A Socio‐Spatial Extension of the Local Climate Zone Typology: Its Potential in Computational Planning Support Systems

Abstract

Computational planning support systems (CPSS) have been invaluable for the transparent and rational planning of climate‐resilient cities as they help clarify and optimise the trade‐offs between alternative choices. CPSS have shown great promise also as digital design boards for the co‐creation of new solutions. However, both as a tool and a theoretical stance to spatial planning, CPSS have suffered from top‐down representations of urban space. Bottom‐up, collective, and subjective processes essential for sustainable and climate‐resilient urbanism are often left unaccounted for. This article introduces one possible solution to this gap, namely structuring the information flows of CPSS according to the local climate zone framework, enriched with urban commons information. We illustrate our approach with data from the 29 largest Finnish municipalities. We combine OpenStreetMap and demographic information with local climate zone data to produce a socio‐spatially extended local climate zone typology of Finnish urban forms. The results delineate a Nordic angle to sustainable spatial planning - green and sparse, somewhat compact and mixed, but not comprehensively so, built environments - allowing a juxtaposition with normative ideas about sustainable cities. We furthermore propose a co‐design workflow that is based on our typology. The main practical applications of our work include vulnerability mapping and integrated impact assessment, multimodal communication of computer model output, and computationally‐assisted co‐design of built environments with a variety of stakeholders.