ReVISONS – Regional Visions of Integrated Sustainable Infrastructure Optimised for Neighbourhoods

Cities have developed spatially to facilitate economic growth and lifestyle aspirations but at the expense of increasing rates of consumption of resources and the production of waste and carbon emissions. As the United Nations projects that the global population living in urban areas will double by 2050, it is imperative that an understanding of how to plan urban areas to be more sustainable is achieved sooner rather than later.

ReVISIONS believe that to gain a full understanding of urban areas they need to be researched within a regional context using an integrated multi disciplinary method. ReVISIONS research involves a number of in-depth regional case studies, carried out in partnership with government agencies and other stakeholders, for systematically testing the effectiveness of alternative design and development strategies for year 2031, and beyond.

This four year project has been awarded funding of £3.8m by EPSRC as part of the Sustainable Urban Environment (SUE) programme and started April 2008.

Project Aims:

The aim of the ReVISIONS project is to provide the knowledge and evidence base for public agencies and private companies to plan regional spatial development together with infrastructure for transport, water, waste and energy (ranging from large capital schemes to small scale decentralised services), in a more coordinated and integrated way so as to reduce impacts on the environment and resources, improve economic competitiveness, and allow households to live more sustainably, with a socially inclusive and enhanced quality of life.

It will explore the inter-relationships between infrastructure policies and plans at the regional and local scales and explore the tensions and interactions that exist across these scales, and between sectors.

For more information visit: http://www.regionalvisions.ac.uk