Infrastructure resilience through regional spatial planning - prospects of a new legal principle in Germany

Abstract

In 2008, a new principle of spatial planning was added to the German Federal Spatial Planning Act. It demands critical infrastructure protection (CIP) be taken into account in all spatial planning activities. Since the term 'critical infrastructure' is quite young, this problem has not yet been explicitly treated in spatial planning activities. This paper presents results from a qualitative analysis of available regional spatial structure plans and from a survey of all regional spatial planning authorities in Germany. It shows that regional spatial planning has marginally dealt with CIP related questions like infrastructure reliability and spatial exposure in the past. However, the CIP concept, in addition to regional spatial planning methods and procedures, needs comprehensive efforts to approach and synchronise both public functions.