Investigating the hidden returns of danish urban planning and their implications for future resilient cities

This paper proposal takes the stance that Danish urban planning conducted on rationales of function and zoning contains hidden, unintentional returns with implications for how to plan for waterscapes in future, resilient – or smart- cities in the North. In a Northern context, climate change means sea level rise, increases in precipitation, and, in many places, a higher groundwater table too (DMI, 2018; DMI and Bøssing Christensen, 2018; IPCC, 2013), thus, demanding changes in current planning practices. We claim that, in Denmark, the planning trajectory of the 20th century lost its connection to waters flow, deep structures and ecological corridors. A relationship which is becoming crucially important with climate change (McHarg, 1969; Mostafavi et al., 2010; Spirn, 2012, 1993; Steiner and McHarg, 2019).

However, in a Danish case study (Aarhus)(Wiberg, 2018), we found an unintended hidden return of urban planning. The case study revealed that the cities´ ´welfare´ buildings- and areas (public schools, retirement homes, kindergartens, social housing, sports grounds, cemeteries, and allotment gardens) had been located in/by/on blue-green passages and wet soils during the 20th century. This finding showed an unintentional and un-recognized pattern, going under the radar in the municipal planning of the city. We see this as a hidden return of planning that, when recognized, forms a potential for informing planning for resilient cities deeper connected to its underlying deep structures as a way to enhance the cities capacity for resilient urban development.

The concept and implications of hidden returns in planning are investigated and discussed through three Danish case studies of urban situations in the period from the late 19th Century to the present. The analyses are based on a spatial approach, e.g. footprints and layout of buildings, roads and green spaces in comparison to the deep structures and waterways of the underlying landscape.

The overall objective of the hidden returns analyses is to provide insights for re-reading Northern contemporary planning in the 20th century. This, to push discussions of how we interpret the spatial outcomes of our urban planning (Gaardmand, 1993; Lund, 2016; Madsen, 2009; Nielsen, 2015, 2007) and practices and their implications for planning for resilient, smart cities of the future with acknowledgement of deep structures and waterscapes.