Bold Cities

Abstract

Projects of re-use of underused infrastructures to design sustainable urban landscape architecture represent a great contribution to meet the need for sustainability cities are experiencing today. Urban administrators often strive for a successful realization of such projects, to give a social and economic power impulse to poorly performant neighbourhoods. In some cases, though, a balance between the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social and economic) is a hard matter to achieve. Indeed, in some occasions, the neighbourhood-boosting role takes over, leading to the establishment of mechanisms that might only partially work from a sustainable viewpoint. Big Open Linked Data (BOLD) methods are offering new opportunities to design decision-making models for urban planning and management. The combination of social media, census, sensors and traditional data gives a new perspective to solve modern urban challenges through a holistic and inclusive approach. Compared to the mere use of traditional sources, BOLD methods rely on a bigger-scale, more accurate, real-time, data set. In this research, BOLD potential is explored to estimate the extent to which it can help solving the described urban issue. Therefore, the research question can be addressed as follows: How can BOLD help city planners and managers determining the real-time and holistic impact on social, environmental and economic dynamics in projects of re-use of obsolete or underused infrastructures? How could these projects enhance sustainable benefits without neglecting the positive economic and social impact for the neighbourhood? An in-depth literature study on public parks and brownfield redevelopments can help setting criteria and variables related to sustainability. For each of these variables, it is established whether a BOLD approach could bring more satisfactory results on a selected case study, the High Line Park, in New York. The final product is a framework that serves as decision-making supportive tool, to assess through BOLD and traditional data combined the way these aspects of sustainability connect to each other in such projects. Finally, the framework is tested and adapted to a case study in Rotterdam, the Hofbogen viaduct redevelopment. This case study in the Netherlands is not only useful to test the validity of the framework built in a different context, but it serves the purpose of solving the main problem concerning this case study: social sustainability. Indeed, the framework is used to improve this aspect thorough the next phases of the redevelopment, defining a frame for both project and neighbourhood assessment and inclusive participatory model for all stakeholders involved.