Who is the Expert? Integrated Urban Modeling and the Reconfiguration of Expertise

ABSTRACT

Much has been spoken and written about the rationalization and optimization of services and amenities in urban territories. In this context, there is increasing use of numerical modeling techniques addressing the design, selection and/or calibration of policy instruments. The question of the relations between appraisal tools and policymaking has been widely studied. However, few studies have specifically focused on the role of modeling in policymaking processes. Drawing on two case studies, this paper suggests a change in the nature of multi-expertise: neither conflicting nor cross-sectoral, we observed in both cases an interwoven configuration with a network of experts making use of integrated models. We call this configuration distributed expertise, arguing that it is a novel configuration and that its emergence is closely linked to the development of integrated modeling techniques. Other authors have discussed the idea that the growing need for new appraisal tools is linked with the proliferation of wicked policy problems. From our case studies we would conclude that the emergence of integrated modeling is not a response to complex problems but to complex systems of actors who need to reach a consensus on actions.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban modeling
• expertise
• air quality
• water quality

Acknowledgments

Two postdoctoral fellowships were funded by the LabEx program “Urban Futures.”

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributors

Hadrien Commenges is a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratoire Eau, Environnement et Systèmes Urbains (Water, Environment, and Urban Systems Laboratory at Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech, AgroParis Tech.). His research focuses on the history of urban modeling and its uses in policymaking processes.

Lorenza Tomasoni is a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratoire Eau, Environnement et Systèmes Urbains (Water, Environment, and Urban Systems Laboratory at Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech, AgroParis Tech.). She investigates the conception and use of indicators for urban planning and transportation.

Christian Seigneur is the director of the Centre d’Enseignement et de Recherche en Environnement Atmosphérique (Atmospheric Environment Center at Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech.). Previously, he was vice president and head of the Air Quality Division at Atmospheric & Environmental Research Inc. in the San Francisco Bay Area. His research activities address the multi-scale modeling of air pollution.

Olivier Bonin is the deputy director of the Laboratoire Ville Mobilité Transport (City, Mobility, Transportation Laboratory at Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech.). His current research focuses on geographical information, spatial analysis, and geographic modeling of urban areas.

Fabien Leurent is the deputy director of the Laboratoire Ville Mobilité Transport (City, Mobility, Transportation Laboratory at Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech.). His main research areas concern operational research and systemic modeling, mainly in the field of urban transportation and housing.

Céline Bonhomme is a researcher at the Laboratoire Eau, Environnement et Systèmes Urbains (Water, Environment, and Urban Systems Laboratory at Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech, AgroParis Tech.). Her research currently focuses on the transfer of traffic pollutants in urban water bodies.

José-Frédéric Deroubaix is a researcher at the Laboratoire Eau, Environnement et Systèmes Urbains (Water, Environment, and Urban Systems Laboratory at Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech, AgroParis Tech.). His research activities address the interaction between the production of knowledge and the production of expertise, mainly in the fields of sewage and water quality.

Notes

1. At a global scale, integrated modeling dates back to Forrester’s models and their use by the Club of Rome at the beginning of the 1970s (Matarasso, 2001; Forrester, 2007). It gave birth to the so-called Integrated Global Modeling approach (IGM), which takes into account energy, industry, agriculture, population, and other factors impacting global change. IGM has been of growing importance in the public arena since the 1992 Rio Conference and the work of the International Panel on Climate Change. In particular, there is now increasing use of Earth System Models that combine the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere and terrestrial surfaces, while tracking global cycles such as the energy, water and carbon cycles. As we focus here on urban governance, the technical and political scope of the IGM approach is far from our concerns and we will not take it into consideration.

2. In our literature review we found several references with misleading titles such as Microeconomic Simulation Models for Public Policy Analysis (Haveman and Hollenbeck, 1980) and Integrated Urban Models: Policy Analysis of Transportation and land use (Putnam, 1983). These books deal with modeling and the “policy analysis” is a mere declaration of intent.

3. PPA: Plan de Protection de l’Atmosphère de la région Île-de-France.

4. SDA: Schéma Directeur d’Assainissement de l’agglomération parisienne.

5. DRIEE: Direction Régionale et Interdépartementale de l’Environnement et de l’Énergie.

6. SIAAP: Syndicat Interdépartemental pour l’Assainissement de l’Agglomération Parisienne.