Water safety and spatial development: An institutional comparison between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands

The Netherlands and the United Kingdom are known for their different traditions of river flood risk management, which is reflected in their respective institutional frameworks. Whereas the Dutch have focused almost exclusively on reducing the probability of flooding by defining high safety standards, British flood managers are known for their propensity to influence spatial planning decisions as a means to reduce the potential impacts of flood events. This paper scrutinizes this alleged major difference in institutional arrangements and planning practices, so as to evaluate the room for elements of the risk approach in the Netherlands. Using Ostrom's IAD framework, we analyze the rules-in-use in two cases in which a new hospital is being planned in a flood-prone area. It will be shown that in spite of some important differences observed in the rules-in-use, the Dutch institutional configuration has absorbed several elements of the risk approach, and displays a higher similarity in planning practice to the UK than expected. It thus seems that Dutch flood risk management is gradually evolving into the direction of a more integral approach to water safety in spatial planning.     

Between the rule of law and the quest for control: Legal certainty in the Dutch planning system

At the heart of every planning system lies the trade-off between flexibility and legal certainty. Every system has a bit of both. Systems such as the English put more emphasis on flexibility, whereas the American and the French seem to value legal certainty more highly. The Netherlands is part of the same Napoleonic legal family as France. However, in the Netherlands, planning practice seems to be more flexible than the general perception of the Dutch planning system. Many developments deviate from the legally binding land-use plan. Therefore, such a plan does not provide much legal certainty. On 1 July 2008, the new Dutch Spatial Planning Act came into effect. One of its most important objectives is instating the land-use plan as the central decision framework. Both the steering and the safeguarding function – the legal certainty – are meant to be strengthened. Therefore, the frequently grant exemptions must be reduced. However, it seems that the ‘erosion’ of the land-use plan has a more fundamental origin in Dutch planning culture. Based on empirical evidence of the use of the previous planning system, this paper states that steering ambitions of Dutch municipalities, rather than the system as such, have caused land-use plans – with their main focus on recording spatial development afterwards – to become overly detailed and easily outdated. The quest for control and the rule of law seem to be antagonists; one can only exist at the expense of the other.     

Historical and critical review of spatial and transport planning in the Netherlands

The spatial and transport planning have geographical, economic and environmental constraints and are closely linked to the social and political conditions of each country as well as are well under the influence of globalization forces. This makes it all a highly complex issue and requires a better understanding of the background and products of policies and the interaction of a number of key determinant factors in policy-making and implementation. Within this large picture, the long-term review of different cases may provide useful discussions for the guidance and reinforcement of policy assessment. Therefore, the primary aim of this study is to critically analyze the planning in the Netherlands through examining the issues of governing structure, spatial policy-making, and transport re-structuring. The leading characteristic of the Netherlands is the scarcity of usable land that has raised high and early awareness on spatial development issues and its connections with natural and environmental protection. The functioning of planning systems, and policy aims and measures within the planning documents since the end of the 1950s, have been reviewed and the key planning concepts have been examined by bringing in general and current discussions on the issues. The success and failure in past policy-making and implementations have been highlighted. The policies of the current spatial and transport planning documents have been evaluated by their main policy titles such as compact city, network of cities and sustainable mobility. There is a general consensus that the Netherlands has been developed into a well planned and organized society and has designed leading policies such as the ABC firm location policy. However, a number of issues such as increasing vehicle kilometres, urban decline and sprawl, and some gaps in policy making remain to be the critical planning challenges.     

International perspectives on future land use

The different approaches that other countries take to land use reflect many national variables, including planning systems, institutional structures, socio-cultural characteristics, population pressures and environmental priorities. Literature reviews of relevant land-use issues in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden provided the background material for this paper. Other European countries appear to offer models of more pro-active and indicative land-use planning, in contrast to the adversarial system in the UK, and a much stronger regional focus. This seems to have made it easier to implement other policies, for example on renewable energy. Experience with liberalisation of agricultural markets, and the promotion of environmentally sustainable farming are both relevant to an increasingly polarised agricultural sector in the UK. Cutting across all these themes is a reflection on governance of land use. Of the countries considered, Sweden's focus on environmental sustainability, international responsibility and long-term consistency of direction appears to be most closely aligned to the coming land-use challenges. When drawing conclusions from this review it is important to bear in mind the effect of differences in bio-geographic factors, socio-economic conditions and political culture, both in other countries and within the UK.     

Moving out or living on a mound? Jointly planning a Dutch flood adaptation project

All over the world spatial flood risk management policies are on the rise. This paper analyses the planning process for the Overdiepse polder, a so-called “Room for the River” project in the Netherlands. After high water in the 1990s, the Dutch government changed its flood risk management policy. While before 2000 it leaned heavily on dikes to separate water from land, after that year spatial measures to “let the water flow” were introduced. This required the integration of two formerly separated policy domains: flood risk management and land use planning. In the densely populated and economically highly developed Netherlands, returning space to the river unavoidably impacts on the lives and livelihoods of those who live and work along the rivers. Therefore, such spatial measures to decrease flood risk have to be negotiated with various stakeholders. The planning process towards making the Overdiepse polder suitable for temporary water storage deserves more in-depth analysis. We describe and analyze the development of relationships between key actors in the planning process, with a focus on planning practices rather than on assumptions about the existence of certain types and qualities of relationships. We conclude, among others, that citizen involvement can, under specific socio-political and institutional conditions, build trust among stakeholders and increase local legitimacy for interventions by government agencies. However, it should not be idealized as “self-governance” or assumed to be part of a unidirectional change in water interventions towards new relationships between actors.     

UK Land Use Futures: Policy influence and challenges for the coming decades

This paper, originally contributed as part of the government's Foresight investigation of Land Use Futures, considers the likely shape of policies affecting UK rural land use up to 2060, based on literature review, analysis of past and current trends and drivers, and discussion with selected policy experts. The postwar, centralised approach to spatial planning and countryside management has come under increasing challenge from domestic and international needs and concerns. European policy influence has increased in respect of agriculture and the natural environment. Zoning of land-use and a restrictive approach to built development have gradually weakened, and land-use drivers have become more multifunctional. Policy has moved away from a ‘top-down’ process designed in Whitehall towards a multi-layered structure within which international agreements and negotiations must be reconciled with regional and local, partnership-based approaches to planning and management, via national frameworks and a complex mix of regulatory and market-based instruments. Climate and energy policy, as well as policies on food and health, will require new and more diverse forms of development. A major challenge for the future could be the extent to which current, multi-layered spatial planning policies can accommodate the scale of change implied by the new mix of drivers from other policy areas. There is the possibility of an increasingly differentiated response across the UK countryside, as well as much more radical change in the system driven from the centre, as pressures increase.

While the Government Office for Science commissioned this review, the views are those of the author, are independent of Government, and do not constitute Government policy.     

The quest for a sustainable spatial planning framework in Zimbabwe and Zambia

Over the years, the Zimbabwean and Zambian governments have been facing severe spatial development inequalities. They have therefore put in place various policies and strategies in a bid to ensure equitable spatial development. Spatial planning, which refers to the distribution of land uses and people, not only focuses on the physical aspects of land but also on national economic, environmental and social policies. This paper examines spatial planning frameworks in Zimbabwe and Zambia and how they have influenced spatial planning. The effect of spatial planning frameworks on development reveals a close relationship between spatial plans and spatial planning outcomes. The study shows how changes in institutional and legal frameworks affects development in different sectors of the economy and that a holistic approach to planning promotes sustainable development without neglecting other sectors. The data for the study was drawn primarily from secondary sources through a review of documents such as statutes, local development plans and other statutory instruments. The study found that in order to achieve sustainable spatial planning, there is need for a sustainable framework to guide spatial planning. Sustainable spatial planning frameworks also control and promote spatial development in both Zimbabwe and Zambia. Both institutional and legal frameworks guiding spatial planning should be sustainable for the benefit of future generations.     

The adaptive efficiency of land use planning measured by the control of urban sprawl. The cases of the Netherlands,Belgium and Poland

The paper aims to position the concept of adaptive efficiency in planning theory, by providing insights on the conditions that explain why land use planning in some institutional contexts is able to adapt and improve more efficiently than in others. This is done by focusing on a specific planning goal: the control of residential sprawl. The paper presents a theoretical framework based on two models, one on the coordinating mechanisms regarding the use of land and one to explain institutional changes. This framework is exploited with empirical case studies where we compare the control of sprawl in the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland. The analysis diagnoses a duality of planning practices. Even though planning failures occur in the Netherlands as well, we provide evidence that Dutch land use planning has been able to efficiently adapt regulatory instruments and collaborative practices to societal changes. By contrast, Belgian and Polish planners face huge difficulties to incorporate new initiatives to control urban sprawl or, in more general terms, to reinforce their influence on land uses.     

Losing faith in planning

Israeli planning is at a crossroad, and not for the first time. As the housing crisis is coupled with a traffic and transportation catastrophe, the planning system is desperate to create new tools and invent new procedures for speeding up plan- and decision-making. A deep look at the performance of planning in Israel reveals that the abundance of short-cuts, circumventions and detours are actually a reflection of the loss of faith in the essence of planning. Particularly, when taking into account two major setbacks: the complete lack of agreeable (spatial) planning principles at all levels of planning, and the congruence between planning institutions and other governmental bodies. These flaws, stemming from the modernist origins of Israeli Planning, continuously erode the practice of planning. Planning institutions are therefore the first to ignore, cancel and evade approved plans and declared policies, which affects other governmental authorities. The result is the practical abandonment of the belief in planning's ability to bring about positive change and a dangerously weakened planning system.     

A review of spatial planning in Ghana's socio-economic development trajectory: A sustainable development perspective

This study provides a review of spatial planning in the context of Ghana's socio-economic development trajectory. Spatial planning has been integral to the economic policies of the country since colonial rule. Yet, its role has been overshadowed by the domain of socio-economic planning. Drawing from published literature, policy documents, legislative frameworks and interviews, this study reveals the different context and scope within which spatial planning has been implemented in Ghana, and the successes and failures thereof. While the colonial governments employed spatial planning on limited scale and for exploitative purposes, post-colonial governments have implemented broad-based planning grounded in the ‘genuine’ aspiration to promote a spatially balanced development. This study argues that post-independence planning has not been successfully implemented compared to pre-independence planning due to a myriad of factors including rapid urban growth, inadequate staffing, low capacity, lack of institutional coordination, political interference in planning, complex land tenure and evolving land markets among others. Consequently, urban centres in Ghana are beset with problems such as poor environmental conditions, poor infrastructure and service delivery, and uncontrolled growth; and these are inimical to sustainable urban development. The study lauds renewed efforts to transform planning in the spirit of sustainable development through the national urban policy framework and a proposed land use and spatial planning bill; the latter proposes planning based on spatial development framework, and a repeal of an obsolete 1945 planning ordinance that has underlain planning since. It is argued that if supported and harmonised the two initiatives present the best planning framework in the 21st century Ghana.     

Measuring urban sprawl and exploring the role planning plays: A shanghai case study

Measuring the degree of urban sprawl largely depends on the local context and available data. This research establishes a multidimensional index which combines city expansion, urban compactness and urban form to measure sprawl. Urban planning, as part of the state-led growth approach, has exerted dramatic impact on city growth in China. Recent studies have discussed the role of planning in city growth. However, measuring the impact of planning on sprawl, has not been conducted. Taking Shanghai as a case study, this paper builds a multidimensional index to measure the spatio-temporal characteristics of urban sprawl in Shanghai from 1990 to 2010. It finds that urban sprawl was more serious in 2000s than in the 1990s, and the sprawl also presents spatial heterogeneity within different areas of the city. While quantifying the role of planning in urban sprawl, this study adopts the Geo-Detector based on spatial variation analysis of the geographical strata in order to assess the impact of planning on urban sprawl. It finds that planning is strongly correlated with urban sprawl, in other words, urban sprawl is kind of a "planned sprawl" in Shanghai. The research concludes with future planning policies necessary for a more sustainable and compact development pattern.     

Environmental impact assessment of urban land use transitions—A context-sensitive approach

Land consumption due to residential development, economic growth and transportation belongs to the most serious environmental pressures on landscapes worldwide, in particular in urbanised areas. Accordingly, the aim of containing the development of land is rated increasingly high on the agenda of environmental policy, at least in densely populated countries such as Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands or the UK. As a result, different strategies and instruments to prevent excessive land consumption are being discussed. However, many of these strategies and instruments adopt a rather general approach, while it seems more effective to define the particular areas where the goal of reducing land consumption is to be pursued. Such an approach must draw on information about how detrimental specific land use transitions are with regard to, for instance, the functionality of soils, water balance or habitat quality at specific locations. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for the impact assessment of land use transition in urban areas which highlights how such information can be acquired. This framework includes the differentiation of two levels of impact assessment: the level of the single land unit and the context level which takes into account regional and aggregated impacts of land use transition bound to the spatial context. The conceptual framework provides a basis to disaggregate (supra-)national policy targets regarding land use, to scale them down to the regional level, and thus to clarify the spatially explicit implications of land use policies.     

Deliberation or doctrine? Land use and spatial planning for sustainable development in Sweden

Spatial planning has been earmarked as an important tool for achieving sustainable development. In Sweden the important task of planning for sustainable spatial development and land use falls largely to the local authorities, since there is no official institute for spatial planning at a national or regional level. This article investigates local planning for sustainable development by analysing recent municipal comprehensive plans, which it is argued are a major instrument for this purpose. Although comprehensive plans are statutory, their design and content is very much at local discretion, and for the most part, not a rigid process governed from above. For this reason, a template analysis was used, where the template was built from the contents of the comprehensive plans, and not from a predefined understanding of what sustainability is or how planning for sustainable development should be done. What the findings reveal, however, is that there is not much deliberation concerning the meaning(s) of sustainable development, and, further, that the planning principles considered necessary to bring about sustainable development were not exclusively regarded as sustainable as such, but rather as part of a general ‘belief system’ about prudent planning—sustainable or not. It is suggested that, rather than rethinking planning, planners have internalized the concept of sustainable planning into the existing ‘belief system,’ and thus, the planning principles have become ‘sustainable’ by default.     

Do urban centers support regional goals? An assessment of regional planning in Denver

Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in the United States have instituted regional strategies to encourage development around mixed use, higher density urban centers in response to air quality and transportation challenges. Because MPOs lack regulatory authority, these organizations have relied on voluntary approaches to coordinate regional planning for land use and transportation. While scholars have examined voluntary regional planning, there have been few studies of the urban centers concept. In Denver, Colorado, the MPO’s Metro Vision plan promotes local adoption of centers supported through incentives. In this study, we examine whether existing conditions and future plans for centers support regional goals. Our approach relies on interviews and spatial data to categorize centers and evaluates whether each type of center is likely to achieve regional goals for transit, design, density, diversity, and destination. This work generated a typology of five center types: historic town centers, greenfield, industrial, commercial, and suburban mixed use. We find that the adopted centers fall short of meeting regional goals under existing conditions, but future plans for center types show promise. This typology offers more refined strategies and targeted incentives for other metropolitan regions considering a centers policy to support regional goals. There is also a need for better regional monitoring and improved indicators to assess progress.     

Land use planning policies and market forces: Utopian aspirations thwarted?

This paper asks the question, to what extent do market forces limit planning policies? It delves into the constraining relationship of market forces on planning by reference to urban policies in the UK. In this context market forces are defined as dominant long term spatial economic trends which promote decentralisation. The essay uses policy case studies to develop its arguments. In general planning is shown to suffer from the lack of a systematic analysis of land use markets. Yet at its heart planning not only regulates/constrains the property market it also shapes and stimulates it. Planning is found to be most successful when it is shaping urban growth and decentralisation. It is a fundamentally different task to stem market flows and the probability of success is very different. Market forces do limit routes to Utopian aspirations but planners need the motivation, understanding and means to work with the market to produce desired outcomes.     

Spatial development policy: changing roles for local and regional authorities in the Netherlands

Implementation of spatial policy involves intervention in the land market. In the Netherlands local government also acts as a land developer. Due to an increase in activities in the land market by private actors and an increase in the geographical scale of economic and social processes, this practice is under threat. This paper analyses the background and evolution of Dutch spatial development policy during the last ten years, from the perspective of governmental directive function for spatial policy. It focuses on the multi-level governance between local and regional governments and between local government and private actors.     

Environmental policy integration: Towards a communicative approach in integrating nature conservation and urban planning in Bulgaria

As urban areas continue to expand, the need to consider nature conservation objectives in planning is growing. Policy makers across Europe recognize that effective nature conservation requires an integrated approach to land use planning that includes relevant ecological and spatial knowledge. Although a number of such integrated approaches have been developed, many local authorities in Europe encounter important institutional barriers to this integration. This is particularly true for countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) like Bulgaria. The post-socialist transformation in Bulgaria led to intensified urban growth and local authorities struggle to find a balance between environmental and socio-economic interests. Meanwhile, the Environmental Policy Integration ‘principle’ (EPI) has been gaining prominence in Europe, aiming to address the trade-offs between environmental and economic incentives. Research highlights that successful EPI depends on institutional processes within different economic sectors and across governmental scales. These processes have not yet been comprehensively studied in the CEE and in Bulgaria. This article assesses the EPI process in urban planning in Bulgaria and identifies the institutional approaches that may contribute best to EPI in urban planning. Using the example of the “Corner Land” project in the city of Burgas, we discuss the key challenges that the local authorities face in addressing nature conservation in land use plans. The findings indicate that EPI is to a high degree constrained by the lack of an efficient communicative process across fragmented organizational structures throughout the entire planning process. While a procedural approach to EPI appears to be prevalent it is concluded that a communicative approach is urgently needed if the sustainability of urban plans is to be safeguarded and negative impacts on nature prevented.     

Water resources and land use planning systems in Portugal—Exploring better synergies through Ria de Aveiro

The paper discusses the relevance of a stronger articulation between land use and water resources systems to enhance the success of the Water Framework Directive. Using article 11 of the WFD, this paper assess (i) how the Spatial Planning and Urban Development Law as well as the Portuguese Water Law converge to promote better integration of water resources into spatial planning, (ii) how their prospects are developed at the regional basis, namely through the Regional Spatial Development Plan and River Basin Management Plan, and (iii) how these are prepared to inform other planning instruments at the local level. It shows through a spatial analysis of the regional land-use plan and the river basin plan as applied over the Ria de Aveiro estuary area, the conflicts and opportunities for stronger synergies. The paper concludes with a critical analysis of the integration of the spatial planning and water resources planning systems in Portugal, and reveals new insights and challenges for more productive synergies between these systems.     

A cellular automata-based land-use model as an integrated spatial decision support system for urban planning in developing cities: The case of the Bogotá region

Bogotá and the 17 neighboring municipalities make up one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Latin America. However, despite strong functional interactions within the area, there is no official government body at this level in charge of coordinating authorities and providing solutions to the wide variety of issues arising in the regional urban land system. Aiming at providing an insight on future land-use developments linked to new transport infrastructures and at offering a tool to support territorial decision-making, this paper presents a cellular automata-based (CA) model based in Metronamica® software, that allows testing different scenarios based on potential land-use policies, environmental suitability and transport alternatives.There has not been, so far, an urban planning tool that accounts for the complexities of this region. CA-based land-use simulations constitute a useful approach to understanding the impacts of urban planning policies and regulations. This tool can help to improve inter-territorial and inter-institutional coordination, which through planning and management policies seek a spatially integrated development, with a long-term perspective.The CA-based model proposed was calibrated to reproduce land-use changes between 2007 and 2016 using different methods and indicators. The model was used to simulate and analyze eight scenarios with different policy directions of transport infrastructure in the future of the region. The results of the simulations reflect the dynamics of territorial occupation. The calibration indices in the experiment indicate a high degree of suitability for the CA Bogotá model, proving its effectiveness and potential as a useful tool for decision-making. The results show that occupation scenarios with restricted developable zones within the city, tend to have the greater dispersion rate in the study area, compared to scenarios where land development plans are promoted in Bogotá, which representing a more compact development.     

The role of spatial planning in coastal management—A case study of Tuticorin coast (India)

The focus of coastal management in recent years has shifted from a sectoral plan to a holistic and integrated one. A key component of this integrated plan is spatial planning. This paper serves to highlight the role of spatial planning in coastal management by making use of a study done for the Tuticorin coast in India. A quantification of the land use/land cover changes in this region was studied along with the existing laws and policies governing the Indian coast with particular reference to Tuticorin, to determine their influence/impact on coastal land use/land cover. The results of the study show the disparity that exists between current land use practices and the laws that have been enforced to safeguard the coast. This can be overcome by means of implementing a more stable management plan that incorporates the spatial aspects of this coast, which has been presented.