Publication drawn up by the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional/Spatial Planning (CEMAT) of the Council of Europe

There is a strong international dimension to spatial planning. European integration strengthens interconnections, development and decision-making across national and regional borders. EU policies in areas such as environment, transport, agriculture or regional policy have far-reaching effects on spatial development patterns and planning procedures. Planners in the EU are now routinely engaged in cooperation across national borders to share and devise effective ways of intervening in the way our cities, towns and rural areas develop. In short, the EU has become an important framework for planning practice, research and teaching. Spatial planning in Europe is being ‘Europeanized’, with corresponding changes for the role of planners. Written for students, academics, practitioners and researchers of spatial planning and related disciplines, this book is essential reading for everybody interested in engaging with the European dimension of spatial planning and territorial governance. It explores: spatial development trends and their influence on planning the nature, institutions and actors of the European Union from a planning perspective the history of spatial planning at the transnational scale the planning tools, perspectives, visions and programmes supporting European cooperation on spatial planning the territorial impacts of the Community’s sector policies the outcomes of European spatial planning in practice.

"The Council of Europe European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional/Spatial Planning (CEMAT) brings together representatives of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe, united in their pursuit of a common objective: sustainable spatial development of the European continent. This compendium presents the texts adopted by CEMAT between 1970 and 2010 and the most important texts adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe regarding CEMAT."--P. [4] of cover.

Land Management is normally embedded in a complex legal context, which frequently consists of contradictory objectives, such as: strengthening of rural areas, satisfying the need for affordable living and commercial space, protecting environment and health, supporting transport infrastructure development, and preserving the landscape. Land management can be understood as a process that comprises coordination of such activities while managing the use and the development of land resources. It can be counstrained by the land use specifications resulting from spatial planning process. Along with this, the legal framework often contains generally formulated concepts and open standards, which provide a range of opportunities for realization while balancing the different interests. In this process it is important if and how both constraints and opportunities are recognised by the actors. In this volume this topic is examined from various aspects: first the problems in promoting mutual understanding between researchers and the general public, but also among scientists of different disciplines; second the success requirements of land management instruments as well as unfortunate experience caused by land use changes; third covering land management costs by absorbing value increase and other trade off aspects; and fourth supporting land management by providing geodata with low-cost methods.

Spatial planning, strongly advocated by government and the profession, is intended to be more holistic, more strategic, more inclusive, more integrative and more attuned to sustainable development than previous approaches. In what the authors refer to as the New Spatial Planning, there is a fairly rapidly evolving maturity and sophistication in how strategies are developed and produced. Crucially, the authors argue that the reworked boundaries of spatial planning means that to understand it we need to look as much outside the formal system of practices of ‘planning’ as within it. Using a rich empirical resource base, this book takes a critical look at recent practices to see whether the new spatial planning is having the kinds of impacts its advocates would wish. Contributing to theoretical debates in planning, state restructuring and governance, it also outlines and critiques the contemporary practice of spatial planning. This book will have a place on the shelves of researchers and students interested in urban/regional studies, politics and planning studies.

This book aims to contribute to the current debate on how to integrate rural development policies and landscape planning in rural areas. It highlights the key issues at stake and the possibilities for synergies between landscape planning and policies in light of European development policies, particularly the EU’s Rural Development Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Case studies from different rural contexts and landscapes are provided, illustrating tools and options to make the advocated integration operational. Recommendations and guidance to policy making are proposed. The case studies presented cover 1) the use of visual assessment techniques to support landscape planning in rural areas; 2) participative applications of landscape assessment techniques in peri-urban areas; 3) multi-scale approaches to landscape management in Alpine areas and 4) the application of landscape economic evaluation to foster rural development strategies.

Urban Remote Sensing is designed for upper level undergraduates, graduates, researchers and practitioners, and has a clear focus on the development of remote sensing technology for monitoring, synthesis and modeling in the urban environment. It covers four major areas: the use of high-resolution satellite imagery or alternative sources of image date (such as high-resolution SAR and LIDAR) for urban feature extraction; the development of improved image processing algorithms and techniques for deriving accurate and consistent information on urban attributes from remote sensor data; the development of analytical techniques and methods for deriving indicators of socioeconomic and environmental conditions that prevail within urban landscape; and the development of remote sensing and spatial analytical techniques for urban growth simulation and predictive modeling.

Part of a 12-volume set, each article in this volume provides an overview of the material to be presented, presents research and discusses how readers can put the research to use.

This report outlines the work carried out in 2007 by the various bodies and sectors of activity of the Council of Europe.