There are many barriers and obstacles that need to be removed to make the urban environment more accessible for people with disabilities. There are currently no adequate tools for urban planners to assess and address these obstacles. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) provide powerful methods for the visualization and analysis of spatial data, including the kind of data important in studies of accessibility. This study suggests a method urban planners can use to identify accessibility obstacles and to propose future actions to fix them.A literature review was conducted to find out what has been done and what is new regarding the accessibility issues. Different methods were evaluated which in turn led to the construction of a multi-step analytical strategy.

An increasing global population and a worldwide growing urbanization has raised the questionabout the future food security in cities all over the world. Peak-oil limits the access to cheap fossilfuels which threatens the global food-supply chain. This has resulted in a larger awareness anddiscussion related to urban agriculture. Growing crops and keeping animals within the city-borderscould be one way of creating a more robust and sustainable food supply for city dwellers. However,to enable an expansion of the urban agriculture many theorists argue that policies and institutionalstructures that supports and promotes city farming have to be developed.

The prevailing urban migration is a worldwide process. This results in growing cities and a diminishing proportion of people living in the countryside. As the urbanization continues a large amount of the world?s population is expected to live in urban settlements of informal character by 2050. Green Belt has for many years been used to control urban growth and to secure the sustention of larger green areas around towns and cities.

This thesis is a critical discourse analysis of the vision of Malmös contemporary urban development. By analysing official documents produced by Malmö municipality our aim is to make discursive and sociolcultural practices in the constitution and construction of the city visible and problematicize them. To do so we use critical discourse analysis and theories on Urban Studies. Malmö is a city historically labeld as a ?labour- city?, with heavy industry as its main labourmarket.

Mitt arbete innefattar en "Urban building" med bostadsrätter och kontor där utgångspunkten har varit cykeln då jag ansett den vara det mest stadsmässiga elementet. Placeringen för byggnaden är Hornsbruksgatan på Södermalm där det med projektet blir till 130 nya bostäder och 1200 kvm kontor som är väl anpassade för cykling såväl som cyklister..

Using the example of 55 former towns in Greater Poland, the author investigates the belief thattowns formerly deprived of town privileges are the most likely to be qualified as future formalurban entities. This paper approaches the subject of urban deprivation and restitution with amultiaspectual study of the concept of urbanity. Since a preponderance of Polish degraded townspossess a prominent urban physical structure, the study focuses mainly on urban morphology as acontributing factor to urbanity. Other approaches include the central place theory, demographicconditions and the role of urban perception. Taking into account Poland?s shifting geopoliticalhistory the study also seeks to identify and explain spatial patterns of varying degrees of urbanityamong the studied towns.

Urban density is not new, but rather one side of the continous processes of change underway in the city. During the urbanizing boom of the industrialization, when the cities grew bigger, the first spaces to be built on were vacant and planted areas in the interior of the district. The gardens that once were there were replaced by yardhouses. The idea of urban density is that a dense city means less distance between residential areas and workplaces, resulting in fewer shipments and travelers, which ultimately leads to lower energy consumption and lower emissions. Urban density may lead to shorter distances, but not necessarily. In the wake of urban density the greenstructures of the city is shattered. The possibilities for green areas to contribute to the health of the city and its inhabitants is dramatically reduced.

The right to the city has lately become the rallying cry for many urban social movements all over the world to challenge neoliberal planning, gentrification, the privatization of urban commons and growing spatial and social gaps in city and society. This senior essay studies urban social movements that in different ways advocate the idea of the right to the city. The term right to the city was coined in the late 1960s by French urban theorist Henri Lefebvre, who promoted the idea of the city as a common, a space belonging to everyone. The right to the city is not ?a return to traditional cities?, but ?a right to urban life? (1996:158).This study focuses on the city of Hamburg.

Uppsatsen behandlar temat urbana tillväxtstrategier i svensk planering. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur översiktsplaner har påverkats av entrepreneurial city, platsmarknadsföring och kreativa klassen som alla är olika teorier om urban tillväxt. Undersökningen utgår ifrån fem kommuner med en översiktsplan från tidigt 90-tal och en aktuell plan antagen omkring 2010. Översiktsplanerna studeras utifrån de valda teorierna (entrepreneurial city, platsmarknadsföring och kreativa klassen) om urban tillväxt för att ge förståelse för hur strategierna i kommunernas översiktsplaner har påverkats av teorierna. Den genomförda undersökningen visar på en förändring över tid som pekar mot mer tillväxtorienterad planering..

The landscape is a great asset for Göteborg as a city and places in the landscape are much used by the public. This diploma work deals with the question of how nature in Göteborg can become more accessible and how a place in it can be supplemented with new landscape elements. It is a proposal for a new urban park at Björlanda peninsula in the western part of Hisingen, Göteborg, which today belongs to the Swedish Armed Forces and is a part of the Nature-2000 area "Nordre älvs estuarium". The reason for choosing this place is that it is the only area around the costal area in Göteborg that has not been built on and that it contains a very varied landscape. The proposal is presented as three different broschures, dated 10-20 years ahead: A map of a possible system of urban parks including a detail of such a park, Västra Hisingen (the western parts of Hisingen) The idea with a system of urban parks is to make the landscape generally more accessible and maybe open it for people that do not use it today. A broschure of the central area Välkommen, with my design proposal for an urban park at Björlanda peninsula The design aims to utilize the landscape elements water, mountains, vegetation and sky and to intensify the experience of them. A flora for Välkommen that shows a selection of plants for the design proposal.

Urban trees contribute significantly to our society. By providing ecosystem services and a habitat that other urban species and ecosystems depend on, both biodiversity and the people in the city benefit. Some characteristics that the trees possess include functioning as biological filters for the atmosphere and water, as well as positively impacting people's mental health. However, urban trees are challenged by stressors such as pollution and a drier environment, making them particularly sensitive to climate change. The goal of this study was to estimate the expected magnitude of climate change in Gothenburg and compare it with the current urban species' natural climate boundaries to understand the extent of the climate threat and which species appear to be most at risk.

The purpose of this study is to examine how risk is perceived by the urban architect's in the region Dalarna, as well as how this is reflected in their everyday work with risk and decision- making according to urban planning. The ambition is also to show how their risk awareness could be improved. The study is written in cooperation with Länsstyrelsen Dalarna as a part of their regional long-term goal to improve the region's proactive risk' and crisis management. The study is based upon 12 semi-structured interviews with local urban architects conducted during the summer and autumn 2007. The result shows that some architects are motivated for working with risk and think that risk awareness should be integrated in their everyday work, while others are not motivated and think that risk is more of a passing trend.

Projektet går ut på att radikalt öppna upp kvarteret. Öppna upp husets bottenplan till allmänheten, skapa en större offentlig plats, en mötesplats, samt tillföra butiker och studentbostäder. Dessutom skall husen kommunicera denna nya tillgänglighet..

Outdoor recreation habits in metropolis and rural areasThis study aims to examine the perception of nature and outdoor recreation habits from an urban-rural prospective. The urbanization process continues in Sweden and the populations of the cities are growing continuously. Trends to build more compact and ?climate smart? reigns and with this a risk that green areas and areas where outdoor recreation can be practiced are situated further and further away from the urban population. Analyzing the responses from a survey made by the research program Friluftsliv i förändring 2007 we have examined if and which differences exists between urban and rural areas regarding their perception of nature, outdoor recreation habits and factors influencing the practice of outdoor recreation.

Kommunikation och tillgänglighet som målMitt program består av fem hus,630 kv var,studentsbostäder 541 kv och ett kontors komplex,komplexet är i samma byggnad som t-bana hus. Alla hus är på parken, på grund av ljusförhållande,eftersom programmet är orienterad mot söder.För att komma till bostäder går man genom trappor,det finns fem nya trappor från gatan till bostäderna som har som funktion,förutom att nå bostäder,att göra möjligt till alla grannar att gå till parken från gatan själv.Programmet har också för mål att skapa ett mera dynamiskt urban liv med sitt multifunktionella grannskap,väl dimensionerad hus och anslutna ytor,varierande boende av alla åldrar,och utveckla ett mera aktiv förhållande till parken och med de nya bosättare.