Kirstin Groote from City Development , department Environment and Sustainability, went on a four day internship to Malmö in June 2011. Her research topic was the theory and practice of soil remediation in
Her Internship left the following impression on her:
Mälmo is a blooming city where a meeting of minds between citizens and administrators is commonplace and where future development of the city is planned and executed in good conscience. Malmö looks at the bigger picture, subsequently resulting in unexpected fusion of ambitions. For instance the key to success for run-down district such as Rosengård is to integrate the district to the people and not the more common approach of integrating the people to the district. How they do it? With just the ingredients they have in abundance: space, culture and a little support from the local government. Rosengård is a district where most of its inhabitants are immigrants from Iraq
The most striking difference between the way Utrecht Netherlands we have a number of separate environmental protection codes including one on soil protection, whereas in Sweden
On the one hand this prevents a nation-wide policy on soil protection rules which provides clarity and equality before the law. On the other hand, this method is less bureaucratic and provides the opportunity of a case by case approach where both authority and proponent of the remediation come to an agreement on the basis of equality rather than the authority imposing a decision on the proponent. However, the result of both the Dutch and Swedish processes is the same, they ultimately lead to a cleaner and healthier soil.
Kirstin Groote
