Voluntary Planning and City Networks: A Systematic Bibliometric Review Addressing Current Issues for Sustainable and Climate-Responsive Planning

Luigi Santopietro () and Francesco Scorza
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Luigi Santopietro: Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis—National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IMAA), C.da S. Loja, 85050 Tito Scalo, PZ, Italy
Francesco Scorza: Laboratory of Urban and Regional Systems Engineering (LISUT), School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Via dell’Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, PZ, Italy

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-19

Abstract: Over the years, energy saving and climate change have sparked a challenge in developing innovative spatial and urban planning tools, methods, and approaches for urban areas and territorial management. This challenge has pointed out a gap in the traditional planning framework in tackling energy and climate issues, highlighting the need for renovated spatial planning practices. The current effective measures carried out by the complex network of stakeholders (public and private) are fragmented, and the role of city networks in shaping decisions and interventions has emerged. In particular, among the approaches for urban and territorial planning and the development of climate-responsive measures, this research adopts a specific focus on voluntary planning. The authors, through a literature review and an analysis of nine city networks, investigated how this approach addresses energy and climate issues and how it is linked to the city networks in designing investments and interventions within the urban context. From the authors’ perspective, city networks are the operative component in designing local experiences and applications, contributing to achievement of the global energy and climate targets according to the current policies. In this context, successful results with respect to climate and energy challenges is expressed in the degree of the awareness and the commitment achieved by the local communities. Moreover, reaching the climate and energy goals is a representation of the outcome of the interaction between the (public or private) actors involved and the degree of a city’s climate-responsiveness, rather than from a normative constraint or an institutional framework.

Keywords: voluntary planning; city networks; urban planning; climate-responsive planning; awareness; commitment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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