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In this paper, growth coalitions and growth critiques are examined by using the example of in-migration policies in the context of Jena case study. This is based on the following questions: Which local growth coalitions do exist with which growth goals? To what extent do growth boundaries lead to an expansion of local growth coalitions with the urban hinterland? What kind of growth-critical positions are there in urban politics and to what extent do they question growth policies? The paper particularly ties in with the theoretical discussion of post-growth planning and enriches it by an empirical reflection by examining forms of municipal growth scepticism as well as limits of regional cooperation. The results show that there is a distinct growth coalition in Jena, which pursues the goal of attracting skilled workers to secure economic growth. However, due to natural growth limits and the resistance of individual residents, in-migration policies are reaching their limits, so that intermunicipal cooperation in the urban region is being sought as a fallback solution. Explicit critiques of growth and a fundamental public discussion about growth policies, on the other hand, just begin to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metropolitan regions result from spatial rescaling processes and region formations and are considered as "soft spaces of governance", referring to international debates on the "new regionalism". This paper addresses the criticism that the focus on competitive metropolitan regions distracts from the need for action on classic spatial planning issues. For this, the paper examines and discusses the institutional integration of regional planning in the German metropolitan regions and the activities of regional growth management as well as the regulatory intensity of regional plans based on a group comparison of metropolitan regions. As a result, the thesis of an institutionally fragmented regulatory growth management by regional planning can only be confirmed for a few metropolitan regions, where no relevant institutions and instruments are implemented in the core area. Regarding the "soft" instruments of growth management, the situation is very different. Here, the action potential is not yet fully utilized, even in metropolitan regions with strong institutional cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a contribution to the debate on deregulation of spatial planning and lean regional plans, this paper presents the first long-term study for Germany analysing the regulatory intensity of all regional plans legally valid in 2017 on the topics of settlement and open space development over time. As a final result, the assumption of a general deregulation and streamlining of regional plans cannot be confirmed. In contrast, changes in the legal basis, such as the priority of inner over outer urban development, have led to a continuous increase in the regulatory intensity over time, particularly in the case of positive growth management policies with an active role of regional planning. At the same time, there is evidence of streamlining tendencies in some states, which can partly be interpreted as deregulation tendencies. To date, however, they are merely an expression of state-specific ways of shaping regional planning and not a sign of an accelerated deregulation competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the accessibility of a city -- for example, due to the connection to the long-distance rail network for the first time -- not only affect transport demand but can also have catalytic effects on urban development. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study presented in this paper investigates whether long-distance rail stations in Germany between 2004/2005 and 2016/2017 generate such impulses for urban development in their catchment areas via their accessibility level and dynamics. Results show no direct impulses of accessibility on urban development in many cases, suggesting that other reasons such as population and housing pressure or the existence of inner-city (unused) development sites are the more significant factors for urban development dynamics. In addition, accessibility changes are often subject to business considerations that are generally detached from local political and planning goals and interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heterogeneity of urban agriculture is a major challenge for the implementation of target specific support schemes. Hence, the objective of this paper is, to provide an overview of existing funding schemes and to identify important legal framework conditions for the development of urban agriculture. For this purpose, an explorative approach was chosen with a qualitative survey of horticultural desk officers of the federal states and the federal government in Germany. The results show that neither special legal frameworks nor specific support schemes for urban agriculture exist in many federal states. Furthermore, many federal states do not have specific contact persons for this topic. General agricultural funding as well as ELER and, as a part of it, LEADER funding, among others, were mentioned as funding options. In addition, (potential) problems of urban agriculture, such as low efficiency or land shortage and competition, were mentioned. Based on the results it can be concluded that the issue of urban agriculture has become increasingly important at the political level, but is still of little relevance at the level of agricultural administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strengthening inner urban development is a guiding principle of Germany's sustainability policy and the key to achieving the 30-hectare target. To date, however, it is hardly possible to determine retrospectively the share of building construction activity realized as inner and outer urban development. On the one hand, there is the genuine fuzziness of the inner urban area (Innenbereich) as a spatial construct, and on the other hand, there is the lack of available small-scale data on building construction activity. Against this background, this paper presents for the first time a methodological approach to determine and evaluate the relevance of inner urban development for large areas and over longer periods of time for Germany. The method is applied for the federal state of North Rhine- Westphalia and the housing construction activity from 1979 to 2011. The result shows a positive trend, indicating that cities and municipalities have succeeded in realizing more housing as inner urban development over time. At the same time, significant differences between urban and rural areas are apparent. A central conclusion is therefore to support smaller municipalities in their efforts for more inner urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany and Switzerland, land use and urban sprawl there has been a central topic of public debate for several years. Cantonal structure plans in Switzerland as well as state and regional plans in Germany contain binding regulations for managing settlement development. Studies that examine the implementation of these regulations are lacking. This paper analyses the implementation of selected instruments of supra-local spatial planning for managing settlement development in Germany and Switzerland using the Policy Arrangement Approach. The case study covers the regions Oberland (Bavaria), Südlicher Oberrhein (Baden-Württemberg) and the cantons of Zurich and St. Gallen. The results show that actors implement spatial-planning instruments in situative negotiation processes in which they exploremargins and alternatives. Central to these processes is a regional specific overlapping of (i) interlinkings of formal and informal instruments, (ii) the interplay between local autonomy, supra-local control and superordinate context factors, and (iii) the overlapping of supra-local and regional discourses. The results show that the Policy Arrangement Approach helps to better understand how spatial planning works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strengthening inner urban development is a guiding principle of Germany's sustainability policy and the key to achieving the 30-hectare target. To date, however, it is hardly possible to determine retrospectively the share of building construction activity realized as inner and outer urban development. On the one hand, there is the genuine fuzziness of the inner urban area (Innenbereich) as a spatial construct, and on the other hand, there is the lack of available small-scale data on building construction activity. Against this background, this paper presents for the first time amethodological approach to determine and evaluate the relevance of inner urban development for large areas and over longer periods of time for Germany. The method is applied for the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the housing construction activity from 1979 to 2011. The result shows a positive trend, indicating that cities and municipalities have succeeded in realizing more housing as inner urban development over time. At the same time, significant differences between urban and rural areas are apparent. A central conclusion is therefore to support smaller municipalities in their efforts for more inner urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global urban growth trend is also evident in Germany and the pressure on the real estate markets is pushing construction activity to the threshold of available building land. To limit urban expansion, additional space is to be created primarily through brownfield development, but here large housing potentials are usually only to be found on sites that are difficult to develop. The framework conditions that have arisen here in the interplay between land and real estatemarkets in conjunction with the multidimensionality of urban planning problems suggest a need for urban planners and researchers to develop more effectivemethods. This paper therefore describes a GISbasedmethod for optimising building sites, which can be used to evaluate sites in context and optimise them attribute-spatially. It combines a fuzzy methodology with a heuristic optimisation algorithm, the Parameterised Region-Growing, and demonstrates it using the example of the Holsten site in Hamburg. It successfully generates spatially compact and coherent, highly valued residential building areas, to which urban development parameters are assigned. Comparisons with existing planning show instructive results, e.g., regarding more effective utilisation of good micro-locations, realistic building density values and realisable area parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-use in complex urban regions and their future development is uncertain, especially in view of (global) change conditions and the planetary boundaries discussed. An encompassing discussion and weighting within planning is necessary, on what ecosystems offer which kind of services to urban and regional societies and how this current supply and further potentials can be sustainably used. This is essential to contribute to a resilient urban and regional development. Scientific discussions on the role of ecosystem services in spatial planning do partly investigate the current status-quo of references to ecosystem services. This paper presents results from two German case study regions on the extent of references to ecosystem services in existing spatial planning instruments. Both binding as well as non-binding regional and urban development concepts were considered. Although none of the planning instruments explicitly uses the term "ecosystem services", references to ecosystem services can be identified in all instruments. However, themajority of classified ecosystem services is not linked to specific objectives. This evokes questions on if spatial planning is oriented on keeping options open to act in the future and what the detected blind spots tell about the interpretation of the vision of sustainable spatial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]