Policy exploration is a lever for boosting less known working fields adding up to sustainable and integrated territorial development policies and practices. It’s a highly effective approach for diving into the unknown.
In this session, Shana Debrock and René van der Lecq from the Department of the Environment and Spatial Development of the Flemish authorities share their practical experiences with policy exploration as an approach for developing underground urban spaces in Flanders since 2017.
The use of underground space used to be a hidden practice in Flanders. But policy exploration has brought about new dynamics – building knowledge, bringing together expertise, getting in touch with potential users, creating stories and imaging the underground. Together with a few different cities, the team is developing and experimenting with projects while refining policies and instruments.