ALBERT

Description: This systematic review contributes to the research field of user participation by suggesting a new holistic approach comprising a cyclic process model for long-term participation in the strategic management of urban green spaces, including analysis, design, and implementation phases, each followed by an evaluation. User participation in urban green spaces is encouraged in international conventions. Such initiatives aim to involve citizens more closely in decisions regarding local spaces, based on the premise that this will create better, more inclusive, and sustainable local environments. However, a social inclusion perspective is largely absent in the growing body of European scientific literature on urban green spaces. Further, user participation processes are often carried out within projects, with uncertainties about which strategic management phase (planning, design, construction, and/or maintenance) to emphasize and about the long-term sustainability of project-based participation. Therefore, the literature was examined for tools for participation with the focus on participation of local users in the strategic management of urban green spaces, and in particular, marginalized groups. A systematic review based on peer-reviewed scientific papers revealed the necessity for adapting participation processes to the known needs of different participant groups, including those of marginalized groups often excluded in the past. Local authorities have several pathways to socially inclusive and long-term participation. These include choosing and employing a suitable participation approach, anchoring repeated project-based participation in existing municipal long-term strategies, continuously supporting participating users and evaluating ongoing participation processes, and employing a mix of participation types and approaches. The “cyclic process model for long-term participation in strategic management of UGS” presented in this paper could guide such efforts.

Description: Little is known about rift kinematics and strain distribution during the earliest phase of extension due to the deep burial of the pre-rift and earliest rift structures beneath younger, rift-related deposits. Yet, this exact phase of basin development ultimately sets the stage for the location of continental plate divergence and breakup. Here, we investigate the structure and strain distribution in the multiphase Late Paleozoic-Cenozoic magma-poor Rukwa Rift, East Africa during the earliest phase of extension. We utilize aeromagnetic data that image the Precambrian Chisi Shear Zone (CSZ) and bounding terranes, and interpretations of 2-D seismic reflection data to show that, during the earliest rift phase (Permo-Triassic ‘Karoo’): 1) the rift was defined by the Lupa border fault, which exploited colinear basement terrane boundaries, and a prominent intra-basinal fault cluster (329° ± 9.6) that trends parallel to and whose location was controlled by the CSZ (326°); 2) extensional strain in the NW section of the rift was accommodated by both the intra-basinal fault cluster and the border fault, where the intra-basinal faulting account for up to 64% of extension; in the SE where the CSZ is absent, strain is primarily focused on the Lupa Fault. Here, the early-rift strain is thus, not accommodated only by the border fault as suggested by existing magma-poor early-rift models; instead, strain focuses relatively quickly on a large border fault and intra-basinal fault clusters that follow pre-existing intra-basement structures; 3) two styles of early-rift strain localization are evident, in which strain is localized onto a narrow discrete zone of basement weakness in the form of a large rift fault (Style-1 localization), and onto a broader discrete zone of basement weakness in the form of a fault cluster (Style-2 localization). We argue that the CSZ and adjacent terrane boundaries represent zones of mechanical weakness that controlled the first-order strain distribution and rift development during the earliest phase of extension. The established early-rift structure, modulated by structural inheritance, then persisted through the subsequent rift phases. The results of our study, in a juvenile and relatively well-exposed and data-rich rift, are applicable to understanding the structural evolution of deeper, buried ancient rifts.