Background
There are clear guidelines to reduce urban sprawl in Norwegian municipalities. This should help reduce transportation needs, traffic volumes, and land use, and make cities and towns more attractive, lively, inclusive, and just. It also promotes more walking and cycling, which improves public health. However, urban sprawl is ongoing in most cities and municipalities. Urban sprawl is car-dependent land development with low density on the outskirts of urban and town areas.
Objectives
The project aims to develop and build knowledge about why urban sprawl occurs, who benefits and loses from this, and whether the processes and outcomes are socially just. This knowledge will enable municipalities to better manage land development in ways that create more socially just cities and urban regions, while reducing energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and land use. This will benefit both present and future generations.
About the project
The project will investigate processes and plans that guide land development towards urban sprawl in Lillestrøm, Ullensaker, and Tromsø. Through studies of planning and decision documents and interviews with professionals and politicians, the project seeks to answer two main questions.
The first main question is whether planning and decision-making processes resulting in approval of urban sprawl are socially fair in terms of:
- who is involved.
- whose interests are considered and safeguarded.
- who benefits and loses from the decisions allowing urban sprawl.
The second main question is why plans are made and decisions are taken that contribute to urban sprawl. We pose three main questions here:
- Goals and goal conflicts: Is urban sprawl perceived as more socially just than compact urban development, leading to climate/environment and social justice being seen as conflicting goals in discussions about urban sprawl?
- Knowledge and arguments: Is social justice used as an argument to allow urban sprawl, and if so, by whom? Are these arguments in line with research-based knowledge?
- Power: Who has and uses power to ensure urban sprawl is allowed, who are the dissenting voices that are unheard, and how legitimate and socially fair is this?
Collaboration
The project is led by the Institute of Transport Economics (TØI) and is carried out in collaboration with the Directorate of Health, Lillestrøm and Ullensaker municipalities, Viken County Municipality, and A-lab.
Duration
The project runs from May 2021 to December 2024.