D4.4. EdiCitNet -  Masterplans for ECS in Berlin (DE), Carthage (TN), Guangzhou (CN), Montevideo (UY), Lomé (TG), Sant Feliu de Llobregat (ES), Šempeter pri Gorici (SI)
Creators: name: Maximilian Manderscheid
name: Milena Klimek
name: Ina Säumel
name: Inken Schmütz
name: Boubaker Houman
name: Latifa Bousselmi
name: Lamia Bouziri
name: Alexandra Popartan
name: Graciela Morelli
name: Laura Barcia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: urban planning
participation
edible Nature-based Solutions
Edible City Solutions

description: Executive Summary 


Sustainable urban planning is becoming a valuable tool in a time of climate change, resource shortages, and dwindling social justice. This deliverable presents and summarizes diverse urban settings and solutions in seven EdiCitNet partnering cities co-creating Masterplans for Edible City Solutions (ECS). These Masterplans follow the process of the Transition Pathways Methodology (TPM), as a participatory planning tool to tackle social challenges via sustainable urban planning. It used the premise of planning ECS in urban master plans to prevent and solve social challenges through establishing socio-ecological activities and services. Rooted in systems thinking, the TPM had the goal of guiding a process in each city, with relevant stakeholders, to find a transition pathway from a current situation to a desired future. Here we summarize the diverse use of the TPM process in the 7 different contexts and collate the challenges and benefits of such a process through many complexities (COVID-19) in varied contexts (culture and size). We do so by first describing the TPM process. We then offer case descriptions of each city, their particular TPM process's main points and outcomes, and their takeaways. We conclude with suggestions for improvement and what this TPM process offers to the broader field of participatory planning and methods.


It is important to note that each city has completed its interpretation of a Masterplan for ECS. They are diverse in depth and breadth, and all have been completed in their own city’s language. Thus, each city’s Masterplan is included in the appendix of this document and entails


– to differing lengths – a societal challenge, a view of their current relevant system connected to the societal challenge chosen, and at least one scenario that has been described in detail and selected in their participatory process, and finally, an action plan of steps on how to achieve said scenario.


It goes without saying that the process of facilitating and compiling these Masterplans was considerably compromised and complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally hosting three in-person workshops in each city to facilitate and finalize the system, scenario, and transfer development phases of TPM, the process had to be rethought entirely and transferred into a digital format. This not only took time to organize logistically but the necessary momentum from the original Train the Trainers event was lost. Some consequences included: understanding cultural nuances, building trust, and increased communication, all of which took significantly more time than planned. With all of these hurdles, however, we can present and summarize six City Masterplans for ECS (the 7th – See Lomé – is pending and has a special extension) and highlight their differences, challenges, and areas where the method succeeded, even in a less-than-ideal digital context.