What is a CityLab/ Urban Lab?
Lorraine Njeri
Enabling Environment | Nature-based Solutions | Clean Energy for Sub-Saharan African Cities | Graduate Engineer GE-IBK
Personally, I am working in a Mombasa CityLab project centered around the growing Coastal-Urban Flooding issue.
The most frequent questions I get include is it an actual laboratory? and What exactly are you guys doing?
To demystify all this, firstly its not an actual laboratory!
City Labs are working groups guided by structured processes that bringing together different stakeholders, such as government, civil society, academia, community etc to utilise knowledge and co-create solutions aimed at addressing complex problems.
Their main goal, is to establish common ground on urban challenges, that are intricate for any single organization to effectively respond to the issue. One of the core ideas underpinning the lab method is that new and innovative ideas for how to solve urban issues can come from co-producing knowledge with diverse stakeholders. ( De Kraker et al.,2016)
Try and visualize Citylabs as ThinkTanks! This can be in business, climate adaptation challenges, urban infrastructure, you name it!
Since I am in in the Climate Change and Urban Development space with a focus on local governanace, I will use references in this line.
To answer the second most frequent question: What exactly are we doing in these Labs?
I will break down the:
1.?????? Basic Structure of City Labs
2.?????? Basic Process/Approach of City Labs
There is no blueprint for city-labs, as they take different forms in different places, depending on the local context. But based on my reviews of multiple Labs, the basis of the city-lab is a set of core partnerships.
·?????? Basic Structure
They have three main partners guiding the processes, that are then nested in the larger network of stakeholders.
The Strategic Partner is an external organisation that provides funding and technical support and enables sharing among city-lab platforms in different cities.
The Convening Partner is a local partner that acts as an intermediary organisation to ground and facilitate the lab process.
The Decision-Making Partner is an actor – usually a government actor – nested within the decision-making space that is willing to support the lab. The lab is then nested within a larger network of stakeholders.This includes a wide range of actors from the academia, civil society, community, development partners, government actors, vulnerable groups, NGOs/INGOs and private sectors. (Smit, 2021)
?·?????? Basic working process
With reference to the Mombasa CityLab Project, the CityLab operates in three phases. Formulation, Generation & Implementation and Institutionalization & reflection.
Phase 1- Formulation
The formulation phase is crucial for laying the groundwork for the lab.
?This stage determines the specific issue the lab will address and involves the establishment of core partners structures and their specific roles. It serves as the diagnostic phase where the primary problem is identified through discussions with multiple stakeholders. If the main issue is not clear, a diagnostic study can be conducted to gain a high-level understanding of the city's problems.
After which the end of this phase is marked with the launch of the Lab to share an overview of the process and create buy-in. [Find the link to the Mombasa CityLab Project Launch at the end of the article]
Phase 2: Generation and Implementation
While a problem has been selected in the Formulation phase, the detailed exploration of this problem is continuous through the Generation phase.
?Gaining a deeper understanding of the problem, envisioning the desired future, and recognizing challenges and obstacles are crucial for pinpointing effective entry points to tackle the issue.
This process involves posing critical questions to build a common understanding, such as: Who is affected by the problem? How do various stakeholders perceive the problem differently? What interventions have been attempted previously? What are the policy, social, or political barriers to the proposed solutions? (Schol & Kemp, 2016).
?After developing an extensive and innovative list of potential pathways, it is essential to ground these ideas in the local context. This involves focusing on practical, actionable, and sustainable measures that the network can implement to drive meaningful change.
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Phase 3: Institutionalization and reflection
?The lab itself is an incubator and must eventually allow for its work to be institutionalized. (Simon et al., 2018)
?This reiterates the need for the identified entry points and developed action plans to? have a robust coalitions of stakeholders identified, within the lab network and decision-making arena, to align with policy regulations and receive support from key departments for smooth institutionalization.
?Nevertheless, the aim is to integrate the new knowledge and plans into the decision-making framework.
As the lab wraps up, it is crucial to evaluate what worked and what didn’t, and to consider how to build on the insights and relationships developed.
The activities of the city-lab will need to be monitored and evaluated to reflect on learnings and impacts.
?
Back to the original question: ?
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What exactly are we doing?:
?Within the Mombasa CityLab Project, we are bringing together multi-disciplinary stakeholders to co-create entry point interventions for urban flooding issues; within the scope of our financial, technical capacity and limited 1-year period.
Currently we are done with phase 1-Formulation, with a Flood and Risk Vulnerability Assessment FRVA Report done using multi-influencing GIS analysis and community participatory approach. [Find link below]
We are now on the phase 2 of solution co-creation guided by Workshops; Seminars; Field trips; Collaborative research, technical assessments and reporting activities.
As mentioned earlier, the Lab process is not cast on stone but rather adaptable to the objectives and stakeholders, therefore as of now, some of the solutions we are looking at include and not limited to:
Nooow, on to tying everything together, have you ever heard of Bloomberg Philanthropy City Labs?
Bloomberg Philanthropies, is a global network of about 700 partner cities that hosts annual CityLabs. A preeminent global cities summit which gathers the most influential mayors and voices from hundreds of cities worldwide. Bloomberg CityLab was founded on the principle that the most important innovation is happening at the local level and that global impact can be achieved when cities share solutions.
So, clearly this more of a learning /peer-peer/ city -city exchange which qualifies as another description of the City Lab.
?Innately, these Labs are multi-disciplinary, involving multiple stakeholders, utilizing the knowledge among the stakeholders, for a co-creation of innovate/ new/ resilient solutions to complex problems.
! THE END!
Parting Shot:
I hope you have learnt something new or gotten a better understanding of the CityLab concepts.
I have attached resource links, that I found rather insightful and would highly recommend.
This was quite fun putting together and you better enjoy it as much I did, putting it together ??
And if you have opportunities for collaboration, feel free to reach out, I’d love to expand my experience.
Resource Links:
1.?????? PDF Document on City Labs as instrument to shape common ground in urban Sustainability.
2.?????? Article on Mombasa City Lab Launch
?3.?????? The technical report on Mombasa City Flood Risk and Vulnerability Assessment
?4.?????? Youtube video on A Decade of Bloomberg CityLabs
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References:
De Kraker, J. C?rvers, R. Scholl, C and van Wanroij, T'. (2016). Urban labs – a new approach in the governance of sustainable urban development', in C?rvers, R., de Kraker, J. Kemp, R. Martens, P. and van Lente, H. (eds.), Sustainable development Reserach at ICIS. Taking stock and looking ahead, Maastricht: Datawyse/ Universitaire Press Maastricht. (pp 335-346)
Scholl, C., & Kemp, R. (2016). City Labs as Vehicles for Innovation in Urban Planning Processes.?Urban Planning, 1(4), 89-102. doi:https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v1i4.749
Simon, D., Palmer, H., Riise, J., Smit, W., & Valencia, S. (2018). The challenges of transdisciplinary knowledge production: from unilocal to comparative research. Environment and Urbanization, 30(2), 481-500.
Smit W (2021). The City-Lab programme in Cape Town. In: Hemstr?m K, Simon D, Palmer H, et al. (eds) Transdisciplinary knowledge co-production: A guide for sustainable cities. Rugby, UK: Practical Action.
#CityLabs #UrbanLabs #MombasaCityLab #Climateadaptation #ThinkTank #Incubators
Dean @ Nile University of Nigeria | PhD, Civil and Building Engineering
4 个月This article indeed provided a good overview of the urban lab. Well done ??
Great read, Lorraine Njeri! Even as a novice on the subject, I found it quite engaging. :)
Circular & Regenerative Systems | IFC EDGE? | SEA?| ActiveScore AP? | Web3/ReFi | MEP Engineering | Facilities Management | LCA - Built Environment | EPDs|
5 个月Great! Awesome seeing the concept of ULL's being adopted by cities locally! Have a look at what Nakuru are doing with Food Systems under Nakuru Living Lab. Great Job! Lorraine
Masters Candidate in Justice & Transformation - UCT
5 个月Great work Lorraine ??
Climate, Cities at GIZ (Brussels) | LSE
5 个月Great, Lorraine! Well summarised :)