This study provides an interdisciplinary account determining how children and adolescents understand urban and architectural aspects of sustainable development. The concept of sustainability implies complex relations between ethical, economical, social, technical and other qualities of our environment. The concept is difficult to understand for children who lack the abilities of abstract reasoning and multi-dimensional thinking. A new measure of sustainability understanding was formed based on pictorial rather than textual format and was applied to a large sample of over 2000 participants aged 6-19 years. The results indicated that girls had higher levels of appreciation toward sustainability issues than boys. The results also showed that understanding of sustainability issues increased progressively with age, particularly with adolescents from urban environments. The findings are discussed in terms of cognitive changes in adolescence and their implications for educational policy.

UVODGospodarska javna infrastruktura in gospodarske javne službe, ki zadovoljujejo materialni del javnih potreb, so temeljni in nenadomestljivi pogoj za življenje in delo ter normalen razvoj sleherne družbe. Kazalci gospodarskega in znaten del kazalcev družbenega razvoja so v neposredni zvezi s stopnjo razvitosti gospodarske javne infrastrukture (GJI) in gospodarskih javnih služb (GJS).Infrastrukturna omrežja, objekti in naprave pa lahko opravljajo svoje temeljno poslanstvo le, če so primerno vzdrževani in če jih zamenjamo oziroma obnovimo po preteku obratovalne (življenjske, amortizacijske) dobe. Zagotavljanje funkcionalne in obratovalne sposobnosti infrastrukturnih omrežij, objektov in naprav (tj. redno vzdrževanje in odpravljanje poškodb) ter vsa investicijska

We analyzed planning mechanisms and evaluated their performance in achieving legitimacy in infrastructure planning in Slovenia. Planning mechanisms were divided according to the concept of input, throughput and output legitimacy. We conducted a document analysis and interviews to assess their effectiveness in achieving legitimate decisions. Although the analyzed decision-making process declaratively promoted democratic principles, the mechanisms failed to satisfactorily enhance the legitimacy of decisions. The study revealed inadequate communication approaches, both in the decision-makers' relationship with the public and within the expert discourse. Accordingly, the study argues for more genuine communication with the public and within academia to address legitimacy challenges in increasingly conflictual decision-making processes.

Our behaviour towards the environment depends on our beliefs about the environment. Beliefs, however, are a subject of change, particularly during important life transitions such as the transition to adolescence, because this is a period when an individual develops the ability of complex and abstract reasoning. Understanding this transition is therefore crucial for understanding and predicting the attitudes and courses of action in terms of sustainable development later in life. Due to many methodological constraints, the number of empirical studies examining these issues is very limited; the current study aimed to collect empirical data to explore the origins of our beliefs about the environment-related issues. We devised a picture association test and used it to compare children's and adolescents' beliefs about our environment in the context of the means of transportation. A large sample of 2264 participants aged 6-18 years took part in the study. The data supported the claim that children's beliefs about environment share egocentric properties. The findings represent an important puzzle into the whole picture of children's thinking and offer us great insight into the origins of beliefs about environment-related questions in adults. Educational implications are addressed.