City change; monitoring target completion of urban interventions in Stockholm

Paper i proceeding, 2024

This paper analyses the alignment between urban planning targets and realized projects in Stockholm from 2012 to 2019. Employing both conformance and performance-based evaluation methods, it scrutinizes changes in street networks at both citywide and project-specific levels. The study entails a comprehensive review of planning documents, detailed configurational analyses, and an assessment of public transportation access. By examining the discrepancy between planning objectives and actual urban transformations, the research underscores the necessity for more effective monitoring techniques to achieve planning targets accurately. Notably, the analysis reveals that while municipal comprehensive plans (MCPs) articulate ambitious goals for urban development, the translation of these objectives into tangible changes in the built environment remains challenging. Despite the existence of regulatory frameworks and legal mandates, such as the MCPs and zoning plans, the paper identifies significant inconsistencies in target implementation across different projects. These disparities are attributed to various factors, including changes in political will, long timeframes and limited understanding of the complexity in the built environment. Furthermore, the research advocates for the integration of digital tools and methodologies to enhance monitoring and evaluation processes in urban planning. Overall, this study contributes to the ongoing discourse on urban development by providing valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities inherent in aligning planning targets with actual urban transformations, thereby offering recommendations for enhancing the efficacy of urban planning practices.