Urban Planning & Environmental Design Policy

What is the state of the research on crowdsourcing for policymaking? This article begins to answer this question by collecting, categorizing, and situating an extensive body of the extant research investigating policy crowdsourcing, within a new framework built on fundamental typologies from each field. We first define seven universal characteristics of the three general crowdsourcing techniques (virtual labor markets, tournament crowdsourcing, open collaboration), to examine the relative trade-offs of each modality. We then compare these three types of crowdsourcing to the different stages of the policy cycle, in order to situate the literature spanning both domains. We finally discuss research trends in crowdsourcing for public policy and highlight the research gaps and overlaps in the literature.

Effective policy mixes are expected to accommodate uncertainties in the future policy context by being flexible and adapt over time in expectation of a range of anticipated and unanticipated conditions. In response to shifts in the future policy context, while policy changes can manifest as increments to status quo over time, policymakers may also need to face the possibility of making major policy shifts to enable the transition into more appropriate policy regimes. In the context of socio-technical transitions, the switch to new policy alternatives can be facilitated by incorporating new policy actions into the suite of current policy strategies early on, which can also help accommodate the long lead-times on some decisions and actions. This paper is a conceptual piece that focuses on integrating policy design thinking into the crafting of conscious policy choices and mixes to enable socio-technical transitions while considering the likely changes in the future policy context.

Can Crowdsourcing be used for policy? Previous work posits that the three types of Crowdsourcing have different levels of potential usefulness when applied to the various stages of the policy cycle. In this paper, we build upon this exploratory work by categorizing the extant research with respect to Crowdsourcing for the policy cycle. Premised upon our analysis, we thereafter discuss the trends, highlight the gaps, and suggest some approaches to empirically validate the application of Crowdsourcing to the policy cycle.

According to the World Bank Group Emissions Matrix (2014) Costa Rica, along with
Mexico and Panama, has the highest CO2 emissions in Latin America.That being
said, Costa Rica’s National Decarbonisation Plan (Commitment of the Bicentennial
Government) goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. As part of the efforts,
the ‘7th National Energy Plan’ (2015-2030) proposes to increase energy efficiency
and introduce low-carbon emission transport (Graham Research Institute of Climate
Change and the Environment, 2015).
According to the UN Environment Document Repository Home papers however, the
most significant anthropogenic pollutants in Costa Rica derive not only from transport,
but also construction materials, open burning of agricultural waste and biomass.
These factors are particularly relevant for neighbourhoods with informal settlements,
no infrastructure and low-income families. Along the current and planned policies
for introducing sustainable transportation and energy, environmental urban design
strategies are necessary to help disperse current air pollution, particularly in high density areas.
In the view of the above issues, this research investigates alternative organisation of
spaces within informal dense areas that promote air pollution dispersion. Furthermore, it aims to highlight the importance of such settlements in using the principles of environmental design as a way of the community to self-initiate urban interventions.
The scope involves fieldwork and computational simulations on proposed design
options in order to create a dialog and guidance for areas with similar climate and
density to adopt those methods successfully.

Abstract Two important challenges in policy design are better understanding of the design space and consideration of the temporal factors. Moreover, in recent years it has been demonstrated that understanding the complex interactions of policy measures can play an important role in policy design and analysis. In this paper, the advances made in conceptualization and application of networks to policy design in the past decade are highlighted. Specifically, the use of a network-centric policy design approach in better understanding the design space and temporal consequences of design choices are presented. Network-centric policy design approach has been used in classification, visualization, and analysis of the relations among policy measures as well as ranking of policy measures using their internal properties and interactions, and conducting sensitivity analysis using Monte Carlo simulations. Furthermore, through use of a decision support system, network-centric approach facilitates ranking, visualization, and selection of policies using different sets of criteria, and exploring the potential for compromise in policy formulation. The advantage of the network-centric approach is providing the ability to go beyond visualizations and analysis of policies and piecemeal use of network concepts as a
tool for different policy design tasks to moving to a more integrated bottom–up approach to design. Furthermore, the computational advantages of the network-centric policy design in considering temporal factors such as policy sequencing and addressing issues such as layering, drift, policy failure, and delay are presented. Finally, some of the current challenges of network-centric design are discussed, and some potential avenues of exploration in policy design through use of computational methodologies, as well as possible integration with approaches from other disciplines, are highlighted.

This paper contributes to a critical understanding of the production of space through an exploration of notable spatial moments in the 1990s work of the Central Manchester Development Corporation (CMDC), particularly its role in the creation of new public space. Henri Lefebvre's ideas regarding the production of urban space provide rigorous theoretical grounding for the empirical research. Two chronologically overlapping 20th century discourses: the inner city urban policy discourse from the 1960s and the modernist city planning discourse that peaked in the era of technological optimism after World War Two are shown to be vital for a critical understanding of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) regime. The paper unravels the as yet unproblematised origins of UDCs and CMDC and shows how the reorientation of the 1960s Urban Programme by the Labour government laid the ground for some of the subsequent Conservative government's urban policy shifts. New evidence from archival sources, supplemented by interviews with key informants, is presented which challenges and disrupts some conventional wisdoms regarding UDCs and CMDC. Research findings point to the crucial role of CMDC in stimulating the creation of significant new public spaces akin to differential space, which remain of great importance for Manchester. CMDC's deployment of large scale resources compounded the spatial practice of the previous decade leading to the production of unanticipated public space potentials and the politicised appropriation of urban space. In closing, the paper highlights the unintended and inadvertent legacies of the CMDC for public space in the 2000s.

Crowdsourcing is rapidly evolving and applied in situations where ideas, labour, opinion or expertise of large groups of people are used. Crowdsourcing is now used in various policy-making initiatives; however, this use has usually focused on open collaboration platforms and specific stages of the policy process, such as agenda-setting and policy evaluations. Other forms of crowdsourcing have been neglected in policy-making, with a few exceptions. This article examines crowdsourcing as a tool for policy-making, and explores the nuances of the technology and its use and implications for different stages of the policy process. The article addresses questions surrounding the role of crowdsourcing and whether it can be considered as a policy tool or as a technological enabler and investigates the current trends and future directions of crowdsourcing.

Abstract

This paper discusses the link between economic growth and human development. Economic growth and human development move together and both the variables are reinforcing mutually  in the long run. However, economic growth does not translate into human development automatically. Different states in India differ in their human development efficiency or how effectively they translate their income into human development. Within Indian states, diverse pattern of human development and economic growth are noticed. In some of the states both are moving hand in hand, but in some others, economic growth is not being explained into human development. While economic growth is generally found positively affecting several human development indicators, still it cannot be stated that economic growth will invariably and automatically translate to human development.  This paper explores the links between economic growth and human development, identifying two way relationship, one from economic growth to human development, and the other, conversely, from human development to economic growth with the special perspective of Indian states. The paper tries to find out the reasons why growth is not being proportionately translated in human development in different states of India. The paper analyses several reasons like political freedom, cultural aspects and environmental issues responsible for non conversion of income into human development.  The report makes several suggestions and recommendations for strengthening the conversion of growth in to human development. 



Key words: Economic growth, Human development.

The formulation of policies requires the selection and configuration of effective and acceptable courses of action to reach explicit goals. A one-size-fits-all policy is unlikely to achieve the desired goals; as a result, the identification of a suite of alternative policies, together with clear indications of their trade-offs, is crucial to accommodate the diversity of stakeholders’ preferences. At present, the formulation of transport policies is done manually; this fact, together with the size of the space of possible policies, results in a large part of that space being left unexplored. A six-step framework to explore the space of alternative transport policies in order to achieve environmental targets is proposed. The process starts with a user-defined set of specific policy measures, using them as building blocks in the generation of alternative policy packages, clusters and future images according to the user's preferences and goals.The analysis framework is based on the visioning and backcasting approach used in the VIBAT report [Banister, D., & Hickman, R. (2006a). Visioning and backcasting for UK transport policy (VIBAT) project. Department for Transport's Horizons Research Programme 2004/06. The Bartlett school of planning and Halcrow Group Ltd. Retrieved 1/18/2008 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/∼ucft696/vibat2.html]. The framework is being implemented as a prototype decision support system around a case study: the formulation and analysis of policies required to achieve CO2 emission targets for the transport sector in the UK. Important insights on how to develop the framework have also been elicited from engineering design. The goal is to accelerate the task of policy-making and improve the effectiveness of the resulting policies.The proposed method and computer implementation is fundamentally different from the tools commonly used in the transport sector and is intended to assist (not replace) transport policy makers, and complement (not substitute nor compete with) existing mathematical modelling tools. This research constitutes the first step towards the development of a general family of computer-based systems that support the design of policies to achieve environmental targets—not only for transport, but also for other sectors such as energy and water.

"Abstract. In addressing various policy problems, deciding which policy measure to start with given the range of measures available is challenging and essentially involves a process of ranking the alternatives, commonly done using multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques. In this paper a new methodology for analysis and ranking of policy measures is introduced which combines network analysis and MCDA tools. This methodology not only considers the internal properties of the measures but also their interactions with other potential measures. Consideration of such interactions provides additional insights into the process of policy formulation and can help domain experts and policy makers to better assess the policy measures and to understand the complexities involved. This new methodology is applied in this paper to the formulation of a policy to increase walking and cycling.

Keywords: policy formulation, network analysis, multiple-criteria decision analysis, transport policy, walking and cycling"

The increased complexity in our socio-economical systems requires the development of new tools to support a better understanding of the intricacies involved in addressing problems associated with such systems.  We believe that by introducing a systematic approach for exploring alternative policies we can improve the decomposition of these problems, decrease the required time for analysis and formulate more effective polices.  A case in policy formulation and analysis in the transport sector for achieving CO2 emission targets in the UK is presented; this solution is based on a previously proposed framework (Taeihagh et al., 2009a).  The results obtained from the analysis of policy measures and their relations are used in the formulation of policy alternatives (packages and clusters) through the application of agent-based modelling.  The results have the potential to further promote the use of computational approaches in the formulation of polices through the development of software systems that can support the design of policies for different sectors and geographical scopes.