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This study emphasizes the significance of urban green spaces in the fast growing middle-sized towns in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region in Germany and investigates the transitions these spaces are currently undergoing. As the local impacts of a changing climate are now more severe and frequent, the role of urban green spaces in local climate regulation is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, the current settlement growth pressure in growing regions reached unprecedented levels, and 'inner before outer development' is a resourceful strategy to enable settlement growth by mobilizing inner area potentials before resorting to the outer. Though this is, in fact, a land-use conflict: Are green spaces spatial reserves for inner development, or are they natural resources for climate adaptation, biodiversity, and recreation, or can they be both? Inner development, particularly within the framework of the accelerated procedures of the Building Code and the minimum density values specified by the Hessian State Development Plan, is likely to bring higher levels of soil sealing in the already existing built-up areas, where green spaces are needed the most. This would be an unfavorable outcome for a well-functioning green infrastructure that is ideally interconnected, evenly distributed, and serving each individual equally. For the studied case, the fastest growing middle-sized towns in the region are investigated to understand the extent and the implications of this transition. The study therefore benefits from urban governance and growth literature on one hand and the landscape ecology literature on the other. Two lines of inquiry guide the research: (i) understanding the phenomenon of resource conflict by exploring the extent to which urban growth impacts urban green spaces, and (ii) understanding the context of resource conflict by explaining how planning processes, its institutions and governance accompany urban growth. The research shows that social-ecological systems thinking can be the basis for an empirical investigation of urban green spaces through a replicable methodology. This is promising for the planning practice given the limitations in operationalizing the abstract goals such as sustainability or resilience. The results are relevant for three main issues. First, the empirical parts of this study function as a social-ecological reading of the German spatial planning system. It is found that the region, as an administrational level and a planning scale, steers the inevitable contradictions between the supralocal and local planning through certain predetermined flexibilities. Second, it is found that the protection, provision, and maintenance of green spaces with high social and ecological value are highly vulnerable to institutional capacities. Finally, the spatial analysis of green space parameters and their social and ecological value proves beneficial for the development of a citywide green concept for the towns undergoing transitions. A certain level of both expansion and density is indeed needed for efficiently and effectively functioning urban areas. This research shows that despite inevitable tradeoffs, systematic approaches can help detect the potential for resourceful settlement growth.

During recent international climate negotiations like in Paris 2015, the European Union agreed to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. Policy-makers target the residential sector as a major user of fossil energy because potential to improve the energy efficiency in existing houses is observable. Energy audits have been implemented to offer information to homeowners within the aim of reducing the uncertainty concerning energetic refurbishment. Nevertheless, the impact of energy efficiency consultants (EECs) on retrofit measures is described as low in the literature. We conducted an online survey on German EECs, emphasizing their personal attitudes and contextual conditions, analyzing the implementation of an exploratory energy audit and providing recommendations for improving energy audits. The EECs answered the questions regarding the personal factors in a highly confident way. We explain this using the market framework in Germany, which requires a high-level performance due to the competition on the EEC market. The contextual conditions are evaluated critically, with about 49% expressing concerns about acquiring and managing financial resources for energy audits. The case study showed that EECs recommend innovative technologies to a limited degree, while the upfront costs are estimated very low. Finally, in the survey, the respondents prioritized an information policy improvement.

AbstractCritical infrastructures are increasingly recognized to be playing important roles in urban resilience theory and practice. However, little is known about which governance challenges result from making them an integral part of urban resilience policies and what role city administrations play or could play in the resulting governance arrangements. We address these shortcomings in the scholarly literature by analysing the case of the Dutch city of Rotterdam, which has positioned itself as a front runner with regard to urban resilience. We find that the city administration is limited in its authority and depends on decisions made by other public and private actors, particularly those relating to the integrated management of interconnected infrastructure networks such as those for water and energy provision. We therefore argue that institutionalizing resilience will strongly depend on city administrations' institutional capacity to manage networks more effectively. For this, we derive key conditions for institutional adjustments in current governance arrangements. Necessary adjustments include redefining roles and responsibilities for cross‐territorial risk management, cross‐sectoral and cross‐departmental budgeting of resilience measures, and integrating local actions and measures with those at regional and national levels of government. Our conclusions call for national and supranational legal reforms to establish uniform procedural rules for urban risk management and contingency planning to provide guidance for municipalities on how to enhance the resilience of their cities and infrastructures.

Climate change, increasing resource scarcity, and rising traffic volumes are forcing us to develop new environmentally friendly and people-oriented mobility options. With the expansion of digital information systems, we will soon be able to reconfigure different modes of transport to suit our needs. These developments represent a significant challenge for designing a wide range of different mobility spaces. While Volume 1 of this series focused on practical aspects, Volume 2 collects research methods and findings from the fields of design, architecture, urban planning, geography, social sciences, traffic planning, psychology, and communication technologies. The book's consideration of the possibilities and prospects of usercentred mobility design offers an important contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the mobility revolution.

Climate change, increasing resource scarcity, and rising traffic volumes are forcing us to develop new environmentally friendly and people-oriented mobility options. With the expansion of digital information systems, we will soon be able to reconfigure different modes of transport to suit our needs. These developments represent a significant challenge for designing a wide range of different mobility spaces. While Volume 1 of this series focused on practical aspects, Volume 2 collects research methods and findings from the fields of design, architecture, urban planning, geography, social sciences, traffic planning, psychology, and communication technologies. The book's consideration of the possibilities and prospects of usercentred mobility design offers an important contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the mobility revolution.