Dallinga, Karsten (2022) Spatial quality in area-oriented road infrastructure projects: The effectiveness of procedural arrangements. Master thesis.
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Abstract
In the Netherlands, area-oriented approaches imply a coherent approach that incorporates the development of the planning area as a whole, proactively combining land use functions and road infrastructure planning. The external integration of the land use planning sector, with the infrastructure and transport planning sector has caused that procedural arrangements are being continuously updated to facilitate area-oriented approaches in reaching integrated objectives, including spatial quality ambitions. This continuous updating of these procedural arrangements in combination with the difficulty of governments to reach spatial quality ambitions, suggests the need for effective procedural arrangements. However, research on the effectiveness of these procedural arrangements to reach spatial quality ambitions is still lacking. This thesis bridges this research gap by investigating how effective current procedural arrangements are in reaching spatial quality ambitions. The aim is to gain insight into how effective current procedural arrangements are in reaching spatial quality ambitions in area-oriented road infrastructure projects in the Netherlands. This thesis draws on theories of effectiveness using the concepts of conformance and performance, and policy design fit, within the realm of spatial planning. The combination of conformance and performance approaches to effectiveness, and policy design effectiveness, provide an insight in the degree to which a desired result is achieved using these procedural arrangements, whilst simultaneously understanding the influence of procedural arrangements during the process of achieving this result. Consequently, a single in-depth case study was employed. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews and a document analysis to collect and analyse the data. Findings show a presence of policy design effectiveness, a presence of conformance effectiveness, but an absence of performance effectiveness. Procedural arrangements are thus effective the attainment of spatial quality ambitions. However, procedural arrangements did not directly support actors in understanding and addressing problems regarding spatial quality. Suggesting that performance effectiveness does not have to be reached in order to achieve conformance effectiveness. This implies that there is some level of coordination between the parties and actors involved to ensure the decision-making processes are aligned with the procedural arrangements. Furthermore, spatial quality is often considered as a side-issue. Therefore, there first has to be a willingness to invest in spatial quality, in order to include it in projects. This implies that the effectiveness of procedural arrangements regarding the attainment of spatial quality ambitions is dependent on (political) decision-making that is not influenced by the mix of procedural arrangements. Recommendations include (1) to potentially integrate stakeholders earlier into RWS projects, (2) increase the awareness of the need for area-oriented approaches by spatial planning practitioners, and (3) synchronise the perceived imbalance between the Framework for Spatial Quality and Design and the Framework for Road Design of RWS.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Degree programme: | Environmental & Infrastructure Planning |
| Supervisor: | Neef, M.R. |
| Date Deposited: | 12 May 2022 07:44 |
| Last Modified: | 12 May 2022 07:44 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3820 |
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