Managing urban environments: opportunities and (un)sustainable practices in the Sava River area in Zagreb

IN ENGLISH: Zagreb, the capital and the largest city of Croatia, addressed the frequent flooding from the Sava River to the south by ‘jumping over’ it to build a new part of the city, named New Zagreb, which is protected from floods with embankments. For several decades, urbanists and architects have proposed various solutions for the Sava River, and from time to time, political elites have implemented some proposals or elements of these. Nonetheless, Zagreb has never integrated the river into its urban fabric. At the same time, along the river, there are illegal rubbish dumps in the only protected natural area, and the institutions and local authorities ignore their existence and take no legal actions against the offenders. This paper presents a case study of the ‘Zagreb on the Sava’ project that used the most important determinants of sustainability as the criteria for the project review, with emphasis on sustainable urban planning and the sociocultural dimensions of sustainability through the prism of experts, ie planners and civil actors (UNDSD 2000). The results show, among other things, that the demands of civic actors (citizens and non-governmental organisations [NGOs]) and the everyday needs and practices of the local residents run counter to political decisions of the mayor and the rest of the local government. Both experts and citizens are powerless. This paper concludes that the unused and unacknowledged potential of the Sava River is important for the realisation of a sustainable city on a human scale. --------------- IN CROATIAN: Zagreb, glavni i najveći grad Hrvatske, riješio je česte poplave Save prema jugu tako što ju je ‘preskočio’ kako bi izgradio novi dio grada pod imenom Novi Zagreb, koji je od poplava zaštićen nasipima. Nekoliko desetljeća urbanisti i arhitekti predlagali su razna rješenja za rijeku Savu, a s vremena na vrijeme političke elite pojedine prijedloge ili elemente istih provode u djelo. Unatoč tome, Zagreb nikada nije integrirao rijeku u svoje urbano tkivo. Istodobno, uz rijeku postoje divlja odlagališta smeća u jedinom zaštićenom prirodnom području, a institucije i lokalne vlasti ignoriraju njihovo postojanje i ne poduzimaju nikakve zakonske mjere protiv prekršitelja. Ovaj rad predstavlja studiju slučaja projekta 'Zagreb na Savi' koji je kao kriterij za recenziju projekta uzeo najvažnije odrednice održivosti, s naglaskom na održivo urbano planiranje i sociokulturnu dimenziju održivosti kroz prizmu stručnjaka, tj. urbanih planera i civilnih aktera (UNDSD 2000). Rezultati, između ostalog, pokazuju da su zahtjevi građanskih aktera (građana i nevladinih organizacija (NVO)) te svakodnevne potrebe i prakse lokalnog stanovništva u suprotnosti s političkim odlukama gradonačelnika i ostatka lokalne samouprave. Stručnjaci i građani su također nemoćni. Ovaj rad zaključuje da je neiskorišteni i nepriznati potencijal rijeke Save važan za ostvarenje održivog grada po mjeri čovjeka