Land use and spatial planning (LUSP) EIONET Interest Group meeting on land use and spatial planning Copenhagen, 19-20 September 2012 Gorm Dige European Environment Agency

What is land use, land take and spatial planning? Some definitions: Land use: Territory characterised according to its current and future planned functional dimension or socio-economic purpose (e.g. residential, industrial, commercial, agricultural, forestry, recreational). Land take: Loss of agriculture, forest and other semi-natural and natural land taken by urban and other artificial land development. It includes areas where soil is sealed by construction and urban infrastructure as well as urban green areas and sport and leisure facilities. Spatial planning: This entails organising the distribution of activities across a territory, structuring a territory and the players in it around a vision of the desired development.

EU policies/initiatives relevant to LUSP

What are the policy responses to LUSP? Main EU policies / initiatives relevant to LUSP: European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) – aims to coordinate various European regional policy impacts and advocates the development of a sustainable, polycentric and balanced urban system with compact cities. Roadmap on Resource Efficient Europe – milestone: no net land-take by 2050. What does this mean? No net change (increase) in built-up areas. If built-up new infrastructure have to reclaim the area some where else (e.g. transform brownfields into agriculture or natural land). Biodiversity Strategy 2020: 15 % restoration of ecosystems by 2020. Leipzig Charter of Sustainable European Cities – compact settlement structure as especially sustainable.

What are the policy responses to LUSP? EU polices / initiatives with cross-cutting nature of LUSP: Territorial Agenda 2020 - changes in land use (urbanisation, mass tourism, etc.) threaten landscapes and lead to fragmentation of natural habitats and ecological corridors. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SIA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directives can improve the consideration of env. aspects in planning projects and contribute to a more systematic and transparent planning. European Floods Directive address flooding caused by the construction of impervious surfaces (e.g. buildings and roads). The EU thematic strategy on the sustainable use of natural resources includes space as a resource. It applies to areas of land and maritime space that are needed for production purposes (e.g. minerals, timber, food). These interests are often competing for the same territorial resource. Rural development and Regional Policies deals with the cross-cutting nature of land use.

Main stages in the policy cycle supported by data, info. and knowledge Issue identification Issue framing Policy measures identification (ex-ante impact assessment) Policy measure development Policy measure implementation Policy measure effectiveness (ex-post impact assessment) Data Information Knowledge

Information networks relevant to LUSP

EEA data and information framework SEIS (principles) INSPIRE (Directive/ Principles) EIONET (Network) LUDC (Platform) Eye on Earth GMES GISC GIO Land (Data provider)

Datasets relevant to LUSP

Input data sources Urban level Landscape level Primary data GMES Urban Atlas Corine Land Cover Soil imperviousness Derived data Urban morphological zones Landscape fragmentation Corine ecotones Green Background Landscape Index (GBLI) Net Landscape Ecological Potential Data applications Quickscan LEAC cube

Trends in land use and spatial planning in Europe Indicator Land take (CSI 014) Trends in land use and spatial planning in Europe

Land take (CSI 014)

Trend - land take is increasing

Lost land cover due to land take in Europe 2006 Relative contribution of land-cover categories to urban and other artificial land development

Where have the more important artificial land uptakes occurred?

What are the drivers of uptake for urban and other artificial land development? 2000 – 2006 EUR36

Challenges of land take in relation to spatial and territorial development

Population development in EU cities

… leading to high rates of soil sealing in EU 27 Pressures: refers to unsustainable trends between 2000-2006 State: refers to the share of sealed surfaces out of the total national territory Responses: refers to the intensity of already implemented measures Green colour: low sealing rate less that 1.6% Yellow colour: Moderate sealing rate ranging from 1.6% and 3%. Red Colour: high sealing rates with more than 3%.

Urban development patterns

Main drivers of current urban sprawl in Europe

Land use planning & green infrastructure GI and its provision of ecosystem goods and services is linked to land take issues. It contributes to minimising natural disaster risks, surface water run-off to reduce the risk of flooding, preventing soil erosion, connecting habitats, mitigating urban heat island effects, etc. Land take / spatial planning - key role in facilitating and delivering GI.

Land use planning & economic instruments Prerequisite to land-use planning & env. policy: Env. objectives in spatial planning policy Legal framework, land taxation systems, cadastral systems, territorial planning, etc. in place Economic instruments in land-use planning & env. policy: Taxation, fees & charges imposed on undesired land-use practices Tradable permit systems - option for land consumption targets Subsidies – environmentally motivated and applied for specific land use purposes Payments for ecosystem services Open space & green field developments through taxation

Planning and managing land take - lessons learned in Germany Objective of the National Sustainable Development Strategy (2002): By 2020, land take for new housing and transport developments is to be limited to 30 ha per day. The objective is very ambitious: Situation from 1997-2000: 129 ha per day. Situation from 2007–2010: 87 ha per day. The German approach is a twin-track strategy, comprising: further strengthening inner urban development; limiting new land take on the urban fringe. Implementation with a mix of instruments, such as: Giving priority to inner urban development; Revitalizing the inner cities; Space-saving housing developments with low levels of traffic; Enhancing the productivity of land; Land recycling; Taking soil qualities into account; and Safeguarding open spaces. The 30 ha objective is addressed primarily to the federal states (regional and sub-regional planning) and local authorities (development planning). The Federal Government supports their efforts through legislation (spatial planning law, urban development law); financial assistance and research programmes; and information.

Conceptual framework for integrated land assessment

Conceptual framework for integrated land assessment

Land use and ecosystem services Source: Foley et al., 2005 Science Vol. 309

….leading to assessments and other products

Information

Thank you for your attention http://www.eea.europa.eu gorm.dige@eea.europa.eu