Towards More Equitable Urban Greening: A Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Co-Governance

Urban greening has grown in significance in Europe and worldwide as a presumed “public good” initiative, delivering a range of benefits for human health and wellbeing. To redress inequalities in the distribution of such benefits, attention has turned to the potential of collaborative governance. Ind...

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Main Authors: Eleanor Chapman, Viktor Bukovszki, Martina van Lierop, Silvia Tomasi, Stephan Pauleit
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cogitatio 2024-08-01
Series:Urban Planning
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/8184
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author Eleanor Chapman
Viktor Bukovszki
Martina van Lierop
Silvia Tomasi
Stephan Pauleit
author_facet Eleanor Chapman
Viktor Bukovszki
Martina van Lierop
Silvia Tomasi
Stephan Pauleit
author_sort Eleanor Chapman
collection DOAJ
description Urban greening has grown in significance in Europe and worldwide as a presumed “public good” initiative, delivering a range of benefits for human health and wellbeing. To redress inequalities in the distribution of such benefits, attention has turned to the potential of collaborative governance. Indicator-based frameworks have also begun to receive attention for their ability to monitor and evaluate not only the performance of greening interventions, but also the policies, practices, and norms that influence their planning and implementation, with a view to transforming governance arrangements. Extensive sets of indicators have been proposed in the literature; however, few studies have addressed the process of adapting monitoring frameworks to the limited resources and highly specific conditions of local government. We address this gap by providing an account of an early phase in developing and contextualising a framework to assess governance of urban greening in seven European cities. Following review of existing indicator sets and literature related to co-governing urban green space, we compiled a set of 126 indicators and clustered these according to normative principles underpinning successful co-governance. We then worked with city representatives to contextualise a subset of 80 indicators and link them to relevant objectives. We found that organising indicators according to principles and applying the criteria of relevance and feasibility was useful to make an abstract concept operational and to promote strategic thinking. However, we also found evidence of likely barriers to using indicators in practice, chief among them the limited agency of responsible staff, with implications for the potential to politicise indicators and thereby guide transformative change.
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spelling doaj-art-1e247ed04ec14400a3a3712a86718df12025-08-20T01:47:43ZengCogitatioUrban Planning2183-76352024-08-019010.17645/up.81843700Towards More Equitable Urban Greening: A Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Co-GovernanceEleanor Chapman0Viktor Bukovszki1Martina van Lierop2Silvia Tomasi3Stephan Pauleit4Chair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management, Technical University of Munich, GermanyChair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management, Technical University of Munich, Germany / ABUD Mérnökiroda, HungaryChair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management, Technical University of Munich, GermanyInstitute for Renewable Energy, Eurac Research, ItalyChair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management, Technical University of Munich, GermanyUrban greening has grown in significance in Europe and worldwide as a presumed “public good” initiative, delivering a range of benefits for human health and wellbeing. To redress inequalities in the distribution of such benefits, attention has turned to the potential of collaborative governance. Indicator-based frameworks have also begun to receive attention for their ability to monitor and evaluate not only the performance of greening interventions, but also the policies, practices, and norms that influence their planning and implementation, with a view to transforming governance arrangements. Extensive sets of indicators have been proposed in the literature; however, few studies have addressed the process of adapting monitoring frameworks to the limited resources and highly specific conditions of local government. We address this gap by providing an account of an early phase in developing and contextualising a framework to assess governance of urban greening in seven European cities. Following review of existing indicator sets and literature related to co-governing urban green space, we compiled a set of 126 indicators and clustered these according to normative principles underpinning successful co-governance. We then worked with city representatives to contextualise a subset of 80 indicators and link them to relevant objectives. We found that organising indicators according to principles and applying the criteria of relevance and feasibility was useful to make an abstract concept operational and to promote strategic thinking. However, we also found evidence of likely barriers to using indicators in practice, chief among them the limited agency of responsible staff, with implications for the potential to politicise indicators and thereby guide transformative change.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/8184collaborative governanceevaluationindicatorsjusticemonitoringtransformationurban greening
spellingShingle Eleanor Chapman
Viktor Bukovszki
Martina van Lierop
Silvia Tomasi
Stephan Pauleit
Towards More Equitable Urban Greening: A Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Co-Governance
Urban Planning
collaborative governance
evaluation
indicators
justice
monitoring
transformation
urban greening
title Towards More Equitable Urban Greening: A Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Co-Governance
title_full Towards More Equitable Urban Greening: A Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Co-Governance
title_fullStr Towards More Equitable Urban Greening: A Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Co-Governance
title_full_unstemmed Towards More Equitable Urban Greening: A Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Co-Governance
title_short Towards More Equitable Urban Greening: A Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Co-Governance
title_sort towards more equitable urban greening a framework for monitoring and evaluating co governance
topic collaborative governance
evaluation
indicators
justice
monitoring
transformation
urban greening
url https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/8184
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AT viktorbukovszki towardsmoreequitableurbangreeningaframeworkformonitoringandevaluatingcogovernance
AT martinavanlierop towardsmoreequitableurbangreeningaframeworkformonitoringandevaluatingcogovernance
AT silviatomasi towardsmoreequitableurbangreeningaframeworkformonitoringandevaluatingcogovernance
AT stephanpauleit towardsmoreequitableurbangreeningaframeworkformonitoringandevaluatingcogovernance