Addressing climate change in Berlin's local land-use plans through strategic environmental assessment and knowledge brokering

Abstract

This study explores the context of establishing local land use plans in Berlin, which, guided by Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), have shown potential to implement climate adaptation solutions in the urban landscape. The case study aims to identify contextual factors that promote knowledge brokering (KB) and facilitate the inclusion of climate issues in decision-making processes. Based on personal interviews with open-ended questions and document analysis, the Narrative Interview method was employed to understand the relevant internal aspects of the frequent practice of local plans, as well as to observe the articulation of KB spaces. In this sense, we identified the main characteristics of this practice, highlighting the conditions necessary for KB, the complexity of the strategies employed and the relevance of the relationship between the use of information and mediation in promoting changes in decision-making. The results also indicate that both the formulation of local land use plans and the promotion of climate issues are highly stimulated by the adoption of mediation strategies. However, the practice in Berlin prefers to operate from less complex strategies, and the relevance of the climate issue is not fully understood by the interviewees. This situation, combined with the lack of clearer regulations, prevents the issue from being explored more widely. Furthermore, it has been revealed that the promotion of climate issues is surrounded by governance practices that operate through both bottom-up and top-down forces, and also depend on contextual factors such as decision-making regimes, involved stakeholders, the quality of planning guidelines, the effectiveness of SEA, and the level of public participation. These factors, in turn, are influenced by the phenomenon of knowledge mediation and promoted and strengthened through learning. Thus, the case reveals that addressing climate issues depends on aligning these factors and understanding their complexity. This study confirms the significant role of SEA and knowledge brokering in facilitating not only the addressing of climate issues, but also in promoting solutions based on more plural approaches that are better prepared to tackle complex challenges.