VivaCity2020 Story

 Is it really possible to effectively influence decisions, and if so, how?

The key to the VivaCity2020 programme was to understand the trade-offs made every day by city dwellers and city developers. The first step was to understand the processes they use to make their decisions: what information they value and what they do not, but this changes from decision-maker to decision-maker and from situation to situation.

The ability of decision-makers (eg. city developers, residents and workers) to make more sustainable decisions relies upon them having accurate and relevant information. It is currently quite difficult to access this information, if the information exists at all.

Through innovative and interdisciplinary research, VivaCity2020 has developed a toolkit of resources that can be used to navigate urban sustainability issues. The toolkit addresses sustainability issues by encouraging decision-makers to think about sustainability in a user-centred, holistic way, identifying overlaps and trade-offs as the drivers of decision-making. 

VivaCity2020 looked at eight specific urban sustainability issues and addressed these through a new understanding of the urban design decision-making process.

In order to gain a greater understanding of the decision-making processes taking place in urban design and development projects, VivaCity2020 first looked at decision-making processes and strategies in the urban environment.