Planning the Liveable Compact City: A study on policy and planners' depictions of liveability and the compact city

Abstract

The liveability in numerous Dutch cities is under pressure, with decreasing social cohesion and feelings of unsafety. Representatives of these cities now warn the Dutch Minister of Housing to take liveability issues seriously in urban developments and urban planning policy. However, liveability is a broad and complex concept, which is difficult to ‘’just’’ integrate in urban planning frameworks. Next, the concept of the compact city has been a key concept in this research, as liveability in the compact city is central to debate in the academic literature. Therefore, this study has examined the concepts of liveability and the compact city, and how these concepts are depicted and translated into urban planning frameworks. With a case study on the future neighborhood of Rijnenburg, this study has examined how this debate is seen in practice. This qualitative study was conducted with an analysis of eleven policy documents from the Dutch government and municipality of Utrecht. Additionally, four experts with different expertise in the f ield of urban planning have been interviewed in order to answer the main question. This study has revealed that the diverse and broad depictions of these concepts make it difficult to translate them into actual policy. It has been discovered that especially the Dutch government has no clear strategy in planning for liveable cities. Furthermore, planning the liveable compact city has been seen as challenging, due to the often abstract, context and time-dependent nature of liveability, as well as the Dutch focus on the physical aspect of urban developments. To address these issues even further, it is recommended to do more research on specific components of liveability, as it requires even more in-depth examination to address the complexity of this concept. This could also lead to more concrete policy recommendations. Lastly, this study argues that the Dutch government cannot address the complexity of planning for liveable places with sectoral thinking and recommends creating integrated, collaborative policies with different institutions to foster liveability in Dutch cities.