Evidence-based urban developmental: beyond the urban anecdotes : The need of going beyond anecdotal knowledge in urban planning

Abstract

Building a sustainable city is a complex task. Planners regularly become trapped in the tension between broad international or national aims for sustainable development and local, negotiated, agreements on what a professional is being asked to deliver. That’s because professional behavior and decision-making are based on service to clients or citizens, with only a very general sense of responsibility for economic and social impact on a wider scale. On top of that, the established development- and construction industries with their traditional professional territories and divisions of labor also limit more holistic ways of working with sustainable urban development (Cooper and Symes 2009).