Dundee Environment al Mapping Initiative (DEMi)
The Sustainable Action Grant to Sustain Dundee was £20,500 for the financial year 2005-06 for an environmental mapping initiative, engaging with the city's most deprived communities to provide them with the capacity to participate in decisions affecting the quality of their environment, enhancing environmental justice.
Sustain Dundee is a charitable company which supports local projects that make a positive contribution towards sustainable development. It is closely linked to the local Community Planning process in Dundee, and works with Dundee Partnership for the Environment (DPE).
The project targeted the environmental issues arising from the Local Community Plans and worked within Community Regeneration Fund (CRF) areas to seek solutions to existing concerns and map future environmental requirements by identifying priorities and resources to deliver action. Four key outputs for the project, with measurable performance, were community mapping exercises, a baseline audit on existing environmental activity, and a consultation report on environmental issues in each CRF area. A final report to DPE was to include a summary of findings and recommendations.
A part-time Community Development Worker worked directly with those communities the project targeted. Sustain Dundee secured in-kind contribution from Dundee City Council for DEMi with day-to-day project management from the Leisure and Communities Department. A Steering Group met fortnightly with representatives of Sustain Dundee, DPE and Dundee City Council (including the Community Regeneration Fund Co-ordinator).
The Community Development Worker met key community/interest groups and contacts within each of the five areas, including the Community Regeneration Workers. An action plan was drawn up, based on the aims and outputs for DEMi.
Each consultation and mapping exercise was divided into two parts to capture as many views and different opinions as possible. The first ("On the Street" morning sessions) were aimed at general community participants in the form of shoppers, passers-by, library and community centre users.
More structured Focus Sessions with Community Regeneration Forums, tenants groups, urban rangers, youth workers, key stakeholders in the community, etc. were held in the afternoon or evening. These consultations were designed to expand initial views of the street work and begin identifying priorities for future action and inclusion in the Local Community Plans.
Over 200 people gave their views and key issues brought up in the community mapping exercises included the need for green spaces that served a purpose and could be used by all sections of the community, the need to consider safety in the design and planning of environmental improvements/ enhancements to deter anti-social behaviour, as well as the importance of the city's parks to its residents.
A formal "wrap-up" event was held on May 31 2006 to present the Project Report. The event included a presentation by Jane Kidd, Community Development Worker for DEMi, summarising the plans and consultation/ mapping exercises. It was also hoped to arrange a short term exhibition of photographs and material produced by the consultation and mapping exercises in key locations in each of the CRF areas to enable people to see the findings. The report will also be made available on the DPE website.
DEMi was designed to run for one year, after which the information gathered over the course of the project would be used as a valuable tool in developing the environmental element in the Local Community Plans. It was hoped to work with the more established environmental groups in the city who can share best practice and help build further capacity of communities in the CRF areas to kick-start projects around key DEMi issues.
The results of the project should be of benefit not only to Dundee City Council and Sustain Dundee but also to the DPE where it will be used to develop an Environmental Strategy for the city and also provide baseline data to feed into future State of the Environment reports. The Dundee "Trees, Woodlands in Greenspaces" (TWIG) project will also be looking to take forward local issues arising from DEMi which relate to the city's greenspaces.
The DEMi project generated further interest from the academic sector. The Chair of Sustain Dundee gave a presentation to the National Society for Clean Air and Environmental Protection Scotland (NSCA) at their annual conference. As a result of this DEMi was approached by the Universities of Dundee and Glasgow Caledonian to look at the possible scope for DEMi to input into a case-study testing a new major research programme developing an assessment framework for urban decision-makers through which they can help address issues of environmental inequality associated with urban developments, which could enable DEMi to input into a new realm of practical environmental justice tools.
Contact
Bryan Harris
Dundee City Council
Waste Management Department
Marchbanks
34 Harefield Road
Dundee DD2 3JW
01382 432787
email: bryan.harris@dundeecity.gov.uk