EST-RANNIKUALA Lääne-Viru-ICZM (1).pdf

FIN_Data-Integration_1.phase_.pdf

FIN-Kestävän matkailus kehittäminen_Satakunta-ICZM.pdf

FIN-Kokemäenjoki ekosysteemipalvelut-ICZM.pdf

Leikola-ym. Tietopohja SustainBaltic-projektin alueiden valintaan-2018.pdf

Mononen-ym.-2018_Kokemäenjoki-ekosysteemipalvelut_FIN .pdf

Nordström-ym.-2018a_Satakunta-luontomatkailu-ja-virkistyskäyttökysely_FIN.pdf

Nordström-ym.-2018b_Kokemäenjokialueen-ihminen-ja-luonto-kysely_FIN.pdf

External link:

Application of Ecosystem Service Approach, EsA

Category:

Marine/coastal area with improved management

At a glance text:

AT A GLANCE

4 new Integrated Coastal Zone Management plans, integrating different kind of interests
Two in Estonia, two in Finland
Including more than 6500 km2
Strong stakeholder involvement
E-guide for planners

Project link:

ICZM Plans for Sustaining Coastal and Marine Human-ecological Networks in the Baltic Region

Baltic Urban Lab - Brownfield areas evolved

Ari Brozinski — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 06:50:29 +0000

Baltic Urban Lab created and tested new integrated planning and partnership models that help turn brownfield areas into smart and sustainable city districts. Brownfields are abandoned or underused areas that have previously been used for example by industry or military.

One of the new ways for planning is the public-private-people partnership (4P) approach. 4P improves the inclusion of various public sector actors, private actors, residents, NGOs and of civil-society actors in the planning processes through improved dialogue and common understanding of goals.

In total, the project created four integrated urban plans. The plans were piloted in the Itäharju brownfield triangle in Turku (Finland), areas around the Mukusalas street in Riga (Latvia), inner harbour area in Norrköping (Sweden) and the area around the Skoone Bastion in Tallinn (Estonia). In these areas, geological surveys, visualisation models, opinion surveys, risk-assessments and citizen involvement tools were developed, among other things.

Tags:

Urban Development

Regional planning and development

clustering and economic cooperation

Attachment:

Project Leaflet

Policy Brief: Making the most of brownfield sites in the Baltic Sea Region

Towards integrated and partnership-based planning of brownfield areas

Guide leaflet

Developing brownfields via public-private-people partnerships. Lessons learned from Baltic Urban Lab

Baltic Urban Lab definition for brownfields and recommedations for national level

Planning Systems and Legislation for Brownfield Development in the Central Baltic Countries

Nordregio Policy Brief: Redeveloping brownfields in the Central Baltic region

Public–Private–People Partnerships in Urban Planning

Category:

Urban area covered with integrated urban management

At a glance text:

Participatory spatial planning for brownfield areas
Four successful pilots
Policy brief to improve the planning process

Project link:

Baltic Urban Lab - Integrated Planning and Partnership Model for Brownfield Regeneration

Live Baltic Campus - participatory methods for urban planning

Elisa Bertieri — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 12:05:58 +0000

For quite sometime, cities have taken steps to include all actors in their urban planning process. Planning according to this principle presents many advantages; those who operate in the area, know their needs best and usually have relevant ideas on how to fulfill them. But what are the best methods to involve them in the process? Live Baltic Campus tested many different ones whilst developing their five integrated urban plans in the university campus areas of Helsinki, Riga, Tartu, Turku, and Uppsala.

The plans were realised based on the outcomes of four Livable City Forums, and several local events organised by the project. The five campuses around which the integrated plans were developed are:

- Helsinki, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Myllypuro Campus
- Riga, University of Latvia, new campus in Tornakalns neighborhood
- Tartu, University of Tartu
- Turku, University of Turku
- Uppsala, Uppsala University

The plan designs, based on the insights and ideas streaming from the participatory processes tested in each pilot area, resulted in the production of a Development Ideas Book, and in the Dream and Seeds Design process manual.

Tags:

Urban Development

Regional planning and development

clustering and economic cooperation

Attachment:

Helsinki Campus Integrated development plan

Riga Campus integrated development plan

Tartu Campus integrated development plan

Turku Campus integrated development plan

Uppsala Campus integrated development plan

Dreams and Seeds

External link: