Local Spatial Planning Research Articles

Basic GIS training for upgrading local government spatial planning

The existence of the Indonesian government's One Map Policy (OMP) demands synergy to the regions. Sumatra is one of the areas that captures this opportunity. One of the follow-up actions to this policy is regional readiness in preparing qualified human resources in the geospatial field. Sriwijaya University as one of the universities in Indonesia that focuses on developing human resources in South Sumatra, facilitates local governments in developing employee capacity. This program was carried out for 5 days to learn about the basic level Geographic Information System (GIS) for Bappeda Lahat employees. This program is carried out in 3 stages, namely identification of partner problems, training, and evaluation. This training program has a positive impact on employees in Bappeda Lahat, namely being able to make location points for regional planning with SmartGPS, making spatial shapefile data and making thematic spatial maps according to the main tasks of the job fields of employees in Bappeda Lahat.

The Role of Spatial Plans Adopted at the Local Level in the Spatial Planning Systems of Central and Eastern European Countries

The article deals with the issue of spatial plans at the local level. The aims of this paper are (1) extracting the characteristics of local spatial plans that can be compared more broadly (2) identifying, on this basis, the role of spatial plans at the local level in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In achieving these aims, the authors have critically examined spatial plans and their performance, as well as the planning systems they belong to. Hence, they have investigated the types of local plans in each country, their legal features, and the layout of their content. This examination has revealed a host of problems in the workings of the CEE planning systems. The article highlights those spatial planning issues that could be the subject of more in-depth international comparisons. The study provides additional evidence that in countries where spatial plans are legislated, there are more (mutually differentiated) legal problems in their application. Such problems have been analyzed. Besides procedural problems, discrepancies between the contents of different types of plans (e.g., general plans and detailed plans) are very often a problem. The paper also proposes a novel method for detailed comparisons of selected aspects of spatial plans. It can be applied to a large number of countries and also to other aspects of spatial planning. Last but not least, the paper emphasizes the need for a detailed multi-stage consultation of each aspect to be compared.

Barn or building lot? A cross-case comparison viewing the role of agricultural interests in Austria’s local spatial planning processes

Due to ongoing urbanisation processes, farmland and the number of farms in Europe are declining. In the regions affected, spatial planning plays a substantial role in securing agricultural production requirements. The extent to which planning decision-makers actually consider agricultural interests, however, has been little investigated so far. Based on two Austrian case studies, this paper explores the presence of agricultural interests within local spatial planning as well as potential preconditions for their perception and implementation.A systematic case study selection through a weighted linear combination (WLC) brought up the two agro-structurally contrasting municipalities Aderklaa and Leopoldsdorf, located at the Viennese city border. Problem-centred interviews with 27 local spatial planning actors, supplemented by the analysis of planning documents, provided insights into the local spatial planning processes. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework served as the conceptual basis for the qualitative data analysis and the subsequent cross-case comparison.Aderklaa has preserved its rural characteristics in the past decades. Almost 90 % of the municipal area is used as farmland; there are about 25 farms in the village of 196 inhabitants. Leopoldsdorf, on the other hand, experienced an urbanisation of its former village structure. Farmland makes up 50 % of Leopoldsdorf’s area. The municipality has 5230 inhabitants; three farms still exist today. Regarding the integration of agricultural interests into local spatial planning, the municipalities show significant differences: While Aderklaa aligns its spatial planning policy to a large extent with the interests of local farmers, this is not the case in Leopoldsdorf. The study was able to identify the political commitment of local farmers as crucial for the integration of agricultural interests into local spatial planning and to confirm the impact of spatial planning decisions on agriculture.

Uneven Trajectories and Decentralisation: Lessons From Historical Planning Processes in Saint-Étienne

Once the industrial capital of France, Saint-Étienne has faced the closure of mining pits, steel plants, and textile firms in close succession, leading to population loss and social and economic challenges, and making the city an outlier in France as a large-sized shrinking city. There has generally been a lack of temporal approaches to urban shrinking processes and calls to incorporate historical institutionalism in planning research. This research will use path dependence—a conceptual framework where a critical event causes a process that is marked by reproductive logic—as a central explanatory tool to assess historical planning processes in Saint-Étienne. This article identifies a critical event—the publication of the first spatial plan for the Saint-Étienne region—and then considers temporal self-reinforcing processes, reviewing subsequent local spatial planning strategies through a culturalist theory frame. It shows that spatial strategies have not adapted over time to the reality of shrinkage; local beliefs in growth displayed path-dependent features and resulted in decentralisation and deepening socio-economic inequalities both within the metropolitan area of Saint-Étienne and with its larger neighbour, Lyon. More broadly, for metropolitan areas to be able to adapt to future changes and be resilient, it will be crucial for urban planning policy and research to consider the extent to which planning strategies can self-reinforce and to find ways to adapt these strategies in the face of global urban transformations.

Evaluating stakeholder influences on the land use application process in South Africa – Results from an analysis of the legal framework

The fact that geospatial data is a vital international and national resource is gaining increased acceptance worldwide. However, proper management of fundamental geospatial datasets, like land use, determines how well this resource can serve the goals of sustainable development, e.g. achieving inclusive and sustainable urbanization through informed decisions based on up-to-date land use data. Land use data describes the rights to utilize land in accordance with the legal zoning thereof. Allocation of land use rights must align with and give effect to national, provincial and local spatial plans, which means multiple stakeholders are involved in land use regulation. The purpose of this study was to identify and classify the network of stakeholders involved in the land use application process, which results in allocated land use rights. This was done by analysing the South African legal framework for spatial planning and land use management, and to evaluate their a priori influence on this process and on land use data. The results of the stakeholder network analysis can guide the identification of (a) suitable custodian(s) for this fundamental geospatial dataset in the context of the South African Spatial Data Infrastructure (SASDI). Within the SASDI, custodianship is used to ensure availability of good quality geospatial data to empower governments in their planning and decision-making. The average influence of each stakeholder, and as a result their impact on the land use data, was determined based on a classification of roles and responsibilities in the land use application process. The average influence was computed for each sphere of government. The provincial sphere had the highest influence, even though the local sphere has the mandate to allocate land use rights. The national sphere is mainly responsible for strategic direction and implementation support and thus had a significantly lower influence. Based on the results, shared custodianship of land use data in South Africa is recommended among a legislative custodian, coordinating custodians and data custodians. Further research will involve stakeholder representatives to verify the results and to establish multi-stakeholder custodianship roles and responsibilities.

Spatio-temporal characterization of surface water dynamics with Landsat in endorheic Cuvelai-Etosha Basin (1990–2021)

Socio-economic damages caused by extreme floods have been increasing rapidly in recent years, mainly driven by changes in the climate and modulated by increasing human population in deltic areas and floodplains. The Cuvelai-Etosha Basin (CEB) in southern Africa, covering southern Angola and northern Namibia, experiences socially and economically devastating extreme floods. Yet, accurate information on past and current surface water changes and dynamics is lacking. Here, we estimate and map the surface water extents in the CEB and its surroundings (CEB + S) for 32 years (1990–2021) from Landsat data using random forest models to provide long-term baseline information on surface water changes and dynamics. Based on the reference data, a total of 15,677 ± 1080 km2 have been inundated by surface water in the CEB + S during 1990–2021. This extent was accurately mapped by our local water extent product (mapped area = 16,273 km2, user’s accuracy = 91.5 ± 2.5%, producer’s accuracy = 91.1 ± 6%). With user’s and producer’s accuracy of 91%, our overall water extent provides the first most accurate long-term baseline information on surface water inundation in CEB + S necessary for local spatial planning processes to minimise future negative impacts of floods in the basin. Interannual variability of surface water extent is, however, high, with water extent ranging from 520.8 ± 375.7 km2 to 12372.3 ± 1154.7 km2 during the 1990–2021 period. The largest annual water extents (>10,000 km2) were recorded in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2017, whereas the smallest extents (<1000 km2) were recorded in 1992 and 2019. We found that over 40% of the area inundated in the CEB + S during 1990–2021 was inundated less than 9 times. With human population increasing rapidly in the CEB + S, rarely inundated areas with short water residence could become a prime target for human settlements, which may lead to huge socio-economic damages during extreme floods if no preventive measures are put in place. Globally available surface water maps from the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) and European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) did not provide realistic surface water extent for CEB + S, especially during years with extreme floods. Therefore, locally adopted product for operational monitoring of surface water in the CEB + S is needed to provide accurate information for informing spatial planning processes and surface water resource management strategies in this endorheic basin and help minimise future negative impacts of floods.

The Cultural Ecosystem Services as an Element Supporting Manor Landscape Protection

Nowadays, agricultural landscapes of suburban zones may undergo rapid urbanization that destroys their identity. This phenomenon is particularly problematic for areas connected compositionally with historical residences. The aim of the research is to determine a framework for urban policies appropriate for cultural landscapes of agricultural origin associated with significant historic palace-garden complexes. As an example of such a landscape, the area around the historic Wilanów residence was chosen for study. The research focused on the degree of preservation of the agricultural surroundings of this historic site, the directions of contemporary urban policies towards it, and its potential to provide cultural ecosystem services to local residents and tourists. The research showed that the character of the landscape under study is changing—apart from cultivated fields, wastelands have appeared, indicating a gradual abandonment of agricultural use. The analysis of local spatial development plans confirmed that many fragments of the landscape are not sufficiently protected, which causes their degradation. The study of the potential of this area to provide cultural ecosystem services using statistical methods proved its many values: aesthetic, cultural, educational, spiritual, recreational, and touristic which predestine it to perform Urban Green Spaces and Informal Green Spaces functions. The research was compared to the findings of other authors, studying analogous landscapes. Based on our results, general guidelines were developed for further protection and maintaining function of cultural landscapes of agricultural origin associated with significant historic palace-garden complexes in similar situations to that of Wilanów.

Obowiązek jednoznacznego określenia przeznaczenia terenów w planie miejscowym w kontekście interpretacji pojęć nieostrych lub o szerokim zakresie znaczeniowym. Glosa do wyroku NSA z dnia 13 lutego 2020 r., II OSK 893/18

This commentary discusses the case of the assessment of the plan’s compliance with the study of land use conditions and directions of land development, the issue of interpretation of the concepts of the blurred definitions and general clauses, and in the context of all provisions, the essence of the local plan and its effects on the addressees of this act. Refraining from repeating the planning procedure to the extent necessary is a significant violation of the procedure for preparing the local plan and results in the annulment of all the provisions of the local plan relating to the areas designated in the plan for which the violation occurred. The obligation to specify the intended use of the land in the local spatial development plan means the necessity to specify the method of its future development and use through such expressions that clearly indicate what function a given area is to perform. This does not mean, however, that the same area cannot have different purposes in the plan, and thus it is unacceptable to establish different functions for one area. The condition for such a solution is to establish that these functions are not mutually exclusive and are not contradictory. The above argumentation indicates that it is unacceptable to use multi-significant terms in the text part of the plan that may lead to inconsistent results of their interpretation and pure arbitrariness of legal uses.

Integrated spatial and energy planning in Styria – A role model for local and regional energy transition and climate protection policies

• Programme to integrate spatial planning and energy planning. • Creating strategic database for energy transition in spatial planning. • Applying strategic maps to harmonize district heating, mobility and spatial development. • Applying energy transition thinking for sustainable spatial planning. • Holistic implementation programme for scientific knowledge in local spatial planning. How we plan our towns, cities and regions is inseparably connected to energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions and the way how we can manage the transition to sustainable renewable energy systems. Therefore, we propose that integrated spatial and energy planning is an important part of energy transition and climate protection strategies. In this article, we discuss how the energy transition and spatial planning can be holistically integrated, and how this theoretical framework combining the factual findings of integrated spatial and energy planning and strategic concepts of spatial planning can be put into practice in municipal spatial planning. We demonstrate the applicability of the approach in an action research process in the Austrian Province of Styria involving the Government representatives, municipalities and spatial planners. The whole approach includes, as tangible outputs a strategic database, strategic maps, and a planning guidance for municipalities on the one hand, and a further education programme for planners and municipal decision makers on the other hand. Finally, the applicability, transferability and limitations of the approach are discussed. As the approach is not only established in Styria, but at the moment also put forward in two further Provinces so that we can, in total, cover about 63% of all Austrian municipalities with this approach, we also propose that this approach can serve as a role model not only for local and regional energy transition and climate protection policies around the world, but also for shaping third mission activities of universities.

Local Spatial Plans in Supporting Sustainable Water Resources Management: Case Study from Warsaw Agglomeration—Kampinos National Park Vicinity

The crisis resulting from progressive climate change is reflected in increasingly violent problems with periodic excesses and shortages of water. Integrated water management has thus become a necessity and it depends, inter alia, on the effectiveness of the adopted strategies, policies and individual investments. In many countries, including Poland, the implementation of this postulate is slow. The importance of local spatial plans, which are a tool that directly translates adopted policies into spatial development, is underestimated. The article presents studies of the provisions of planning documents with particular emphasis on the local spatial plans regulations in terms of considering the issue of water management. Some municipalities in the Warsaw agglomeration were selected for the detailed research, as the areas characterized by various water conditions. Local spatial plans adopted for this territory were compared to model planning acts from other regions of Europe. The conclusions include recommendations for local spatial plans and a method for assessing planning documents regarding the scope of the sustainable water management arrangements. The study results indicate that the principles of integrated water management have not been fully incorporated into the existing plans in Poland and that national and regional policies are poorly translated into real management planning.

Location of photovoltaic farms in the absence of a local spatial development plan

Depletion of fossil fuel resources is no longer just a pessimistic vision of the future. The economy’s demand for electricity continues to grow steadily and, given the dwindling resources of traditional energy sources, makes humanity look for alternative solutions. Harvesting energy from renewable sources is becoming commonplace, solar energy being one of them. The development of technology provides more and more new technical solutions, and photovoltaic installations in the form of farms are gaining popularity in Poland. The quantity of electricity generated from them depends on many factors, i.e. not only the efficiency of the cells as such, but also the size of the area covered. In the light of the existing regulations, projects based on the development of photovoltaic systems with an area of not less than 1 hectare are classified as projects that may potentially have a significant impact on the environment, which entails the need to conduct an environmental impact assessment procedure and then obtain a building permit by the investor. The possibility of obtaining a building permit for a photovoltaic farm installation depends on obtaining a decision on land development and management conditions or a decision on the location of public purpose investment. At this stage, administrative bodies are faced with the need to decide how the required arrangements are to be made between administrative bodies. Legislative acts in force in Poland do not seem to regulate this issue in a sufficiently clear manner. This study analyses the above issue from the point of view of the existing provisions of the Spatial Planning and Development Act.

Unpacking principles of resilience mainstreamed in Ethiopia's local urban spatial planning documents: practices from Kombolcha, an urbanizing secondary city

Adopting and enforcing redundancy, diversity, robustness, and integration principles are required to create spatially resilient cities. However, no studies have demonstrated their significance and application to local urban spatial planning legal frameworks (policy documents) and plans. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap through an ex-ante review of six Ethiopian spatial planning policy documents: the Urban Development Policy (UDP), the Urban Planning Proclamation (UPP), the Structure Plan Manual (SPM), the Urban Plan Preparation and Implementation Strategy (UPPIS), and the first and second Growth and Transformation Plans (GTP I and II). Besides, the paper undertook post-ante evaluations of the 2001 Development Plan (DP), 2011 Structure Plan (SP), and the 2020 existing land use (ELU) of Kombolcha, a secondary city located in the South Wollo Zone of Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. Site observations supplemented the desk-based policy evaluation, Google Earth images, and data gathered from twenty-three purposefully selected key informants. NVivo 12 plus software aided the content analysis, where codes and categories were created based on the characteristics, and respective scores/coefficients were recorded. The findings revealed inconsistencies in the principles' mainstreaming with integration was well assimilated into the policy documents, receiving a score of 67.22, followed by redundancy, a value of 54.21. The tally for diversity and robustness were 44.84 and 31.83, respectively. Concerning policy-specific review, GTP I and II received the highest values of 54.28 and 57.74, respectively. However, UPPIS got the lowest with 18.50. Despite the plans' optimistic visions of addressing hazards and population growth-induced development pressures, their practical implementation had been hampered by the dominance of residential and manufacturing land-uses, haphazard block arrangements, and the municipality's limited ability to implement the proposals. The study, hence, necessitated capacity-building activities to improve local governments' spatial plan implementation capacities. The active participation of stakeholders and institutional collaboration also need further attention from all tiers of government.

Building and Biologically Active area Indices in Developers’ Investments – Theory and Practice

Abstract Development activity in Poland is regulated by many legal provisions, but one of the most important acts for the implementation of developers’ projects is the Act of March 27, 2003 on spatial planning and development. The Act includes, among others, procedures for the preparation and scope of local spatial development plans. One of the parameters significant from the point of view of housing development which these plans define is the minimum and maximum intensity of development and the percentage of biologically active space that should be preserved on a property covered by the investment project. The article adopts two research goals. Firstly, it is an attempt to verify, using examples of selected developers, whether they, as profit-oriented entities, decide to develop the property as much as possible or to keep more undeveloped space, which is a more desirable phenomenon from the environmental point of view. Secondly, an attempt will be made to determine how developers in Poland create a biologically active surface in their projects. Based on desk research, it was found that, among the discussed cases, there is no evident tendency to maximize the permissible built-up areas and the created biologically active areas are sparse and not diversified.

Budowa domów rekreacji indywidualnej a zasada zrównoważonego rozwoju

Construction of individual recreation houses and the principle of sustainable development The article analyzes the issue of conditions for the construction of individual recreation houses and their influence on the realization of the principle of sustainable development. While the construction works may be carried out through a pre-construction notification of works, which is a faster and more informal procedure, the location of individual recreation houses is regulated by general conditions. This means that such development must comply with the local zoning plan. In the absence of such a plan, the location takes place on the basis of a decision on land development conditions. The implementation of the principle of sustainable development and the requirements of environmental protection is performed under the local spatial development plan. In reference to the decision on the conditions of development, the realization of this principle occurs to a much lesser extent.

Application of the building cohesion method in spatial planning to shape patterns of the development in a suburban historical landscape of a 'village within Kraków'

This paper focuses on the impact of urban and suburban spread on the preservation of the cultural heritage and landscape of suburban villages with historical cores. It is a case study of a once village of Bronowice Małe the rural structure of which has been listed as a protected heritage site by the municipality. The area is under a severe development pressure because of its attractive location within Kraków’s city limits. Extensive historical studies determined the archetypical Bronowice-style house, which is a modern continuum of traditional wooden architecture in the area, referred to as the Bronowice-style cottage. With the typical features of the archetype defined, the authors developed an original method, a combination of field survey and numeric taxonomy to assess the percentage consistency of new housing buildings with traditional building standards in Bronowice Małe. The results show that despite legal protection with local acts of law and listing of the area as a heritage site, the development pressure in the area is extreme. Housing estates are constructed illegally and at variance with the character of buildings that make up the historical core of the village. The field research identified dynamic growth in multi-family buildings even though the local spatial development plan provides for single-family housing only. The results have demonstrated that the proposed method for assessing development consistency with the traditional standard is universal. It significantly streamlines work with cultural heritage and with developing local spatial development plans. It further builds awareness among residents, planners, and administration officers regarding improved protection of cultural heritage

Landscape Dynamics (landDX) an open-access spatial-temporal database for the Kenya-Tanzania borderlands

The savannas of the Kenya-Tanzania borderland cover >100,000 km2 and is one of the most important regions globally for biodiversity conservation, particularly large mammals. The region also supports >1 million pastoralists and their livestock. In these systems, resources for both large mammals and pastoralists are highly variable in space and time and thus require connected landscapes. However, ongoing fragmentation of (semi-)natural vegetation by smallholder fencing and expansion of agriculture threatens this social-ecological system. Spatial data on fences and agricultural expansion are localized and dispersed among data owners and databases. Here, we synthesized data from several research groups and conservation NGOs and present the first release of the Landscape Dynamics (landDX) spatial-temporal database, covering ~30,000 km2 of southern Kenya. The data includes 31,000 livestock enclosures, nearly 40,000 kilometres of fencing, and 1,500 km2 of agricultural land. We provide caveats and interpretation of the different methodologies used. These data are useful to answer fundamental ecological questions, to quantify the rate of change of ecosystem function and wildlife populations, for conservation and livestock management, and for local and governmental spatial planning.

Legal Conditions for Investments in Renewable Energy in the Overburden Disposal Areas in Poland

The article analyzes opportunities of locating large-scale wind or solar farms in overburden disposal areas, formed as a result of opencast lignite mining. Its main purpose is to present different conditions and limitations for such investments in post-mining regions. The most important aspects include wind or sunlight conditions, geotechnical conditions of the overburden disposal areas where soil and rock materials were deposited during many years of lignite mining and local spatial planning conditions defined by local governments. These, and other conditions cause that the wind or photovoltaic plant investment in the overburden disposal area, might create a challenging process. The legal requirements are discussed in detail, regarding spatial, environmental and infrastructural characteristics of the overburden dumping sites situated inside Jóźwin II B and Jóźwin IIA open pits belonging to the PAK Konin Lignite Mine S.A. located in the west-central part of Poland. The results demonstrate that among the legal conditions for the construction of renewable energy plants, the most restrictive limitation concerns wind farms and precludes the rehabilitation of Konin overburden dumps in this direction. Until the construction of wind farms is legally impossible at closer distances to residential buildings, photovoltaic power plants are the only option for the development of post-mining areas towards large-scale renewable power generation.

Undeveloped non-investment land properties versus designated for single-family housing, as illustrated with the example of the Niepołomice municipality

The Niepołomice municipality is located approx. 25 km from the center of Kraków and directly adjoins the Kraków agglomeration from the south-east. Its natural boundaries are marked by the Vistula River and the Niepołomice Forest. The municipality of Niepołomice is highly attractive to investors, which is due, inter alia, to lower real estate prices compared to the neighboring city of Kraków (the capital of the voivodeship), the presence of an industrial zone that guarantees numerous jobs, good transport connections with Kraków, and a substantial amount of green and recreational areas. The market of undeveloped land in Niepołomice is dynamic and very diverse, but when the transactions are grouped according to their designated functional purpose in the local spatial development plan, certain trends characteristic of a given group of transactions can be observed. In the present study, we attempt to compare the market of undeveloped non-investment land properties (with intended land use in the local zoning plan defined as agricultural land, green areas, etc.) and those designated for the development of single-family housing, across the entire Niepołomice municipality, on the basis of transactions made in the local real estate market dur- ing the 2020–2021 period.

Possibility to transform a housing complex built in industrialized technology in the context of the Local Spatial Development Plan on the example of the Władysława Łokietka Estate in Wolbrom

Possibility to transform a housing complex built in industrialized technology in the context of the Local Spatial Development Plan on the example of the Władysława Łokietka Estate in Wolbrom

Local Spatial Plans as Determinants of Household Investment in Renewable Energy: Case Studies from Selected Polish and European Communes

Although many factors affect the investment of individual households in renewable energy sources, we highlight one of them: the local spatial development plan. It is one of the planning tools for implementing development policies at the local level. Since it is on the basis of local spatial plans that investments are carried out on the ground, their role in the implementation of renewable energy sources is one of the most important. This article presents the results of a study of local spatial plans in terms of facilitating, on the one hand, and limiting, on the other hand, the implementation of various renewable energy investments. To a large extent, the focus was on examples of planning acts adopted in Polish communes, but they were compared with examples from other European countries. The authors focused on qualitative assessment, taking into account the regulations applicable to all investors, containing generally binding standards, which specify the development’s land use and detailed building principles. The conclusions include recommendations for the provision of local development plans.