Removing
Outdated Policies
ArticlesA Whole Systems Approach to
Preserving and Enhancing the Urban Forest
by Oliver KellhammerEco-City Activists Vie for Turn-Around
on Southeast False Creek
by Don Alexander, Ph.D.
Public policies are often prompted by the need to respond to particular problems in the policy environment, i.e., to critical ecological or social conditions. Policies frequently take years to develop and implement, but changing conditions can mean that they are quickly outdated. Poor monitoring of the policy environment and resistance to change among policy stakeholders make policies rigid and poorly adapted to ecological conditions in the long term. Designing policies that lend themselves to long-term performance measurement rather than short-term problem solving, and involving citizen groups in environmental monitoring and reporting can help increase the robustness and flexibility of public policies.
Policies may also reflect outdated assumptions about urban and ecological systems. Urban subsystems based on linear processes (in food supply, waste management, transportation, sewerage and water infrastructure ) assume the cheap availability of energy and materials, rich public treasuries, and the infinite capacity of the ecological sinks which must handle our pollution. We are learning how to design more materials-efficient and cost-effective circular urban processes from observing ecological systems in nature and from initiatives in developing world communities.
Finally, many jurisdictions do not have anything approaching an "urban policy" largely because political structures have been created to suit our rural past. Thus, national and sub-national or regional governments have no vision of desirable urban futures, and no integrated policies to address problems unique to urban development and the protection of urban environments. This section will include articles on movements and initiatives that strengthen the recognition of the need for an integrated urban policy.
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