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Key insights from LSE Cities' interdisciplinary research on the `compact and well-connected' city have been incorporated by central government in national planning policy and by the Mayor of London in the London Plan. This has led to urban land being developed more intensively, ensuring more sustainable and efficient use of space in English towns and cities. Research on green city policies has been adopted by the United Nations Environment Programme (2011) and is determining policy formulation in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Portland. Urban Age conferences and research have created an international network of urban policy-makers and scholars, and LSE Cities staff have had impact on the design of the Olympic Park in London and development plans for cities outside the UK.
Research on urban planning has influenced planning decisions and assisted the Scottish Government and Local Authorities to maximise economic, physical and social factors in city visioning, planning and design. The private sector has received advisory and design training in master-planning though advanced spatial modelling principles and user engagement techniques; local authority planners have also been trained. The research has contributed to a paradigm shift in city planning towards place-making and community design, not just in Scotland but internationally. This agenda is now established as mainstream in city planning, and Scotland is regarded as a reference to best practice as witnessed by the wide adoption of planning documents such as Designing Places, Designing Streets, and in recent large scale developments such as Tornagrain (around 4,000 new homes), Knockroon (around 750 new homes) and Chapelton (around 8,000 new homes), which have used Strathclyde's master-planning techniques.
Simone's research has contributed to the building of a comprehensive knowledge base on changing residential patterns, investment history, local economies, and social power relations in fourteen districts of North and Central Jakarta. The richness of the knowledge he has generated and its influence on urban redevelopment and restructuring in Jakarta are a consequence of both his close collaboration with a number of institutional partners in Indonesia and their direct engagements with community residents, social action groups, architects, researchers and government decision makers. Through a variety of deliberative forums the results of his process oriented research and collaboration have been influential in a number of ways including the preparation of new housing legislation, the writing of a policy platform of a coalition of civic organizations and the consultative processes on a Spatial Plan for Jakarta. But perhaps most significantly the impact of his research is its contribution to identifying and giving voice to a range of possible future scenarios that are usually left out of policy deliberations and the collective imaginary of the city.
DPU's research by Davila, Allen et al into urban infrastructure has generated analytical tools used by policy-makers, practitioners and aid organisations to examine the distribution of and access to urban services. It has supported the development of training curricula used altogether by over 4,000 urban planners in cities of the Global South, and through partners in The Netherlands, India and Colombia. At the policy level, the research has informed local government actors in Colombia, and international bodies (e.g. UN-Habitat and the International Resource Panel) in planning, financing, monitoring and equitable delivery of infrastructure services. At the NGO level, new analytical approaches have been adopted by WaterAid in Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a result of DPU research.
Interdisciplinary research at UEL has contributed to understanding and debate about urban regeneration among policy-making, professional and public audiences. More specifically, it has stimulated and informed discussion and debate about the potential legacies of the London 2012 Olympic games and similar "mega-events". Between 2008 and 2013 the research informed analysis, planning and evaluation of urban regeneration policy and practice relating to the Olympic legacy at international (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), national (UK Government Department for Communities and Local Government, House of Lords), city-wide and local government (London Assembly) levels. UEL Research and its impact have evolved in tandem over the exciting period since the announcement of the award of the Olympics to East London in July 2005, and will continue as the Olympic legacy unfolds in this part of the city and more widely.
University of Manchester (UoM) research has made a key contribution to adaptation planning strategy for urban climate change, at a range of scales. Impact was achieved via the generation of data, and the creation and refinement of tools and frameworks that offer a distinct geographical perspective and a means of generating local evidence on urban climate risks, vulnerabilities and adaptation potential. Proof of principle was established within Greater Manchester, with extensive and ongoing use of research findings to support urban adaptation. Subsequently, the research has guided additional localities, and contributed to national policy formulation. More recently, a number of cities — including on mainland Europe and the African continent — have used the research within local adaptation planning, and related green infrastructure policy and practice.
Two decades of research in the Global Urban Research Unit at Newcastle University has significantly shaped public awareness and political understanding of the links between technology, infrastructure and security within highly urbanised societies. Research into the role of cities as key sites of security and war and the spread of `the surveillance society' are two interlocking foci that have generated impacts with global reach. Of particular significance are: a) research and scholarship to develop key concepts and a language that captures and communicates how urban landscapes are being infiltrated by military technologies. We specifically highlight the publication of Cities Under Siege as the culmination of this work and its impact on national and international public debate, and; b) specific studies into surveillance technologies in Britain that impact directly on public debate and the formation of specific national policy.
Urban biodiversity supports the functioning of the urban ecosystem and provides recreational opportunities. This is a West Midlands-based public engagement case study demonstrating both environmental and social impact through a five-year BIG Lottery-funded project based on research into urban biodiversity led by Professor Jon Sadler. The project — OPALWM — focused much of its public engagement activity on some of the most economically-deprived areas of Birmingham and the Black Country, locations that the scientific research had identified as having unrealised environmental opportunities. OPALWM achieved extensive recorded reach (122 organisations; 26,000 people; 60,000 website hits) and active engagement from schools, volunteers and wildlife groups. It has a sustainability plan designed to maintain its impact after its BIG Lottery funding ends in November 2013.
This work has established the Alliance as a world leader in impactful research into equitable urban land development in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially Angola and Mozambique. For instance, in collaboration with the Angolan NGO, Development Workshop, its policy-influencing findings have been transferred into "real changes in [the] practice of land management" in five Angolan provinces, including the country's most populous. The research has underpinned training for stakeholders from over 40 municipalities in 15 provinces and the upscaling of pilot projects to city-wide programmes including the foundation of new companies (e.g. Navimbuando Ltd., the only firm of its kind in central Angola). To widen interest in the most recent research in Mozambique (described by [text removed for publication] a World Bank funded programme in Maputo as "a milestone in the field of informal settlement studies") a documentary was made, which has already been screened, or selected for screening, in 20 countries in Africa and Europe.
Since 2006 Professor Cooper has led interdisciplinary research to inform the design of the urban environment, especially in relation to creating sustainable places that support citizen wellbeing. Outcomes include a new model of design decision-making, a toolkit for urban design decisions, and collation of evidence on the impact of environment on mental health and wellbeing. Her work has been supported by EPSRC, over ninety companies, and six city councils. Impact has included tools to enable planners and developers to address issues such as density and wellbeing; informing government policy on mental health and the environment; raising the profile of design-led approaches to complex policy problems.