https://lablab.se LabLab Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:53:49 +0000 https://lablab.se en https://lablab.se/Mobile-Landing Mon, 20 Mar 2023 15:39:49 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/Mobile-Landing EMPOWERING SOCIAL, ECOLOGICAL AND SPATIAL TRANSITIONS https://lablab.se/Domestic-Energy-Landscapes Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:53:49 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/Domestic-Energy-Landscapes <img width="1024" height="683" width_o="1024" height_o="683" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f0978a509d426f6bd406b0b48a90ffcb7f52a74f3a5eae0c2f82c1fc442fa642/sketches-11.jpg" data-mid="247283452" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f0978a509d426f6bd406b0b48a90ffcb7f52a74f3a5eae0c2f82c1fc442fa642/sketches-11.jpg" /> Domestic Energy Landscape A Case of South Asia, Pakistan &nbsp;Author: Mahum Ahmad, LABLAB (2025) Climate Change and Heatwaves Heatwaves are breaking records worldwide, as the magnitude of climate change is stirring at an alarming rate with its wide range of impacts across every region of the earth. It has emerged as one of the most pressing global challenges of the 21st century, manifesting as extreme temperatures that pose direct health risks and significantly escalate energy demand, particularly for cooling purposes. This surge in energy consumption is acutely felt in developing countries like Pakistan, where existing energy shortages compound the crisis, leading to widespread power cuts and a phenomenon known as "Cooling Poverty." This term encapsulates the struggle of households to afford adequate cooling, exacerbating socio-economic disparities. Pakistan’s Climate Impact: Why Pakistan <img width="4585" height="3189" width_o="4585" height_o="3189" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/887cd39f8087b2e0b0e533a6f0bb5373d6e5570856a361536664755f7729f7b2/pakistan-hottest-to-live.jpg" data-mid="247283455" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/887cd39f8087b2e0b0e533a6f0bb5373d6e5570856a361536664755f7729f7b2/pakistan-hottest-to-live.jpg" /> Zooming in further, Pakistan stands at the forefront of this burgeoning global crisis, where the impacts of climate change have intensified, resulting in a surge of diseases and fatalities. It holds the position as the fifth most vulnerable nation worldwide. Particularly, urban areas like Jacobabad and Hyderabad face prolonged periods each year characterised by extreme conditions that challenge mere survival. The scorching temperatures not only render work impossible, leading to wage loss and perpetuating cycles of poverty, but also affect health. A significant portion of the populace resides in poorly ventilated structures without access to cooling systems. When temperatures soar beyond 45℃, individuals find it physiologically impossible to carry out their daily routines. Gender and Domestic Energy Landscape Within this context, the domestic energy landscape in Pakistan offers a compelling scope to explore the broader implications of energy insecurity. The situation is further complicated by gender inequality and entrenched cultural norms that confine women to their homes and disproportionately burden them with unpaid labour. This research aims to investigate these interconnected issues, focusing on how climate-induced energy crises amplify domestic hardships and deepen gender disparities in Pakistan. In the Global Gender Gap Report of 2022, Pakistan has unfortunately been identified as the penultimate country, ranking 145th out of 146 nations, in terms of achieving gender equality. The report highlights the significant imbalance in the distribution of unpaid care duties, which include but are not limited to, child care, education, and the provision of care for elderly, ill, or disabled family members. In addition to these responsibilities, women and girls are tasked with household duties such as cooking, cleaning, and securing water and fuel resources. This demographic is compelled to allocate a considerable amount of their daily time, typically ranging from 12 to 16 hours, to these labour-intensive and frequently uncompensated tasks. The domestic landscape uncovers the power dynamics, social norms and configurations within which women operate daily.&nbsp; Energy landscapes are co-constructions of geography and society that emerge from a network of material and social interactions. Domesticity and Energy bring about the phenomenology of the climate crisis, household power dynamics and gendered vulnerabilities at the surface. Domestic Energy Landscape is a multifaceted co-construction of space that encapsulates one’s comfort and ease and yet on the contrary entraps. Kitchens are run mostly by women in Pakistan, it is their space of power dynamics, a space which empowers and undermines their value and a place where they spend a significant amount of their day. The kitchen is a centre of political and economic struggle, subjectification, and victimhood in Pakistani womanhood because it sustains and reflects female-to-female inequities.&nbsp; Women are the frontliners facing the adversities of climate change even within their personal space&nbsp; <img width="4961" height="3508" width_o="4961" height_o="3508" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/af52f61b17bf6a6e14509767a2ace95c55f86b934d7bc4d2e18746149431475f/sketches---3---GRAPHIC-4.jpg" data-mid="247283457" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/af52f61b17bf6a6e14509767a2ace95c55f86b934d7bc4d2e18746149431475f/sketches---3---GRAPHIC-4.jpg" /> A heat wave swept across Jacobabad, Pakistan’s ‘furnace ’ and one of the hottest cities in the world. The temperature hit 51 °C on May 14, 2022. Nazia, a young mother of five, was preparing lunch for her visiting cousins. But with no air conditioning or fan in her kitchen, she collapsed and was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead from a suspected heat stroke. Her body was taken the following day to her ancestral village to be buried, and her children, the youngest a one-year-old who was still breastfeeding, regularly cried for their mother. Unfortunately, Nazia is just another name in the sea of women affected daily.&nbsp; Unlike men, women in the culture can not go outside to sit under the trees in the open sky to get some respite from the heat. They have to remain confined to their homes even at night when men sleep outside under the open sky, and women have to make do in their confined spaces without adequate ventilation. "We have no air-conditioning and our tin hut becomes so hot during the day, you can burn your hand touching it. The water pipes also heat up, so we can't even take cold showers”, says a rural woman. Women's clothing acts as a heat trap. A six-yard-long sari wrapped several times around the torso or a flammable cloth veil worn is unbearably hot and hazardous. Women's core body temperatures recorded are about 1-2 degrees Celsius higher during summer noon. In rural areas, women and girls are disproportionately responsible for procuring food, water, and domestic energy resources in rural communities around the world. As the drought worsens and the trees burn, they must travel longer distances and spend more time gathering these resources. In India, analysis of death certificate data from a massive heatwave in Ahmedabad in 2010 shows women were far more likely to die than men. Another study by Umea University in Vadu, Pune, found that women had higher heat-related risks than men. Water scarcity, one of the issues most exacerbated by climate change, disproportionately affects women, yet they are frequently excluded from decision-making processes. In water-scarce regions like Tharparkar in Sindh, women bear the burden of carrying an average of 90 litres over long distances, to meet their domestic needs, including cooking, drinking and washing, even during pregnancy.&nbsp; We see more cases of pre-term births in hot weather. Domestic Energy Landscape<img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/99051bf297937442aecaa0e1535f5ccb4d566ece3a8ad51422d32913dce078c8/sketches--6.jpg" data-mid="247283461" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/99051bf297937442aecaa0e1535f5ccb4d566ece3a8ad51422d32913dce078c8/sketches--6.jpg" /> Imagine heatwaves have become a reality, and cooking every day is a necessity. This means a double heat strain for women who work tirelessly in a disadvantaged situation, putting themselves always at risk. An estimated three women per day succumb to fatalities attributed to "choola," colloquially termed stove death. Notably, stove bursts result in the most severe injuries, accounting for 52 % of the Total Body Surface Area. The demographic affected predominantly comprises young, uneducated female domestic workers, attired in loose clothing, who sustained injuries in the course of daylight activities at home, particularly in proximity to floor-level stoves. These individuals often lack awareness of fire safety measures and seldom receive prompt first aid, underscoring the urgency for targeted interventions and awareness campaigns. Domesticity and women have been interlinked from primitive times, and throughout history, one does not belong without the other. In a similar fashion, the 19th century named this notion “The Cult of Domesticity”, where women were expected to remain in this private sphere and refrain from working or being engaged in the public sphere. It defined the important characteristics of a true woman; domesticity, or tending to the home and not deviating from chores such as cooking or cleaning, which were seen as being naturally feminine activities. Today, women in South Asia predominantly are in charge of the domestic landscape, cultural norms expect them to cook, clean and be homemakers. In Pakistan, the kitchen assumes various appellations across local languages, such as 'baawarchikhana' in Urdu, Sindhi, and Punjabi, 'rasoi' in Punjab, and 'dalaan' in Balochi and Pashto. Barwarchikhana, functioning as a paradoxical domain, manifests as a space centred around women. South Asian women find themselves inherently thrust into, obligated to, and occasionally unable to extricate themselves from the cyclical responsibility of household caretaking. Domesticity - Women - Kitchen - In Urban and Rural Settings &nbsp;<img width="4961" height="3508" width_o="4961" height_o="3508" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/885f7a8d306ce2c77aaf9daebe4aeaee223c799fea8985f5e6135f6dbcb39335/sketches---2---GRAPHIC-5.jpg" data-mid="247283456" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/885f7a8d306ce2c77aaf9daebe4aeaee223c799fea8985f5e6135f6dbcb39335/sketches---2---GRAPHIC-5.jpg" /> According to data published in the UN Women’s flagship, Progress of the World’s Women, 2019-2020, report: For every one hour a man spends on unpaid care and domestic work, Pakistani women spend 11 hours doing the same. The Baawarchikhana, is a space where women spend significant time in is reflective of their health and wellness. Urban kitchens are typically furnished with a variety of electronic devices, including refrigerators, ovens, and cooktops. In the privileged urban context, however, an intriguing lifestyle choice that governs this particular design is the servant’s quarter. The case of underprivileged slums and middle-income households is different; the kitchen is usually a cramped space, large enough to allow for essential cooking in unventilated or mostly small holes for exhaust conditions. Rural kitchens, in stark contrast, exhibit distinctive features such as handpumps, mud stoves, utensils crafted from steel, wood, and mud, deteriorated walls, bricks, open areas without roofing, stockpiles of cow dung cakes, mud partitions, pitchers, unmetalled dusty roads, and agricultural fields. Notably, many individuals in rural settings lack access to running water in their kitchens, relying instead on handpumps, often situated at a distance. Due to economic constraints and the limited availability of fuel in villages and small towns, solid fuel is employed for cooking, thereby exerting an environmental impact. Women residing in urban environments are acutely familiar with the challenges posed by high temperatures within their meticulously constructed kitchens or urban slums, where living conditions, albeit superior to rural kitchens, become notably challenging due to inadequate ventilation. A discernible gender disparity in urban contexts is exemplified in cloth markets. Predominantly, women engage in domestic responsibilities within kitchens characterised by insufficient ventilation, whereas men occupy stores endowed with better environmental conditions, featuring amenities such as fans and air conditioners. This juxtaposition underscores the prevailing contrast in the environmental experiences of men and women within urban settings. The irony is in cloth markets where men sit in air conditioners and fans selling garments for women which end up being a fatal entrapment and exposing them to excessive heat resulting in a vicious cycle. Beyond the evident socio-economic disparities, it is discernible that women encounter analogous underlying challenges in urban and rural contexts. The pervasive issues of elevated temperatures and suboptimal air quality carry profound implications that, if neglected, stand poised to escalate further, particularly in the face of challenges such as fuel and water shortages, compounded by the exacerbating effects of heat and various other contributing factors. A comprehensive understanding of these shared challenges is imperative for formulating effective interventions and policies that address the multifaceted concerns affecting women in diverse settings. Energy and Domesticity and its affects <img width="4961" height="3508" width_o="4961" height_o="3508" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/56e8d2f5b8317ed95fe2e203f8cc82044f237ca21a97c8146afc6b3bba44b5ce/access-to-clean-cooking-fuel---GHRAPHIC-7.jpg" data-mid="247283451" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/56e8d2f5b8317ed95fe2e203f8cc82044f237ca21a97c8146afc6b3bba44b5ce/access-to-clean-cooking-fuel---GHRAPHIC-7.jpg" /> A report found that around 79.8 % of women lack access to clean cooking fuel with the burden of no access to modern energy being more on women than men. Indoor Air Pollution is directly linked to fuel availability and choices.&nbsp; Pakistan is an agricultural country, with nearly 64% of the population residing primarily in rural areas where access to commercial and clean energy resources is limited and traditional methods of using solid fuels (such as straw, shrubs, wood, grass, charcoal, animal waste and coal) are the only available options for domestic cooking fuel. According to the Pakistan Strategic Country Environmental Assessment by the World Bank, indoor air pollution accounts for 28,000 deaths per year and 40 million cases of acute respiratory illness. In Pakistan, about 87% of rural homes and 13% of urban households use solid fuels for cooking, and when these fuels are burned in an open fire, they emit high concentrations of harmful pollutants and toxins; such as carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and sulphur and nitrogen oxides. According to estimates of the Global Burden of Disease Comparative Risk Assessment in 2010, almost 3.5 million premature deaths were caused by household cooking with biomass. A growing body of literature suggests that Indoor Air pollution contributes to many serious health problems, particularly respiratory infections and cancer. The contribution of cookstoves to outdoor air pollution causes 500,000 fatalities worldwide (Limetal 2012). According to Brauer et al. (2012), 99% of the population in South and East Asia lives in locations where the WHO Air Quality Guideline for PM2.5 is exceeded. An intervention study in Pakistan exploring indoor particulate matter (PM) concentrations in developing nations found that PM was significantly higher in urban kitchens because rural kitchens were better ventilated than urban kitchens. To be fair, not all of these variables are repeated in other tropical developing countries similarly. However, a lack of indoor sanitation, clean water, and electricity is common in many poor countries that are vulnerable to heat waves. Widespread poverty and frequent power cuts mean many people are unable to afford or use air conditioning or at times even a fan to cool down. The tragic story of Nazia serves as an emblematic figure embodying the plight of women adversely affected as collateral consequences of inadequacies within energy systems and prevailing gender disparities. The absence of a comprehensive gender policy and strategy within the energy sector in Pakistan is indicative of a notable gap in addressing the specific needs and concerns of women in this critical domain. Currently, there is a discernible dearth of systematic frameworks and initiatives tailored to promote gender equality, representation, and inclusion within the energy sector. The lack of a dedicated strategy underscores the potential oversight of crucial issues related to women's participation, employment, and empowerment within this sector. To bridge this gap and foster a more equitable and inclusive domestic energy landscape, there is an imperative need to formulate and implement a robust gender policy that comprehensively addresses the unique challenges faced by women, facilitates their meaningful engagement, and promotes gender-sensitive practices and opportunities within the energy sector in Pakistan. Heat, Power and Women: Bridging the Energy Gap <img width="1170" height="530" width_o="1170" height_o="530" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b60033ee4ef7b4f3a2a1a0154377a272c06fedc9d4e733be5901b2a95af3769e/sketches-10.jpg" data-mid="247283464" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b60033ee4ef7b4f3a2a1a0154377a272c06fedc9d4e733be5901b2a95af3769e/sketches-10.jpg" /> Recurrent heat waves and the role of domestic energy services are a prime concern for supporting indoor cooling spaces and mitigating the impacts of extreme heat. Pakistan is one of the most populated countries in southern Asia, contributing approximately 2.56 % of the global population. The country experiences a major energy crisis due to expensive fuel sources, chronic natural gas and electricity shortages. Alarmingly,&nbsp; the country dependent on almost 50% of its energy consumption on Natural gas will have none left in 12 years. The inclusion of women in policy-making, awareness of the vulnerabilities of women and empowering women through recognising and sharing their domestic burden are all initiatives that need to be taken on the grass-root level and by the government. Rising temperatures and the urban population in South Asia have spun an out-of-control demand for cooling. The aggravated power cuts, spikes in electricity prices, gas shortages, and environmental impact-causing factors such as HFCs are the pinnacle reasons for women's trajectory as the vulnerable segments of society. Additionally,&nbsp; by 2050, energy use for cooling is projected to triple. IEA also recognises that the cooling demand will be driven mainly by Asian growing economies, while in hot countries like India, Pakistan, China, Brazil and Indonesia, it is expected to grow five-fold according to the World Bank. References1. Mazzone, A., et al. “Understanding Systemic Cooling Poverty.” *Nature Sustainability*, 2023. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01221-6 2. Lefebvre, H. *Le Droit à la Ville*. Paris: Anthropos, 1968 3. Purcell, M. “Excavating Lefebvre: The Right to the City and Its Urban Politics of the Inhabitant.” *GeoJournal*, 2002. https://faculty.washington.edu/mpurcell/jua_rtc.pdf 4. Soja, E. “The City and Spatial Justice.” *Justice Spatiale | Spatial Justice*, no. 1, 2009. https://www.jssj.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/JSSJ1-1en4.pdf 5. “Understanding Thermal Justice and Systemic Cooling Poverty.” *Local Environment*, 2024. Taylor &amp; Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13549839.2024.2345610 6. DAWN. “World Bank Pakistan Energy Access Survey 2024.” *DAWN*, 2024. https://www.dawn.com 7. World Resources Institute. “The Perfect Storm Fueling Pakistan’s Solar Boom.” WRI Insights, 2025. https://www.wri.org/insights/pakistan-solar-energy-boom 8. Energy for Growth Hub. “Pakistan Distributed Solar: 4 No Regret Policy Actions.” 2025. https://energyforgrowth.org/article/pakistan-distributed-solar-4-no-regret-policy-actions/ 9. The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. *2023 Report on Health and Climate Change*. 2023 10. Li, H., Bardhan, R., and Debnath, R. “Heatwave Interventions Must Reduce Invisible Gendered Challenges in the Global South.” *PLOS Global Public Health*, 2024. https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0003625 12. IUCN. “Climate Change and Its Impact on Gender in Rural Areas of Sindh, Pakistan.” International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2016. https://iucn.org/news/commission-environmental-economic-and-social-policy/201608/climate-change-and-its-impact-gender-rural-areas-sindh-pakistan 13. “Inequality in Behavioural Heat Adaptation to Extreme Heat in New York City.” *The Lancet Planetary Health*, 2023. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37821159/ 14. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “What Are Heat Islands?” US EPA, 2025. https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/what-are-heat-islands 15. “Urban Heat Island Effect: Examining Spatial Patterns of Socio-Demographic Disparities.” *Cities &amp; Health*, 2025. Taylor &amp; Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23748834.2025.2489854 16. Xu, C., et al. “Green Spaces Provide Substantial but Unequal Urban Cooling Globally.” *Nature Communications*, 2024. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-51355-0 17. Fresh Plaza. “Pakistan Faces 40% Post-Harvest Losses Due to Cold Storage Gap.” *Fresh Plaza*, March 2026. https://www.freshplaza.com/north-america/article/9822648/pakistan-faces-40-post-harvest-losses-due-to-cold-storage-gap/ 18. Sustainable Energy for All. “Cooling for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture.” In *Chilling Prospects 2022*. https://www.seforall.org/chilling-prospects-2022/food-nutrition-and-agriculture 19. DAWN. “How Will Pakistan Stay Cool While Keeping Emissions in Check?” *DAWN*, 2022. https://www.dawn.com/news/1679958 20. Cool Heating Coalition. “Cooling as a Human Right: The Hidden Crisis of Summer Energy Poverty.” 2025. &nbsp;https://coolheatingcoalition.eu/2025/06/19/cooling-summer-energy-poverty-heatwave/ 21. Housing Digital. “From Winter Chills to Summer Heat, Homes Are Turning Deadly.” *Housing Digital*, 2025. https://housingdigital.co.uk/from-winter-chills-to-summer-heat-homes-are-turning-deadly/ 22. EU BUILD UP. “Tackling Energy Poverty in Europe’s Building Transition.” 2025. https://build-up.ec.europa.eu/en/resources-and-tools/articles/tackling-energy-poverty-europes-building-transition 23. Vanderbilt University. “Thermal Justice: New Report Examines Threat of Extreme Heat, Suggests Culturally Informed Policies.” Vanderbilt News, 2026. https://as.vanderbilt.edu/news/2026/03/11/thermal-justice-new-report-examines-threat-of-extreme-heat-suggests-culturally-informed-policies/ 24. SEforAll – &gt;1 billion people, 77 countries, 309m rural / 695m urban Sustainable Energy for All. (2025). Chilling prospects: Tracking sustainable cooling for all 2025. https://www.seforall.org/data-stories/chilling-prospects-2025 https://lablab.se/Cooling-Poverty Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:25:14 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/Cooling-Poverty <img width="2316" height="1688" width_o="2316" height_o="1688" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dfc7ce39aa6404d46037ba17613317fc24e6857e8b98115d2b4d405c2925ff55/Image-1A.jpg" data-mid="247279778" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dfc7ce39aa6404d46037ba17613317fc24e6857e8b98115d2b4d405c2925ff55/Image-1A.jpg" /> Cooling Poverty A Need Of The Hour / Thermal Injustice Author: Mahum Ahmad, LABLAB (2026) More than a billion people in 77 countries are at increased risk of inadequate access to essential cooling services, including hundreds of millions of the rural and urban poor. The expected rise in the use of air conditioning, which is expected to more than double the global stock of air conditioners and triple the associated electricity consumption by mid-century, creates a critical paradox in which mechanical cooling relies on, but also destabilises, already stressed energy systems, while the waste heat from air conditioning exacerbates the urban heat island effects and the problem of global warming. Against the background of accelerating global warming and rapid urbanisation, access to cooling, and the manner in which it is secured, has emerged as a major equity challenge of the twenty-first century, driven by the structural inequalities of uneven development, infrastructure, and the market-oriented energy regime. In this paper, the notion of Systemic Cooling Poverty (SCP) is furthered as a conceptual framework to understand the structural inability to maintain thermally safe indoor conditions, as conceptualised in Mazzone et al. (2023). SCP extends the notion of energy poverty by including the following dimensions: climate, thermally safe infrastructure and assets, social and thermal inequality, health, and education and work standards. This understanding of cooling poverty is set in the context of broader configurations of passive cooling infrastructure, social support systems, and knowledge of adaptation, rather than the simple possession of appliances. <img width="1367" height="768" width_o="1367" height_o="768" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a55409fe1ee4870f3cb5dbf09b940daba95acce68d1fa4f22b7e92fc8bae9131/Image-3A.jpg" data-mid="247279782" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a55409fe1ee4870f3cb5dbf09b940daba95acce68d1fa4f22b7e92fc8bae9131/Image-3A.jpg" /> The argument is based on three strands of critical urban theory. The concept of "right to the city," developed by Lefebvre, is rethought as "right to thermal habitation", where unequal exposure to heat is considered to be a form of spatial dispossession. The concept of "spatial justice," developed by Soja, helps to clarify how thermal inequality is related to other forms of spatial injustices that marginalised communities experience. The concept of "thermal justice" places cooling poverty at the crossroads of environmental and spatial justice. Cooling poverty is best understood as a "crisis of absence" in the Global South and a "crisis of presence" in the Global North. The "crisis of absence" is caused by insufficient grids, capacities, and infrastructures, whereas the "crisis of presence" is caused by the legacy buildings in the North that now trap heat. Both create a "thermal underclass" that is denied access to indoor temperatures and thus highlights the need to rethink cooling as an urban right that is operationalised through design and energy policy. Pakistan’s Energy-Thermal Crisis: The Grid as a Site of Dispossession <img width="1294" height="816" width_o="1294" height_o="816" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b959b902152249fa4399d6075ea7f3b514111535ec0619c419054db06be00575/Image-4.jpg" data-mid="247279784" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b959b902152249fa4399d6075ea7f3b514111535ec0619c419054db06be00575/Image-4.jpg" /> Approximately 50 million people in Pakistan lack access to the electrical grid, and cities such as Karachi experience prolonged power interruptions lasting eight to eighteen hours per day. Pakistan’s electricity mix in 2024 reflects significant dependence on fossil fuels, which account for about 53 per cent of total generation, with natural gas making up nearly one-quarter and coal constituting 14 per cent. The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) has indicated that Pakistan’s indigenous natural gas reserves are projected to be depleted within the next 15 years. The gas shortage is a key vulnerability for Pakistan and Bangladesh, which rely largely on gas for electricity generation; both have been forced to limit liquefied natural gas imports due to rising prices driven by increased European demand during the Ukraine crisis. This energy precarity is not a temporary disruption but a structural condition rooted in decades of underinvestment, circular debt, and a generation mix that remains tethered to volatile global commodity markets. The household power structure in Pakistan is defined by a paradoxical “reliability gap” that transforms nominal energy access into a state of chronic vulnerability. While official data indicates near-universal electrification in urban areas, the World Bank’s Pakistan Energy Access Survey 2024 reveals that only 3 per cent of households enjoy a truly reliable supply. For the remaining majority, “connection” to the grid does not translate to cooling capacity; rather, it facilitates a cycle of intermittent service, with load shedding lasting 12 to 18 hours during peak summer months. This persistent unreliability has caused per capita electricity consumption to remain stagnant since 2006, trapping low-income households in a state of systemic cooling poverty where the infrastructure exists but the energy service fails. The 2018 Global Competitiveness Report ranked Pakistan 115th out of 137 economies in energy supply reliability. For the urban poor in megacities like Karachi and Lahore, the grid is not an enabler of thermal comfort but a source of chronic uncertainty — a system that promises electricity yet delivers rationing, leaving households unable to plan, unable to cool, and unable to escape the thermal consequences of its failure. From an urban studies perspective, this energy deficit functions as a regressive “thermal tax.” In 2022 and 2023, extreme heat exposure resulted in an estimated USD 16 billion loss in labour productivity, roughly 4.4 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP, a burden felt most acutely by daily-wage workers and those in informal settlements. Furthermore, cooling poverty in Pakistan is profoundly gendered. Social norms and the domestic “kitchen economy” confine women to the most thermally oppressive areas of the home during peak heat hours; poorly ventilated cooking spaces and the absence of reliable mechanical cooling lead to high rates of heat syncope, chronic fatigue, and thermal distress. The intersection of gender, poverty, and thermal vulnerability in Pakistan reveals that cooling poverty is not a technologically neutral condition; it is shaped by the same patriarchal structures that govern labour, mobility, and domestic space, amplifying existing inequalities along lines of gender and class. Mobility Poverty as Thermal Poverty <img width="2588" height="1667" width_o="2588" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2487b8d47f21c3d37f3ff2f318c370d25072bdf99c244af6fd1f029c7118f606/Image-7.jpg" data-mid="247279786" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2487b8d47f21c3d37f3ff2f318c370d25072bdf99c244af6fd1f029c7118f606/Image-7.jpg" /> The Mazzone et al. SCP framework explicitly identifies mobility as a dimension of cooling deprivation: “an inaccessible, unsafe or excessively costly transportation system limits people’s mobility and, subsequently, their capacity to find cooler places to regulate their internal temperatures.” In this way, the inadequacies in the transportation sector intertwine with thermal rights, which include the ability to seek refuge in nearby cooling centres such as blue and green spaces, libraries, and other conditioned environments during extreme heat events. Mobility poverty, understood in this framework, is not simply about the absence of buses or roads; it is about the spatial foreclosure of thermoregulatory options, the inability to move from zones of danger to zones of safety when the heat becomes life-threatening. In rural Sindh, this dimension assumes its most extreme form. In water-scarce regions like Tharparkar — situated in the Thar Desert on the eastern border of Sindh — women bear the burden of carrying an average of 90 litres of water over long distances to meet domestic needs, even during pregnancy, in temperatures that routinely reach 50 degrees Celsius. This is not merely a water access problem; it is a spatial manifestation of cooling poverty. Mobility poverty, in this context, is not a secondary concern; it is a primary mechanism through which thermal injustice is produced and reproduced. The UHI Feedback Loop: Waste Heat, Green Space Deficit, and Spatial Formation <img width="1431" height="961" width_o="1431" height_o="961" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6e72449f675b6bc4d3bb898f9f62aa698272760bcf5e94c85e43d4e555579503/Image-8.jpg" data-mid="247279788" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6e72449f675b6bc4d3bb898f9f62aa698272760bcf5e94c85e43d4e555579503/Image-8.jpg" /> The relationship between air conditioning, waste heat, and the urban heat island effect constitutes a self-reinforcing cycle that disproportionately penalises low-income urban residents. Research has documented that residual heat from air conditioning can cause nighttime temperature increases of up to 1 degree Celsius in urban areas, precisely the period when the human body requires thermal recovery from daytime heat stress. Increased energy demand for air conditioning ranges from 1 to 9 per cent for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature, creating a feedback loop. This thermodynamic vicious circle is not an abstraction; it is measurable, spatially patterned, and socially stratified. This feedback loop is spatially structured by urban morphology. In high-density areas, the “urban canyon effect” — narrow streets surrounded by tall buildings — limits air circulation, causing heat to become trapped and accumulate. The London UHI study published in Cities &amp; Health (2025) found that vulnerable populations in Greater London experience surface temperatures up to 4 degrees Celsius hotter than wealthier populations, with a 6 to 9 per cent decline in pedestrian accessibility in temperature hotspots. These heat-exposed streets further limit mobility for vulnerable communities, compounding socio-spatial inequalities. The urban canyon does not merely trap heat; it traps people, restricting the movement of those who lack the resources to escape to cooler environments and reinforcing the spatial concentration of thermal risk. <img width="3000" height="1688" width_o="3000" height_o="1688" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/871209ec2c36808470203d0300b5fd2f63f3e81a687d8aa7e3f234a800544275/Image-9.jpg" data-mid="247279789" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/871209ec2c36808470203d0300b5fd2f63f3e81a687d8aa7e3f234a800544275/Image-9.jpg" /> Green space provides the primary counterweight to UHI, yet its distribution mirrors existing inequality. A 2024 Nature study assessing the 500 largest cities globally found that Global South cities have only two-thirds the cooling capacity and cooling benefit compared to Global North cities—a 1.5-fold gap attributable to differences in both quantity and quality of urban green infrastructure, shaped by socioeconomic and natural factors. Within cities, the “luxury effect” concentrates green space in affluent neighbourhoods, transforming what should be a public good into a de facto class amenity. In Pakistani megacities like Karachi, unregulated densification has consumed green spaces at rates that outpace any compensatory planting, while the absence of urban design codes governing building orientation, setbacks, and street canyon ratios ensures that heat-retaining spatial formations persist unchallenged. The implication for alleviating poverty is straightforward: the waste heat produced by individuals who can afford mechanical cooling diminishes the thermal environment for those who cannot. The urban poor live in areas with the highest UHI intensity, which are high-density, low-canopy, heat-retaining areas, but they don't have the means to leave them. This is not a random geographic correlation; it is a fundamental aspect of how cities in the Global South are created, illustrating what Soja would characterise as the political organisation of space as a source of spatial injustice. The Pakistan Cooling Action Plan: Ambition and Implementation Deficit <img width="1376" height="768" width_o="1376" height_o="768" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/77d4529558ebaf1d367472a48695c79e3c491bd994a12abdf1da50a39051c5c7/Image-10.jpg" data-mid="247279790" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/77d4529558ebaf1d367472a48695c79e3c491bd994a12abdf1da50a39051c5c7/Image-10.jpg" /> The Pakistan Cooling Action Plan (P-CAP), formally integrated into the 2025 Nationally Determined Contributions, represents the primary regulatory response to the country’s “cooling paradox” — the urgent need to expand thermal comfort without collapsing an overstretched urban grid. The plan targets a 50 per cent reduction in cooling sector emissions by 2030 and aligns with the Kigali Amendment’s goal of an 80 per cent reduction in hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 2047. By enforcing Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) through NEECA, the P-CAP aims to mitigate a projected 3,000 megawatt surge in peak demand. For megacities like Karachi, this policy is a prerequisite for grid stability, directly targeting the inefficient appliances that currently drive circular debt and trigger prolonged load-shedding cycles. However, the P-CAP faces fundamental structural challenges. Pakistan’s reliance on outdated refrigerant technology remains a significant liability. Before 2010, R22 (Freon) was widely utilised in cooling technologies but was later discovered to be extremely harmful to the ozone layer. While developed countries launched replacement plans, China used Pakistan as a destination for soon-to-be-discarded obsolete AC units at reduced rates, flooding the domestic market with technology that other nations were phasing out. The persistence of high-GWP refrigerants in Pakistan’s cooling stock means that any expansion of access simultaneously increases the environmental burden — a tension the P-CAP acknowledges but has not yet resolved with a comprehensive refrigerant transition strategy. <img width="1104" height="1688" width_o="1104" height_o="1688" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3a1d880b3abfca7cc5f1dce03e85c2846d5b290db805debb65260e5b6e658bec/Image-11.jpg" data-mid="247279791" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3a1d880b3abfca7cc5f1dce03e85c2846d5b290db805debb65260e5b6e658bec/Image-11.jpg" /> The plan also lacks detailed roadmaps and actionable steps to achieve its targets. While it identifies the need for energy-efficient building codes and appliance standards, it provides no clear guidelines or timeline for adoption and enforcement. Progress has been piecemeal and inconsistent. Most critically, the P-CAP does not adequately address the cooling needs of the most vulnerable populations. Low-income households, often living in densely populated, poorly ventilated areas, struggle to afford even the most basic cooling options. Programmes to subsidise cooling appliances or improve housing insulation have been limited in scope and impact. The focus on scaling up high-efficiency household appliances, such as brushless DC ceiling fans (BLDC), which require approximately 65 per cent less energy than conventional fans, represents a promising demand-side strategy. The widespread adoption of energy-efficient technology, as demonstrated by the success of LED lightbulb programmes in India, serves as a model. Yet without equitable distribution mechanisms, these gains risk being captured by middle and upper-income households, replicating the solar divide at the appliance level. India’s pioneering 2019 Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) and Bangladesh’s 2022 National Cooling Plan provide comparative frameworks, but Pakistan’s delayed adoption — originally targeted for 2026 — reflects a persistent gap between policy ambition and institutional capacity. Addressing cooling poverty in Pakistan requires moving beyond market-based AC solutions toward what this paper terms a 'National Energy Resilience Framework' — one that prioritises passive cooling design, equitable pro-poor renewable energy subsidies, and enforceable building codes that account for both winter and summer thermal performance. Europe’s Structural Thermal Gap: The Envelope as a Site of Entrapment <img width="1206" height="805" width_o="1206" height_o="805" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9795e7484ca1b6743cc3ab7b3fd31e5cdcabde993b9be5241b9ec0f7b5ebe861/Image-12.jpg" data-mid="247279792" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9795e7484ca1b6743cc3ab7b3fd31e5cdcabde993b9be5241b9ec0f7b5ebe861/Image-12.jpg" /> While Europe has historically prioritised “heating poverty” within its social policy frameworks, the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat events are exposing a systemic lack of preparedness for summer cooling. The catastrophic 2003 European heatwave, which claimed approximately 70,000 lives, served as an early warning of the region’s “thermal fragility.” Since then, temperatures have continued to rise; by 2025, Europe has consistently tracked as the fastest-warming continent on Earth. In 2022 alone, over 60,000 Europeans died from heat in just three months. Under the current trajectory of 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming, average heat fatalities are expected to increase from around 2,700 to 30,000 per year by 2050. This shift has transitioned extreme heat from a Mediterranean anomaly to a continent-wide threat, demanding a fundamental reassessment of how European cities, buildings, and welfare systems are designed. In contrast to the 90 per cent AC adoption rate in the United States, only about 19 per cent of European households currently possess air conditioning. This low penetration rate masks a deepening “cooling gap” where access to thermal safety is dictated by socio-economic status. Data from the 2024 EU-SILC survey reveals that while 1 in 10 Europeans struggle with winter heating, a staggering 26 per cent of households — rising to 35 percent among low-income groups — now report an inability to keep their homes comfortably cool in summer. This inadequacy is most acute in Southern and Eastern Europe, where dwellings are often poorly insulated for heat and the UHI effect is intensified by dense, asphalt-heavy city centres. The asymmetry is striking: European social policy has developed decades of institutional infrastructure to address winter fuel poverty, including fuel allowances, efficiency grants, and emergency heating provisions, yet possesses almost no equivalent apparatus for summer thermal distress. The European push for energy efficiency has inadvertently intensified cooling risks through what this paper terms the “Airtightness Paradox.” European building stock — more than 50 per cent of which predates 1970 — was engineered for cold-weather resilience, prioritising high thermal mass and airtightness to retain winter warmth. To meet net-zero goals, current renovation standards under the Fit-for-55 package emphasise extreme insulation and the elimination of air leaks. While excellent for reducing winter carbon footprints, these highly insulated envelopes act as thermal incubators during heatwaves. Research at Loughborough University and the University of East London confirms this paradox: homes rated EPC A and B — the most energy-efficient categories — are 1.5 times more likely to overheat than less efficient dwellings, and UK overheating reports rocketed from 18 percent in 2011 to 80 per cent in 2022. Without mechanical cooling, low-income residents find themselves trapped in buildings where indoor temperatures can exceed outdoor ambient heat by 4 to 5 degrees Celsius. This is, in effect, an iatrogenic condition — a disease caused by the treatment. The EU’s energy efficiency drive, by mandating extreme insulation without simultaneously mandating overheating mitigation, has produced a new form of thermal vulnerability among the very populations it claims to protect. Unlike many traditional South Asian dwellings designed with high ceilings, open courtyards, and mandatory cross-ventilation to dissipate humidity and heat, modern European apartments often lack dual-aspect windows. This single-sided design makes purge ventilation impossible, effectively turning homes into “thermal batteries” that absorb solar radiation during the day and fail to cool down at night. The result is a built environment that performs well on winter energy metrics while systematically failing its occupants during the increasingly frequent and intense summer heat events that define the new European climate reality. From an environmental justice perspective, this creates what can be described as a “silent inequality.” Low-income populations residing in social housing blocks are characterised by: poor orientation and lack of external shading (rolladen or shutters) which can reduce solar gain by up to 80 percent; volumetric heat gain from high glazing-to-wall ratios in modern budget constructions lacking the overhangs found in tropical design; and in maritime climates like the UK or Ireland, high indoor humidity levels of approximately 60 to 70 percent that render even basic electric fans ineffective for evaporative cooling. These are not design oversights; they are the predictable consequences of a building regulatory framework that has treated thermal comfort as a winter-only concern, and that has failed to anticipate the speed and severity of climate change’s impact on the European built environment. Europe’s regulatory landscape is only now beginning to pivot. The 2024 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), to be transposed into national laws by May 2026, finally introduces “overheating” as a critical metric for building safety. Yet a conflict remains between adaptation and mitigation. As households seek relief, the surge in inefficient portable AC units threatens to derail the EU Green Deal. The Cool Heating Coalition’s Marine Cornelis has observed that Europe does not even have consistent terminology around summer energy poverty: “We don’t even have consistent keywords. That makes it hard to coordinate funding, research, and innovation.” The EU BUILD UP platform’s 2025 analysis notes that only 10 of 27 Member States have explicit energy poverty reduction targets, and the transposition of key directives remains incomplete. This regulatory void is itself evidence of the argument: Europe’s welfare state, designed for cold, has no institutional vocabulary for thermal safety in summer. Convergence: The Global Thermal Underclass <img width="2360" height="1528" width_o="2360" height_o="1528" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/996b725f3fc7e70142ac5aad2d7f8d765687e4fbbe178b16fc2f75baee4e267b/Image-13.jpg" data-mid="247279794" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/996b725f3fc7e70142ac5aad2d7f8d765687e4fbbe178b16fc2f75baee4e267b/Image-13.jpg" /> In the Global South, we observe a struggle for the basic right to reliable wattage and breathable architecture — what might be termed a crisis of absolute deprivation. For millions, thermal safety is precluded by chronic energy poverty and a “connectedness without power.” In cities like Karachi, the urban poor are trapped in thermally aggressive, high-density environments where the lack of reliable electricity renders even rudimentary adaptation impossible. The reliance on inefficient, high-emission legacy technologies creates a vicious cycle: the very tools used to survive localised heat contribute to the macro-climatic instability that intensifies it. Conversely, in Europe, cooling poverty manifests as a crisis of structural lock-in. The issue is inextricably linked to a building stock designed for a climate that no longer exists — one that prioritises heat retention over dissipation. The Airtightness Paradox, while successful in reducing winter carbon footprints, has inadvertently turned low-income social housing into thermal incubators. As wealthier households insulate themselves through private, high-efficiency cooling, the European thermal underclass faces a regressive energy burden, spending a disproportionate share of income to achieve marginal relief in homes that lack even basic cross-ventilation. The Nature study on global green space cooling inequality provides the spatial evidence for this convergence: a 1.5-fold gap in cooling benefits between Global South and Global North cities, attributable not merely to AC access but to the entire urban landscape’s capacity to dissipate heat. Both contexts share three structural features. First, the poorest and most disadvantaged people, who contributed the least to global warming, bear the most severe consequences of extreme heat. Second, the market mechanisms intended to address cooling — whether solar panels in Pakistan or portable AC units in Europe — are captured by those who least need them, deepening inequality. Third, the regulatory frameworks are either absent (as in Pakistan’s delayed PCAP) or internally contradictory (as in Europe’s insulation-without-ventilation mandate). At the heart of this global crisis is a profound geopolitical and ethical imbalance. While the Global North grapples with the waste of abundant energy resources and a sluggish transition toward renewables, the Global South faces an explosive surge in demand necessitated by survival. The cooling gap cannot be closed by technology alone. As long as energy is treated as a surplus to be optimised in the West and a scarcity to be rationed in the South, the lived experience of thermal deprivation will remain a global constant. Whether it is a woman in Tharparkar carrying 90 litres of water across a desert at 50 degrees Celsius, or an elderly resident in a Paris social housing block trapped in an airtight apartment, the thermal underclass is increasingly defined by a shared exclusion from the safety of the thermostat. In an era where thermal safety is becoming a prerequisite for life, the question is whether our future cities will be designed as collective cool havens or whether they will remain fragmented landscapes of air-conditioned fortresses and unlivable heat zones. Conclusion: Toward Thermal Sovereignty<img width="4961" height="3508" width_o="4961" height_o="3508" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/303b0e8fb8e363e30ea2d15d0bb468d5ba1df5a1bef534037a0cfcd0984ce1fa/Image-2A.jpg" data-mid="247279780" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/303b0e8fb8e363e30ea2d15d0bb468d5ba1df5a1bef534037a0cfcd0984ce1fa/Image-2A.jpg" /> The crisis of cooling poverty reveals a bifurcated reality between the Global South and the Global North, yet both are anchored by a common failure of distributive justice. If the twentieth century was defined by the struggle for universal heating and electrification, the twenty-first century is being defined by the struggle for what this paper terms thermal sovereignty — the capacity of individuals and communities to maintain safe body temperatures through a combination of reliable energy services, climate-responsive built environments, and equitable access to cooling resources. Addressing this crisis requires moving beyond market-based solutions. In the Global South, this means developing National Energy Resilience Frameworks that prioritise passive cooling design — high ceilings, cross-ventilation, reflective surfaces, and strategic urban greening — alongside equitable, pro-poor renewable energy subsidies that prevent the solar divide from becoming entrenched. Building codes must be reformed to account for summer thermal performance, not only winter efficiency. In Europe, the imperative is to resolve the Airtightness Paradox by integrating mandatory overheating protections into the EPBD implementation, funding external shading retrofits for social housing, and establishing “summer energy poverty” as a distinct policy category with its own indicators, targets, and funding streams. Both contexts demand a reconceptualisation of cooling as infrastructure rather than appliance — a public good embedded in the design of cities, buildings, streets, and transport networks rather than a private commodity available only to those who can afford it. The Vanderbilt University report on thermal justice (2026) calls for a fundamental shift from individual advice to collective, culturally grounded, and systematic solutions — recognising heat events as natural disasters, enacting policies for heat-sensitive work schedules, and investing in shade infrastructure to achieve genuine thermal justice. Can we truly claim to be advancing a global green transition if our climate-resilient buildings remain exclusive fortresses, while the majority of the world’s urban population is left to navigate a warming planet in dwellings that have become thermal traps? The answer to this question will define whether the twenty-first century achieves thermal sovereignty for all, or merely entrenches the thermal divide. https://lablab.se/The-Connector-Landscape Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:25:58 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/The-Connector-Landscape <img width="5184" height="3456" width_o="5184" height_o="3456" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cc41513a2a5da84538f201a0f993cc118c4985dd75d2d627aa30313f2760549a/3.4_energy_landscape.JPG" data-mid="244916823" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cc41513a2a5da84538f201a0f993cc118c4985dd75d2d627aa30313f2760549a/3.4_energy_landscape.JPG" /> <img width="5184" height="3456" width_o="5184" height_o="3456" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9ca43fb6e9ba618a25edb81c55ef39ea1f6e2dd1c3e47ea7cbc8133bbfbf6bf3/3.1_energy_landscape.JPG" data-mid="244916824" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9ca43fb6e9ba618a25edb81c55ef39ea1f6e2dd1c3e47ea7cbc8133bbfbf6bf3/3.1_energy_landscape.JPG" /> <img width="5184" height="3456" width_o="5184" height_o="3456" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d70873845ab8a18f5c781e1e6c135124b7448384752c96dfd31e3652c8fa2ed5/3.2_energy_landscape.JPG" data-mid="244916825" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d70873845ab8a18f5c781e1e6c135124b7448384752c96dfd31e3652c8fa2ed5/3.2_energy_landscape.JPG" /> <img width="5184" height="3456" width_o="5184" height_o="3456" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7d13b74a57aecd292590eb0d95a2517165da59e28f443e97bc3e801b6452624e/3.3_energy_landscape.JPG" data-mid="244916822" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7d13b74a57aecd292590eb0d95a2517165da59e28f443e97bc3e801b6452624e/3.3_energy_landscape.JPG" /> The Connector Landscape by&nbsp; Frederic Cathomas The Rhine begins as a trickle and ends at the sea. Between its source and its mouth, a landscape unfolds, one that is more than water, more than terrain. This essay follows the Tujetsch Valley and the village of Sedrun as a Connector Landscape: a place where rivers originate, energies circulate, and meanings travel. Through hydropower and tourism, through alpine imagery and solar ambition, Sedrun reveals how the local and the global are quietly entangled. To read this landscape is to follow a line, and to discover that orientation, like belonging, depends entirely on where you stand. A Beginning Holds its End A line in space can guide, divide, or suggest a movement. It can trace relations between bodies, ideas, or territories. The trajectory of the Rhine River connects places. I grew up near its source, where it still resembles a mountain stream. Seeing it turned for 90 degrees, reimagined, reminds me how orientation shapes belonging – how a familiar landscape can appear different when seen from another angle. &nbsp; <img width="2480" height="1542" width_o="2480" height_o="1542" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b1d359a4e940720ef1930e899ed9f4580079a917c78a62df78d62a333ced1ff2/1_abstract_line.JPG" data-mid="244915919" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b1d359a4e940720ef1930e899ed9f4580079a917c78a62df78d62a333ced1ff2/1_abstract_line.JPG" /> Seen from its source in the Tujetsch Valley, the Rhine is not yet the European artery it will become. Here, it is a trickle of alpine meltwater, flowing through meadows and rock before deepening into a system of transformation. Following the Rhine is a gradual widening from local landscape to continental network. In this sense, the river becomes more than a hydrological fact, I would like to introduce the Rhine as a figure for how places relate to the world beyond them. A Connector Landscape, as explored here, is both a metaphor and a method - a way to think about how natural forms and human systems overlap, how a valley in the Alps can mirror the complex entanglements of the world beyond. This connection between origin and destination is already visible in the landscape itself. At the Oberalp Pass, just above Sedrun, stands an unlikely object: a lighthouse. Brought from Rotterdam, the Rhine’s endpoint, it now rises 2’046 meters above sea level, far from any sea it could guide. Conceived as a tourist curiosity, it waits without its imagined ship, stranded among peaks and clouds. It is a replica of the former front light from Hook of Holland, which once shone for seventy years at the mouth of the Rhine, now mirrored here at its source.&nbsp;Yet its presence is quietly revealing: the beginning of a river already holds its end. <img width="5184" height="3456" width_o="5184" height_o="3456" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2399cac1438e7b67e605fbd7338fb3b8ad53bccd45b7cc08168810e9957920a8/2_lighttower.JPG" data-mid="244915920" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2399cac1438e7b67e605fbd7338fb3b8ad53bccd45b7cc08168810e9957920a8/2_lighttower.JPG" /> This project takes the Tujetsch Valley - and Sedrun at its centre - as a landscape of connections. Here, rivers begin, infrastructures converge, and meanings circulate. The focus is not on measurement or data, but on interpretation: a reading of landscapes as flows, attachments, and transitions. The Imagined Alpine Landscape Mountains, lakes, and valleys are not only geographic features but also carriers of meaning - symbols through which national identity is imagined. The Alps have long stood at the centre of Swiss imagination, mediating between nature and culture, wilderness and control. The Alpine landscapes in Switzerland are represented as symbols of natural beauty and purity, with their significance growing over time. Initially, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, naturalists and travellers highlighted the Alps’ natural virtues, emphasizing their purity and natural splendour. In the nineteenth century, the Alps became a central element of Swiss national identity, viewed as the birthplace of independence and liberty. This symbolic association was reinforced through literature, art, and cultural narratives, which portrayed the Alps not only as a natural landscape but also as a defining component of the Swiss character. Over time, they emerged as an iconic and essential element of Swiss cultural and national symbolism, reflecting both the physical landscape and the collective identity. Today the Alpine landscape is depicted as a culturally shaped and largely managed environment where pristine wilderness is rare. Traditional views often regard Alpine landscapes as symbols of human victory, emphasizing well-tended and cultivated conditions rather than untouched nature. The depiction suggests a landscape strongly influenced by human activity. <img width="5184" height="3456" width_o="5184" height_o="3456" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/411b2ff6aad60ace8f339d5f6d816fd0b59f5aec0a9da3d7f9d8382a0871b928/3_energy_landscape.JPG" data-mid="244916005" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/411b2ff6aad60ace8f339d5f6d816fd0b59f5aec0a9da3d7f9d8382a0871b928/3_energy_landscape.JPG" /> The constructed image of the Alps is a powerful economic resource. Tourism has long been central to how Switzerland represents and sustains itself. Travellers’ fascination with the Swiss landscape reflects a broader cultural demand for nature, authenticity, and escape from urban life. The promise of physical and mental rejuvenation in pristine surroundings has defined the country’s appeal since the nineteenth century. This romanticised focus on nature carries both opportunities and contradictions, where the tourism industry often plays a dual role: it can support environmental preservation, yet it also commodifies the very landscapes it seeks to protect. The “picturesque scenery” that draws visitors may fade under the pressure of its own popularity. Cable cars and ski facilities for instance extend accessibility and comfort, but they also blur the boundary between admiration and exploitation. Performing the Alpine In Sedrun, this tension between admiration and exploitation becomes tangible. The village embodies the image of pristine alpine life, yet its landscapes are carefully shaped. What emerges is a choreography of nature, culture and energy production - a place where the promise of natural beauty is sustained through constant intervention and through multiple layers. <img width="3511" height="2480" width_o="3511" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dc3e3eca6dedeb85634aa9d787bdc40a9dd8542714b78bc08b1ccbbf8936f83c/4_Tujetsch_infrastructure.jpeg" data-mid="244916012" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dc3e3eca6dedeb85634aa9d787bdc40a9dd8542714b78bc08b1ccbbf8936f83c/4_Tujetsch_infrastructure.jpeg" /> Such as both material and symbolic. Located in the upper reaches of the Rhine, it stretches from the Oberalp Pass down toward Disentis, linking high alpine plateaus with densely settled valleys. Its meadows, slopes, and riverbeds bear the imprint of generations who have adapted to the rhythm of altitude, climate, and seasonality. Agriculture, once the backbone of local livelihoods, continues to mark the terrain through pastures and fences, but its role has become less central. Over time, new layers have been added: ski tourism reshaped the slopes with lifts, while energy infrastructures - dams and transmission lines - came to occupy the same spaces. These physical traces overlap and intertwine, forming a landscape where the pastoral, the recreational, and the industrial coexist. What might appear as an unbroken alpine panorama is a dense mosaic of human activities, each negotiating visibility and negotiating within the same confined terrain. Yet the valley’s layers are not only physical; they are also cultural and imaginative. Tourism, for instance, projects an image of untouched alpine purity, even as it depends on technological control of snow and terrain. Hydropower structures, on the other hand, represent national narratives of progress and resilience, embedding local geographies within broader networks of production and consumption. These infrastructures shape how Sedrun and its surroundings are perceived not only as places of natural beauty but also as active participants in Switzerland’s modern identity. In this sense, the Tujetsch valley becomes a microcosm of the Alps as a whole. But looking further, there lies an ongoing negotiation between what is seen and what is sustained, a tension that anticipates the next layer of transformation, where energy landscapes increasingly define the contours of the alpine future. Connective Energies The energy infrastructures of the Tujetsch valley transform the landscape into a site of circulation and exchange. The network of dams, reservoirs, and power lines extends far beyond its steep topography, linking Sedrun to a national grid and a broader system of energy flows that power cities across Switzerland. Yet this connection is not only technical - it is cultural. The history of hydropower in the valley is inscribed into local narratives, shaping both the physical terrain and the collective sense of belonging and attachment to place. The hydropower projects that began in the mid-twentieth century established a new spatial order, reconfiguring valleys and mountain spines into infrastructures of production. It’s not wrong to assume, that over time, the monumental presence of the dams became normalized, absorbed into the local identity as landscapes of progress and prosperity. Today, these structures coexist with new forms of energy modernity - the projected solar projects Sedrun Solar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Nalpsolar. Unlike the dams, which harnessed the valley’s hydrological forces, these new infrastructures turn to its exposure, altitude, and sunlight, reimagining the Alpine environment as a future-oriented energy landscape. How does energy production continue to shape the locality - economically, socially, and symbolically? Has the valley’s long history of hydropower made it more receptive to new technologies? The paradigm shifts from the dam era of the 1960s to today’s renewable expansion invites reflection on how landscapes of power evolve - and how their acceptance is negotiated. To what extent do these infrastructures express local visions of sustainability, and where do they reflect external demands tied to national targets or global climate imperatives? These questions position the Tujetsch valley within a wider geography of energy transition. As hydropower meets solar expansion, Sedrun stands at the intersection of past and future imaginaries. The locality where the material realities of infrastructure are intertwined with cultural meanings of progress, resilience, and belonging. The valley’s energy landscape thus becomes more than a collection of technical systems: it is connective tissue linking the alpine landscape to the global, and a stage upon which the ongoing negotiation of modernity unfolds. Sedrun as a Connector Landscape Through the lens of the connector landscape, Sedrun and the Tujetsch Valley become more than a collection of places; they form a network of relations where flows of water, energy, and meaning overlap. The Connector Landscape, as I have approached it, is not only a metaphor but a way of thinking: an inductive method for reading landscapes as circulations rather than containers, as processes rather than forms. It reveals that locality does not end at the valley’s edge; it stretches outward, folded into national grids, tourist imaginaries, and connects with wider geographies of belonging. Sedrun’s position captures this paradox vividly. Geographically, it lies on the margins of Switzerland; it’s remote, alpine, peripheral. Yet infrastructurally, it stands at the centre of national systems. Water from its mountains powers cities far beyond; visitors drawn by images of alpine purity animate its economy; policies and ambitions formulated elsewhere materialise here, in concrete, cables, and snow. What appears distant becomes central, and what seems isolated becomes essential. In this sense, Sedrun is not a landscape of retreat, but of transmission, a place through which energy, capital, and imagination flow. <img width="3507" height="2480" width_o="3507" height_o="2480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/66faf3c51f1d9327d81f698fdbbe966369fd9fdd296c001baa368375a8862e5d/5_connector_map.jpeg" data-mid="244916022" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/66faf3c51f1d9327d81f698fdbbe966369fd9fdd296c001baa368375a8862e5d/5_connector_map.jpeg" /> The map shows the Rhine’s path overlaid with Europe’s ground power grid, revealing how natural and built systems intersect. Orientation changes with perspective. When infrastructures reconfigure the landscape, they can both anchor and unsettle. Dams, transmission lines and solar parks inscribe permanence into the terrain, yet their scale and abstraction can produce distance; a sense of estrangement from what once felt immediate. Do such structures deepen attachment, integrating local identity into broader narratives of, for instance, progress? Or do they render the landscape less familiar, replaced by systems that serve elsewhere? The answer remains uncertain, suspended between pride and displacement. Through the lens of the Connector Landscape, I came to see that landscapes do not only hold memories; they transmit relations between past and present, between the local and the global, between belonging and transformation. Perhaps to belong, finally, is not to remain fixed, but to remain connected, to follow the line, wherever it turns. Literature Bauer, N., Wallner, A., &amp; Hunziker, M. (2009). The change of European landscapes: Human-nature relationships, public attitudes towards rewilding, and the implications for landscape management in Switzerland. Journal of Environmental Management, 90(9), 2910–2920. Davis, D. K. (2011). Reading landscapes and telling stories: geography, the humanities and environmental history. In S. Daniels, D. DeLyser, J. N. Entrikin, &amp; D. Richardson (Eds.), Envisioning Landscapes, Making Worlds - Geography and the Humanities (pp. 170–177). Routledge. Energia Alpina. (2024). Sedrun Solar. Sedrun Solar AG. URL: https://sedrun-solar.ch. Accessed: 02.02.2026. Ewald, K. C. (2001). The neglect of aesthetics in landscape planning in Switzerland. Landscape and Urban Planning, 54(1–4), 255–266. Federal Office for the Environment FOEN. (2025, March 18). Water resource management. BAFU. https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/en/home/topics/water/water--pressures/water-management/water-resource-management.html Ingólfsdóttir, A. H., &amp; Gunnarsdóttir, G. Þ. (2020). Tourism as a tool for nature conservation? Conflicting interests between renewable energy projects and wilderness protection in Iceland. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, 29, 100276. Jørgensen, D., &amp; Jørgensen, F. A. (2018). Aesthetics of Energy Landscapes. Environment, Space, Place, 10(1), 1. Mele, E., &amp; Egberts, L. (2023). Exploring travel blogs on tourism and landscape heritage: representations of the Swiss Alps. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 18(6), 785–806. Rickenbacher, J.-L. (2024, October 27). The power of water. Swiss National Museum. https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2023/10/the-power-of-water/ Salak, B., Spielhofer, R., Hunziker, M., Kienast, F., Hayek, U. W., &amp; Grêt-Regamey, A. (2024). Erneuerbare Energien im Spannungsfeld gesellschaftlicher Ansprüche. Schweizerische Zeitschrift Fur Forstwesen, 175(4), 170–176. Vuichard, P., Stauch, A., &amp; Wüstenhagen, R. (2021). Keep it local and low-key: Social acceptance of alpine solar power projects. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 138, 110516. Zimmer, O. (1998). In Search of Natural Identity: Alpine Landscape and the Reconstruction of the Swiss Nation. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 40(4), 637–665. https://lablab.se/Experimentell-geografi Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:26:02 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/Experimentell-geografi <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/75763064a3fe7df215e46d0650749a42c91739f5e24118026ffe4e95fce0859c/Siljan-darker.png" data-mid="244421873" border="0" data-scale="69" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/75763064a3fe7df215e46d0650749a42c91739f5e24118026ffe4e95fce0859c/Siljan-darker.png" /> <img width="4960" height="3507" width_o="4960" height_o="3507" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b960ebede0a926c6662b7bf43d87a1f19e0786de9f2be72720d1f0c688c07529/Skyddsobjekt-livsbehov_1_400000_hal.jpeg" data-mid="244421878" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b960ebede0a926c6662b7bf43d87a1f19e0786de9f2be72720d1f0c688c07529/Skyddsobjekt-livsbehov_1_400000_hal.jpeg" /> <img width="4960" height="3507" width_o="4960" height_o="3507" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f720965fcedb4da7daa5db3d642b7ff8949688eb3f06f4bb7dd79f09a01a94d/Entitlements_paper_DARK.jpeg" data-mid="244421882" border="0" data-scale="84" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9f720965fcedb4da7daa5db3d642b7ff8949688eb3f06f4bb7dd79f09a01a94d/Entitlements_paper_DARK.jpeg" /> <img width="2500" height="1405" width_o="2500" height_o="1405" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5f302f8e5c92d624429eda6b77cbb05898d4d3be4a8cc3b03ba3153b591d4443/ABOUT_02-e1537526440802.jpg" data-mid="244421999" border="0" data-scale="95" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5f302f8e5c92d624429eda6b77cbb05898d4d3be4a8cc3b03ba3153b591d4443/ABOUT_02-e1537526440802.jpg" /> Resilienta geografier På LABLAB ser vi geografier som levande nätverk av relationer – mellan platser, människor, ekosystem och framtidsvisioner. Dessa relationer formas och omformas ständigt, men domineras ofta av fasta kategoriseringar och strukturer som osynliggör lokala kunskaper om landskap. För att möta dagens utmaningar – allt från energi- och livsmedelsförsörjning till klimatförändringar, beredskap och resursfördelning – behöver vi ett strategiskt lyssnande för att förstå och förvalta samtida och framtida geografier. Genom experimentell geografi kombinerar LABLAB deltagande processer, avancerad GIS-analys, samhällsplanering och tvärvetenskapliga insatser för att generera förutsättningar för mer demokratiska, anpassningsbara och resilienta geografier. Vår utgångspunkt är att resilienta geografier inte uppstår genom statiska inramningar eller beskrivningar av landskap, utan genom öppna, relationella processer där olika kunskapsformer i olika geografiska skalor möts. I workshops, situerade kartläggningar och geolab samlar vi aktörer från civilsamhälle, näringsliv och myndigheter för att utforska, analysera och gestalta tillståndet och framtiden för given geografi. Metoden inriktar sig på att överbrygga luckor mellan lokal kunskap och georafiska skalor, i den kommunala, mellankommunala och regionala planeringen. Genom att kritiskt granska givna gränser och uppfattningar kring en geografi, eftersträvar metoden att synliggöra existerande rörelser och samband i geografin som annars förbises – som lantbrukares situerade jorderfarenheter, lokala företags kunskap om resursflöden eller friluftsorganisationers insikter om kulturekologiska mikrovärden. På så sätt skapas en gemensam utgångspunkt, där institutionaliserade och situerade geografiska insikter strategiskt berikar varandra. Experimentell geografi är för oss på LABLAB ett gränstänkande – ett sätt att navigera i komplexitet och osäkerhet. Istället för att söka fasta beskrivningar, utforskar vi hur olika aktörer kan samexistera och samarbeta i förändringsprocesser. Det handlar om att pröva alternativa utvecklingslinjer, utmana fasta kategoriseringar och hitta gemensamma vägar framåt. För även om intressen skiljer sig åt går det att identifiera gemensamma problemformuleringar där geografin ger förutsättningarna. Våra metoder bygger på insikten att geografi handlar om mänskliga och icke-mänskliga relationer – och att dessa relationer måste stå i centrum för att skapa rättvisa resilienta geografier. Som kommun, region, länsstyrelse eller företag, kan ni tillsammans med LABLAB utveckla följande: Stöd i situerade möten mellan landskap, kultur och teknologi, till exempel vid planering av vindkraft, solenergi eller annan energiinfrastruktur.Planeringsunderlag som integrerar lokal kunskap med vetenskapliga data.Kartläggning och analys av geografiska relationer med hjälp av kollaborativ GIS och scenarieutveckling.Policyrekommendationer som bygger på bred kunskapsbas, från gräsrotsnivå till regional strategi, till exempel kring mobilitet, energiförsörjning och landskap.&nbsp;Gemensamma problemformuleringar som utgår från geografiska behov och förutsättningar genom workshops, textanalys och geolabb.&nbsp; <img width="6098" height="3767" width_o="6098" height_o="3767" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/62b798cdaf3233a8e64c8131d6d2a5fe70c49e62d03643f304ee9b7a53459ac9/FINAL_Language-analysis-1.jpg" data-mid="244421957" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/62b798cdaf3233a8e64c8131d6d2a5fe70c49e62d03643f304ee9b7a53459ac9/FINAL_Language-analysis-1.jpg" /> <img width="3779" height="3779" width_o="3779" height_o="3779" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cf9f9370faf242f557369269a76c21f98b2d04093a46fe6adcce260f10d6655a/Vanern-i-centrum_4.jpeg" data-mid="244421963" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cf9f9370faf242f557369269a76c21f98b2d04093a46fe6adcce260f10d6655a/Vanern-i-centrum_4.jpeg" /> Vårt arbete handlar om att omforma blicken på landskap från statiska strukturer till dynamiska, levande system – där geografiska relationer, och särskilt mötet mellan landskap och teknologi, står i centrum. Här är mångfald, delaktighet och resiliens nycklarna till hållbara framtider. Tillsammans kan vi arbeta för geografier som anpassar sig och lär sig utifrån de utmaningar och möjligheter de står inför. Kontakt: Daniel Urey, daniel.urey@lablab.se Christina Hoffman, christina.hoffmann@lablab.se <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e4bc0f065ffe8e61fbed5797581f9ef322cc8630e2fdd8625f824ab90e9f38be/IMG_0439-2.jpg" data-mid="244422015" border="0" data-scale="76" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e4bc0f065ffe8e61fbed5797581f9ef322cc8630e2fdd8625f824ab90e9f38be/IMG_0439-2.jpg" /> https://lablab.se/Samexistens-i-omstallningens-tid Fri, 07 Nov 2025 08:16:59 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/Samexistens-i-omstallningens-tid <img width="1954" height="1440" width_o="1954" height_o="1440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e1a647edb890768fe4480357089c94547063637a8b9ae5f13cd674f77e8afc57/Skarmavbild-2025-05-16-kl.-14.59.35.png" data-mid="240362441" border="0" data-scale="82" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e1a647edb890768fe4480357089c94547063637a8b9ae5f13cd674f77e8afc57/Skarmavbild-2025-05-16-kl.-14.59.35.png" /> Samexistens i omställningens tidProjektrapport 2024-2025Under 2024-2025 har LABLAB, Green Power Sweden (f.d. Svensk Vindenergi), Sveriges Hembygdsförbund och SLU Alnarp arbetat tillsammans i projektet Samexistens i omställningens tid. Projektet har finansierats av Vinnova inom utlysningen Framtidens attraktiva livsmiljöer genom en socialt hållbar industri.Syftet har varit att utveckla metod för förflyttning från intressekonflikt till gemensam problemformulering om landskapens kulturella och historiska värden i relation till energiomställningens infrastruktur exemplifierat av vindkraftsetablering. Vi har aktiverat samtal i Södermanland och Dalarna med representanter för såväl vindkraftsaktörer som civilsamhället representerat av medlemmar i hembygdsrörelsen med deltagande av Länsstyrelsen Dalarna. Vår övergripande frågeställning har varit Hur kan dialog och samråd öka förutsättningarna för samförstånd och samexistens kopplat till energiomställningen? För att närma oss frågeställningen har vi aktiverat samtal kring platsens egenskaper utifrån:&nbsp; Vad gör en plats betydelsefull och vilka värden kan platsen tillskrivas? Vilka sociala och kulturella värden finns? Vilka värden för omställningens infrastruktur, dvs vindkraft, finns? <img width="2505" height="1899" width_o="2505" height_o="1899" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/789f092d48eb41c4efb17eda48c54f3770dd5116316af1ea5728238bd4a7e462/ChristinaStromer2022.png" data-mid="240362491" border="0" data-scale="60" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/789f092d48eb41c4efb17eda48c54f3770dd5116316af1ea5728238bd4a7e462/ChristinaStromer2022.png" /> Metod och förutsättningar för samtal Projektet har synliggjort förhållningssätt till platsens egenskaper och värde, skapat förståelse för synsätt, drivkrafter och metod, som handlar om skala, perspektiv och ingångsvärden i hur vi närmar oss och värderar landskap och lokalitet. Samtalen i Södermanland respektive Dalarna har rört sig kring rättvisa och inkludering, uttryckt avsaknad av ett forum för dialog kring landskapets värde, energiinfrastruktur och den lokala samhällsutvecklingen. Detta har i sin tur gjort synligt att dialog och samråd spelar en viktig roll för ett demokratiskt samtal, där de som deltar är ”öppna” för samtal och det finns tid att uttrycka och reflektera, missförstå och förstå olika ingångsvärden och perspektiv. Initialt genomfördes några digitala rundabordssamtal med medlemmar från Sveriges Hembygdsförbund respektive Green Power Sweden. Detta för att orientera förutsättningar och erfarenheter kring samtal och dialog kopplat till landskap och energiinfrastruktur. Skillnader i kunskap och språk kan innebära hinder för dialog om landskapets kulturella och historiska värden i relation till omställningens infrastruktur såsom vindkraft, men kan vara lika giltigt för andra energislag som sol eller annan infrastruktur som väg eller järnväg. Dialogen om vad som händer och förändras på platsen, i landskapet är grundläggande för utveckling och planering av samhället. I de samtal projektet aktiverat har vi avsiktligt inte arbetet med ett specifikt projekt. Istället har vi aktiverat samtal där medlemmar från hembygdsrörelsen och vindkraftsbranschen har kunnat mötas i en dialog om platsens egenskaper och betydelse, omställningens infrastruktur, såsom vindkraft, och landskapens sociala och kulturella värden för lokalsamhället. Målsättningen med samtalen har varit att förstå hur dialog och samrådsprocess kan skapa möjligheter till samsyn kring gemensamma problemformuleringar och utmaningar vi står inför; hur vi genom samtal kan förstå olika ingångar, värden och perspektiv, och därmed närma oss frågeställningar kring landskapens känslighet och möjligheter i omställningen. På så sätt kan förståelse och förutsättningar skapas för en fördjupad dialog kring vindkraftens relevans och landskapets sociala och kulturella värden för attraktiva och socialt hållbara livsmiljöer. Samtalen har utgått både från att landskapet håller vissa kulturvärden, och att samhället snabbt behöver bygga ut fossilfri elproduktion för att fasa ut fossila bränslen. Utifrån detta har fokus varit att diskutera vilka olika frågeställningar och ingångar som finns för att närma sig utmaningar och möjligheter. Samtliga deltagare har i förväg erhållit ett inläsningsmaterial som syftat till att skapa en gemensam startpunkt för samtalet. Materialet har, förutom en kort projektbeskrivning, bestått av tre perspektiv på en plats och dess värden: hembygdsrörelsens och vindkraftsbranschens perspektiv samt det administrativa perspektivet (län och kommun). En introduktion till processen för vindkraftsetablering och tips om ytterligare läsning har också ingått i materialet.Som underlag och utgångspunkt i samtalen har vi sedan använt kartor från ett område i Södermanland respektive Dalarna, där vi redovisat vilken geografisk information som finns tillgänglig via olika karttjänster, liksom begrepp och system för att värdera kulturlandskap – som beskriver landskapet utifrån såväl riksintresse kulturmiljövård som vindförhållanden, och i Dalarna även landskapskaraktär med den Landskapskaraktärsanalys (LKA) som Länsstyrelsen tagit fram. Samtalen visar att när dialogen kodas på detta sätt, med tid som ger utrymme för olika perspektiv, finns det förutsättningar för ett öppet samtal och förståelse för utmaningar och möjligheter till samexistens i omställningen. I dessa öppna samtal om platsens egenskaper blir det tydligt att landskap för individen handlar om upplevelsen, en upplevelse som å ena sidan beskrivs utifrån beständighet, å andra sidan befinner sig i ständig förändring. Landskapet är värdefullt för kulturminnen likaväl som energiinfrastruktur, men det visade sig ibland svårt att sätta ord på vad som gör landskapet värdefullt. <img width="5712" height="4284" width_o="5712" height_o="4284" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b60449e76adaaf9b639acdcd7cf6a61ab9f670161c7cb4b88e2f30b7f953e4a0/IMG_7307.jpg" data-mid="240888449" border="0" data-scale="40" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b60449e76adaaf9b639acdcd7cf6a61ab9f670161c7cb4b88e2f30b7f953e4a0/IMG_7307.jpg" /> Workshop i Ludvika Gammelgård. Deltagare och projektteam Tillit och rådande samrådsprocess Samrådsprocessen i nuvarande form har en utmaning som dialogverktyg. Projektet visar att kunskapen om samråd är begränsad och att formen inte motsvarar förväntan och önskemål om att vara (eller känna sig) inkluderad, kunna medverka och påverka. Diskrepansen kan riskera att undergräva tilliten till befintliga processer och tilltron till projektörers avsikter och vilja till dialog. Landskap är en del av människors liv och när närmiljön förändras väcker det känslor. Projektet visar att vikten av att uppleva en plats för att förstå den behöver få utrymme i en bredare dialog kring plats och lokalitet, där olika intressen ska mötas och samexistera. Både kunskap och språk är nödvändiga verktyg för förståelse och i dialogprocessen, vilket gäller både kulturmiljöer och vindkraftsparker. Språk, begreppsdefinitioner och tolkningsföreträden kan med andra ord utgöra såväl hinder som möjligheter i en dialogprocess kring kulturella, historiska värden och energiomställningens infrastruktur i landskapet. Om vi ska skapa förutsättningar att förflytta oss från intressekonflikter till gemensamma problemformuleringar kan ett gemensamt språk brygga över olika intresseområden. En utgångspunkt är den text och de begrepp som används i kommunala och regionala planeringsdokument, såsom som översiktsplaner och visionsdokument. Projektet visar på olikheter i hur landskap och energislag, här vindkraft, sätts i kontext och beskrivs. Variationerna mellan kommuner inom Södermanland och inom Dalarna pekar på avsaknaden av ett likartat planeringssystem med ett administrativt språk och därmed verktyg för att beskriva energiinfrastrukturens (påverkan på och förändring av) plats i landskapet. <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fd58ecc857d13d1d88df92f2687ccd385278c72be5932e25704b1b320219665d/platsen.jpg" data-mid="240889064" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fd58ecc857d13d1d88df92f2687ccd385278c72be5932e25704b1b320219665d/platsen.jpg" /> <img width="6098" height="3767" width_o="6098" height_o="3767" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/62b798cdaf3233a8e64c8131d6d2a5fe70c49e62d03643f304ee9b7a53459ac9/FINAL_Language-analysis-1.jpg" data-mid="240362869" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/62b798cdaf3233a8e64c8131d6d2a5fe70c49e62d03643f304ee9b7a53459ac9/FINAL_Language-analysis-1.jpg" /> Kompensation och konsekvenser Projektet har haft en hypotes om att intresset för att delta i samverkansprocesser av olika slag kan påverkas av faktorer som t ex delägande i energianläggningar och andra direkta påverkansmöjligheter. Vidare att, skillnaden vad gäller grundläggande förutsättningar (delägande, ekonomisk kompensation till lokalsamhällen etc.) i olika länder, kan möjliggöra komparativa studier. Det har visat sig svårt med sådana komparativa studier på grund av komplexiteten. Metoder och modeller för kompensation skiljer sig inte bara mellan länder, utan inom länder, regioner och mellan olika aktörer. Till det kommer lokalsamhällets förmåga och kapacitet att formulera sina behov och perspektiv som även det varierar. Deltagarna har i projektets lokala/regionala samtal inte lyft eller efterfrågat ekonomisk kompensation. En vidare forskning kring kompensation och ersättning skulle kunna involvera frågor om vilka möjligheter, i svensk planerings- och implementeringskontext (inklusive samråd), en region- och platscentrerad dialog kring effekter och konsekvenser för alla projekt i landskapet skulle kunna ha. Vidare hur dominerande kompensationsstrategier i Sverige förhåller sig till vetenskaplig forskning om positiva effekter av rättvisa, så kallad “energy justice”. Landskapskaraktärsanalys som verktyg i dialog Som en konsekvens av omställningen genomgår samhälle och landskap en förändring. &nbsp; En Landskapskaraktärsanalys (LKA) ger en gedigen beskrivning av naturvärden, historia, känsligheter och möjligheter – och ger landskapet, som inte känner några administrativa gränser, ett mer utvecklat språk. Analysen blir ett planeringsunderlag till stöd för mellankommunal och regional planering av t ex storskalig infrastruktur, såsom vindkraft, och utveckling av en bygd och dess potential. Där Landskapskaraktärsanalys (LKA) finns kan den, använd på kommunal nivå, vara ett verktyg i både planering och dialog för landskap, civilsamhälle och etableringar att mötas i en lokalitet, i en region eller en kommun. Även andra verktyg som Utforska platsen (SHF:s databas för lokalhistoriskt material),&nbsp; eller besöksanpassade vindkraftsparker, kan rymma möjligheter i en dialog för landskap, civilsamhälle och etableringar att mötas i en lokalitet utifrån ett språk och en terminologi som blir en gemensam utgångspunkt. &nbsp;<img width="4960" height="3507" width_o="4960" height_o="3507" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/22d43d9f3ee06fbf8ccf8dcd4767cb7afed8f4f9c0a7d50859a9080a35eee294/DAL_SOR_3.jpeg" data-mid="240889958" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/22d43d9f3ee06fbf8ccf8dcd4767cb7afed8f4f9c0a7d50859a9080a35eee294/DAL_SOR_3.jpeg" /> Dialog och samhällsplanering bortom projekt Samtalet vid projektets slutseminarium rörde sig kring att en bredare dialog om samexistens och förändringar i våra landskap är en fråga om demokrati, helt enkelt därför att landskap är en del av människors liv och klimatomställningen en gemensam utmaning. Dialog som rör utveckling, värden och förändring är en viktig del av samhällsplaneringen utifrån ett regionalt och lokalt ägarskap och inkludering – det vill säga platsen, landskapen där planering för och genomförande av utveckling, värdeskapande och förändring sker. Om en dialogprocess genomförs utifrån platsen, bortom ett specifikt (vindkrafts-)projekt, finns förutsättningar att för ett mindre låst samtal, där dialogen kring platsen och dess värde kulturellt, socialt och i utvecklingen av infrastruktur både vidgas och fördjupas. Kommun och länsstyrelse med rådighet över platsen har möjlighet att skapa ett sådant forum och ta en större och tydligare roll i en bredare dialog utifrån plats, lokalitet och en gemensam önskad samhällsutveckling. I ett sådant och/eller egna forum kan civilsamhället, genom hembygdsföreningar och andra lokala föreningar, bidra till att skapa en bredare dialog om landskap och energiinfrastruktur, där landskapet ges en röst bortom motstående intressen. Ett utvecklat samarbete mellan hembygdsföreningar och projektörer skulle kunna aktivera samtal om värden i det lokala landskapet och organisera besök till närliggande miljöer, både vindkraftsparker och kulturmiljöer. Gemensamma aktiviteter som adresserar både det historiska och det moderna landskapet kan öppna en dialog och öka intresset för båda perspektiven. En bredare, platsförankrad dialog som tagit utgångspunkt i, och hjälp av planeringsverktyg hos dem med rådighet över platsen kan bidra till förflyttning från intressekonflikt till gemensam problemformulering och därigenom till samexistens med en socialt hållbar industri och attraktiva livsmiljöer. Genom en relation och ett samhällskontrakt mellan industri och lokalsamhälle och de med rådighet över platsen i en samverkande handling kan förutsättningar skapas för att utveckla en snabb, resilient och skalbar omställningskapacitet på en regional och lokal nivå. Projektet i korthet Resultaten från projektet Samexistens i omställningens tid kan ha betydelse för vilka forum som utvecklas och hur de utformas för att inrymma en dialog där landskap, lokala samhällen och etableringar kan mötas.&nbsp; Projektet har pågått under ett års tid och innefattat: Två digitala, separata rundabordssamtal med hembygdsföreningar och vindkraftsaktörer.Tre fysiska workshops med projektgruppen (Länsstyrelsen i Dalarna medverkade vid ett tillfälle).Två fysiska workshops i Södermanland (Årdala hembygdsgård) och Dalarna (Gammelgården Ludvika, där Länsstyrelsen i Dalarna deltog), plus en digital workshop i (Dalarna).Fortlöpande avstämningar i projektledningen.Ett slutseminarium (hybridevent med närmare 200 deltagare digitalt).En digital publicering i form av denna projektrapport. Projektet har formulerat relevanta forskningsfrågor för vidare akademiska studier, t ex: Hur förhåller sig dominerande kompensationsstrategier i Sverige till vetenskaplig forskning om positiva effekter av rättvisa (“energy justice”)? Vilka möjligheter i svensk planerings- och implementeringskontext (inklusive samråd) har en region- och platscentrerad dialog kring effekter och konsekvenser för alla projekt i landskapet? Projektet har i de nationella samtalen sett att ekonomisk kompensation kan spela en roll. Däremot har deltagarna i de lokala/regionala samtalen inte lyft eller efterfrågat detta. Projektet har uppnått sitt jämställdhetsmål med 30% män i projektgruppen och en jämn könsfördelning bland deltagare i studiefallen. Nya dialoger och kontaktytor har öppnats, till exempel: Fortsatt samarbete mellan hembygdsförbundet och vindkrafts- och andra aktörer som planerar för hållbar energiproduktion, både på lokal, regional och nationella nivå. Möjligheten för lokala hembygdsföreningar att med sin kunskap analysera landskap inför dialog och bidra med information vid samråd. Kursen Large Scale Structure vid SLU Alnarp kommer att stärkas ytterligare med regionala hembygdsförbundet i Södermanland som föreläsare. För mer information kontakta:Christina Hoffmann (projektledare),&nbsp;christina.hoffmann@lablab.seDaniel Urey,&nbsp;daniel.urey@lablab.se Länk till hybridevent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN4oTvV3TK8 https://lablab.se/The-Metabolism-of-Coal Fri, 14 Nov 2025 14:51:34 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/The-Metabolism-of-Coal <img width="3737" height="1961" width_o="3737" height_o="1961" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bdd0afe9bf4d824dad0835357051970439e6926f8748d8c041092e2c7785a96d/1-1.jpg" data-mid="240638262" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bdd0afe9bf4d824dad0835357051970439e6926f8748d8c041092e2c7785a96d/1-1.jpg" /> Coal, and its harrowing spatiality Connecting places. Claiming spaces. The Metabolism of Coal. Author:&nbsp;Mahum Ahmad, 2025 To understand energy landscapes we need to understand coal. In many parts of the world, coal has been a key economical element in building a modern society. Ingrained in our society by aspects of modernity, electricity, trade, and changing landscapes, coal has contributed to prosperity. With the climate changing coal has become a threat to that very same society. As Europe is taking measures to reduce its dependence on coal and increase renewable energy, other parts of the world are moving in the opposite direction. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are among them. We wanted to understand the energy landscapes of these countries, and how and why they are connected with each other and other parts of the world, both historically and as part of the modern web of coal metabolism. The global trade of coal involves a web of movements between different countries. Some countries export one quality of coal to import another, higher quality; others import from far away countries despite existing resources in neighboring countries; some rely on coal since the nascent railway (India, Pakistan), whereas others have been relying on natural gas and only recently introduced coal as part of the energy production (Bangladesh); or not relying on coal at all (Bhutan and Suriname, the only two countries that have achieved carbon neutrality and are actually carbon negative, i.e. removing more carbon than they emit). A handful of centers stand out in this web of coal metabolism and we will take a closer look at the central region with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh being among the countries both importing and increasing their use of coal. <img width="4865" height="2140" width_o="4865" height_o="2140" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71c995a3bd3b2e696d69948117e42a858688338fef40e31ea6ddd8a794177d71/2.jpg" data-mid="240638266" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/71c995a3bd3b2e696d69948117e42a858688338fef40e31ea6ddd8a794177d71/2.jpg" />In this region coal still has an extensive impact on energy landscapes with an increasing number of coal power plants and coal-based energy production. The region is also home to the world’s largest areas of mangroves: the Indus Delta Mangroves in the west where India is bordering Pakistan, and the Sundarbans in the east bordering Bangladesh. Mangroves are natural carbon sinks as they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in its biomass. Mangroves are a critical ecosystem with diversified species whose composition consists of high salient tolerant (saltwater) species and freshwater species. The Indus Delta Mangroves spans an area of some 570,000 ha (half the size of the Swedish Skåne region) and the Sundarbans 140,000 ha. Landscapes are sensitive, ecologically and culturally, to changes on local and regional levels through global scales. The landscapes of this region are no exception. Yet, construction, destruction, and re-claiming of land all repeat themselves without acknowledging the risk of manipulating the landscapes, and leading to substantial loss of blue carbon. <img width="4961" height="1992" width_o="4961" height_o="1992" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/78a35529c88f296c20a3afe3fbf0117582d86ffc1177a5b2934ef5ed9be03e01/5a.jpg" data-mid="240638263" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/78a35529c88f296c20a3afe3fbf0117582d86ffc1177a5b2934ef5ed9be03e01/5a.jpg" /> INDIA Historically coal was mined for domestic needs. It was not until the British introduced the steam engine in 1853 and started to connect places with the at the time nascent railway system that the demand for coal leapt and was mined on an industrial scale. The pivotal force was the manipulation of landscapes in the wake of connecting places and claiming spaces. This was the birth of energy landscapes in India - and, consequently, in today’s Pakistan and Bangladesh. Today 5.25% (or 25B USD) of India’s import accounts for coal briquettes of which almost half originates from Australia. India is also exporting coal briquettes to a value of 92.4M USD, mainly to Nepal 73.9% and Bangladesh 13.3%. <img width="920" height="550" width_o="920" height_o="550" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b6a1770bca893d175bf2ef965517d88ddc7f3facf90b05e85e86fb10a11aed77/5c.jpg" data-mid="240639073" border="0" data-scale="45" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/920/i/b6a1770bca893d175bf2ef965517d88ddc7f3facf90b05e85e86fb10a11aed77/5c.jpg" /><img width="943" height="536" width_o="943" height_o="536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eab6d13dfd0418eb3be3b90a56719bad432c9b4dae42e3a7692f68b8668cc7b7/5b.jpg" data-mid="240641445" border="0" data-scale="46" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/943/i/eab6d13dfd0418eb3be3b90a56719bad432c9b4dae42e3a7692f68b8668cc7b7/5b.jpg" /> <img width="4961" height="1972" width_o="4961" height_o="1972" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ab26da9f652481cf3ac42043f8cb06d7983301316a6f7ebf75a5ad314257903/3a.jpg" data-mid="240638265" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7ab26da9f652481cf3ac42043f8cb06d7983301316a6f7ebf75a5ad314257903/3a.jpg" /> PAKISTAN Part of understanding the current energy landscapes of Pakistan is history, colonization and being part of India until 1947. So, like in India, the railway network construction made coal consumption lead to previously unseen levels and forever altered the landscapes in this part of the world. Today 2.03% (or 1B USD) of Pakistan’s import accounts for coal briquettes of which almost three quarters originate from South Africa. <img width="900" height="595" width_o="900" height_o="595" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a254801c8ee8caa29cd20026ccc967937e372b50d5500e91e93293d8f578891a/3b.jpg" data-mid="240641447" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/900/i/a254801c8ee8caa29cd20026ccc967937e372b50d5500e91e93293d8f578891a/3b.jpg" /> <img width="4961" height="1918" width_o="4961" height_o="1918" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c0861774978fbd6ab6d34b4c993a3a94f1bd544c570f8f6835b3c9f0602befa/4a.jpg" data-mid="240638264" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5c0861774978fbd6ab6d34b4c993a3a94f1bd544c570f8f6835b3c9f0602befa/4a.jpg" /> BANGLADESH Part of understanding the current energy landscapes of Bangladesh is likewise history, colonization and being part of India until 1947. Here, the manufacturing and export of garments to the global consumer market, predominantly Europe, is a key factor in shaping the energy landscape. Today 0.69% (or 1B USD) of Bangladesh’s import accounts for coal briquettes of which 81.3% originates from Indonesia. <img width="871" height="651" width_o="871" height_o="651" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/63d57483bf42b95c77159278d78ba6d07db65db1cf42ecb27c336eaf8d0b392c/4b.jpg" data-mid="240641448" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/871/i/63d57483bf42b95c77159278d78ba6d07db65db1cf42ecb27c336eaf8d0b392c/4b.jpg" /> COAL PROVIDERSWe won’t understand the energy landscapes of the region India, Pakistan and Bangladesh without also looking at the main coal providers: Australia, Indonesia and South Africa. <img width="4961" height="1873" width_o="4961" height_o="1873" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f2e6b52bf5f1fbd913e184fa70a76049a84d89f77f45c77146cd30e926da9b9a/6a.jpg" data-mid="240639080" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f2e6b52bf5f1fbd913e184fa70a76049a84d89f77f45c77146cd30e926da9b9a/6a.jpg" /> SOUTH AFRICA 4.65% of South Africa’s exports account for Coal Briquettes amounting to 5.05B USD, out of which 49.5% of it account s for exports to India. <img width="975" height="498" width_o="975" height_o="498" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3c2eb8ac450c1d60cbe50a637f05ad448a7313dc4c6dfe1e92da735f38edfb8a/6c.jpg" data-mid="240639075" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/975/i/3c2eb8ac450c1d60cbe50a637f05ad448a7313dc4c6dfe1e92da735f38edfb8a/6c.jpg" /> <img width="952" height="534" width_o="952" height_o="534" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/adcfaaf87b609be871af80b12be822ecd33a9be83bb1eeb8f5784f53b393a939/6b.jpg" data-mid="240639074" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/952/i/adcfaaf87b609be871af80b12be822ecd33a9be83bb1eeb8f5784f53b393a939/6b.jpg" /> <img width="4961" height="1864" width_o="4961" height_o="1864" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/95891fd8f589323c87cd514cd4c4f4e59deb670a54ac06f04730ab4131cfb136/7a.jpg" data-mid="240641328" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/95891fd8f589323c87cd514cd4c4f4e59deb670a54ac06f04730ab4131cfb136/7a.jpg" /> AUSTRALIA 18.1% of Australia’s exports account for Coal Briquettes amounting to 51.5B USD, out of which 23.5 % of it accounts for exports to India. <img width="1063" height="636" width_o="1063" height_o="636" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c9969d5f12c325e25ab891d2b682b7d131a9be9bbda26b835cb81dc8962cddbe/7b.jpg" data-mid="240639076" border="0" data-scale="92" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c9969d5f12c325e25ab891d2b682b7d131a9be9bbda26b835cb81dc8962cddbe/7b.jpg" /> <img width="4961" height="1847" width_o="4961" height_o="1847" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3d27dc8fbb9bfd488e34248586337ffe575ec66464c29e64eef544dbdfd1b316/8a.jpg" data-mid="240639077" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3d27dc8fbb9bfd488e34248586337ffe575ec66464c29e64eef544dbdfd1b316/8a.jpg" /> INDONESIA 10.9 % of Indonesia’s exports account for Coal Briquettes amounting to 20.3B USD, out of which 26.6 % of it accounts for exports to India. <img width="886" height="517" width_o="886" height_o="517" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d9bbba95c6b63d03c4d97ef5a0b1b111eec1a31c17e3a4002555bb31ae2b7791/8c.jpg" data-mid="240639079" border="0" data-scale="96" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/886/i/d9bbba95c6b63d03c4d97ef5a0b1b111eec1a31c17e3a4002555bb31ae2b7791/8c.jpg" /> <img width="971" height="542" width_o="971" height_o="542" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3154e3e2574ad541e38f7e73ca9314d1b4275c8e527710ffb5411d6e7a0c90fd/8b.jpg" data-mid="240639078" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/971/i/3154e3e2574ad541e38f7e73ca9314d1b4275c8e527710ffb5411d6e7a0c90fd/8b.jpg" /> https://lablab.se/Nytt-ramavtal-med-Region-Dalarna Fri, 20 Dec 2024 13:34:58 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/Nytt-ramavtal-med-Region-Dalarna Nytt ramavtal med Region Dalarna LABLAB har tilldelats ett nytt ramavtal av Region Dalarna inom två områden, samhällsplanering och landsbygdsutveckling, för perioden 2025-2027. Sedan 2020 har LABLAB samarbetat med Region Dalarna i flera samhällsplaneringsprojekt, t ex Stärkt regional planering i Dalarna. Från 2025 ingår nu även landsbygdsutveckling. Ramavtalet omfattar utredning, metodutveckling, processledning, analys och utvärdering inom regional utveckling som också syftar till att stödja den kommunala och mellankommunala planeringen. Region Dalarna skriver att ”God samhällsplanering möjliggör tillgång till utbildning, skapar förutsättningar för arbetsmarknad och näringsliv att utvecklas, och gör det möjligt att bo och leva i hela Dalarna. Region Dalarna stödjer den kommunala och mellankommunala planeringen likväl som övrig regional planering. Regional rumslig planering utgår från den funktionella geografin och syftar till att stärka kopplingen och samspelet mellan olika processer för planering av transportsystem, kollektivtrafik, bebyggelse, energiförsörjning.” Landsbygdsutveckling utgår från att ”Dalarna liksom övriga län i Sverige har ett Regionalt Serviceprogram (RSP), det är framtaget utifrån en analys av rådande förutsättningar i Dalarna. Det nuvarande programmet gäller från 2022 till 2030 och syftar till att samordna insatser och aktörer i arbetet med att främja tillgängligheten till kommersiell och viss offentlig service i länet. Arbetet utgår från de lokala behoven på landsbygden och förvaltningen har en samordnande roll och arbetar stödjande i utvecklingsprocesser och med kunskapsöverföring, stödhantering och kommunal serviceplanering.” LABLAB ser fram emot att utveckla och fördjupa samarbetet med Region Dalarna och kommunerna i Dalarna. <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/65cd1069d44a5a3ea8fe95ef13bdac331b62cb1a2817a15959806cb33ebe66e2/IMG_1869.JPG" data-mid="223630339" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/65cd1069d44a5a3ea8fe95ef13bdac331b62cb1a2817a15959806cb33ebe66e2/IMG_1869.JPG" /> https://lablab.se/GIS Thu, 21 Nov 2024 13:11:10 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/GIS GIS LABLAB bedriver GIS-verksamhet. Vi gör avancerade geografiska analyser, likväl som kartografi med stor vikt på grafisk utformning och visuell kommunikation. Vår metodik följer forskningsprinciper av kvalitativa och kvantitativa datahantering, -inhämtning och -bearbetning.&nbsp; Med ett DNA i tvärsektoriella och utforskande metoder utvecklar vi GIS till att vara ett verktyg som hjälper rumsliga processer framåt, oavsett skala. Nedan följer ett urval projekt där LABLAB utfört och lett arbetet med GIS.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Regional landskapskaraktärsanalys för Dalarna Län Uppdragsgivare: Länsstyrelsen i Dalarna Län Relationen mellan den regionala energiomställningen och de kulturella och ekologiska värden som finns i landskapen går hand i hand för att möjliggöra en socialt och ekologiskt hållbar samhällsplanering. Detta innebär att samhällsplaneringen inte bara blir mer transdisciplinär utan kräver också ett pedagogiskt tänkande kring GIS-data som ger politiker, tjänstepersoner och medborgare en djupare insikt i hur olika rumsliga skalor (lokala, kommunala, regionala och nationella) förhåller sig till varandra. Under januari 2023-mars 2024 deltog LABLAB i det konsortium som genomförde en Landskapskaraktärsanalys för Dalarna på uppdrag av Länsstyrelsen i Dalarna Län. Rapportens målsättning är att utgöra ett planeringsunderlag till stöd för mellankommunal och regional samhällsplanering för att nå en hållbar utbyggnad av vindkraften med fokus på de kumulativa landskapseffekterna. LABLAB hade två ansvarsområden inom GIS. Dels för data-set och leverans av landskapskaraktärsområden och landskapstyper för Dalarna län i vektorformat till GIS-enheten på Länsstyrelsen Dalarna. Dels för utveckling av metod för kommunal och mellankommunal dialog där GIS-data gällande befintlig storskalig infrastruktur integrerades med kvalitativ och kvantitativ data från landskapskaraktärsanalysen, samt underlag från enkätundersökning (&gt;1000 respondenter). Genom integrationen genererade LABLAB nya kartunderlag som möjliggjorde en fördjupad förståelse för politiker och tjänstepersoner kring relationen mellan energiomställningens påverkan på och människors relation till landskapen. Metoden utvecklades för att kunna tillämpas på en kommunal skala, det vill säga med fokus på en djupare kartläggning kring hur människor upplever landskapen i sin kommun i relation till framtida storskalig infrastruktur. <img width="4960" height="4960" width_o="4960" height_o="4960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bd4969e68f9eb84688d183c28967ebf27d4a66413838fe803b200e46359b1d37/Platser-ordmoln.jpg" data-mid="222186598" border="0" data-scale="75" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bd4969e68f9eb84688d183c28967ebf27d4a66413838fe803b200e46359b1d37/Platser-ordmoln.jpg" /> <img width="3779" height="3779" width_o="3779" height_o="3779" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/de2951e632718a1d283e86caaa5720f0681b6844b21b41fed5a07a822f68d6f5/Platser-relativa.jpeg" data-mid="222187866" border="0" data-scale="72" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/de2951e632718a1d283e86caaa5720f0681b6844b21b41fed5a07a822f68d6f5/Platser-relativa.jpeg" /> <img width="3779" height="3779" width_o="3779" height_o="3779" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e5dd29bd05ffc591f6cbe7d4c9314cc8700a625d1fcb3e1647a834a50fc289f7/Platser.jpeg" data-mid="222186564" border="0" data-scale="83" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e5dd29bd05ffc591f6cbe7d4c9314cc8700a625d1fcb3e1647a834a50fc289f7/Platser.jpeg" /> <img width="1194" height="739" width_o="1194" height_o="739" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e389b7055f7b7c607028a4fbbaf9153386cec5b212b336c61484cb023a0e04c1/chart-5.png" data-mid="222187909" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e389b7055f7b7c607028a4fbbaf9153386cec5b212b336c61484cb023a0e04c1/chart-5.png" /> <img width="8503" height="4488" width_o="8503" height_o="4488" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fe54693aff1d1e4cbf91418d892315efd59ab44011e46ed527db0d770496ae63/Platser-lnet-intens_2.jpeg" data-mid="222186798" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fe54693aff1d1e4cbf91418d892315efd59ab44011e46ed527db0d770496ae63/Platser-lnet-intens_2.jpeg" /> Ungdomars mobilitet och hälsaUppdragsgivare: Ludvika kommun, Region Dalarna Ungdomars rörelsemönster mellan hemmet, skolan och fritiden, hur och när de (kan) umgås med vänner, n­ödvändiga såväl som frivilliga, påverkar deras hälsa, utbildning och känsla av trygghet, gemenskap och en bra framtid. Ungdomars existentiella kontext utgör det sociala kapitalet för utveckling och kompetensförsörjning i såväl en enskild kommun som i hela regionen och spelar därför en betydande roll i utvecklingen av det framtida lokalsamhället och i hela Dalarna. Projektet utvärderade och analyserade på vilket sätt den förändrade kollektivtrafiken påverkat unga genom enkät, GIS-data, intervjuer med förmöte/workshops med ungdomar i Ludvika och Orsa 2022, skapade samverkansforum mellan beslutsfattare och unga kring kollektivtrafik genom förmöten och gemensam workshop i maj 2022. Resultatet var en metod för att inkludera unga och därmed öka delaktigheten i samhällsplaneringen och den regionala planeringen, med kollektivtrafik/Trafikförsörjningsprogram som exempel.&nbsp; <img width="1984" height="1403" width_o="1984" height_o="1403" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/486170c1e8148ecff0964c956097afd4cd0ff6fd73cfbcbd8e35011dc1e58461/Ludvika-8_4-Sida-003.jpg" data-mid="222402403" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/486170c1e8148ecff0964c956097afd4cd0ff6fd73cfbcbd8e35011dc1e58461/Ludvika-8_4-Sida-003.jpg" /> <img width="1984" height="1403" width_o="1984" height_o="1403" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2033519081b3d9da545f944eeec1f6aa541bbf2f20ad6b10c24ac233c6d8fac0/Ludvika-8_4-Sida-007.jpg" data-mid="222402407" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2033519081b3d9da545f944eeec1f6aa541bbf2f20ad6b10c24ac233c6d8fac0/Ludvika-8_4-Sida-007.jpg" /> <img width="1984" height="1403" width_o="1984" height_o="1403" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/60445fd85247dad144cd9236e8a1af3495c31fc1f8baaff3cbbe5dee3c68d918/Ludvika-8_4-Sida-005.jpg" data-mid="222402405" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/60445fd85247dad144cd9236e8a1af3495c31fc1f8baaff3cbbe5dee3c68d918/Ludvika-8_4-Sida-005.jpg" /> <img width="1403" height="991" width_o="1403" height_o="991" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a954ad0addc2a8dc4d83b62df8b46b5c52834a846456f2d8b4f7eca84db28423/Lngd-skoldag-Smedenskolan.jpg" data-mid="222402400" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a954ad0addc2a8dc4d83b62df8b46b5c52834a846456f2d8b4f7eca84db28423/Lngd-skoldag-Smedenskolan.jpg" /> <img width="1403" height="991" width_o="1403" height_o="991" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b62c8baa0f7e1a6e14676219cd8df52b48703d0bcc61845edbe6baf914e259ba/Lngd-skoldag-Malmenskolan.jpg" data-mid="222402399" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b62c8baa0f7e1a6e14676219cd8df52b48703d0bcc61845edbe6baf914e259ba/Lngd-skoldag-Malmenskolan.jpg" /> <img width="1049" height="790" width_o="1049" height_o="790" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/82fa9c39c5ecdd17ad3bb3bb68afa6ba166032da9ff1df69977301cc623ecaa8/Citat_Grafik1.png" data-mid="222405262" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/82fa9c39c5ecdd17ad3bb3bb68afa6ba166032da9ff1df69977301cc623ecaa8/Citat_Grafik1.png" /> <img width="789" height="566" width_o="789" height_o="566" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2e3f08f04b50f2601bc7844962332853de55e4174cd68e00d4df4ffcabe54f3a/Arbetsflde1.png" data-mid="222405261" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/789/i/2e3f08f04b50f2601bc7844962332853de55e4174cd68e00d4df4ffcabe54f3a/Arbetsflde1.png" /> Tidig dialog inför samråd Uppdragsgivare: Cloudberry Wind AB LABLAB genomförde en förstudie inför samråd för en eventuell etablering av en vindkraftpark i trakterna runt Gullspång, Mariestad och Götene under 2023-2024. Förstudien innefattade flertalet dialoger i form av workshops, intervjuer och enkäter. LABLAB genomförde dialogerna och tog fram underlag och kartor som hjälpmedel för medborgardialogerna. Utkomsten av dialogerna kom att bli underlag till ett antal kartor och diagram vars syfte var att visualisera opinion och intresse för landskapen kring Vänern. Detta exempel visar en bearbetning av enkätsvaren där respondenterna blivit tillfrågade att uppge platser som har betydelse för dem. Svaren omsattes sedan till diagram och karta.&nbsp; <img width="4158" height="4177" width_o="4158" height_o="4177" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/650db487edc0331319834f6feeed01afb1069085937ebc53b8ecf22683316676/PLATSER-DIAGRAM.jpg" data-mid="222404400" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/650db487edc0331319834f6feeed01afb1069085937ebc53b8ecf22683316676/PLATSER-DIAGRAM.jpg" /> <img width="3543" height="3543" width_o="3543" height_o="3543" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/077fa98b7fc8e8e04ef4c0da4d3b504ae07ccd99cad61e202abc4a208d155c62/Platser_13.jpeg" data-mid="222404401" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/077fa98b7fc8e8e04ef4c0da4d3b504ae07ccd99cad61e202abc4a208d155c62/Platser_13.jpeg" /> StrukturbilderUppdragsgivare: Region Dalarna Hur kan vi planera och samverka på kommunal, mellankommunal och regional nivå med hjälp av strukturbilder/rumsbilder för att på ett långsiktigt hållbart sätt tillvarata möjligheter och utveckla alla delar i Region Dalarna? Inom en av LABLAB ledd workshopsserie med syftet att träna i att se rumsliga samband över administrativa gränser tog LABLAB stöd i GIS. Med nedstamp i kommunerna Vansbro, Borlänge, Ludvika och Smedjebacken undersöktes vad som sker om man tittar inåt, eller utåt. <img width="4960" height="3507" width_o="4960" height_o="3507" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c03cea8d1c89ee8b87e399d24ab8d9adabacce91431317ad4018f91509b25b9d/Skyddsobjekt-livsbehov_1_400000.jpeg" data-mid="222405167" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c03cea8d1c89ee8b87e399d24ab8d9adabacce91431317ad4018f91509b25b9d/Skyddsobjekt-livsbehov_1_400000.jpeg" /> <img width="4960" height="3507" width_o="4960" height_o="3507" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b960ebede0a926c6662b7bf43d87a1f19e0786de9f2be72720d1f0c688c07529/Skyddsobjekt-livsbehov_1_400000_hal.jpeg" data-mid="222405168" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b960ebede0a926c6662b7bf43d87a1f19e0786de9f2be72720d1f0c688c07529/Skyddsobjekt-livsbehov_1_400000_hal.jpeg" /> <img width="4960" height="3507" width_o="4960" height_o="3507" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/32288da8fa03a9db6e2ee3a3af8961a5e95b4a5ba890fb5f68bbfff44917b6ae/Kommunikationer_1_400000.jpeg" data-mid="222405164" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/32288da8fa03a9db6e2ee3a3af8961a5e95b4a5ba890fb5f68bbfff44917b6ae/Kommunikationer_1_400000.jpeg" /> <img width="4960" height="3507" width_o="4960" height_o="3507" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e13a7d97d55257d4cfe75af271cfc22a6fca3816059de5b0f6928bd0f104505e/Kommunikationer_1_400000_hal.jpeg" data-mid="222405165" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e13a7d97d55257d4cfe75af271cfc22a6fca3816059de5b0f6928bd0f104505e/Kommunikationer_1_400000_hal.jpeg" /> https://lablab.se/LKA Sat, 24 Feb 2024 16:07:00 +0000 LabLab https://lablab.se/LKA Landskapskaraktärsanalys Dalarna och rekommendationer för hållbar utbyggnad av vindkraft 2023 - 2024 <img width="8503" height="4488" width_o="8503" height_o="4488" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5de185fadff5420ae8e5ec6787cb72afce96c17b0fdff94e3d1c8cfff07ee150/Platser-lAnet-intens_2.jpeg" data-mid="205407015" border="0" data-scale="93" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5de185fadff5420ae8e5ec6787cb72afce96c17b0fdff94e3d1c8cfff07ee150/Platser-lAnet-intens_2.jpeg" /> Under 2023 och våren 2024 har LABLAB tillsammans med Landskapslaget, Kraka kulturmiljö, Calluna och Samskapet bedrivit en landskapskaraktärsanalys i uppdrag av Länsstyrelsen Dalarna. Parallellt med denna process har det också bedrivits en dialogprocess med Dalarnas samtliga kommuner för att diskutera och kartlägga det upplevda landskapet och dess ekologiska och kulturella känslighet i relation de potential som finns i landskapet för framtida utbyggnad av vindkraft och andra storskaliga samhällsinfrastruktur.&nbsp; Förnybar energi är avgörande i den omställning samhället måste genomgå för att motverka klimatkrisen.&nbsp; Parallellt med en kraftigt ökad energianvändning som en följd av allt fler och större elintensiva industrietableringar, så kommer denna produktion att ske allt mer på en lokal nivå. Det handlar om en rumslig utveckling av landskap där omställningens infrastruktur på olika sätt kan komma att bli synlig och därmed beröra allt fler intresseperspektiv. Det är detta tillståndet som gör energiomställningen även till en kommunikativ angelägenhet som måste hanteras och planeras. För det är här som det ökade elbehovet, med omställningen i bakgrunden, möter landskapets egenskaper och hur den upplevs av såväl det lokala samhället och besökare. Hur de möts är därför avgörande för den framtida lokala elproduktionen eftersom det också handlar om att säkerställa en ekologiskt och socialt hållbar energiomställning.&nbsp; Rapporten till Länsstyrelsen Dalarna skall därför läsas som en vägledning för din kommun. Vårt mål är att den ska kunna erbjuda förutsättningar för att skapa en gemensam förståelse av utmaningen istället för att intressekonflikter positionerar sig mot varandra. Vägen framåt ska därför ses genom kommunikativa handlingar bestående av en fördjupad insikt av landskapets karaktärer, det upplevda landskapet och dialogen mellan olika perspektiv. Vill du veta mer eller är intresserad av att utveckla goda förutsättningar för dialog och planering kring den lokala energiomställningen så är du välkommen att höra av dig till: Alexander Marek alexander.marek@lablab.se 0737286311 För att ta del av rapporten och det arbete som bedrivits med framtagandet av landskapskaraktärsanalysen, se Länsstyrelsen i Dalarnas StoryMap över projektet. <img width="1105px;" height="627px;" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/du7w_3tGWbjsd9p8gQdoDaimWQ6JDIE7f9jJO2TBCm_02PWbL2qvFeXX0TRG_eCgUiDZTy2Uv9ENSUvvmEhlO9tH9gXXrM5E7hxjSMkTcj307ulpbnnO5R_PxGtpspd1E7iBrShin7kDEXkWyM_oGQ=nw"> <img width="682px;" height="688px;" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/LdxxELuBzU0GpMeo5yMyJTqF2vCf8LguBuHEJP0oxkXkGCT2_WrhNNyNwLIXcenWaW5UlKKryulolE0YkfkGJOmEry2vYh_kP75ej7_r_gZ5UZa8BzRrDzFkHpLH69Dv0XaVpYr2JLLNBg6Nvflv7Q=nw" data-scale="57"> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6db3b942ea83b5b849e9f8a9e675a398bff8151ca984de55e602a3b38d248a11/IMG_1294.JPG" data-mid="205411813" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6db3b942ea83b5b849e9f8a9e675a398bff8151ca984de55e602a3b38d248a11/IMG_1294.JPG" /> <img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d1c5ea5c5fe9e2ed0fee8a6aae5906e1ef660c72397e46c8af97468a412a105f/IMG_1167.JPG" data-mid="205411811" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d1c5ea5c5fe9e2ed0fee8a6aae5906e1ef660c72397e46c8af97468a412a105f/IMG_1167.JPG" /> <img width="713" height="710" width_o="713" height_o="710" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e4d2395f520d8f2737206da43fc25fb97b18f13cff462fa1e25b0c16a3f96adb/Skrmbild-2025-08-21-114541.png" data-mid="237572281" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/713/i/e4d2395f520d8f2737206da43fc25fb97b18f13cff462fa1e25b0c16a3f96adb/Skrmbild-2025-08-21-114541.png" />