Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
CARTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS IN STRATEGIC SPATIAL
PLANNING PROCESSES IN WESTERN EUROPE
Spatial planning activities at European level are gaining in significance, and this in
turn has led to a revival of strategic spatial planning in European member states.
Strategic planning frameworks are now increasingly seen as useful instruments to
shape 'the minds of actors involved in spatial development' (Faludi, 2001a: 664)
and thus to co-ordinate the spatial impacts of sectoral policies. Cross-border
co-operation efforts have increased over the last fifteen years, especially in
areas where there are obvious and urgent common planning issues to address.
Co-operation has generally been informal, although there are also examples of
formal co-operation institutionalised through the setting up of joint working groups
or committees. The Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg)
have been most active. Joint policies have been prepared, although it has proved
difficult to agree on central issues where the benefits of growth may be divided
unequally between the regions involved. Following on from a first spatial develop-
ment framework which was published in 1986, the Second Structural Outline for
Benelux was published in 1996 and includes numerous illustrations of spatial
policy (Secrétariat général de l'Union économique Benelux, 1996).
In addition to increasing cross-border co-operation initiatives on spatial plan-
ning, there have also been a wide variety of responses to ongoing European integra-
tion and the emerging European spatial planning agenda within EU member states.
Generally, these can be divided into the 'spatial positioning' (Williams, 1996: 97)
of the own territory within a wider European context through the inclusion of a
transnational perspective in existing strategic planning instruments, and the intro-
duction of new strategic spatial planning instruments, sometimes including the
conceptualisation of the territory as spatial metaphor. Examples of national strategic
spatial frameworks, which have presented the domestic territory in a European
context since the 1990s, are the Dutch
Notas Ruimteljke Ordening
(National
Spatial Planning Reports)
5
(cf. Plate 4), and the Danish national planning reports (see
Figure 1.6).
Several EU member states have responded to European spatial initiatives
with a reform of their planning systems, and/or the introduction of new strategic
planning instruments. In the UK there have been many changes to the planning
system since the early 1990s which have come in response to the developments in
European spatial planning and the sustainable development agenda. Scotland,
Northern Ireland and Wales, which have devolved planning powers since the early
1990s, now each have a territory-wide spatial planning framework, which includes
a visualisation of the spatial development strategy (cf. Scottish Executive, 2004;
DRDNI, 2002; Welsh Assembly Government, 2004) (cf. Figure 1.7).
