The global urbanisation is causing cities to grow. There is a big shortage of unused land in the metropolises, which cause a concentration of the cities, which in turn leads to new risks when a bigger population occupy smaller areas.
We have studied if and how consideration of risks related to evacuation is made in the urban planning process of Arenastaden, Solna stad, Stockholm. Also, how these possible risks are transferring by actors’ decisions and considerations between the phases planning, construction, and management in the urban planning process.
Improved knowledge was implemented by literature studies. Both the area of the case study, related laws and scientific research that have been carried out about the subject risk management, urban planning, and decision making was studied. The literature study then acted as the base for the interview study that thereafter was implemented with fifteen selected actors in the urban planning process of Arenastaden to map out how the process was carried out.
It can be understood from the interviewing result that the involving actors think that it is the municipality that should be the responsible actor in ensuring that the project area is built to suit the planned businesses and the number of people it is supposed to accommodate. However, the majority responded that it was the developer who took responsibility for this and especially a group of experts who worked on risk, safety and security issues in the project.
Further on, it can be deduced that eight of the fifteen interviewing persons trust the county administrative board (länsstyrelsen) to “pull the handbrake” if the suggested plan was not found having the adequate consideration to “humans’ wellbeing and safety”. The county administrative board themselves answered that at the time of the investigation they did not consider the risk related to evacuation of an occupant dense area. This leaves the risk unregulated and neglected by the authorities.