This deliverable (D) 1.3 summarizes the research findings from the project Democratising jUst Sustainability Transitions (DUST) and documents the research process undertaken during the project’s duration. Building on theoretical, conceptual, and methodological frameworks developed in work package (WP)1, research facilitated an analysis of citizen participation in place-based policymaking oriented towards just sustainability transitions in WP2 and 3, as well as the experimental testing of participatory instruments in living labs, referred to as Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs), in this context in WP4 and 5. Intermediate steps of synthesis ensured that the scope, depth, and determining factors of citizen participation that were identified during the early analytical WPs were targeted in the later experimental WPs. Against this background the main research findings that are presented in chapters of this report can be read as a consecutive elaboration of the projects’ main question: How can the delivery of place-based policies for just sustainability transitions enhance citizen participation and trust in democratic governance, especially among least-engaged communities (LECs)? ... Read more

Background: Population ageing is a growing public health concern. Parks can play a central role in promoting healthy ageing by offering accessible spaces for physical activity, social interaction, and mental restoration. However, little is known about how older adults use parks across seasons, what activities they engage in, and who they visit with and how this differs according to season and health status. Associations between older adults’ park visitation and health are not well explored, and little is known about reasons for non-visitation. This study among older adults aimed to (1) describe park visitation (frequency, duration, accompaniment, activities) across all seasons and by health status; (2) examine associations of total park visitation frequency and duration with self-reported physical, mental, and social health; and (3) describe reasons for non-visitation.

Methods: Older adults (n = 235) in Belgium reported their park visitation, health, and demographics. Using the Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems tool “My Green Place”, participants indicated the park that they visited most often or that they did not visit parks. Those who indicated that they were park visitors, completed questions concerning their park visitation and non-visitors reported reasons for not visiting. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U tests, and chi-square tests were performed (aims 1 and 3). Logistic regression models were fitted to examine associations of total year-round park visitation frequency (# visits/year) and duration (hours per visit/year) with physical, mental, and social health and loneliness (aim 2).

Results: Most participants (61%) visited year-round, especially in summer and spring. Park visitation frequency and duration were highest among participants who visited year-round. At least half of the sample visited parks alone across all seasons. Walking, sitting, listening to nature, and socialising were the most common activities. Reasons why non-visitors did not visit parks were primarily personal (e.g., physical disability, health reasons) or park related. There were limited associations observed between park visitation and health.

Conclusions: Our findings may help with planning park programming activities and informing important park features that cater to older adults’ needs, ensuring that parks support older adults’ healthy ageing. ... Read more

This deliverable D6.3 Academic dissemination plan sets out a strategy for disseminating research results from the project Democratising jUst Sustainability Transitions (DUST) among an academic audience and via scientific publications. In the DUST Grant Agreement (GA) key project indicators (KPIs) have been defined for observing this dissemination. These indicators include 16 open access research papers, of which at least ten are published in leading academic journals with an Altmetric score of at least 20 and >500 views one month after publication, and one open access edited book covering the project’s scientific advances, with 1000 online reads within a year after publication.

Since the project started in February 2023 researchers at the DUST partner organisations have been working towards realizing these KPI’s. This deliverable therefore firstly presents achievements in terms of scientific publications so far, including already published journal articles, submitted journal articles, conference papers and presentations, as well as publication ideas that were launched by groups of researchers during related DUST project meetings. Drawing on these ongoing publication work as well as an intended comprehensive coverage of results from the different research activities in work packages (WPs) and tasks (Ts), the deliverable secondly identifies upcoming work to be done. This is presented in the form of agreed-upon lists of future publications. In conjunction these lists form the core of this final version of the DUST Academic dissemination plan.

Lastly, the deliverable presents guidelines for publication activities to guarantee reliability, honesty, respect, accountability, and inclusivity in the making use of the empirical data and knowledge that has been gathered during the project. A credit taxonomy is introduced as a specific instrument for determining co-authorship. Open science and acknowledgement practices as well as steps in bringing academic writing to publication are outlined. The realization of KPIs for academic dissemination largely falls outside of the duration of the DUST project. The plan therefore also introduces agreements that govern this post-project process. ... Read more

TU Delft monitoring and evaluation framework, baseline assessment from the intervention sites in Oud Mathenesse Rotterdam within the context of the project Greening without Borders. ... Read more

The Task (T) 4.3 Regional design is part of the DUST work package (WP) 4 ‘Setting the stage for participation: Mapping, visualization, and digitalization’, which supports the participatory experiments with citizens, policymakers, and experts in the DUST Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs) in WP5. The RFLLs combine design-led territorial and digital instruments for more proactive and strategic involvement of least-engaged communities (LECs) in multi-level sustainability transition policymaking. The regional designs, which are the key output of T4.3, exemplify a design-led territorial approach. Presented in a series of visual representations and storylines, their purpose is two-fold: firstly, they represent and compare community and policy perspectives on sustainability transition policymaking in regions; and secondly, they support the positioning of LEC’s concerns in policy and public debates. Three images have been drawn for each of the four DUST RFLL case study (CS) regions of Norrbotten (SE), Stara Zagora (BG), Katowice (PL), and Lusatia (DE). Presented in the form of a triptych these images represent: (1) the anticipated local policy impact, (2) communities’ envisioned probable futures, and (3) their imagined preferred futures.

​The design of the visualisations drew on input from several RFLL activities and DUST tasks. In the RFLL workshop (WS) 2, communities discussed their expectations, hopes, and dreams in the context of their region’s sustainability transition. Inspired by the UNESCO Futures Literacy Lab format, the future perspectives were framed as probable and preferred futures. To emphasize the community lens, probable futures were later represented as a ‘head vs. the outside world’. To underline a territorial approach, preferred futures scenes were anchored in a geographic regional map. These two community perspectives were juxtaposed with a policy perspective. The policy perspective foresees the impact of a selection of current and upcoming place-based sustainability transition policies. To enhance comparison with LECs’ preferred futures, also this perspective was depicted in a regional geographic setting. The methods used for analysing the policy and the community perspectives, and the approach to creating the regional designs are described under the methodology chapter.

​The output of T4.3 is a series of four triptychs representing and comparing the community and policy futures in the four case study regions where the RFLLs take place. Output was and will be used in several consecutive DUST activities. During the RFLL WS 3 communities co-created policy statements, which were further on opened for large-scale digital deliberation on the DUST Pol.is platform (T4.5). The regional designs were used to inspire the formulation of the statements, and for Pol.is information campaigns in digital and physical environments. Additionally, regional designs were also used for community storytelling in WS3: LECs were invited to take these as a starting point for telling stories about their regions. Beyond the RFLLs, the regional designs will be included in the DUST citizen position papers (D5.3), and displayed in several DUST exhibitions (WP6, T6.7). Exhibitions will be curated in all four CS regions, displaying the regional designs alongside explanatory text and audio-visual material. The exhibition material will also be promoted be used in other policy, academic and civic contexts concerned with discussing the role of communities in just sustainability transition policies. T4.6 will assess the different uses of the regional designs in and beyond the RFLLs. D4.4 will present the results from this analysis. ... Read more

This deliverable (D) 4.4 Evaluation and handbook of the Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs) evaluates the results of the RFLLs, which are the experimental part of the Democratising jUst Sustainability Transitions (DUST) project. The RFLLs happened in four case study regions in Norrbotten (Sweden), Katowice (Poland), Stara Zagora (Bulgaria), and Lusatia (Germany) between December 2024 and June 2025. The labs tested a novel hybrid format combining designled territorial and digital tools for the participation of least-engaged communities (LECs) in place-based sustainability transition policymaking. Engaged LECs were a rural community (Norrbotten), generations in mining families (Katowice), a community of citizens (Stara Zagora), and young people (Lusatia). The findings presented in this document elaborate to what extent the RFLL format has empowered these LECs to anticipate and envision regional structural change, how it has supported them in the building of social capital in a pluralistic and inclusive decision environment, and how it has helped the strategic and proactive positioning of their concerns in the multi-level deliberative governance of place-based sustainability transition policymaking and democratic life at scale.

In theoretical terms, the conception of RFLL format recognizes the importance of and challenges to citizen participation in place-based policymaking in the continuous, complex, and uncertain setting of sustainability transitions. Building on knowledge from the fields of public policy, spatial planning, spatial design, future studies, and democracy studies, the format emphasizes the role of anticipation and imagination, and reflexivity in the consideration of territorial, temporal, and organisation aspects of transitional development for policy learning, argumentation, and negotiation. The format also acknowledges that engaging a distinct LEC in public policymaking resembles the involvement of an ‘advocacy community’ or ‘advocacy coalition’, which requires particular attention to how community and policy fields of interest are thematically bounded, structured by narratives, and intersect. ... Read more

The New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative, launched by the European Commission, promotes neighbourhoods that are sustainable, inclusive, and aesthetically engaging. NEB-STAR is one of six EU-funded lighthouse projects that aim to translate NEB values and principles into practice by testing innovative governance and financing models for urban transformation.

This solution booklet describes the framework for NEB-STAR’s financial and partnership models. It evaluates both achievements and challenges, offering recommendations based on real-world experiences and international collaboration. The focus lies on two dimensions. First, the application of financial mechanisms such as public-private partnerships, social impact bonds, and tokenisation. Second, the development of partnership models that align municipal, private, and community interests for long-term value creation. ... Read more

E-democracy refers to the use of electronic communication technologies, such as the internet and social media, to facilitate democratic processes and engagement. Participatory digital tools can in this context support decisions by mediating large scale collaboration among various stakeholders, through the exchange of data, endorsement, and opinion. The e-democracy tool Pol.is is an open-source consensus-oriented deliberative decision-making software for addressing controversial issues within potentially large groups of social media users. The tool is designed to address diverse types of publics and is oriented at second-order decisions on the exchange and synthesis of opinion. The tool enables consent formation at scale in situations where there is a low level of trust in pre-existing social networks. Pol.is enables low-cost participation in such a context via a series of embedded strategies and rules that reduce participants’ burden of decision and counteract flaming (provocative responses to posts). The tool is designed to inform agenda-setting by promoting organisation. It uses predefined ‘seed statements’ (SS) as input for the identification of clusters of consent (and dis-consent) around these policy statements. It allows people to first add nuanced comments on these prompts. Conversation then proceeds with ordering added comments around algorithmically structured themes which are then used to build a matrix that organizes comments around themes quantitatively.

​The DUST experiments, which were run under the header Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs), tested the e-democracy tool Pol.is as part of a hybrid format combining digital and analogous design-led territorial participation instruments. The aim of testing was to increase our understanding of the complementarities between digital and analogue forms of participation, and of how these complementarities can be enhanced to increase the strategic positioning of communities’ interests in multi-level policymaking and democratic life at scale.

​Between January and May 2025, DUST partners in the four RFLL case studies of Norrbotten (Sweden), Katowice (Poland), Lusatia (Germany), and Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) engaged with the Pol.is application during three stages. During the first preparation phase, the TUD Pol.is team educated RFLL case study partners on the use of the software, supported them in the preparation of input – the SSs, as well as opening statements and pages - for the application, and guided them in the preparation and first steps of a case-study-region-wide campaign to attract Pol.is users. In addition, the TUD Pol.is team prepared the application for use in technical terms (the application was hosted at TU Delft for data privacy and security reasons). During the second implementation phase, the collaboratively prepared seed statements (output of the third RFLL workshop) were set out in case study regions for digital deliberation. Case study partners monitored reactions to these statements, moderated deliberations if necessary, and further implemented the Pol.is information campaign. During the final assessment phase, the case study partners carried out a first quantitative assessment of Pol.is results in each case study region. Results of this assessment fed into a policy co-creation process in the RFLL WS 4. The data collection, which is presented in this deliverable, will finally feed into a comparative assessment of results per case study region, and an evaluation of Pol.is on its complementarity with other participatory RFLL tools and activities. ... Read more

The Fourth Symposium on Social-Ecological Urbanism was hosted by the Urban Studio research programme at University of Gävle, and held 2–3 December 2025 at Gävle Concert Hall, Gävle, Sweden. It examined how multisensory experiences of urban environments and nature relate to human well-being, and how such perspectives can inform social-ecological approaches to urban planning and design. ... Read more

This chapter explores sustainable urban planning strategies at the neighbourhood level in Prague, with a focus on balancing the interests of residents, developers, and municipal authorities. Against the circumstances of rapid urbanization and increasing housing demand, it underscores the need for neighbourhoods that are sustainable, livable, and functionally diverse. The chapter presents the effectiveness of urban sustainability assessment tools such as BREEAM, LEED, DGNB, and SNTool in the Czech context. Case studies, including the Letňany-Kbely development area, demonstrate the practical application of these tools, while highlighting areas for improvement. The chapter also discusses the development of a customized rating system for Prague, aimed at ensuring that new construction projects meet comprehensive sustainability standards. Additionally, the role of Prague’s digital twin in supporting data-driven decision-making and enhancing urban resilience is explored. The findings contribute to a better understanding of sustainable urban planning and provide guidance for creating neighbourhoods that align with long-term sustainability goals in Prague. ... Read more

TU DELFT: This report comprises the work produced by students and the reflective contributions from various stakeholders engaged in the case study in the period between 26.04.2023 and 28.06.2023.

As one of six cities, Stavanger has been selected as a lighthouse demonstrator for the New European Bauhaus. The NEB-STAR project is funded by the EU over three years, for the period 2022-2025, and consists of 16 partners. Within the Geodesign course, two of 16 partners collaborated in the creation and supervision of output: TU Delft and Utrecht Gemeente. ... Read more

Work package (WP) 4 ‘Setting the stage for participation: Mapping, visualization, and digitalization’ of the DUST project builds on research in WP2 and 3 and is oriented at preparing and supporting the participatory experimentation with citizens, policymakers, and experts - the Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs) - in WP5. The labs combine design-led territorial and digital instruments for more proactive and strategic involvement of least-engaged communities (LECs) in sustainability transition policymaking. Within WP4, Task 4.2 maps the policy context for the experiments in the four case study regions where the experiments will be carried out, namely Stara Zagora (BG), Lusatia (DE), Katowice (PL) and Norrbotten (SE). More specifically, the task foresees the impact of place-based just sustainability transition policy measures. This will later allow to contrast this projected impact with the impact of measures that are imagined by LECs, the development of policy statements on this base, and deliberating these statements using the e-democracy tool Pol.is.

​The context mapping performed in Task 4.2 has been carried out to foresee the impact of ongoing and upcoming just sustainability transition measures in case study regions. A consistent and comprehensible spatial representation of impact is constituted via the use of an adapted version of the Territorial capital (TC) framework developed by Orsi et al. ​(2022). To achieve output, a Geographic information systems (GIS) application was used to create a geographic database that collects and combines data on the thematic key issues that are identified in relevant policy documents. This database constitutes the deliverable (D) 4.1.

​Task 4.2 drew on the results of Tasks 3.1, 3.2, and 5.2.1. Results of the task in the form of maps and other visualisations will feed into Tasks 5.2 and 5.3 to support participants' interaction in the RFLLs. This deliverable D4.1 is a living database, including a supportive table titled Territorial Capital Catalogue (TCC), which introduces the identified capitals across policies and categorizes them based on our adapted framework. The database will be complemented and transformed as interaction in the RFLLs proceeds. ... Read more

This deliverable is the result of Task 1.1 Theoretical and conceptual framework within the DUST Work package 1 Theory and methods. The document presents a comprehensive framework for research in and across the individual work packages of the DUST project. Guided by the concept of ‘active subsidiarity,’ the DUST project aims at an increased understanding of the participation of the politically least-engaged communities in the deliberative governance of place-based approaches to just sustainability transitions. Key concepts underlying this core objective stem from the fields of public policy, the democracy studies, and spatial planning and design. In conjunction they establish the DUST project’s interdisciplinary focus area within the wider field of citizen participation. More detailed objectives of the project are addressed in different dimensions of the DUST research. In its analytical dimension research will identify factors that enhance or hinder participation. In its evaluative dimension research will result in an index for assessing participation. In its instrumental dimension, research will test instruments for enhancing participation in democratic life at scale. In its communicative dimension research will increase our understanding of how narratives help or hinder participation and how affective two-way communication can support the emergence and dissemination of unheard story lines. The document presents theories and concepts that underpin and guide research in these dimensions.

This Deliverable 1.1 complements Deliverable 1.2, which concerns the methodological framework of the project. It is important to note that both documents are living documents, designed to evolve throughout the course of the project. Knowledge presented here will be further developed in the Tasks 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1 and 6.1 which prepare research in individual work packages. A final iteration of the documents will form part of D1.3 Synthesis research report. ... Read more

Over the last three decades, PPGIS practices have shifted from a paper to digital format and have become cheaper, more user-friendly, and more versatile. The literature recognizes the potential of PPGIS, but researchers also note that the impact of PPGIS in practice is not yet pronounced. This study seeks to identify the barriers that hinder the widespread adoption of PPGIS in planning practice. Building on the literature, an analytical framework is developed to identify three main categories of barriers and their respective subcategories. This analytical framework is complemented by the results of five workshops with practitioners on the use of PPGIS in planning for green open spaces. This mirroring of literature and empirical data clarifies which (sub)categories are actually perceived as barriers and which are not. The findings show a shift from epistemological and technological barriers to cultural barriers that involve institutions and participants. While each of the three categories can start or stop a PPGIS process, having a pioneer in at least one category can aid in overcoming the remaining barriers. ... Read more

This report comprises the work produced by students and the reflective contributions from various stakeholders engaged in the case study in the period between 26.04.2023 and 28.06.2023. ... Read more