Urban Planning and Industrial Symbiosis in Slovenia

Spatial sustainable development planning and providing is a very responsible process. During the process, many spatial development planning documents for specific different time periods on different planning levels are being developed. However, there are only slight differences between the spatial development planning in many European countries where few of them can notice more than the others. Latvia and England, two European Union countries, which had some significant changes in legislation regarding spatial development planning in 2011, were selected for the comparison. The research aims to evaluate similar and different aspects of spatial development planning in Latvia and England. To achieve the aim, the information on spatial development planning tendencies in both countries, legislation, development order of planning documents and other aspects. The result is a comparison of different and similar aspects of spatial development planning in Latvia and England.

Subject of study. Due to the complexity of planning processes and the interest of various parties and entities involved in spatial development and planning procedures, there is an obvious need to create a platform for managing information on spatial development planning. The aim of the study. The purpose of this article is to analyse the driving factors behind the creation of a platform (spatial planning geoportal), which should become a solution for managing, analysing and presenting spatial data related to spatial planning. This article integrates factors from urban regulatory detailed planning, land use planning, the entire life cycle of land management and construction project approval, unifies spatial data, and builds a spatial planning driver system (SPDS) by fusing data. Research methods. To realize the platform concept, we used one of the models used in system and software engineering, known as phased implementation. The concept includes a formal description of the platform’s functionality using a unified modelling language (UML), as well as the point of view of users and stakeholders. Results of work. The functionality of the platform related to spatial planning at the local level and local spatial development is shown. The spatial planning geoportal offered in this article is in line with the spatial planning reform and is intended to help in the implementation of spatial policy at both local and national levels. Based on the results of geographically weighted regression (GWR) analysis for sites with under- or overdeveloped urban planning status, the spatial relationship between them and sites with low levels of development is analysed after taking into account the driving factors to identify the impact of the driving factors on urban spatial planning and development. All of this provides new ideas and new methods to help the government plan, control and manage urban development, and can contribute to improving the efficiency and quality of the spatial planning system in Ukraine, as well as in other areas such as local government management and regional planning.

The generation of alternative spatial regional development plans is one of the two most important steps in a comprehensive rational planning process. The other step is the plan-evaluation process, which enables us to rank-order the alternative plans and, subsequently, to make a rational selection of the ‘best plan’. In order to generate the set of alternative spatial plans, it is necessary to identify and define adequately and clearly the goals and objectives that the plan is designed to serve. In this paper we report on an actual planning process in which development plans were generated and evaluated, and then the best plan was selected and prepared for the Northern (or Galilee) region of Israel. The Northern region is one of the most fascinating regions in Israel in terms of the composition of its residents, its settlements, and its landscape. The region is well endowed with breathtaking views and a wealth of natural resources. It is therefore necessary for the preferred spatial development plan both to respect and guard this diversity of human and natural assets and to provide opportunities for economic growth that will result in an improvement in the standard of living of the inhabitants and their quality of life. The delicate balance between preservation and development is thus of paramount importance. We describe the process in which alternative spatial development plans were generated. This set of plans took into consideration existing and future development of transport and communication networks in the region as well as alternative spatial development patterns—concentration versus dispersal. The impact of each plan generated on the social, economic, and environmental objectives was carefully reviewed with the EVAMIX computer program. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted in order to ascertain the stability of the rank order of the alternative plans.

Spatial planning is the major tool used in spatial development policies. Proactive policies facilitate the identification of spatial development trends, spatial development policies as well as implementation procedures. Spatial development policies adopted by municipalities in 1995 formed the basis for a comprehensive system of managing territorial government entities. The comprehensive approach taken by local governments to municipality management, coupled with cooperation with local communities, has lead to municipalities’ sustained growth and sustainable development. Spatial planning in Poland is regulated by the Act of 27 March 2003 on spatial planning and development. Pursuant to its provisions, the spatial planning system is implemented at the municipality, regional and national levels. Responsibility for spatial development is vested in the hands of municipalities. At that level, the legal framework for spatial planning and development is based on the analysis of spatial development conditions and trends as well as local spatial development plans. The paper presents the efforts made by Małopolska’s local authorities in launching local spatial development programmes. The analysis covers 182 municipalities located within the region’s administrative boundaries. The paper refers to the statistical analyses published in the annual Report on the status and conditions of municipality planning processes, prepared by the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). The analysis of the status of spatial management in Małopolska’s municipalities is carried out for two years: 2004, when the Ministry of Infrastructure began collecting spatial development data at the municipality level, and 2011, the last year for which research was conducted.

Residents of self-governing communities, organized in formalized structures, often express the need to articulate their own interests and views or to have influence over the content of adopted legal solutions. They are ready to get involved in public matters and collaborate with local government units in regulating affairs that are important to a given local or regional community. Without a doubt, the issue of spatial planning and development falls under this category. The legislator obliged competent bodies to safeguard public participation in works on the study of conditions and directions of spatial development of a municipality, a local spatial development plan and a voivodship spatial development plan. The aim of this paper is to analyse the applicable legal solutions as guarantees of public participation in the planning procedure. Moreover, it provides a basis for assessing real possibilities of participation of residents of local government units in the process of passing planning acts and of real influence over their content.

Village planning and development currently demands the participation of villagers in developing village potential. Thus, the village government needs to properly socialize the products of spatial planning and village development plans to the villagers, so that they cares more about the development of their area. Unfortunately, many village planning and development products have not been properly socialized. On the other hand, the era of digitalization and the industrial revolution 4.0 demands the information disclosure that can not been met in the most villages. Most of villages currently have less communicative and less informative planning products due to the lack of information media and human resources to compile and present well their spatial planning and development products. Pasir Mukti Village has great economic potential with many metal craft MSMEs spread throughout the village and absorbing a large number of workers. However, the great potential of Pasir Mukti Village has not been fully publicly socialized. Therefore, it is necessary to have a forum or media for information development in Pasir Mukti Village, both in the form of spatial and development planning products, as well as village potential information. In addition, Pasir Mukti Village needs to improve human resource competencies in the preparation process to its dissemination.This community service program aims to empower villagers through several competency improvement trainings, as well as participatory preparation of village development galleries as educational nodes and dissemination of information related to spatial planning, development plans and village potential in Pasir Mukti Village. The objectives of this activity can be achieved through three main stages, including: (1) identification of community needs related to village development galleries and competence in preparing village spatial planning and development, as well as village potential; (2) preparation of village development galleries; and (3) training to increase the competence of the community, who will become managers of the village development gallery.As a result, the program received a very good response from the participants consisting of village officials, Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDes), Family Welfare Development (PKK), MSME actors, and youth organizations (Karang Taruna). It can be seen from (1) their active participation during FGD and training; (2) their participation and volunteerism to donate a small portion of their MSME products to be displayed in the village development gallery; and (3) their willingness to participate in repairing and enhancing the quality of the gallery building, as well as providing the equipment. Furthermore, the trainees have quite high commitment, that can be seen from their enthusiasm in participating in the FGD and two series of full-time training.Based on the results of these activities, this community service program can (1) increase the knowledge of the Pasir Mukti villagers about the importance of a media/facility as an information center for spatial planning and village development, as well as a medium for promoting village products, education, and public interaction; (2) improve the quality of the human resources of the Pasir Mukti villagers, especially training participants consisting of representatives of village officials, BUMDes, and MSME actors, and (3) build a village development gallery as a new tourist destination in Pasir Mukti Village. Thus, it is hoped that in the long term, this activity can increase the income and welfare of the Pasir Mukti villagers.

Governance challenges of flood-prone delta cities: Integrating flood risk management and climate change in spatial planning

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the importance of socio-environmental efficiency indicators for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in spatial development planning. Although environmentally inefficient settlement development structures are resulting in an ongoing unsustainable use of land-resources, even the new instrument of SEA has its limitations to promote the necessary structural changes in spatial development planning. The chapter starts with a description of the spatial development trends in Germany and introduces the national sustainability target concerning efficiency of land-use for settlements and traffic. Based on current urban growth research, Section 17.3 offers a detailed overview of available indicators that can describe the efficiency of regional and urban spatial structures in relation to land use and land consumption. Section 17.4 verifies the relevance of these indicators in relation to contrasting urban development models. Section 17.5 gives conclusions and recommendations for the German spatial planning framework, promoting the use and integration of indicator-related socio-environmental data to assess the efficiency of zoning of new developments for residential areas and traffic infrastructures in SEA procedures in regional planning.

Embedding spatial planning in contemporary multi-level governance: The sustainability entanglement

Sustainable spatial development requires the establishment of a balance between rational land use and the protection of nature, ecosystems and biodiversity on various spatial levels and temporal horizons. The integration of landscape ecology and spatial development planning can help overcome the complex problems of managing landscapes and natural resources and increase the chances of reaching sustainable spatial development. The main goal of this research is to provide insight into the development of landscape ecology from the spatial planning perspective. A chronological systematization and categorization were made of relevant papers, authors and events that are important for an understanding of the discipline’s development. An analysis of their content and interrelationships in the integral chronological overview enabled the identification of landscape ecology’s developmental periods. Research resulted in the elaboration of an integral chronological overview of the scholarly and professional communities’ key activities and achievements, making it possible to monitor the development of theory, key developmental concepts and their corresponding methodological procedures, methods and techniques. The overview enabled the identification of (a) types of “arenas” for professional dialogue, (b) key authors and works, (c) relationships among components within the same, but also between different, categories of components of the chronological overview, and on the basis of all this (d) the establishment of developmental periods. Five developmental periods of the discipline have been established: (1) Landscape Ecology Foundation Period 1939–1979, (2) Landscape Ecology Establishment Period 1980–1987, (3) Landscape Ecology Solidification Period 1988–1991, (4) Period of Retrospection and New Articulation 1992–2005, and (5) Period of Stable Development 2006- present. Research indicated continued development of the theoretical–methodological framework of landscape ecology and its links with spatial planning through the constant reexamination of existing perspectives and the establishment of new ones. The numerous conceptual frameworks selected in the paper unequivocally illustrate a strong conditionality between landscape ecology and spatial planning. However, the systematization of written sources revealed that few papers present a review or perspectives with regard to the link with spatial planning, which is why this research has become an important basis for future research in a form of a curriculum for initial research on the relationship between landscape ecology and spatial planning.

Participatory planning is a necessity. Unfortunately, participatory planning has various problems that make it ineffective. Human resource capacity as an input factor for participatory planning is still inadequate. The participatory planning process has not optimized the best way of producing the outputs that are needed by the community. Spatial aspects of planning, activities in the space, and budgeting must be aligned. However, empirical facts show the inconsistency of development planning. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between community participation in planning and regional development performance through spatial planning, development, and budget planning alignment, as the mediating variable. This study explore measurement of all three variables using quantitative indicators. The results of this study, using SEM PLS, indicate that the direct relationship of community participation and the performance of infrastructure development is significant if it does not include the mediation variable. Process, results of participatory planning, alignment of spatial and development plans, and alignment of strategic plans with work plans are significant variables. Therefore, local governments need to make efforts to improve participation processes in spatial planning and development so as to improve the regional development planning alignment and performance

Flooding is the predominant natural hazard observed in Africa, and it often leads to damage to property and losses in human lives. To ensure that the detrimental effects of flooding are kept to a minimum, flood-prone areas should best be left undeveloped. Spatial development planning is a tool that can assist disaster risk managers in ensuring the aforementioned. This article proposes the use of a land use conflict analysis approach through which flood risk can be considered in spatial development planning in a proactive manner, specifically contributing to the flood risk management effort. A land use conflict analysis approach, relying on a variety of spatial analysis techniques, was used to identify areas that were both suitable for residential development and free from flood risk in the Batlhaping Ba-Ga-Phuduhucwana tribal area in South Africa. It was found that only 8% of the study area met these criteria. A comparison between the identified 8% and the existing spatial development plan for the study area revealed that some of the areas portrayed as suitable for development in the current spatial development plan are in fact flood risk areas. The article illustrates the value that a land use conflict analysis approach might have for flood risk management when integrated with spatial development planning.Keywords: flooding; land use conflict analysis; suitability analysis; flood-prone area; disaster management; spatial development planning; South Africa.

On the global level, the issue of the climate change is tightly connected to the intensive energy use, thus energy efficiency became one of the goals of sustainable development. Energy efficiency plays an important role in political agendas of many countries. Urban planning has long been facing the consequences of climate changes and due to the complex nature of the planning, the integration of the energy efficiency aspect represents a major challenge for urban planners. The main aim of the review is to assess the state of the research on the energy and urban planning and to identify cross-cutting issues which could be addressed in spatial and urban development plans at the city, neighbourhood, districts and the building level. Scale, urban morphology related issues, density, mix land use and mix of urban functions, mobility and accessibility and the urban climate and open spaces related issues have been core cross-cutting topics in energy and urban studies. The results indicated that there are opportunities for improvements of energy efficiency in cities through identified urban energy issues which need to be addressed in spatial development plans.

Due to the damage to the environment and climate caused by the generation of electricity in power plants burning fossil fuels, installations generating it from renewable energy sources are constructed. Spatial development plans for communes should consider their location. In Poland, generation of electricity in photovoltaic cells, wind farms and agricultural biogas plants has the greatest development potential. Due to the nuisance to people and the environment, wind turbines and agricultural biogas plants must be located far from residential buildings. Such conditions exist in sparsely populated rural areas. The observed development of single-family housing in rural areas is the result of the search for cheap construction sites and no local spatial development plans in most areas of rural communes. Dispersed housing construction restricts the construction of wind farms and agricultural biogas plants and thus poses a threat to renewable sources of wind and biogas energy produced in agricultural biogas plants. The situation may be changed by the requirement to include in spatial development plans the needs related to the construction of installations generating electricity from renewable energy sources and the construction of micro and small biogas plants directly at the sites where waste is generated.

Planning the rational use of land's potential capabilities is one of the most important functions in Georgia. When developing the state policy in this area, it is essential to take into account that the implemented policy directly affects the country's socio-economic development. The given article states that determining the land status is part of the country's territory planning and development plan, moreover, changing the status of the land is almost impossible without making changes to the spatial planning of the territory. The article states that in most European countries, changing the designation of land is within the competence of the government and describes the needs to be addressed by various European countries (permit of the relevant state institution, compliance with the spatial development plan, imposition of a tax on the change of category, with certain exceptions, a general ban on changing the category of land, etc.). It also discusses examples of various mechanisms for land consolidation in Eastern and Central European countries. At the end of the article, the conclusion is made that under the conditions of Georgia, the state should develop a plan for the privatization of the remaining agricultural land in its possession, the primary goal of which should not be the increase of budget revenues, but rather ensuring the effective use of land resources. This process should consider: registering the landownership for the actual owner, registering land ownership for municipalities, and the alienation of land remaining in state ownership, which should ultimately contribute to the consolidation of small farms. Keywords: land, land categories, land disposal, agricultural policy, spatial planning, land consolidation, land management, agrarian territories.