IN-PLAN / Spatial planning

Spatial planning refers to the methods used mostly by the public sector to influence the future distribution of people and activities in spaces of various scales. Local and regional governments use spatial planning to outline their development pathways, defining and setting restrictions for land use and development.

Spatial planning gives geographical expression to the economic, social, cultural and ecological policies of society.

Torremolinos Charter – The paper issued by the 6th Conference of the Council of Europe of Ministers responsible for spatial planning (CEMAT)

Studies have shown that spatial planning lacks integration with education, energy, health, retail, and waste policies, all of which are crucial for sustainable and resilient urban development. In particular, the lack of communication and convergence across sectoral policies weakens the effectiveness of spatial planning in steering EU-funded investments.

IN-PLAN’s objective is to change this and to empower local and regional authorities to use spatial plans to enact their energy and climate policies. This will result in a higher rate of implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation projects, including energy efficiency measures.

First focus countries, Lighthouses, and Pilots

To start, the project focuses on five countries: Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and Romania. Here below are their characteristics:

Croatia is a centralised country in which plans are developed at the national level, and then locally implemented. Municipalities and cities determine their budgets and develop their local development plans. Except for large cities, public authorities use external spatial planners to implement mostly urban planning and zoning, leaving energy and climate to infrastructure questions.

Ireland has defined a National Planning Framework Project (Ireland 2040), a set of national strategic objectives and actions against which regional and local authorities will align their plans. Each local authority prepares a County Development Plan every 5 years, consisting of a written statement which sets out the policies and maps for the county, which show zoning for different types of development.

Italy has three main hierarchical planning levels: the regional (spatial plans), the provincial (supra-communal plans), and the municipal (urban development plans and detailed plans of limited urban areas). Each region develops sectoral plans and regulations in spatial and urban planning to regulate different aspects and provide guidelines to subordinate institutions. Provinces and municipalities then develop new planning regulations or adapt existing ones accordingly.

Sweden offers great autonomy to municipalities for land use planning and requires them to have Energy Plans concerning the distribution and supply of energy in their territories. The spatial planning system consists of regional, comprehensive, area regulations and detailed development plans, only legally binding for the area regulations and the detailed development plans.

Romania is a centralised country where policies and strategic decisions are taken at the national level and the local/regional administrations have limited regulatory capacity regarding energy and climate policies. The Strategy for the Territorial Development of Romania adopted by the Romanian government in 2016 provides an integrated strategic planning framework to guide the development processes of the national territory up to 2035.

These five regional project partners gave the IN-PLAN Practice to municipalities, cities, and regions in their countries. Some of them have been involved since the early stages of the projects, like the lighthouses, and the pilots.

The Lighthouses have been selected to receive both capacity-building training and direct support in the implementation of the IN-PLAN practice from the project partners.

The Pilots also received capacity building and the necessary operational guidelines for the implementation of the IN-PLAN practice, but they can either implement the practice themselves or seek additional support not covered by the project budget.

IN-PLAN Practice and support to integrated spatial planning

In recent years, many local and regional authorities have set ambitious climate neutrality targets and are actively implementing the necessary transformations in energy and mobility to achieve these goals. Despite operating within various overarching framework conditions, these authorities play a crucial role in translating national and European climate targets into practical actions. They have control over spatial developments within their jurisdictions and often hold the legal mandate to develop and enforce spatial development plans. These plans outline future settlement and economic development while setting restrictions on land use. Given the strong correlation between spatial structures, energy demand and supply, and mobility patterns, spatial planning serves as a valuable tool for municipalities to drive crucial initiatives for addressing climate change and achieving net-zero targets.

The Practice aims to provide municipalities, regions, and other public authorities with a comprehensive guidebook for integrating climate adaptation, mobility, and energy planning into spatial planning processes. It fosters institutionalised collaboration across different departments and stakeholders at all levels. As such, the practice is meant to:

• give guidance on how to utilise and integrate spatial plans to streamline sectoral planning instruments, documents, and plans;
• outline key aspects and milestones to consider during the spatial planning process;
• recommend practical tools, software, and methods conducting basic research, communication, and other essential planning tasks;
• identify which stakeholders should be involved both organisationally and content-wise;
• provide useful good practice examples.

The IN-PLAN Practice is designed to empower local and regional governments to develop, implement, and monitor ambitious integrated spatial plans with climate neutrality targets. It provides guidance on involving key actors from the local and regional levels throughout the planning process, from inception to implementation and monitoring, fostering stakeholder engagement and participatory governance concepts.

You can download the PDF version of the Practice here.