In an interview with Lovisa Westblom, project coordinator of the JPI Urban Europe funded project CIVIC, JPI’s Klara Broms Seving discussed the importance of understanding all stakeholders’ visions and perspectives to increase sustainability in urban construction projects.
This can be a tough task for many projects, however, CIVIC gave it a go and has come up with the unconventional idea to launch a game.
What was the CIVIC project about?
Simply put, the CIVIC project’s goal was to coordinate planning between public partners of construction projects and private construction contractors and developers on the necessary measures for mobility, livability and road safety. The economic upswing over the past few years and the growth in urban population has led to a higher demand for construction in cities.
Although this construction is needed and creates more attractive living areas, the transport activities related to it have negative impacts. This type of transport has been found to be one of the biggest challenges in improving substantiality. Apart from the environmental issues, poorly planned construction sites cause disruptions in mobility and livability complicating everyday life for a city’s residents.
Who will be able to use this information?
The main message with this project is that all parties involved in construction processes need to rethink and widen their perspectives in order to enhance sustainability. We believe they should be able to set higher requirements on issues related to construction logistics, for example, they should be able to state already in a land allocation that a coordination plan between involved actors is required.
Are the results ready to be implemented in real urban settings? If not, what else is needed in terms of research or test activities?
The CIVIC project team developed the Smart Governance Concept. The concept is a process of seven steps with which provides guidelines and tools for optimizing construction logistics. It is made up of tools and methods to overcome barriers within construction projects, starting with a strategy to mobilize joint action to create the shared sense of ownership needed to improve governance. The Smart Governance Concept is meant to be part of projects from the very beginning. As a means to implement this concept in cities, the MIMIC project has been initialized. MIMIC wants to demonstrate how smart governance concepts can be used as an aid in the construction and city planning processes to facilitate and support logistics to, from and on urban construction sites.
What are the most interesting results from the project?
During the project, we have realized that in order to actualize our visions, knowledge about construction logistics must be improved first. That is why we have developed the construction logistics game. The game is a simple form to gather stakeholders and raise awareness of how different parties can look at building logistics.
Read the full interview with Lovisa Westblom by JPI’s Klara Broms Seving here.