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Forward Thinking Issue 3, December 2008
In this issue:
Editorial
Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.
- Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen, Finnish Architect, 1873-1950
Talbot Park, HNZC, Auckland - policy and design in context.
Good LIUDD (Low Impact Urban Design and Development) is not about ticking boxes. Good LIUDD depends on knowing what you want to achieve and then finding a way to make it happen. It is about overall practice, not devices; principles, not rules. This issue of Forward Thinking looks at how starting from principles helps puts good LIUDD into policy and practice.
Creating good LIUDD means carefully considering not only place and space, but also long-term needs and available resources. Our research shows this discourages some, but that having guidelines and comparing how others work out their problems can help it happen. In this issue we look at recent research outlining a smart system checklist to help clarify broad LIUDD design, operation and maintenance elements. We talk about the case studies portal, a website resource profiling many LIUDD projects. By linking both process and technical aspects, the portal inspires, informs and promotes networking. We highlight work showing how policy puts LIUDD in place, with people and passion as the major driving tools. We announce the upcoming LIUDD road show, travelling throughout the country in 2009, where people from a range of disciplines share LIUDD experiences through seminars and safaris.
Considering context is the key to good LIUDD - applying well thought-out practices and principles to suit situations, and having people who will make it happen over time. We hope this practice-packed issue helps you plan good LIUDD, and look forward to seeing you at the seminars and safaris.
Michael Krausse, Landcare Research, & Jenny Dixon, University of Auckland
Good LIUDD – ways and means
Kapiti District Council and Waterstone Pritchard Group - defining responsibility early.
Taking on responsibility for LIUDD infrastructure can be daunting. So daunting that researchers find it can act as barrier for putting LIUDD in place. But by planning ahead, responsibilities for operation and maintenance can be clearly identified so all involved know what they are in for.
In a previous issue of Forward Thinking, we examined Jenny Dixon’s research on private ownership of LIUDD infrastructure, showing landowners and occupiers need specific information on their responsibilities during purchase or lease so operation and maintenance are accounted for. Clarity about who will become responsible for the maintenance of private LIUDD devices, and how this will be monitored, recorded and supported is essential to making devices work as planned. Although the transfer of LIUDD infrastructure to public agencies should be more straightforward, the handover process is not always clear, simple or efficient.
Recent research for the University of Auckland by urban ecologist Jane Puddephatt and sustainability strategist Viv Heslop resulted in a checklist to help create smart systems for LIUDD design and ongoing operation and maintenance. “Providing ease and efficiency of maintenance at the design stage, then clarity about who is responsible for maintenance and operation makes LIUDD more achievable,” Jane explains.
The researchers worked through national and international examples, identifying elements that make for smart systems. The comprehensive checklist covers four main elements: the design process; responsibility for operation and maintenance; mechanisms to ensure ongoing operation and maintenance; and support for implementation. “By setting out a checklist from the beginning, not only does the project seem more manageable” Jane says, “but it is clearly set out for all associated with the project over time.”
The checklist provides those involved in LIUDD with key issues to consider when looking at individual LIUDD projects. Within each element, detailed sections outline discussions and considerations to avoid stumbling blocks. Research, examples and templates from other organisations are given to help compare and contrast different needs. Because every LIUDD situation is unique, the checklist is broad enough to allow tailor-made application for specific cases. “The way LIUDD devices are designed and constructed directly affects how easily they are managed afterwards,” Jane says. “By using an integrated approach from the outset, challenges can be addressed early on and overcome.”
The next step is to create a series of case studies illustrating how considerations in the checklist have been implemented. The researchers say the wealth of experience and resources for case studies will help those seeking to create good long term LIUDD projects.
Links
- Previous story by Jenny Dixon on individual responsibilities of LIUDD
- Research paper by Jane Puddephatt and Viv Heslop: Guidance on an integrated process for designing, operating and maintaining low impact urban design and development devices
Case at hand
When trying to put LIUDD into practice, you want to get the ball rolling, but may not know how you'll make it work.
Before you even think about making it happen, you need to know what is already out there. What's on the ground and working. The LIUDD case studies portal offers real LIUDD ideas implemented by real groups and people.
LIUDD is no one-size-fits-all concept - timing, place, space and people all affect what works best. The first step to making LIUDD work and keep working is to know what your aim is. Seeing what others have done can help this decision making process - sharing their experience and resources, learning from their lessons, comparing it to your own situation. Mike Krausse, Team Leader of the LIUDD programme describes the LIUDD process as a development approach with a series of overarching principles, starting with what you aim to achieve. He also recognises this can make people wonder where to start, so he recommends using the case study portal as a reference point and for inspiration.
"LIUDD is not a pick and mix of practices - it needs to be approached as an ongoing process," Krausse says. "The case studies portal features diverse LIUDD cases. People can get a feel for what is possible - from subdivision design to community catchment regeneration, and from policy development to rain garden performance." Good LIUDD covers a range of scales in time and space - from long term policy to specific site management, from whole catchments to individual lots - and multiple processes such as plan changes, community engagement, infrastructure redevelopment, intensification of use, and stormwater management. Using the portal helps identify what scales and processes apply.
The case studies also show up common success factors. "Although each situation may have unique needs, the portal emphasizes consistent principles and frameworks that make for good LIUDD," Krausse says. LIUDD projects featured on the portal describe context, strategic and project approach, technical innovations, outcomes to date and key lessons. Each also has maps, references and contact information, as well as links to similar projects to compare and contrast projects.
A forum is set up to promote ongoing discussion and all, from institutions, regulators researchers, business, community to individuals, are encouraged to use the resource. The portal already showcases 35 New Zealand examples of LIUDD practice including work from Councils, developers, industry and community groups, and expands as groups and individuals contribute their work. So when you can't visualize your big picture, go to the portal to see LIUDD in action.
- http://cs.synergine.com/ The case studies are currently residing here.
Making policy a happening thing
"Policy doesn't make things happen," argues Jane Puddephatt, urban ecologist with MWH. "People, passion and problems do." She backs this with research on how policy affects the uptake of LIUDD. By comparing successful overseas examples, Puddephatt recognised policy alone cannot deliver outcomes - needs, implementation, knowledge and skills are required.
On behalf of the University of Auckland, Auckland Regional Council and Christchurch City Council, Jane and sustainability strategist Viv Heslop examined national and international policy mechanisms to see how they encouraged the uptake of LIUDD. "Local government agencies in New Zealand are looking for innovative ways to encourage LIUDD," Jane explains. "With many regional and local plans needing to be reviewed in coming years, the timing is perfect to use policy instruments to encourage uptake." In this case, policy instruments means tools, such as rules, education and economic incentives, and processes to support these tools, such as organisational processes and programmes.
International experiences illustrated successful policy instruments ranging from the cooperative such as support, to incentives encouraging innovation, to the coercive and prescriptive, to punative regulation directing activity. Jane and Viv discovered a range of instruments could be combined. Context and drivers influence what mix works particularly well. Specific needs - whether local, national, or political - drive processes. Processes happen when they are supported by a number of the right people. "Not only did need affect the adoption of specific instruments, but having people to drive it really made the difference," Jane says.
They defined key people-elements as enabling factors. Enabling factors that create working LIUDD policy include knowledge, staff resources and support, visionary leaders, networks - professional and community - and flexibility. These enabling factors not only work during creation and formation of policy, but after enactment, continuing to support shifts in LIUDD practice. "Change in practice happens when you have ongoing enabling factors," Viv says, "and this was the missing link for what we do here, compared to what they are doing well overseas."
Viv and Jane also stress the importance of context. Enabling factors help recognise local issues as well as capacity and industry opportunities, and affects what policy mix will work well over time and space. "People plus policy plus processes equal capacity," Viv explains. Crucial to success, they both agree, is transitioning. Capacity is not about transformation, rather, it is about practice evolving to create sustainable outcomes for places and people.
Policy Instruments identified in scoping report
Jane Puddephatt and Viv Heslop identified a range of policy instruments, from cooperative to coercive, that have been applied in different locations, depending on local drivers of LIUDD:
| Policy instrument | Potential outcomes |
| Design flexibility | encourage innovation |
| LIUDD stormwater modelling credits | offset the need for downstream infrastructure investment |
| Density bonuses and development incentives | allowances for other planning restrictions by providing LIUDD elements |
| Technical advisory service | provided free, for local government and development industry to offer specialised service and to support consent applications |
| Fast track permitting and reduced permit fees | to ensure inclusion of LIUDD elements do not hold up applications |
| Reduced user fees | for example, reduced water use charges for commercial and residential developments to encourage use of onsite techniques |
| Stormwater offsets and credit trading | economic incentives to meet LIUDD targets |
| Financial assistance and capacity building | improve skills, knowledge and expertise, both community and wider, to support implementation |
| Regulations | prescriptive standards, in general put in place following encouragement of voluntary uptake |
Links
- Presentation to the New Zealand Planning Institute Conference in Greymouth, April 2008, Viv Heslop and Jane Puddephatt.
- Report on policy instruments to promote uptake of LIUDD, December 2007, Jane Puddephatt and Viv Heslop.
Our journey/Our stories
People live in the places we create – Waitangi Park, Wellington
The LIUDD programme researchers are going on the road. They invite you to come to their safari and seminar sessions to network, enjoy audience participation, and steal ideas. Each stop-off point has a two-day session with a specific theme. Each session starts with an out-and-about safari day to check out LIUDD in practice, followed the next day by presentations from researchers on key learning from their six year journey. The research perspectives will come from sociologists, planners, engineers, biologists, ecologists, indigenous cultural advisors, economists, and conservationists - a rich array covering the depth, breadth and width of LIUDD concepts.
Sustainability strategist Viv Heslop and Clare Feeney from Environment and Business Group have been running LIUDD workshops for a few years now and say they've seen relationships, knowledge and tangible outputs flourish. "There's something special about getting people together," Feeney says. "You can't beat face-to-face contact for building support and innovation." Earlier this year Viv and Jane Puddephatt from MWH had engineers fully entertained at the INGENIUM annual conference in Gisborne. Anyone who has seen Viv in action knows she cracks a fast pace and fully enjoys sessions. "It was a blast," she says. "People think policy will be as dry as dust, but having experts working at the coal face of design and development join forces and bang ideas around produces amazing results."
The road trip kicks off in Hastings in February with a workshop making the case for LIUDD for those just getting interested. It moves to Wellington in April focusing on getting the policy framework right, featuring proactive local authorities who are already heading down the LIUDD path. In May the team arrive in Tauranga to highlight issues and solutions for applying LIUDD in greenfield development. The team hit Auckland in July to talk about opportunities for LIUDD in intensification and redevelopment. In August they head south to Christchurch to share ideas about how to drive change within professions and organisations.
Celia Bowles, Engineering Technologist with Tauranga City Council looks forward to hosting the Tauranga greenfield session. "There is growing interest in LIUDD in the Bay of Plenty," she says, "so having the roadshow on our doorstep will be a great chance to talk about ways to put it into practice." Viv is confident the safari and seminar sessions will enhance LIUDD networks and knowledge for attendees and presenters alike. She says interest in LIUDD is strong and growing. "People on the phone to me all the time now, wanting to know how to make it happen. The sessions are where we can all share our stories."
- More on Viv Heslop and Jane Puddephat's award winning INGENIUM presentation in Gisborne, June 2008. Full presentation here.
- To register for Our Journeys/Our Stories seminars and safaris, email Robyn Hutchinson at hutchisonr@landcareresearch.co.nz, or phone her on +64-3-3219829.
Seminars and Safaris
The 2008 Low Impact Urban Design and Development seminars and safaris
Refer to LIUDD website news for programme details as they continue to be updated.
| February | April | May | June | August |
| Building the case for LIUDD | Framing Policy | Glorious greenfields | It's intense | Driving change |
Hastings |
Wellington |
Tauranga |
Auckland |
Christchurch |
Safari on 19th |
Kapiti safari on 2nd |
Safari on 21st |
Safari on 24th Seminar on 25th |
Safari on 13th Workshop on 14th |
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