Jyväskylä: Ensuring social integrity through land use
planning
Need for Social Impact Assessment
The purpose of the project was to explore opportunities and ways
of ensuring social integrity in the City of Jyväskylä and its
environs through land use planning. From the latter point of view,
ensuring social integrity involves creating a framework for urban
development in which the fundamentals of people's well-being are
not jeopardized through geographical segregation or the emergence
of depressed areas.
Three main points were addressed:
- To further develop social impact assessment to better meet the
needs of the operating environment in terms of content and
methods.
- To find methods and tools for depicting the social integrity of
the City of Jyväskylä and its environs by developing living
environment monitoring.
- To use information gained from social impact assessment and
living environment monitoring as a basis for land use planning to
ensure social integrity.
The process and its participants
The SIA project assessing the social impact of town planning was
launched in autumn 2001. Its first phase ended at the end of 2002,
with a final report published in 2003 (Mäkäräinen 2003a). The
second phase, the Securing social integrity through land use
planning project, was launched at the beginning of February 2003
and is continuing in 2004. Along with the Centre for Social and
Health Services and the City Planning Office, participants included
Housing, the Environmental Office, the Education Department and the
Department of Sports and Physical Activity Services.
The project employs a full-time project secretary whose salary
is covered by the City of Jyväskylä, the Ministry of Social Affairs
and Health and the Ministry of the Environment. Experiences gained
from this project were passed on to the Terve Kunta (Healthy
Cities) network.
The social impacts of various types of town plan in ongoing town
planning processes were examined in the project. For example, the
social impacts of the town plan for the low and dense housing area
of Korteniitty in Jyväskylä were assessed. Regional actors were
involved in the assessment throughout the planning process. A
separate interim report was issued on the social impact assessment
(Mäkäräinen 2003b) when the draft town plan was put on public
display in early 2004.
Similarly, the protection town plan for Viitaniemi in Jyväskylä
progressed to the draft stage in spring 2004. In August 2003,
thematic walks were organized to gather data for social impact
assessment and other purposes. A meeting on the social dimensions
of the plan, with particular reference to the viewpoint of senior
citizens, was held in January 2004.
The project proposals concerning the social integrity of the
City of Jyväskylä and its environs and the discussions on them in
various groups were important tools for incorporating the social
integrity dimension into urban planning. Efforts were made to use
the studies extensively in the programming and design of town
planning, well-being policy and housing policy.
Impacts assessed
The social impacts of the various town plans were examined
separately for the plan area and its impact area. The impacts of
the various town plans were identified using the following thematic
analysis:
Social impacts on services
- availability of and demand for neighbourhood services
- availability of other important services
- availability of public transport
- equitable access to services
Town plan impact on social conditions
- demographic diversity
- taking age groups and special groups into account
- potential for social interaction and community
- existing social problems
- possible future social problems
- area image and potential for various functions and ways of
life
- area balance
Social dimensions of other impacts and impact on
enjoyability
- traffic safety and transport functionality
- social dimensions of impacts affecting recreation
opportunities
- social dimensions of noise, pollution and environmental
impacts
- social dimensions of the landscape and cityscape
Use and benefits of SIA
The studies and high-quality impact assessments served as planning
tools in town planning. They added to information available on the
plan site and its environs. One function of the SIA was to promote
interaction by rendering the draft town plans and their impacts
tangible to the people involved. Impact assessment ensured the
quality of the plan and incorporation of the assessment results
into the decision-making process.
The conclusions and the descriptions, analyses and indicators of
social integrity monitoring gained from the project as the result
of impact assessment were used at various stages of community
construction in order to ensure a socially integrated city and
environs.
Further information
Jouni Mäkäräinen
Project Manager
City of Jyväskylä
Nelimarkka K, Kauppinen T & Perttilä K (2007) A
participative social impact assessment at the local level:
supporting the land-use planning process in Finland. In: Wismar M,
Blau J, Ernst K & Figueras J. (eds.)
The Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment.
Scope and limitations of supporting decision-making in
Europe. |