PhD defence: Maja Steen Møller

Maja Steen Møller defends her thesis,

How can place-based e-tools support urban green infrastructure governance?

Supervisors:
Associate Professor Anton Stahl Olafsson, IGN
Professor Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch, University of British Columbia - Canada

Assessment Committee:
Adjunt Professor Nora Fagerholm, Turku University - Finland
Research Leader Åsa Ode Sang, Swedish University of Agricultural Science - Sverige
Associate Professor Lone Søderkvist Kristensen (chair), IGN

Summary:
Urban nature is considered important in urban areas for various reasons including health, sense of community and other factors that improve the quality of life of urban dwellers. However, in order for this potential to be realized, it is important that nature areas are actually used by people and meet their demands. Research and policy have stressed the importance of engaging citizens in their local nature environments. This is believed to create a sense of ownership, empower citizens through social learning, increase social cohesion, enhance environmental awareness and increase the use of green spaces. Despite these advantages, getting people involved/engaged is not always easy.
The urban green infrastructure (UGI) concept is built upon the involvement of a range of actors in the process of governing urban green spaces in ways that are decentralized, networked, and participatory. There is a need for dialogue tools that can help to effectively and appropriately engage and empower local communities. Respect for the myriad views, values and visions that are represented in modern, diverse urban populations should be incorporated in such tools/approaches. Innovative ways have to be found that can provide a better knowledge base for decision-making. With the development of web 2.0 technologies, new opportunities for citizen and stakeholder engagement are emerging, adding new ways and perspectives to knowledge gathering, knowledge sharing, and the co-development of ideas and initiatives regarding urban green infrastructure planning and governance.
This thesis provides an overview of different types of e-tools related to UGI governance and goes in-depth in case studies on three different e-tools related to Scandinavian UGI governance. Furthermore, it investigates how crowd-sourced social media data can be used in UGI governance. The thesis concludes that even though many opportunities exist for using e-tools in participatory UGI governance, there is room for more research especially regarding the factors that influence citizens’ engagement in place-based UGI governance via place-based e-tools

The thesis is available for inspection at the PhD administration office 04.1.413 at Øster Voldgade 10