Tools

All tools with a focus on: Evidence / Vision / Action

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Tool type: Action · Evidence · Vision

Languages: dutch · english · french · german · spanish · traditional chinese

Suitable spatial context: district · flexible · street level

Level of effort for application: high · low · medium · very high · very low

Lock-in Cluster: Attitudes · Characteristics of the Alternative · Governance incumbency · Lack of Motivation/Intention & Habits · Perceived Experience & Evaluation · Personal and Social Beliefs · Political agency × · Spatial Organisation

Target group: NGOs / local interest groups · car drivers · city administration · city politicians · general public · local politicians · local/district administration × · residents of particular area · students · users of sustainable modes

Collaborative heat maps

Websites like mapperoni and uMap let you create maps with layers in a minute, embed them in your site or share them with others to contribute. An example: The urban design office prostorož invited citizens of Ljubljana in 2020 to vote for locations they experience as hot. In three weeks, they cast around 700 votes. The data was consistent with the locations of heat islands measured by satellite thermal imaging. The responses showed that people change routes and habits in the summer or avoid certain locations in the city altogether due to the heat. Respondents also suggested their own cooling measures - they want more and bigger trees, less asphalt, less concrete, and less parking spaces. This map was then published in newspapers and reached a big audience.

Community mapping

Collaboratively mapping maps about a neighbourhood can shed light on factors that influence everyday transport-related decisions.

Developing a convincing story for your campaign

The framework of "Story-Based Strategy" helps you figure out your campaign’s narrative strategy. It’s composed of tools or worksheets that you can use to analyze the opposition’s story, the current popular narrative about your issue, and develop a way of pitching or talking about your issue that will win over the folks you need to win!

Headlines from the future

A participatory activity to support aspirational goal setting, by imagining a more positive future.

Joint Survey between initiatives and district politics

A joint survey between district politics and initiatives has potential to drive change. A survey means to ask inhabitants of an area what they like or don't like about status quo and what they want to change. The initiative has local knowledge of the area and knows what is important to ask. The survey results give politicans guidance what kind of change is backed up by the inhabitants. From our experience a joint survey is possible when

1. all involved people are amicable towards each other
2. there is a third neutral party (for example science project or neighbourhood management) that coordinates the process

Learning public participation hub

The Vienna Climate Team is a participatory initiative in Vienna that brings residents, local stakeholders, and the city administration together to co-develop and implement climate protection measures at the district level. It enables citizens to submit ideas, collaborate with experts, and take part in decision-making processes related to urban sustainability.

Mapping and analysing facades

"We need parking space otherwise our shops will die!" This is an argument often brought forward by opponents of street transformation. The urban design studio prostorož confronted this claim with evidence. They analysed the facades of the street by the following categories: Lively facade, active facade, monument, empty facade, unremarkable facade. They could show that a lot of the ground floor was at that point in time not occupied.

prostorož combined this analysis with analysing parking place occupancy and human behaviour to build an even stronger argument: A street full of cars is not helping shops at the moment. By combining all these analysis they managed to convince the decision makers to give that street a human friendly makeover!

Regulars table for district politics and initiatives

In this format district politics and initiatives meet up in a casual setting. This benefits everyone: On the one hand politicans can efficently update several initiatives at the same time and get wind of citizens troubles related to urban space at an early stage. Initiatives on the other hand get insights and can discuss their visions and potential future collaborations.

Understanding your target groups

Card Sort is a simple yet powerful method for uncovering what matters most to your target audience. Participants rank a set of word or image cards by preference, quickly revealing key priorities and opening the door to deeper conversations about personal values and motivations.