Deepening the scientific debate on planning and complexity, this Handbook combines theoretical discussion about planning and governance with modelling complex behaviour in space and place. Linking planning and complexity as a way of understanding dynamic change and non-linear development within cities, it presents critical new insights on complex urban behaviour. Building on the notion that cities have fractal-like structures, chapters look at their behaviour as complex adaptive systems, with co-evolving trajectories and transformative forces. The Handbook offers new perspectives, concepts, methods and tools for understanding the inter-relations between complexity and planning, including: adaptive planning, non-linear types of rationality, governance and decision-making, and different methods of experimental learning. Planning, complexity, urban studies and social geography scholars will appreciate the examples of complex urban behaviour and urban planning throughout the Handbook. This will also be an important read for modellers in urban development, urban policy makers and spatial planners. Contributors include: E.R. Alexander, Y. Asami, M. Batty, R. Beunen, B. Boonstra, S.D. Campbell, S. Cozzolino, M. Duineveld, S. Eraranta, N. Frantzeskaki, T. Ishikawa, W. Jager, D. Loorbach, S. Moroni, C. Perrone, J. Portugali, W. Rauws, N.A. Salingaros, K. Van Assche, A. van Nes, S. Verweij, T. Von Wirth, M. Zellner,

Decentralization in Environmental Governance is a critical reflection on the dangers and risks of governance renewal; warning against one-sided criticism on traditional command and control approaches to planning. The book formulates the arguments that support when and how governance renewable might be pursued, but this attempt is not just meant for practitioners and scholars interested in governance renewal. It is also useful for those interested in the challenge of navigating a plural landscape of diverse planning approaches, which are each rooted in contrasting theoretical and philosophical positions. The book develops a strategy for making argued choices between alternative planning approaches, despite their theoretical and philosophical positions. It does so by revitalizing the idea that we can contingently relate alternative planning approaches to the circumstances encountered. It is an idea traced to contingency studies of the mid and late 20th century, reinterpreted here within a planning landscape dominated by notions of uncertainty, complexity and socially constructed knowledge. This approach, called 'Post-contingency', is both a theoretical investigation of arguments for navigating the theoretical plurality we face and an empirical study into renewing environmental governance. Next to its theoretical ambitions, Decentralization in Environmental Governance is practical in offering a constructive critique on current processes of governance renewal in European environmental governance.

Decentralization in Environmental Governance is a critical reflection on the dangers and risks of governance renewal; warning against one-sided criticism on traditional command and control approaches to planning. The book formulates the arguments that support when and how governance renewable might be pursued, but this attempt is not just meant for practitioners and scholars interested in governance renewal. It is also useful for those interested in the challenge of navigating a plural landscape of diverse planning approaches, which are each rooted in contrasting theoretical and philosophical positions. The book develops a strategy for making argued choices between alternative planning approaches, despite their theoretical and philosophical positions. It does so by revitalizing the idea that we can contingently relate alternative planning approaches to the circumstances encountered. It is an idea traced to contingency studies of the mid and late 20th century, reinterpreted here within a planning landscape dominated by notions of uncertainty, complexity and socially constructed knowledge. This approach, called 'Post-contingency', is both a theoretical investigation of arguments for navigating the theoretical plurality we face and an empirical study into renewing environmental governance. Next to its theoretical ambitions, Decentralization in Environmental Governance is practical in offering a constructive critique on current processes of governance renewal in European environmental governance.