Sustainable Accessibility in the Randstad

Our group member, Marco (Drs. M.C.G. (Marco) te Brömmelstroet) recently did an interview with our Faculty communication department regarding the 2 new positions (Post Doc and PhD) awarded to the group by the NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research). The research consortium in which Marco will be a part of will involve other academic partners in researching sustainable accessibility within the Randstad as commissioned by the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.


Congratulations to Marco!


Excerpt from Site (in Dutch)
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Gepubliceerd op 1 december 2009

Het NWO-programma Duurzame Bereikbaarheid Randstad moet maatregelen opleveren die de duurzame bereikbaarheid van de Randstad op langere termijn kunnen garanderen

Een postdoc en een promovendus van de Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen werken mee aan interuniversitaire NWO-onderzoeksprogramma's die zijn gericht op de duurzame bereikbaarheid van de Randstad.

Het NWO-programma Duurzame Bereikbaarheid Randstad is een initiatief van het ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat. Het daagt de beste academische onderzoeksgroepen in Nederland uit hun visie te geven over maatregelen die de duurzame bereikbaarheid van de Randstad op langere termijn (2030 tot 2040) kunnen garanderen.

In de tweede ronde van het NWO-programma zijn drie projecten geselecteerd: Klimaatverandering en ruimtelijke ontwikkeling, Integrale duurzame bereikbaarheidsstrategiëen en Innovatief prijsbeleid voor duurzame mobiliteit. Voor het tweede project, waarin de mogelijkheden voor het verkleinen van autoafhankelijkheid in de Randstad worden bestudeerd, mag de FMG een promovendus aanleveren.

Erkenning voor de zachte kant van de wetenschap

Een FMG-postdoc gaat aan de slag in het onderzoeksprojectKlimaatverandering en ruimtelijke ontwikkeling. Naar alle waarschijnlijkheid is dat Marco te Brömmelstroet (afdeling Geografie, Planologie en Internationale Ontwikkelingsstudies), die eind maart zijn proefschrift verdedigt. Hij richt zich in zijn promotieonderzoek op ruimte- en mobiliteitsplanning en dan met name op de informatieoverdracht op dat gebied. ‘Er is nog vaak een hardnekkig, ideaal-typisch model van de wetenschap: de wetenschap levert kennis en modellen aan, en de praktijk gebruikt deze om gesignaleerde problemen op te lossen. Dat is in de praktijk niet het geval. Gebruikers en ontwikkelaars van kennis moeten met elkaar in dialoog komen en blijven om ervoor te zorgen dat de ontwikkelde kennis daadwerkelijk wordt ingezet. Zoals een Chinees spreekwoord zegt: Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I will understand.'
Te Brömmelstroet is blij dat NWO zijn bijdrage waardeert met een subsidie. ‘Onze onderzoeksgroep Planning, Institutions and Transforming richt zich op de "zachte" kant van de wetenschap zoals ik die net heb omschreven. Voorheen toonde NWO daar weinig belangstelling voor, maar het lijkt er nu op dat dat verandert. Die erkenning voor ons werk is een doorbraak.'

Auteur: Esther van Bochove, afdeling Communicatie FMG

How Governments Gets a Job Done

Papers and Presentations of Seminar

The draft papers of the scientific participants of the seminar on the changing role of Transport Models in Urban Planning Practice are published online. Also, all presentations can be found. Sadly, the video recordings failed to deliver useful output.

You can find everything by clicking on the title of this message!

Talk of the Town - Column Thomas

Dear Ruimte & Mobiliteit adepts,

This is the link (http://www.dezwijger.nl/page/7380/nl) to the 'talk of the town' meeting where I will read out a column about how a trip from Breda to Amsterdam will look like in 2040. The meeting is on november 17th and starts at 18.00 hrs.. It will be in Dutch. If you have any suggestions for my column let me know.

Best wishes,

Thomas

Changes in meeting dates

Hi everybody,

Today we had our first meeting ‘Ruimte en Mobiliteit’. To me it was quit successful. We did not decide to change the set-up, so I presume the others were satisfied as well. You can check out our blog for a short report of the meeting.

Next meeting is Friday October 30th from 12.00 - 14.00, as mentioned in the previous e-mail.
Last announcement: the fourth meeting, planned on January 8th, will be scheduled one week later: January 15th.

The date for the meeting after that is problematic; November 27th does not suit us. 
Suggestions are:
Tuesday 24 November (12.00 – 14.00)
Thursday 26 November (12.00 – 14.00)
Or Tuesday 1 December (after 13.00)

Please, let me know which date suit you.
Els

2nd October 2009 - Ruimte en Mobiliteit Meeting: Minutes and Presentation

The theme group concluded a successful first meeting to set up a structure for future discussions and meetings. See below for more details.

Agenda

11:30	Introduction
12:00	General Discussion
12:30	Lunch
12:45	Presentation (J. Soria Lara –  guest PhD)
13:00	Discussion: Reaction to JS Presentation
13:15	Readings Reflection / Questions

Aim of meetings to have regular and structured contact and exchanges within theme group to enhance research and educational coordination. Theme group might be level of focus in new organisational structure; with more autonomy, involved in both teaching and research. Future discussion points include educational matters and research. Meetings as forum for internal/external guests.

Please click following links to download (PDF)

Minutes (2nd October 2009)

Presentation: Mobility and environmental quality in metropolitan areas: The case of Granada by Julio Alberto Soria Lara. Guest PhD Candidate from University of Granada (Spain)

Trust, policy networks & institutional integration

Hi Everyone,

I've uploaded the following articles.

Klijn, Erik-Hans (2008). "It's the Management Stupid!, Over het belang van management bij complexe beleidsvraagstukken", oratie Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. Den Haag: Uitgeverij Lemma.

Edelenbos, Juriaan en Klijn, Erik-Hans (2007). "Trust in Complex Decision Making Networks: A Theoretical and Emperical Exploration", Adminstration and Society, 39(1), pp.25-50.

Curtis, C. and James, B. (2004) 'An institutional model for land use and transport integration', Urban Policy and Research, 22(3):277-297

The first two were sent out as background articles for the PMB Colloquium organised by Stan Majoor in April and the third is the paper about transport and land-use integration that I talked about yesterday. The second paper is the most relevant for my research.

Enjoy!

Meeting september 17th 2009

Thursday September the 17^th we’ve discussed the paper written by Els about the use of the do-minimum alternative in the Social Cost Benefit Analysis (SCBA) (see library for the paper). One of the interesting issues described in the paper is the problem of contested knowledge which is explained in the article of van Buuren and Edelenbos (2004). To solve this problem the method of Joint fact-finding can be used as described by Ehrmann and Stinson (1999).

This solution of Joint-Fact-Finding seems very good and logic, but in our discussion we wondered in what way it can be implemented. High costs and long time periods may form barriers to implement this method. It also may need a bureaucratic authority to check the outcomes. The Central Planning Authority (in Dutch CPB) is the authority which checks the SCBA’s, but doesn’t take part in the making process of the SCBA. So if the method of joint fact-finding is implemented in the SCBA, that doesn’t guarantee the CPB approves. The discussion resulted in questions about cooping with uncertainties, using advisory boards, the influence of (policy) power changes every four year and so on.

Next meeting we will discuss the abstract of Andrew.

Two articles uploaded

Two articles have been uploaded in our library under 'theory'.

- Brömmelstroet, te M., P. Schrijnen (2009 forth coming), From Planning Support Systems to Mediated Planning Support, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design

- Ehrmann, J., B. Stinson (1999), Joint Fact-Finding and the use of technical experts, in: Susskind (e.a.), The Consensus Building handbook. A comprehencive guide to reaching agreement, Sage, London

Week 37 Discussion

8th September 2009, Amsterdam
We had our very first weekly discussion group at the Mensa at FMG, UvA.

Admin:

1. Welcome to Julio
2. Website/Blog for exchange/communication
3. Weekly meeting dates
4. Thanks to Els for organising the monthly meetings

Content:

• Abstract discussed is for an upcoming conference on Railway and Real Estate Development.
• Comments on abstract include;
• Els points out that the relationship between land use and transport sector seems to be focused only on the politics and can be better expressed with politics as part of the problem. Theory of interest could be 'Joint Fact Finding', see article in LIBRARY/THEORY.
• Julio asked if the same criteria for measuring disjointedness across the vertical sectors of the planning authorities will be applied to other related sectors (real estate development, transport operators). Also advised to look at AVE (Alta Velocidad Espanola) for Spanish equivalent of high speed transit corridors.

(to be continued...)

Abstract Discussed

Using the blog

Posting
You have to be using blogger to post. Only blog authors can post, so permissions will be required in advance.
Contact Admin (w.tan@uva.nl) for details.

Agenda
Our agenda is based with Google Calendar. Authorized users can edit/update any event.
For authorization, contact Admin (w.tan@uva.nl).

Library
Our library is hosted on Box.Net. Just click on the link in the library to view.Authorized users can edit/upload/view any document. For authorization, contact Admin (w.tan@uva.nl).

Welcome

We are a group of PhD candidates at the AMIDSt Institute at the University of Amsterdam, researching on various topics centered around issues of planning, institutions and transport.

We come together weekly for a lunch meeting to discuss papers, articles and review each others work. This leads up to a monthly group meeting where we or our guests give a presentation on relevant topics of interest for the larger research theme group.

Please check our Agenda for upcoming events.