Facilitating sustainable development of urban landscape by involvement of local territorial communities in Vilnius city

Abstract

The article analyses importance of territorial communities in the process of urban development of a modern city from the aspect of facilitating public involvement for improving aesthetic, functional and ecologic quality of urban landscape. More sustainable qualities of urban environment are achieved by direct involvement of the local territorial communities into programming, planning, constructing, managing and further modifying the elements of landscape system. The topic is disclosed by the analysis of wide international planning and implementation practices, and by comparative socio-economic research. The article arguments in favour of urban communities in Lithuania to be given a more influential role in developing individually shaped solutions for sustainable urban landscapes. Based on the case study of the selected residential area in Vilnius City, the way of activating the local residents’ groups is presented. The problem of miss-match between the informal setting of urban communities and the formal territorial subdivision of local territorial authorities is outlined by comparing the informal network to the formal administrative subdivision. The article demonstrates how the potentials of implementing territorial structure of informal territorial communities are empowered by modifying the legal boundaries of local urban authorities and by providing a local community with a role of a strong stakeholder in all phases of planning, construction and maintenance of urban landscapes. The associated local residents get more opportunities to contribute to planning and development programs of landscape empowerment and to increase the aesthetical, social and environmental quality of urban architecture and enhance the quality of life.