Petter Næss, Teresa Næss, Morten Skou Nicolaisen and Esben Clemens The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area No. 2009-5 PUBLICATIONSERIES ISSN 1397-3169-pdf DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area - Second Edition © Aalborg University, Petter Næss, Teresa Næss, Morten Skou Nicolaisen and Esben Clemens Publication series 2009-5 ISSN 1397-3169-pdf Department of Development and Planning Aalborg University Fibigerstraede 11-13 DK-9220 Aalborg 0 The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area Second Edition Petter Næss, Teresa Næss, Morten Skou Nicolaisen and Esben Clemens Series: Publications from Department of Development and Planning No. 2009-5. ISSN 1397-3169 The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development: Copenhagen Case 1 Preface This report presents the results of a study of the ways planners and decision-makers in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area have understood, interpreted, formulated policies and finally acted in relation to transport and land-use in a sustainability context during the period since the 1990s. The Copenhagen case is part of a comparative study also including the metropolitan areas of Oslo in Norway and Hangzhou in China. The project was funded by Volvo Research and Educational Foundation and was carried out during the period from the winter of 2007 to the summer of 2009. This is the second edition of the report, which was published in a first version in August 2009. In this new version, a number of errors that had unfortunately occurred in the first version have been corrected. Some supplementary text and illustrations have also been added. The report has been written by Professor, Dr. Ing. Petter Næss, Research Assistant, M. Sc. in Political Science and Administration Teresa Næss, M. Sc. in Urban Planning and Management Morten Skou Nicolaisen and M. Sc. in Chartered Surveying Esben Clemens, with the former as main responsible. Nicolaisen has written most of chapter 3, Teresa Næss has written the bulk of chapter 5 and Petter Næss has written the remaining parts of the report. The analysis of actual spatial development was carried out by Petter Næss, who also carried out analyses of relevant articles in the journal Byplan. Morten Nicolaisen carried out analyses of relevant plans and policy documents. Petter Næss and Teresa Næss together interviewed relevant actors in planning and policy-making. Teresa Næss carried out the subsequent interview transcripts and analyses of the interviews. The size of urbanized land within Copenhagen Metropolitan Area at different times was calculated by M. Sc. Esben Clemens at Aalborg University’s Geoinformatics Section based on aerial photographs from different years. Clemens and Næss together inspected the aerial photographs. After the discovery of a considerable number of errors in data from The Danish National Survey and Cadastre (KMS) used in the first edition of this report, Clemens and Næss also made an extensive quality check of the KMS data, which were subsequently rejected. The authors want to thank all those who were willing to be interviewed in connection with the project. Thanks especially to Lic. Techn. Peter Hartoft Nielsen in the Danish Agency for Spatial and The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development: Copenhagen Case 2 2 Environmental Planning, who made us aware of errors in the KMS data and also gave a number of other valuable comments on the first edition of the report. Aalborg, December 2009 Petter Næss Project Manager The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development: Copenhagen Case 3 Contents Preface 1 Summary 4 1 Background and methods 8 2 Actual spatial development 22 3 Investigated land use and transport infrastructure plans 50 4 The discourse on sustainable urban development in the professional journal Byplan 80 5 Interviews with key stakeholders in planning and decision-making 117 6 Sustainable mobility – a subordinate concern in urban planning and development in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area 180 References 202 The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development: Copenhagen Case 4 4 Summary Petter Næss, Teresa Næss, Morten Nicolaisen & Esben Clemens The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area Department of Development and Planning Publication Series, No. 2009-5 This report presents the results of a study of the ways planners and decision-makers in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area have understood, interpreted, formulated policies and finally acted in relation to transport and land use in a sustainability context during the period since the 1990s. The Copenhagen case is part of a comparative study also including the metropolitan areas of Oslo in Norway and Hangzhou in China. The spatial development of Copenhagen Metropolitan Area during recent years can be characterized as a combination of densification of the continuous urban area of Copenhagen and low-density outward expansion, where the former tendency has during recent years outweighed the latter. For Copenhagen Metropolitan Area as a whole, the population density within the built-up areas increased from 27.4 persons per hectare of urbanized land to 27.7 persons per hectare between 1999 and 2008, i.e. by 0.9 %. Within the municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg, the population density increased by 3.0 % during the same period, in particular due to inner-city densification during the latest couple of years. Copenhagen Metropolitan Area has a long history of spatial urban expansion in the second half of the 20th century, in spite of low and for long periods even negative population growth in the decades prior to 2000. During the latest decade, this tendency has been reversed, at least within the continuous urban area of Copenhagen. In the parts of the metropolitan area located outside the continuous urban area of Copenhagen, development has predominantly taken The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development: Copenhagen Case 5 place as spatial urban expansion. This outward urban growth has counteracted the densification and concentrated urban development taking place in the inner parts of the metropolitan area This has led to a more transport-demanding and car-dependent urban structure than what would otherwise have been the case. Having said this, it must still be emphasized that the considerable density increases that have taken place in Copenhagen and the surrounding municipalities represent an important departure from the dominant trend within the metropolitan are until the 1990s. The trajectories of land use and transport development observed in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area since the 1990s are the results of the combined effects of a multitude of different causal mechanisms. In order to throw light on possible explanatory factors we have investigated selected plans and policy documents, interviewed key planners, policy-makers and stakeholders, and carried out qualitative content analyses of articles in the professional journal Byplan. National land use policies have aimed at counteracting urban sprawl, but have not focused very explicitly on densification or compact city development. Instead, the focus has been on decentralized concentration, with the guidelines by the Ministry of the Environment recommending new office buildings in the Copenhagen region to be located close to urban rail stations as the most spectacular example. This policy is in line with long-standing ideals in Danish urban planning, where the Finger Plan of Copenhagen Metropolitan Area has through six decades had an alomst iconic status. However, most municipalities in the outer parts of the region have for a long time had such a large surplus of non-built-up areas designated for urban expansion that it has until recently been difficult to stimulate densification by limiting the possibilities for greenfield development. The Finger Plan 2007 has, however, in several ways strengthened the possibilities for national authorities to counteract urban sprawl. Market agents have sometimes also pushed for greenfield development at locations poorly served by public transport in the outer parts of the region. Municipal competition for inward investments has often implied that such demands have been accommodated. There has also been market demand for more intensive land use within existing urban areas in the central parts of the region, reflecting, among other things, cultural trends and changes in the household structure. During the latest decade the amount of such development has outweighed the low-density housing and low-rise commercial development. There is, however, a widespread opinion among planners and policy-makers The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development: Copenhagen Case 6 6 that the regional coordination of spatial development in Copenhagen Metropolitan Area should be improved. The land-consuming urban development in the outer parts of the metropolitan area has been encouraged by the fact that outward urban expansion in the Copenhagen region usually requires low infrastructure costs. In addition, the designation in the original Finger Plan of the open land between the ‘urban fingers’ as areas for non- development has not been backed by strong recreational interests, at least not in the outer areas.