Integration approaches in local planning processes to achieve more environmentally friendly mobility
[Thesis]
Schulz, Sabine
Cardiff University
2016
Ph.D.
Cardiff University
2016
This research is concerned with mobility related planning and policy making processes in the context of sustainable urban development. Understanding and assessing integration approaches within these planning processes is the objective of this thesis. The research focuses at the local planning level. As spatial and transport planning is covered by national and European policy regulation, the impact of higher political and planning levels in a multi-level governance system has been taken into consideration. The research strategy applied is a case study approach; specifically, the city of Leipzig which is located in East Germany. Since the late 1980s, in the context of the emerging sustainability debate and the end of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), a special planning environment has developed in East Germany. It is characterised by a crossparty and population wide request for environmental objectives in planning agendas. The research aims to make a contribution to integration debates in planning processes, investigates whether and how integration works, and moreover how this contributes to sustainable urban development. The research focuses on three integration approaches prominent in current debates on urban planning and explores how they influence local level planning processes that are related to mobility. The three integration approaches are environmental policy integration (EPI), departmental integration (DI) and stakeholder integration (SI). The objective of this research project is to contribute to the body of knowledge in the fields of environmental policy integration, departmental integration in planning, and sustainable urban development. The research will help to understand whether and how these integration approaches can encourage a stronger focus on environmental objectives, more long term solutions in planning, and a focus on eco-mobility. The strategy of enquiry applied to this research is a case study. The analytical framework is formed by a multi-methods approach. In order to answer the research questions the following methods are applied: semi-structured expert interviews and the analysis of secondary qualitative and quantitative data. The data is collected at different political and planning levels to be able to reflect on the variety of influences. The mix of multiple sources of evidence (triangulation) enhances the validation of the results. The thesis provides an in-depth analysis of planning policies and planning processes with respect to EPI at the local level. It demonstrates that high levels of EPI, DI and SI can be achieved within mobility related planning, but that various supporting elements as well as obstacles have a significant influence on the level of the three integration approaches.