Spatial planning

Spatial planning is the management of space and resources through the creation and implementation of a plan restricting how space can be used and developed. Spatial planning is normally undertaken by state actors—at either the national, regional or local levels—but is sometimes undertaken by private sector actors as well. In achieving set policy aims, it usually tries to balance the competing demands upon land as a resource, mediating between the demands of the state, market, and local community.

In so doing, three different mechanisms—of involving stakeholders, integrating sectoral policies and promoting development projects—mark the three schools of transformative strategy formulation, innovation action and performance in spatial planning.

Discrete professional disciplines which involve spatial planning include land use, urban, regional, transport and environmental planning. Other related areas are also important, including economic and community planning, as well as maritime spatial planning.

Numerous planning systems exist around the world. The form of planning largely diverges and co-evolves with societies and their governance systems. Every country, and states within those countries, have a unique planning systems that is made up by different actors, different planning perspectives and a particular institutional framework. Perspectives, actors and institutions change over time, influencing both the form and the impact of spatial planning. Especially in Northwestern Europe, spatial planning has evolved greatly since the late 1950s. Until the 1990s, the term ‘spatial’ was used primarily to refer to the way that planning should deal with more than simply zoning, land use planning, or the design of the physical form of cities or regions, but also should address the more complex issues of the spatial relationship of activities such as employment, homes and leisure uses.