engleski

Successfulness of Urban Development and Management: Applicability of Governance

Planning urban development can be viewed as a cycle including phases of identification of a current situation, formulation of a future (vision), elaboration of financial framework for development projects, implementation phase, monitoring phase and evaluation of successful implementation. How successful the implementation is, will be the main focus of this paper and this question will be answered using governance indicators as a tool for measuring successful urban development and management in the local self-government units. Attempts to develop governance indicators to improve decision-making are long-standing in areas such as economic development, social progress, quality of life, environment and natural resources, healthy communities and sustainability (Hodge, 1997 and Seasons, 2003). In the last 10 years, elaboration of strategic documents at the local and regional level has taken place in Croatia, introducing participative approach in planning development practice. Evaluation of implementation of such programmes is still lacking and the system of governance indicators should be introduced. Given the data availability, it is necessary to define governance indicators at the local and county level that will measure successfulness of implementation of strategic documents. For the purpose of this research, three different towns (Samobor, Benkovac, Virovitica) and belonging counties (Zagreb County, Zadar County and Virovitica-Podravina County) will be a subject of analysis and afterwards compared. As cities are vital to the future of our societies and engines of local, regional and national development, duly evaluated development policy helps to secure urban vitality in a long-term and improve future urban development and management of the local self-government units. Therefore, it is necessary to assess implementation of local programmes within county ones and their correlation in reality. As a result of a research, the paper gives policy recommendations for decision-makers and enhances their capacities in urban development and management in the local self-government units.

governance indicators; urban development and management; Croatia

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