Main idea and objectives

Recent experiences demonstrate that INTEGRATED URBAN PLANNING leads to plans of better quality in terms liveability and identity, economic viability and sustainability, safety and accessibility. These qualities integrate mobility strategies which actively reduce energy consumption. SNOWBALL is an action learning project introducing various integrated urban planning methods to European cities in most practical and co-operative forms like trainings, coaching sessions, hands-on-planning-workshops and a Quality Supprt Group. The action oriented form has been choosen to help overcoming typical barriers, which often prevent integrated concepts from being developed and implemented on the local level. These obstacles include for example a lack of skills in multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary work, uneffective political processes and consensus building strategies, seemingly unchangable culture of local habits.

Main tagret groups of this project are professionals in the field of urban planning and architecture, traffic management and engineering, political and administrative management. The project aims to build capacity and awareness among these professionals for INTEGRATED URBAN PLANNING in organisations like local authorities, project developers, consultancies and expert institutes as well as universities.

Regarding mobility as essential part of INTEGRATED URBAN PLANNING we are promoting Local Transport Performance (LTP) and Drive-Slow-Go-Fast (DSGF) as two basic strategies. LTP is an area-based approach that reduces transport demand and supports a modal shift towards less energy intensive modes. DSGF is a corridor based concept to maximise energy efficiency of existing traffic volumes by establishing a better flow at reduced speeds. These two and further strategies aim to reduce the energy use in transport at the city level significantly, decrease local noise and air pollution as well as substantially improve traffic safety.

Municipalities in Europe are provided with experiences and tools to (re)create urban areas or urban through roads with. SNOWBALL started off with 6 cities which make an effort to achieve INTEGRATED URBAN PLANS. Examples of best practice are provided by various cities that implemented similar strategies earlier. This dissemination and co-operative learning process is designed to spread out and to support other cities later on, thus getting a SNOWBALL effect on INTEGRATED URBAN PLANNING. As part of the dissemination strategy we aim to create networks, which campaig and lobby INTEGRATED URBAN PLANNING and act as Quality Support Group on a national level in Italy, Spain, Slovak Republik, Germany and Poland.

Read more about that on the projekts webseite www.steersnowball.info