Doctoral Defense in Environmental studies - Teemu Jama

Link on Zoom:
https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/68213094750

Doctoral candidate:
Teemu Jama

Title of thesis:
Zoning For Zero – Climate impacts of zoning plans in a Nordic context

Opponents:
Dr. Fabio Hernández Palacio, Docent at the Department of Security, Economics and Planning, University of Stavanger, Norway
Dr. Juho Rajaniemi, Professor at the School of Architecture at Tampere University, Finland

Advisor:
Dr. Jukka Heinonen, Professor at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland

Other members of the doctoral committee:
Dr. Elisa Lähde, Professor at the Department of Architecture, Aalto University, Finland
Dr. Henrikki Tenkanen, Professor at the Department of Built Environment, Aalto University, Finland

Chair of Ceremony:
Dr. Hrund Ólöf Andradóttir, Professor and Head of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iceland

Abstract:
This thesis examines the climate impacts of urban planning, with a focus on its primary institutional outcome: zoning plans. Methodologically, it contributes by analysing planning paradigms, typically addressed qualitatively in normative terms, through quantitative methods based on high-resolution spatial data of the built environment classified by their zoning plan denotations. Using this mixed-method approach grounded in Critical Realism, the thesis provides quantitative evidence on how land-use zoning influences the carbon footprint of urban development, with a qualitative analysis of the mechanisms behind this evidence. The quantitative results from the Nordic case cities challenge prevailing assumptions from two directions. On the one hand, high-density, efficiency-oriented zoning seems to fail to enable argued low-carbon lifestyles, instead reinforcing high-carbon behaviours through consumerism and increased travel. On the other hand, lower-density zoning, widely deemed unsustainable, tends to dominate also in cities in locations where residents have lower carbon intensities and overall emissions, even when income and household types are controlled. The findings reveal zoning’s causal power to shape global emissions from the bottom up, although it is currently applied counterproductively. The thesis demonstrates and argues that using zoning plans to manage climate impacts, rather than building rights with per capita–based efficiency metrics, is not only a feasible and historically defensible reconception of zoning but also essential for urban planning to retain its public mandate as a libertarian paternalistic policy tool for sustainable development. 

About the doctoral candidate:
Teemu Jama is a transdisciplinary architect-planner and city science researcher. He is dedicated to creating sense and sensibility in urban design and research with positive impacts. Teemu has two decades of versatile experience in planning, design, and research across multiple scales in the public sector, consultancy, and academia.