Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The complexity and general layout of cartographic representations of spatial
strategies should also be a reflection of the intended audience of the plan. This is
what Söderström (1996) has called the 'external efficacy' of cartographic
representations in planning, which implies that if the strategy is directed at a wider
audience, including lay people, more attention needs to be given to communicative
aspects and limited complexity in the 'plan maps'. In Germany, the complex and
integrated Plankarte is generally directed at other professionals in sector depart-
ments and planners at other levels of planning. In the Netherlands, the layering
approach means that plankaarten are generally of high complexity, yet much
emphasis is given to the communicative aspects of these indicative planning instru-
ments, which are also directed at the wider public. The lack of standardisation, and
general interest of Dutch planners in experimenting with new approaches to
mapping, however, imply that misunderstandings cannot be ruled out. The lack of
experience with visualising spatial policy at regional level in England implies that
not much attention has been given to the expected audience for these instruments.
Yet the 'communicative turn' in English planning and the increasing emphasis
on regional-level planning will require a clearer definition of the users of these
strategies.
There is no doubt that cartographic representations in planning are powerful
instruments, as they often communicate messages more clearly than text does.
However, cartographic representations also exercise power by representing certain
parts of the territory while neglecting others. The dominance of urban issues, trans-
port infrastructure, and environmental and (sometimes) economic designations or
'zones' on cartographic representations to the detriment of peripheral and rural
areas, public transport, social infrastructure, cultural heritage or for instance the
impact of Information and Communication Technologies on the territory is evident
in all the plans reviewed for this topic. The widespread use of Geographic Informa-
tion Systems for the data storage, spatial analysis, reproduction and in some cases
online presentation of German and Dutch, and increasingly also English, spatial
plans means that only elements and ideas that are technically feasible in the
systems in use will actually be implemented and represented - and these might
often be those elements that are easy to locate in a Cartesian system.
Furthermore, the high level of standardisation and uniformity in the German
planning system means that the established rules for cartographic representations
are almost impossible to change. An example of this is the persistence of the
central place concept in the German planning system despite fundamental criti-
cisms over the years (cf. Blotevogel, 2002). Moreover, it could be argued that the
complex representation of spatially relevant policies - although undoubtedly useful
in assessing the impacts on all parts of the territory - communicate a much more
powerful role of land use planning than is actually realistic. Raumordnung and
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