IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurpls/v28y2020i1p146-165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban sustainability: is densification sufficient?

Author

Listed:
  • Petter Næss
  • Inger-Lise Saglie
  • Tim Richardson

Abstract

Urban densification has for some decades been considered as the most relevant strategy for ecological modernization within the field of urban spatial development. Compared to outward urban expansion, densification has important environmental merits, but is not without negative environmental impacts. This paper critically examines how urban densification policies contain an assumption – implicit or explicit – that continual growth, expressed in per capita consumption of building stock and infrastructure, should be accommodated. This is argued to lead to a weakening of environmental sustainability. The Norwegian capital Oslo is used as an example, illustrating the environmental achievements and limitations of the densification strategy. These achievements and limitations are then discussed in the light of theoretical literature on tensions between economic growth and environmental sustainability. The paper concludes with a call for further critical scrutiny of how growth assumptions influence/subtly shape urban sustainability policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Petter Næss & Inger-Lise Saglie & Tim Richardson, 2020. "Urban sustainability: is densification sufficient?," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 146-165, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:28:y:2020:i:1:p:146-165
    DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2019.1604633
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09654313.2019.1604633
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09654313.2019.1604633?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniela Maiullari & Marjolein Pijpers-van Esch & Arjan van Timmeren, 2021. "A Quantitative Morphological Method for Mapping Local Climate Types," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 240-257.
    2. Cavicchia, Rebecca, 2023. "Housing accessibility in densifying cities: Entangled housing and land use policy limitations and insights from Oslo," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    3. M. Reza Shirazi & Ramin Keivani, 2021. "Social Sustainability of Compact Neighbourhoods Evidence from London and Berlin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    4. Justyna Przywojska, 2021. "Polish Local Government’s Perspective on Revitalisation: A Framework for Future Socially Sustainable Solutions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Celemin Juan Pablo & Arias Maria Eugenia, 2022. "Relationship between densification and NDVI loss. A study using the Google Earth Engine at local scale," Environmental & Socio-economic Studies, Sciendo, vol. 10(3), pages 33-42, September.
    6. Helena Madureira & Ana Monteiro, 2021. "Going Green and Going Dense: A Systematic Review of Compatibilities and Conflicts in Urban Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-20, September.
    7. Polewsky, Max & Hankammer, Stephan & Kleer, Robin & Antons, David, 2024. "Degrowth vs. Green Growth. A computational review and interdisciplinary research agenda," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:28:y:2020:i:1:p:146-165. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEPS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.