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Planning and managing the transportation services for Olympic host cities is a complex task. This paper contributes to the event management literature by presenting empirical evidence of the public transportation issues using a case study of a local community-focused Olympic host city. Key factors underpinning transportation issues outcomes are identified.

The Rio 2016 Olympic city was selected as a case study. To develop a scale of public transportation issues, four stages of scale development were conducted: a construct definition and content domain; item generation and expert review; a quantitative study for the purification of the scale; and a quantitative study to validation of the scale. Data were collected among local citizens who lived in the Olympic host city (n = 513).

The construct of public transportation issues was assigned to five main categories: planning, infrastructures, information, insecurity and urban mobility. The scale shows internal consistency, reliability, construct validity and nomological validity. Transport issues perceived of Olympic host city tend to increase the negative social impact perceived among local citizens.

This study contributes to the harmful impacts discussion of hosting sport mega-events and introduces the transportation issues that the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) needs to know when hosting the Olympic Games. The scale application for the future Olympic host countries is discussed.

New forms of ‘smart’ mobility have emerged with the advance of information technology. From a public sector perspective, these ambitions have been framed both in terms of innovation and sustainability. The development work of these technologies is in part being subsidised by public actors investing in and funding different types of pilots or experiments in order to ‘test’ these technologies in what is called a real-life environment. This is part of a larger trend of experimental governance in which smart mobility is an important and a possibly growing part. This chapter offers a conceptual analysis of experimental governance by analysing three underlying assumptions in literature and practice (1) the need for extraordinary solutions, (2) the importance of learning by doing and (3) the necessity of collaboration. These three assumptions are analysed in relation to smart mobility experiments in Sweden, and discussed in relation to public values. The concluding discussion elevates a number of normative implications of using experimental governance as a policy instrument for the development of smart mobility.

This chapter aims to further the conceptual clarity of co-creation, by classifying and exploring the spectrum of non-government actor–led governance arrangements for the co-creation of nature-based solutions (NBS) across different European contexts. Case studies from pilot demonstrators in current Horizon 2020 projects (proGIreg, CLEVER Cities, and EdiCitNet in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) are used to illustrate collaborative governance arrangements within the operating space of co-creation, delineate respective actor roles, and identify lessons learnt.

This contribution aims to provide multidisciplinary knowledge on the effectiveness of experimenting with nature-based solutions (NBS) for urban regeneration policy, planning, design, and governance. Specifically, the following research questions have been investigated through a cross-case study conducted in the cities of Barcelona, Copenhagen, and Marseille: What is the wider contribution of NBS for urban generation? What are the added value, the strengths, and the weaknesses of urban regeneration programs leveraging on NBS? and What is the upscale potential of NBS within selected urban regeneration programs in Europe in a post–COVID-19 scenario? The focus of the research is to create an understanding of what type of NBS development process can bring forward sustainable urban development, the different stakeholders that might be involved, the nature of their involvement, and the relationship between the actors. Three cities have been identified as most informative to explore how NBS can be valid alternatives for buildings, districts, and infrastructures redevelopment, as a starting point to foster urban resilience: Copenhagen, Barcelona, and Marseille. The results of the conducted study reveal future opportunities as well as challenges with respect to possible integrated strategies for successful codesigned and cocreated NBS for urban regeneration, especially in light of the revised post–COVID-19 pandemic urban agendas focusing on health and well-being of citizens as well as on more balanced and resilient urban built environments.

Biodiversity loss now ranks as one of the most significant global drivers of environmental change. In an increasingly urbanized world, there is enormous potential to address this problem through conservation, restoration, and creation of new urban ecosystems. This chapter explores how nature-based solutions (NBS) can contribute to addressing the urgent problem of biodiversity loss in a way that goes beyond just greening gray environments. It then explores the alignment (and misalignment) between the ways in which NBS is framed as a nature conservation tool globally and the ways in which biodiversity is considered in urban approaches to NBS. Finally, the chapter explores the ways in which NBS might become an essential part of the solution to biodiversity and ecosystem decline. It discusses how NBS can be effectively leveraged to address the biodiversity crisis in urban areas, through conservation, restoration, and efforts to create thriving places for both people and nature. Although the concept of NBS in urban areas is fairly divorced from its nature conservation origins, reconnecting with those ecological roots is important for creating biodiverse, resilient cities. In so doing, NBS could offer a unified concept for environmental management in urban areas that integrates the ecological benefits of nature conservation with an innovative focus on confronting major societal challenges. Though this is a demanding task, it could provide a fit-for-purpose approach for conserving biodiversity and supporting functional ecosystems in the Anthropocene.