Urbanisation and Urban Land Use: A Normative Compass for Sustainable Urban Governance

Abstract

Urbanisation is a pressing trend in the twenty-first century. People’s lives more and more concentrate in cities: in 2030, approximately 6 out of 10 people will reside in urban areas. Therefore, cities are crucial for the success of the Great Transformation towards sustainability, including the transformation to sustainable land use. Not only does the growth of cities cause soil sealing in urban areas, but also production patterns for urban supply with food and goods influence land use in rural areas. Thus, it is indispensable to direct cities to a pathway of sustainable land use. This chapter contextualises cities and their sustainable development within the frameworks of international and national law and, beyond that, presents instruments of transformative planning. Does international law already reflect the importance of urbanisation for sustainable development? Does it provide orientation for cities towards more sustainability? The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) presented a normative compass as guideline for sustainable city development. The WBGU declares urban land use to be one underestimated transformative action field for cities. Within the SDGs, especially target 15.3 (land degradation neutrality) may become an important guideline for sustainable urban land use. Some cities already develop an adequate pathway towards sustainability. Thereby, many of them not only act on a local but also on an international level. Also, states set institutional and legal frameworks for transformative actions that have an effect on the cities themselves, as well as their transboundary activities. What are their potentials and limitations due to national legislation? How should the transformative power of cities be unleashed? This chapter points out the need for a polycentric responsibility architecture for sustainable urbanisation and will provide a concrete perspective for sustainable urban land use by particularly elaborating on the instrument of transformative planning.