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The graphical scheme of the Detailed Urbanist Plan for a settlement within the Municipality of Aerodrom in the City of Skopje, North Macedonia.

Spatial planning mediates between the respective claims on space of the state, market, and 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 ^[1]

Spatial planning systems refer to the methods and approaches used by the public and private sector to influence the distribution of people and activities in spaces of various scales. Spatial planning can be defined as the coordination of practices and policies affecting spatial organization. Spatial planning is synonymous with the practices of urban planning in the United States but at larger scales and the term is often used in reference to planning efforts in European countries. Discrete professional disciplines which involve spatial planning include land use, urban, regional, transport and environmental planning.^[2] Other related areas are also important, including economic and community planning, as well as maritime spatial planning. Spatial planning takes place on local, regional, national and inter-national levels and often results in the creation of a spatial plan.

An early definition of spatial planning comes from the European Regional/Spatial Planning Charter^[3] (often called the 'Torremolinos Charter'), adopted in 1983 by the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning (CEMAT): "Regional/spatial planning gives geographical expression to the economic, social, cultural and ecological policies of society. It is at the same time a scientific discipline, an administrative technique and a policy developed as an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach directed towards a balanced regional development and the physical organisation of space according to an overall strategy."

Numerous planning systems exist around the world. The form of planning largely diverges and co-evolves with societies and their governance systems.^[4] 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.^[5]^[6] 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.^[7]

Spatial planning systems in Europe

Various compendia of spatial planning systems can be found. Below is a table showing some of the main sources, the countries covered and the date of publication.

Key to columns (left to right)
COMMIN	COMmon MINdscapes
COST C11	COST Action on Green Structures and Urban Planning
ESPON	European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion COMPASS project
DG-REGIO	European Directorate-General for Regional Policy
CEMAT	European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional/Spatial Planning
ESTIA	European Space and Territorial Integration Alternative
ISOCARP	International Society of City and Regional Planners
MLIT	Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
LEXALP	Legal Systems for Spatial Planning
RCEP	Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
UNECE	United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
VASAB	Vision and Strategies around the Baltic Sea

	COMMIN	COST C11	ESPON	DG-REGIO	CEMAT	ESTIA	ISOCARP	MLIT	LEXALP	RCEP	UNECE	VASAB
Albania						2000
Armenia					2006						2000
Austria			2007	1997			2008		2008
Belarus	2007											2000
Belgium			2007	1997			2008
Bulgaria			2007		2003	2000	2008
Cyprus			2007
Czech Republic			2007				2008
Denmark	2007	2005	2007	1997			2008					2019
Estonia	2007		2007				2008					2018
Finland	2007	2005	2007	1997	2005		2008					2018
France		2005	2007	1997			2008	2007	2008	2000
Georgia											2003
Germany	2007	2005	2007	1997			2008	2007	2008	2000		2019
Greece			2007	1997		2000	2008
Hungary			2007			2000	2008
Rep. Ireland			2007	1997			2008			2000
Italy		2005	2007	1997			2008		2008
Latvia	2007		2007								1998	2018
Lithuania	2007		2007								1998	2018
Luxembourg			2007	1997	2006		2008
Malta			2007
Netherlands		2005	2007	1997			2008	2007		2000
North Macedonia						2000					2002
Norway	2007	2005	2007				2008					2000
Poland	2007	2005	2007				2008					2018
Portugal			2007	1997	2004		2008
Romania			2007			2000					2001
Russian Federation	2007						2008					2020
Serbia						2000	2008				2007
Slovakia			2007				2008
Slovenia			2007		2003				2008		1997
Spain		2005	2007	1997			2008
Sweden	2007	2005	2007	1997			2008			2000		2018
Switzerland			2007				2008		2008
Turkey							2008
United Kingdom		2005	2007	1997			2008	2007		2000

European spatial planning

In 1999, a document called the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) was signed by the ministers responsible for regional planning in the EU member states. Although the ESDP has no binding status, and the European Union has no formal authority for spatial planning, the ESDP has influenced spatial planning policy in European regions and member states, and placed the coordination of EU sectoral policies on the political agenda.

At the European level, the term territorial cohesion is becoming more widely used and is for example mentioned in the draft EU Treaty (Constitution) as a shared competency of the European Union; it is also included in the Treaty of Lisbon. The term was defined in a "scoping document" in Rotterdam in late 2004 and is being elaborated further using empirical data from the ESPON programme^[8] in a document entitled "The Territorial State and Perspectives of the European Union".^[9] At the minister's conference in May 2007 in Leipzig, a political document called the "Territorial Agenda" was signed to continue the process begun in Rotterdam, revised in May 2011 in Gödöllő.

References

^ Ziafati Bafarasat, A., 2015. Reflections on the three schools of thought on strategic spatial planning. Journal of Planning Literature, 30(2), pp.132-148.
^ Van Assche, K., Beunen, R., Duineveld, M., & de Jong, H. (2013). Co-evolutions of planning and design: Risks and benefits of design perspectives in planning systems. Planning Theory, 12(2), 177-198.
^ "Council of Europe". Council of Europe. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
^ Allmendinger, P. (2009). Planning theory. Palgrave Macmillan.
^ Van Assche, K., & Verschraegen, G. (2008). The limits of planning: Niklas Luhmann's systems theory and the analysis of planning and planning ambitions. Planning theory, 7(3), 263-283.
^ Gunder, M., & Hillier, J. (2009). Planning in ten words or less: A Lacanian entanglement with spatial planning. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
^ Caves, R. W. (2004). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge. pp. 624. ISBN 9780415252256.
^ "espon.eu". espon.eu. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
^ "Microsoft Word - TSP-First-Draft-as-of-260606.doc" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-06-26.

Andreas Faludi, Bas Waterhout, The Making of the European Spatial Development Perspective, London Routledge 2002. ISBN 978-0-415-27264-3.
Gerhard Larsson, Spatial Planning Systems in Western Europe - An Overview, Delft Univ Press (2006), ISBN 978-1-58603-656-0.
Gerhard Larsson, Land management as Public Policy, University Press of America (2010), ISBN 978-0-7618-5248-3.
UNECE, Spatial Planning - Key Instrument for Development and Effective Governance with Special Reference to Countries in Transition, Report ECE/HBP/146, Geneva UNECE 2008.
Richard H. Williams, European union spatial policy and planning, London Chapman 1996. ISBN 978-1-85396-305-6.

External links

CEMAT - European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning
EJSD - European Journal of Spatial Development
ESPON - European Observation Network on Territorial Development and Cohesion
Planum - The European Journal of Planning
VASAB - Vision and Strategies around the Baltic Sea - Baltic Sea Region intergovernmental cooperation in spatial planning and development