Title: Steps towards sustainable urban development in the city of Narva, Estonia – supporting e-Governance processes through the e-Community tool – a web-based communication and management platform

Authors: Doris Schnepf, Sophie Strasser

Addresses: SERI, Sustainable Europe Research Institute, 1090 Vienna, Austria. ' SERI, Sustainable Europe Research Institute, 1090 Vienna, Austria

Abstract: This paper is based on the e-Community project. The aim of the project was to create an internet-based management tool for sustainable urban planning in the City of Narva that involves both citizens and decision makers of the Narva Municipality. The tool implements attractive elements for citizens| participation, the possibility of visualising issues on urban planning and environment, and the management of information exchange within the Municipality. However, the legacies of the era of industrialisation during the Soviets and the geographical situation of Narva led to huge social and environmental challenges. This paper shows how to plan, create and implement an internet-based tool for sustainable urban management and concludes in recommendations for practitioners for setting up such an internet-based communication and management platform.

Keywords: e-governance; environmental management; electronic governance; online participation; e-participation; Estonia; municipal reorganisation; EU new member states; participation; sustainable urban development; urban planning; sustainable development; sustainability; information exchange; information management; internet; citizen participation; European Union; e-government; electronic government.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2008.016298

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2008 Vol.8 No.1, pp.53 - 68

Published online: 16 Dec 2007 *

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