What is the role of epistemic communities in shaping local environmental policy? Managing environmental change through planning and greenspace in Fukuoka City, Japan

Abstract

Highlights Assess role of techno-scientific expertise in governing urban environmental change. Evaluate evidence-driven built environment and greenspace policy in Fukuoka. Epistemic community shapes Fukuoka’s built environment and greenspace policy. Local history gives favourable context for environmental science in public interest. Findings nuance understanding of how epistemic communities work at urban scale.

Urban greenspace as a climate change adaptation strategy for subtropical Asian cities: A comparative study across cities in three countries

“…In Hanoi, interviewees summarised that for the last 50–60 years the ratio of greenspace has been planned under socialist ideals that everyone should be equal, but that these ideas are now coming under pressure from private sector development facilitated by ‘Doi Moi’ economic reform, which transformed Vietnam to a decentralised and privatised development model ( Fan et al, 2019 ). The guiding principle of a ‘liveable environment’ in Fukuoka, meanwhile, can arguably be traced back to environmental justice issues in the wider Kyushu area in the 1960s and the associated desire to improve environmental quality in the public interest ( Mabon et al, 2019b ). In Taipei, allocating greenspaces to address environmental justice is complicated by the need to follow land use zones designated in the urban plan, which is over 40 years old and could be politically risky to change.…”

“…In Taipei, some of the small-scale experimentation that has emerged with strong municipal support for urban farming and community resilience-building has its roots in the pro-democracy ‘Sunflower Movement’ and the appropriation of vacant urban spaces ( Hou, 2020 ). Yet, in Fukuoka, despite the early engagement of an epistemic community with interest in the liveability of the urban environment ( Mabon et al, 2019b ), societal norms around shame and poverty were argued by respondents to make explicit discussion of vulnerability and climate justice challenging. Comparing Hanoi to Taipei may, however, show that greater democracy leads to stronger competence in dealing with dissent and unbalanced power relations, in a way that leads to more productive and consensual outcomes ( Wiek et al, 2011 ).…”

“…Taipei represents a relatively new democracy following the end of Marital Law in 1987, with a vibrant civil society movement and significant enthusiasm at city and national government levels for new forms of participatory democracy (Fan, 2021). Fukuoka, meanwhile, represents a longer-established democracy, but one in which opportunities for citizen and civil society actors to influence policy and planning decisions may be limited within more top-down and technocratic greenspace planning processes ( Mabon et al, 2019a , Mabon et al, 2019b ). The three cities hence cover a breadth of different governance forms and socio-economic development stages despite similar climate characteristics, and thus allow us to explore the question of whether there are common skill sets that can help to resolve the governance challenges that extant literature (e.g.…”

Fukuoka: Adapting to climate change through urban green space and the built environment?

“…As outlined in Section 6.1 and Table 2, what is notable is that whilst Fukuoka is one of a group of cities which were early to engage with climate issues in urban governance, the city's plans appear grounded in a comparatively rich techno-scientific evidence base. Fukuoka has a history of environmental science research and planning considerations aimed at understanding how the built environment may be configured to create a comfortable urban climate (Mabon et al, 2019). This predates the city's current interest in climate change adaptation.…”

“…Climate adaptation actions via planning in Fukuoka are thus supported by a number of local institutions with significant competence in understanding the urban environment, and willingness to engage with the policy-making process. However, this is arguably the result of a much longer concern in Fukuoka with a liveable local environment, which has helped these local institutions to develop the skills to create an environmental science evidence base towards maintaining quality of life (Mabon et al, 2019). This appears particularly true when it comes to mitigating heat effects.…”