Context- and Community- sensitive transport solutions in Charlotteville Tobago: Impacts on the spatial governance

• Applicant: Julia Roberta Kotzebue, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: City Planning, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning ; Human Geography
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 425915783

• Final Report Year: 2022

Final Report Abstract

Small island states are one of the most affected areas by sea level rise and Trinidad and Tobago, like others, have difficulties in becoming resilient. A major problem is to assure sustainable transport services, and to transform the highly car dependent inner transport system. Crucial is the citizen and stakeholder engagement that has significantly shaped sustainable transport and mobility planning in the urban areas of the Global North. Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) have critically influenced the E-planning and spatial governance processes. This increase the complexity of spatial governance in transport planning. However, scholars have conducted little research to understand them in integrated transport planning in the Caribbean region. Using a spatial governance framework, the project investigated context- and community- sensitive transport solutions building and collaborative planning, as well as its impact on spatial governance in Charlotteville, Tobago. The community could visualise their spatial and transport needs by testing the provided social geocommunication platform, a Google Maps based PGIS tool, in a real-life context. Although the COVID-19 pandemic lock-down and health restrictions significantly affected the fieldwork, the project resulted in the first community’s strategic sustainable transport plan in Trinidad and Tobago. The analysis of the spatial governance process showed that community and governmental key characteristics differ in the planning process. While the governmental planning was goal directed, the community oriented their strategy towards values and their sphere of influence. The PGIS tool supported the planning, but participants heavily depended on experts. In contrast to urban and rural areas in the Global North and Trinidad, the villagers already showed environmentally friendly transport behaviour. A vast majority in Charlotteville use shared transport modes, mini-busses. Hence, the most suggested solutions aimed to improve the status quo.

Publications

• 2020. Linking sustainable transport and community development: Transportation 2.0 in the small island of Tobago. The International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering and Technology. Trinidad and Tobago The University of West Indies
  Kotzebue, J. R.
  
• 2020. Mediatization of research and the role of digital capacity: challenges in Charlotteville Trinidad and Tobago during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 als Zäsur? Geographische Perspektiven auf Räume, Gesellschaften und Technologien in der Pandemie Online Heidelberg: University of Heidelberg
  Kotzebue, J. R.
  
• 2021. Community-building through sustainable transport solution development in Trinidad and Tobago: The role of web-based social geocommunication. 34. International Geographic Congress, 16-20.08.2021. Istanbul. International Geographical Union
  Kotzebue, J. R.
  
• 2021. Linking sustainable transport and community development: Testing a digital social geo-communication tool in the small island of Tobago World Symposium on Transport and Land Use Research, 09-13.08.2021. Portland. Portland State University
  Kotzebue, J. R.