This work examines the critical theory of public participation through a case study of the post-shipyard area redevelopment in Gdańsk, Poland, interrogating the relevance of such processes in a context where cultural heritage is crucial, but there is also an urgent need for new development. This centrally located, (post)industrial waterfront has undergone multiple restructuring attempts over the past 30 years. The negotiation between a vision for an integrated inner-city district and commemorating its heritage value as the cradle of the Solidarność (Eng. Solidarity) movement have stood in the way of substantial progress. The narratives of the stakeholders and participants involved revealed the importance of positioning the most recent consultations in the wider history of public involvement in this area. Examining the latest participatory consultations not in isolation, but rather as a consequence of earlier grassroots initiatives, allows to trace their evolution from bottom-up to top-down. The interviews revealed differences in the meaning behind notions such as heritage, naming, values, and conflicts used by the participants, suggesting these discrepancies can influence dialogue in participation. Finally, the work links the findings back to the critical theory of public participation, using the concepts of crossbenching (Miessen, 2010) and agonism (Mouffe, 1999) to describe the mechanisms found in the case study.

The Minimum Urban Units (MUUs) present a potential solution for responsive urban planning. Once implemented, MUUs can facilitate sustainable urban development and improve the quality of life of city dwellers. The MUUs are founded on the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification scheme, created by Oke and Stewart, and offer a way to delineate and characterise a city's physical attributes and environmental influence. The innovative element of this classification system encompasses not just land cover characteristics, building morphology and land use but also delocalised data on social aspects, demographics, urban mobility, and urban health, among others. The MUUs result from the research funded by the PNRR-Ecosystem of Innovation - Vitality, aiming to investigate the relationships between urban climatology, urban typomorphological research and social relations. For this purpose, the MUU concept identifies the most suitable smallest unit of urban development that can be efficiently planned and managed. The implementation of MUU provides a sustainable and resilient framework for urban development, which improves the restructuring of cities. A GIS-based platform helps implement the MUU concept by integrating data from multiple sources, including environmental, social, climatic, morphological, pollutant, economic, demographic and other relevant data sets. Such a platform, based on a Geographic Information System (GIS), allows urban planners to analyse and view the data spatially, which helps in identifying areas requiring attention and intervention. Additionally, this platform has the potential to facilitate engagement and collaboration among stakeholders, which is essential for successfully planning urban areas. MUU can help address the challenges of urbanisation, such as rapid population growth, environmental degradation and social inequality. Furthermore, it can foster sustainable and resilient urban development, which is crucial for the well-being of city residents and the planet. Overall, utilising a GIS-based platform and multi-source data can enhance the effectiveness of MUU and facilitate the production of adaptable urban plans. Implementing MUU in urban planning could revolutionise how cities are planned and managed, thus significantly contributing to creating sustainable and habitable urban environments. This approach can potentially enhance the effectiveness of urban planning processes and generate adaptive solutions. MUU, in fact, provides a structure for devising adaptive urban planning approaches capable of responding to the constantly changing requirements of a city. This paper outlines the critical determinants for characterising Minimum Urban Units (MUUs) as an extension of Local Climate Zones (LCZs) classification. The study aims to establish risk levels and climate scenarios for 2050-2080. The obtained information can be used to provide guidelines and regulations for the design of climate-resilient urban areas. Implementing MUUs offers promising results for urban planners looking to reorder disorganised cities.

This study investigates an integrated water- and land-transportation (IWLT) system for a delivery service in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where inland waterways cover 25% of the city's land area. Meeting the demands of the growing population and tourist population has become challenging under regulations limiting the reach of freight vehicles in cities. The use of inland waterways for various freight activities worldwide motivates service providers, policymakers, and researchers to explore IWLT systems and reduce the costs caused by limited access and vehicle idle times during congestion in cities. However, the cost efficiency of an IWLT system depends heavily on the design of transshipment facilities, or satellites, where goods are transferred from the water network to the road network. These facilities offer limited resources, such as space, storage, equipment, or labor, shared by vehicles on both networks. Instead of investing in resources at the satellites, public spaces can also be utilized as transshipment points, such as parking spots and public transportation stops, among others. However, this requires exact synchronization between city freighters and vessels to ensure they are present at the satellites for transshipment and forces all vehicles to wait if necessary. The trade-off between infrastructure investments and logistics costs plays an important role in transitioning towards more flexible, integrated, and sustainable systems. The challenge is to optimize the integrated routing problems connected via transshipment facilities to achieve the global optimum. In this study, we decompose the integrated problem into several optimization problems: multi-trip vehicle routing problem (VRP) on the streets, job scheduling problems at the transshipment facilities, and VRP over waterways. The decomposition method lets us model and test different variants of such systems considering various fleet specifications, direct/indirect services, and storage options at transshipment facilities. Different synchronization degrees are analyzed regarding the capacity of the transshipment facilities: i) asynchronous, ii) semi-synchronized, and iii) fully synchronized systems. Then, these systems are assessed on the case study along with various discussions on network service design and efficiency. Acknowledgments: This research is supported by the project “Sustainable Transportation and Logistics over Water: Electrification, Automation and Optimization (TRiLOGy)” of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research(NWO). The case study in Amsterdam is conducted in collaboration with the Municipality of Amsterdam and we are especially thankful to Marcel Ludema, Thomas Vernooij, and Thomas Meindertsma for the discussions and inputs.

Traditionally, hospitals have been criticized for their monolithic structure, embodying a one-size-fits-all approach that may not align with the diverse and evolving healthcare needs of the population. This monolithic nature often results in centralized decision-making, rigid hierarchies, and a lack of adaptability to changing medical landscapes. Patients may find themselves navigating complex bureaucratic structures, and healthcare providers might face challenges in delivering personalized, patient-centric care. With this systematic healthcare issue in mind, the concept of hospitals as delegated modules is proposed. This refers to the idea of breaking down a hospital's functions and services into smaller, more specialized units or modules that can be easily assembled and reconfigured as needed. In this proposal, a hospital would consist of a network of smaller units, each focused on delivering a specific type of care or service, incorporated into the urban fabric. For example, there might be modules dedicated to emergency care, surgery, diagnostic imaging, rehabilitation, and mental health services. Each module would be designed to be flexible and adaptable, so that it could be easily reconfigured to meet changing patient needs. By breaking down a hospital into smaller modules, it becomes easier to manage patient flow and ensure that patients receive the right level of care at the right time. It allows for more efficient use of resources, as modules can be scaled up or down to match patient demand. In addition, this approach can improve patient outcomes, as each module can be staffed with specialized personnel who are trained to deliver the highest quality care for a particular condition or service. The effectiveness of this concept is proven through the efficiency of the delegation within the decentralized healthcare typology. This research shows that a decentralized healthcare system is effective. Network analysis is a valuable tool for designing and optimizing hospital delegated modules. In this context, network analysis refers to the use of algorithms to analyze the flow of patients, staff, and resources within a hospital system. Network analysis can be used to evaluate the performance of hospital delegated modules over time. By monitoring key performance indicators such as patient outcomes, resource utilization, and patient satisfaction, hospital administrators can identify areas where improvements can be made and make data-driven decisions to optimize the hospital system as a whole. The continuous results and trends from the network analysis of the hospital delegated modules informs the design optimization of the physical layout of the hospital, where the flexibility and adaptability of the modules is applied. Overall, the concept of hospitals as delegated modules facilitates a more agile and data-driven system, fostering collaboration, interoperability, and unified decision-making, ultimately enhancing the quality and efficiency of patient care.