Ecological quality in cities: The organisation and co-ordination of environmental policy and urban planning at the local level

Abstract

The maintained hypothesis underpinning this study is that urban development and local environmental quality are in a long-run feedback relationship. The question arises in this context to which extent the institutional framework as well as the daily planning and policy- making routines are organised accordingly. The study relies on case-studies undertaken in 10 urban regions in Europe and the U.S. The first part of the contribution provides a comparison of different approaches to organise environmental policy and the role the local level plays (institutional framework). Different types of organisation within a country (the range of possibilities reaching from completely centralised systems, with practically no involvement of the local institutions to a completely decentralised, purely local policy system) and within a city’s administration are identified. The pros and cons as seen by the interviewed experts are discussed.

Keywords

• environmental policy tools
• environmental quality
• local government tier
• urban development