Search

Stakeholders’ participation in addressing spatial planning problems remains a significant concern among scholars and planning practitioners. The communicative approach of planning support systems (PSS) aims to facilitate stakeholders’ engagement through interactive digital geospatial tools. Nonetheless, despite the growing offer of PSS, its uptake in practice is still low. The use of maptables for facilitating stakeholder engagement in planning processes is a contemporary approach that has shown benefits to the planning community regarding communication, interaction and collaboration. However, PS tools for these instruments are scarce. This research aimed at conceptualising, designing, and implementing an interactive, open-source planning support tool that fosters stakeholders’ engagement in collaborative spatial planning processes where maptables, digital horizontal large touch screens, are the central support instrument. For this purpose, we formulated three objectives: 1) to conceptualise, with its intended users, a PS tool for stakeholders’ engagement in collaborative planning processes, 2) to design and develop a PS tool for stakeholder engagement in collaborative planning processes in collaboration with its intended users, and 3) to implement a PS tool and evaluate its usability and usefulness during spatial planning processes in two case studies. Mixed methods from both social and computer sciences were applied. The conceptualisation is based on requirements gathered from state-of-the-art literature reviews, semi-structured user interviews, and user stories. The design and development of the PS tool with users combined HCD and Agile software development methods contextualised to collaborative planning, e.g., focus group, user stories, prototypes, and review meetings. Implementing the PS tool and its usability and usefulness evaluation utilised planning workshops, self-reported post-workshop questionnaires and open discussion. Intended users of the tool played a central role in its conceptualisation because they validated previously elicited, from-literature, user requirements and provided new ones. The resulting generic conceptualisation comprises components for mapping, analysis and space-time support. The mapping component accommodates data exploration and input, whereas the analytical component presents standard and problem-based functions of a PS tool. The first was referred to as often used in planning workshops assisted by maptables, and the second offers flexibility for tailored made functions according to the planning problem at stake. The space-time component deals with capabilities intended to support communication and interaction in two main settings, co-located and synchronous and remote and asynchronous. Building blocks of the conceptualisation serve as a comprehensive basis for developing a planning tool that provides interactivity and analytical support to be utilised in spatial planning processes with stakeholders. In the first case study, the conceptualized tool was developed and tested in a participatory budgeting process called Musrenbang in Indonesia. To do so, we produced working prototypes that were iteratively reviewed with users until reaching the required functionality to be tested in such a real-world setting, i.e., with users from villages in Sumatra-Indonesia. This case study focused on providing an easy-to-use tool that provides enough functionality to capture the local knowledge to produce village and development proposal maps. Users utilized the developed tool without assistance during the planning workshop and after a brief introduction. The user-reported usability evaluation showed that the iterative development process led to a usable tool, i.e., users rated its effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction positively. The tool was further advanced in the second case study that addressed participatory noise action planning processes. The research on this case study started during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic, and there were strict social distance restrictions to curb that pandemic. For this reason, we combined remote and face-to-face co-design methods. We also strengthened the user role in the design process by providing low-fidelity prototypes at the early stages of the design process. In addition to usability, the perceived usefulness was also evaluated in a noise action planning workshop conducted face-to-face and assisted with a maptable. The self-reported evaluation indicated that the developed tool was found usable and remarkably useful. Users provided feedback on how to advance the tool further and expressed their intention to adopt it in practice. To conclude, this research addressed with a systematic approach the conceptualization, design, development and implementation of a planning support tool to foster stakeholder engagement in collaborative planning processes supported with maptables. By doing so, we made contributions to the scientific, software engineering and planning practitioners communities. First, we produced a conceptualisation of a PS tool with its intended users and obtained evidence related to the link between co-designing with users and usability and usefulness of PS tools. Second, we extended the HCD workflow to include Agile methods and specific collaborative planning processes as context of use. The usability evaluation of such workflow was contextualised for PS tools. Third, we co-designed and developed a usable and useful open-source tool explicitly intended for maptables and incorporating analytical capabilities. The architecture of this tool is well-documented and available in a published scientific paper. Fourth, a set of community village maps were produced for two villages in Sumatra (Indonesia) and a workshop structure for NAP was provided. We also reflected in this dissertation about the relevance of the topics discussed, the limitations of the research and future work directions.

Post-reform China has experienced a huge influx of people into cities coupled with massive urban expansion. As a by-product of these processes, urban villages have emerged and evolved rapidly to satisfy the increasing demand for low-cost housing and a variety of social and economic activities. In many cities, the spatial growth of urban villages represents a large share of total urban growth and has significantly shaped the cities’ land use patterns and residential profiles. In this research, a theoretical and empirical analysis is carried out in order to understand the spatial evolution of all 320 urban villages in Shenzhen over the period 1999–2009. Using exploratory spatial data analysis, multivariate models, and spatial regimes models, this research finds that the growth of urban villages is organic and highly adaptive. Their evolution is driven by the planning and development of the formal city and its resulting social and spatial diversity, and is also linked to their location in the urban fabric. Five major findings have been identified. First, the physical and socioeconomic development of urban villages is the natural and logical response of the indigenous village population and the rural migrants in facing rapid economic development and social transition. Second, the development process of urban villages follows a general trajectory characterised by three distinct but overlapping phases (expansion, densification and intensification). Third, their growth is spatially clustered and their growth centres shift over time, following the diffusion of employment. Fourth, the development of urban villages is driven by the provision of jobs and accessibility to job locations, but it is also confined by physical and institutional constraints such as diminishing land availability and environmental protection plans. Fifth, land use of urban villages evolves and the resulting land use diversity reflects different local conditions for economic activities and development. These processes are found to be faster and more advanced in the central city than in the outer districts. The speed with which any specific village moves along the general development path varies according to its location in the city and its distinctive characteristics.

China’s dynamic urbanisation since 1978 has led to the proliferation of so-called ‘urban villages’ in many cities. Their development, via a self-help approach by indigenous villagers, delivers low-cost housing and various other social and economic activities. Consequently, urban villages are characterised by growing numbers of buildings and a mix of functions, including residential, industrial, commercial, and public services. These uses enable different activities in urban villages, assimilating migrants into the city by providing an alternative niche for working and living. Variations in land-use diversity in Shenzhen’s 318 urban villages were analysed using 2009 data, for more than 333 000 buildings. Four statistical models, including three based on a spatial regimes analysis, are used to explain their land-use diversity. The results reveal that an urban village’s land-use pattern is linked to its location in the urban fabric, its phase of development, and the development level of its environs. Different patterns are apparent inside and outside the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen, suggesting that the current uniform redevelopment policy for urban villages may not be appropriate. Keywords: urban village, chengzhongcun, land-use diversity, multifunctionality, Shenzhen

This thesis argues that incorporating pastoral land rights into the formal system requires identifying and securing pastoralists’ rights on migration corridors and dry season pastures in a manner that, first, reflects their customary practices about ‘where’ and ‘when’ they require access to the land, and second, aligning both the ‘when’ and the ‘where’ within the legal framework for property rights and land administration. This approach may facilitate the legal recognition of pastoralists’ seasonal mobility and access to required resources in the formal system. Legal empowerment also gives pastoralists the ability to use the formal law to enforce their land rights, thereby securing their access to required seasonal resources. The main objective of this thesis is to assess how pastoralists’ seasonal land rights could be accommodated within the legal framework for property rights in land administration. Focusing on Northern Kenya, the main objective was divided into four sub-objectives: 1. Investigate whether pastoralism is still active in Northern Kenya and how formal rights can meet the requirements of the pastoralists’ seasonal land use. 2. Understand how non-pastoralist land use actors manage seasonal encounters with migrating pastoralists. 3. Describe how seasonal migrations and access rights could be aligned and secured as rights that overlap with private rights, within the legal framework for property rights and land administration. 4. Assess what tenure options are potentially suitable for securing seasonal migrations and access rights within the legal framework for land administration. Each of these sub-objectives are analysed in Chapters 2 to 5. The chapters are based on a series of papers published in, or submitted to international peer-reviewed journals. Chapter 2 assesses how the existing land laws supporting property rights are able to serve the requirements of pastoralists’ seasonal land use. This chapter forms the basis for the thesis. Data on the degree of livestock dependency among pastoralist communities, the spatial extent and patterns of their dry season migrations, the resulting encounters between pastoralists and non-pastoralist land use actors, and the perceptions of land rights held by actors were collected through a variety of methods and analysed. The results show that pastoralism is still active. The migration corridors reveal that herders maintain extensive dry season mobility, even though some of the corridors currently overlap with areas where land is privately owned by non-pastoralist land use actors. Moreover, the results show that most non-pastoralist land use actors have their land rights registered, but seasonal encounters with migrating pastoralists persist as pastoralists continue to exercise customary rights of communal use. This chapter concludes that existing land laws and property rights in land administration are suitable for sedentary land use, but do not address how to serve pastoralists land rights in time and space. Also, the map of the pastoralist’s migration routes obtained indicated that it is possible to predict where pastoralists will be at a given time/drought period. This information could be used by decision makers as a foundation for including pastoralists’ spatiotemporal land rights in land administration. Chapter 3 looks at the consequences for migrating pastoralists of the adjudication to non-pastoralist land users of exclusive real property rights during the process of setting up a cadastre in a land administration. It examines how non-pastoralist land use actors manage encounters with migrating pastoralists who need to enter their land to follow their traditional migration routes. The results of empirical research show that only a small percentage of non-pastoralist land users are willing to negotiate access contracts with the pastoralists; further, the majority are unwilling to have access arrangements formalized in the process of Land Administration. As land is continuously being adjudicated, surveyed and allocated for private purposes, the imposition of statutory rights on pastoralists’ areas, including migration corridors, permanently cuts out and extinguishes pastoralists’ rights to mobility and their access to required resources. The concluding argument in this chapter is that land adjudication should identify and confer all existing land rights to all users in order to avoid obstruction or renegotiation of pastoralists’ access rights. Chapter 4 explored how pastoral seasonal land rights could be secured through registration as overlapping rights. An opinion survey of experts on pastoral land rights revealed the view that seasonal migrations can be supported, but that access to grazing should be subject to negotiation with landowners. This chapter argues against making access subject to personal agreements, stressing the risk of negotiations failing, mainly because negotiated agreements are only binding on the parties involved. To avoid the risk of failure to acquire access through negotiation, registration is proposed as a legal tool to ensure security of access. The adjudication process for conferring private rights on land should view pastoral rights as being dynamic, because they apply across different areas at different times. The chapter discusses the attributes of pastoral rights within the framework of managing property rights, restrictions and responsibilities (RRRs), and describes how spatiotemporal rights could be aligned and included in the legal system through registration. Chapter 5 explores the tenure options potentially suitable for securing and protecting migration corridors within the legal framework for property rights. It focuses on the various tenure options that allow access to and use of land in Kenya: statutory (ownership and non-ownership rights), government land, customary rights, open access and negotiations. The opinion survey of land professionals led to the conclusion that spatiotemporal land rights can be secured within the legal framework for property rights and that government land reserved for pastoral purposes is a promising tenure option for securing spatiotemporal land rights. Where customary rights have not already been extinguished, migration corridors could be secured as public roads (government land) and dry season grazing areas could be secured as reserved land for the purpose of seasonal grazing. This would give pastoralists limited rights of use on the government lands. Through registration, the limited rights are enforceable within the statutory system of land administration. Where customary rights have already been extinguished, realignment of migration corridors or the establishment of new corridors and grazing areas might be necessary to avoid pastoralists’ seasonal land rights overlapping with private tenures or other land uses. The last chapter reflects on the main outcomes of the thesis. It argues that legal provisions need to be provided to cater for pastoralists’ seasonal land rights on migration corridors and dry season grazing areas. This chapter emphasizes that registration of the seasonal land rights gives pastoralists legal protection of their land rights and thus security of access to seasonal use of the land.