Systems approaches to urban underground space planning and management-A review

The necessity to recognize the subsurface or underground and all its current and potential uses as part of our urban environment,to integrate this into urban planning and governance,and to foster conscious allocation of subsurface space has been increasingly recognized over the last century.At the same time,systems thinking as a‘buzz-word’has gained relevance for approaching complex problem areas in all kinds of disciplines including those preoccupied with the subsurface.This paper reviews the literature about urban underground planning through a systems-lens.To set this in context,it is outlined how organizational principles for the urban subsurface have evolved,and the main aspects of systems thinking are introduced followed by a discussion of how this thinking could be applied to the urban underground.Strategies and tools presented in the recent literature in the field are then reviewed based on this perspective,asking how systemic the proposed strategies and tools are when the local geology,as well as legal and institutional settings are accepted as a baseline for analysis or intervention.Systemic approaches built on this premise have the potential to capture existing and evolving complexities,foster a better understanding of the value of subsurface space for a city and ultimately enable an efficient and fair allocation of underground space.However,propositions for holistic solutions remain dispersed,interventions often remain based in an engineering mindset,and a shift in mind-set remains a challenge.More research in collaboration with local and regional administrations or authorities based on systems thinking frameworks could help to facilitate this shift.

Examining the Level of Service in the Context of Recreational Carrying Capacity in the Erzurum Urban Forest,Turkey

Urban forests are confronted with high using pressure because of the increasing demand for recreation and accessibility of these settings. For that purpose, defining and managing recreational carrying capacity is considered as significant in ensuring ecological value’s and recreational satisfaction’s continuity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the carrying capacity of Erzurum Urban Forest with respect to Level of Service (LOS) as a new management technique that focuses on service quality and visitor satisfaction. The data were obtained by self-administered questionnaire conducted with 166 visitors on weekends and holidays during summer season of the year 2014. Data were analyzed by dimensions/indicators of recreational satisfaction and socio-demographic characteristics with intent to identify tolerance range of visitors. The contribution and relative importance of each of the indicators to the overall satisfaction were analyzed by using Ordinal Logistic Model (OLM). The results indicated that the four indicators were at the greatest degree;“distance from picnic spot to toilets” and “quantity of children’s playground facilities” were decease of overall satisfaction while “distance from picnic spot to parking” and “level of shade at picnic spot” had a positive contribution to the overall satisfaction. The outputs from these analyses were used to calculate LOS. It was revealed that the level of service (0.40) in Erzurum Urban Forest was below the moderate level. Planning and managing strategies for optimizing the LOS were developed and discussed by considering these results.