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Refereed/Peer-reviewed A survey of residents in the Locarnese region of Canton Ticino, Switzerland was used to examine perceptions of exposure to environmental risk in the context of the deliberative Swiss planning system. There is a growing risk of wildfire in the region, and unless residents’ risk perceptions are understood and effectively integrated into decision making, confidence in environmental planning processes could erode. The research analyses how peri-urban residents conceptualise risk, place and environment, and how they perceive their influence over local planning outcomes. Descriptive and inferential statistics reveal high appreciation of lifestyle and amenity values, and support for firefighting services. While respondents recognise the increasing exposure to wildfires and landslides, it was the current level of urban expansion that was seen to be heightening risk at the interface between forests and settlements. Although Swiss deliberative governance arrangements offer citizens opportunities to be involved in decision making through official channels, respondents who were younger, of local background or who were less educated were particularly dissatisfied with their influence over planning. We discuss the implications of these findings for the distinctive Swiss planning system in the context of other countries’ ambitions to develop more effective, democratic environmental planning. In particular, the relative ease offered by popular referenda may be creating a disproportionate sense of citizen entitlement to be heard on local planning issues. Dialogues of risk reduction must continue to evolve between the population and government actors to encourage residents to engage more fully with relevant topics of risk for their region.

Most studies use quantitative measures to assess spatial planning outcomes. Instead, this paper proposes a novel qualitative framework to assess spatial planning outcomes that seek to understand wh...

Many countries use spatial planning instruments to coordinate interests in land use and influence land-use change. In Switzerland, the cantonal structure plan (kantonale Richtplan) serves as the main spatial planning instrument at the cantonal level. Coordinating land-use interests and influencing land-use change requires ‘regional governance capacities’. This paper presents an analytical concept of regional governance capacities in spatial planning using the policy arrangement approach and drawing from the spatial planning implementation and evaluation literature. The canton of Zurich, with its embedded cases on the regional and local levels, serves as the case study for testing the analytical concept. Empirical evidence from qualitative interviews, observations and document analyses reveals a coexistence of various regional governance capacities within the canton of Zurich. Whereas regional governance capacities regarding the promotion of inner development in urban areas emerge as high, the results unveil mixed regional governance capacities when it comes to coordinating transport and land-use planning. To make judgements about regional governance capacities in spatial planning, it is essential to observe various spatial challenges, spatial scales and local examples.

The adaptation of agricultural systems to climate change remains one of humanity's greatest challenges. Regions with complex, knowledge-intensive farming practices have many components that can be adjusted to increase systemic resilience. An argument for the importance of evolutionary adaptation pathways is developed with a case-study of the viticultural region of the McLaren Vale in South Australia. In a series of walk-and-talk interviews, farmers describe their business risks and the opportunities to adapt. Their responses suggest a sophisticated ecological understanding facilitated by their life-experiences, learning networks and relationships with governance, research and marketing organisations. In particular, a new exploitation of agrobiodiversity is generating on-farm resilience by spreading the risks of production and providing opportunities for the region to better respond to changing environmental and market conditions. Individual farmers have developed unique climate change adaptation pathways, but effective cooperation has also enabled the evolution of a regional adaptation cluster. Regions such as the McLaren Vale with a path dependence of innovation could have a cultural heritage that supports attempts at adaptation, which will in turn make them vital first-movers in the search for effective responses to climate change risk.

Regional governance has received growing attention, not only from researchers, but also from politicians and practitioners of regional development. The understanding and usage of the concept, however, are highly heterogeneous: sometimes regional governance is described or explained in terms of its characteristics, processes and impacts, while at other times, it is framed as a tool for regional development. This article develops a definition and framework for a systematic assessment of various regional governance forms. For this purpose, it draws on material from a three-round Delphi survey among practitioners and researchers who are experts of regional governance. On this basis, a consolidated definition of regional governance is proposed as ‘the vertical and horizontal coordination of regional transformation processes beyond administrative boundaries by state and non-state actors’. Furthermore, the framework identifies five dimensions of regional governance: (a) participation, (b) bindingness, (c) formalisation, (d) regional autonomy and (e) power relations. These dimensions are disaggregated into a total of 21 indicators to systematically describe and analyse different regional governance forms., Regional governance has received growing attention, not only from researchers, but also from politicians and practitioners of regional development. The understanding and usage of the concept, however, are highly heterogeneous: sometimes regional governance is described or explained in terms of its characteristics, processes and impacts, while at other times, it is framed as a tool for regional development. This article develops a definition and framework for a systematic assessment of various regional governance forms. For this purpose, it draws on material from a three-round Delphi survey among practitioners and researchers who are experts of regional governance. On this basis, a consolidated definition of regional governance is proposed as ‘the vertical and horizontal coordination of regional transformation processes beyond administrative boundaries by state and non-state actors’. Furthermore, the framework identifies five dimensions of regional governance: (a) participation, (b) bindingness, (c) formalisation, (d) regional autonomy and (e) power relations. These dimensions are disaggregated into a total of 21 indicators to systematically describe and analyse different regional governance forms.

Climate change severely affects Alpine regions. Adaptation to climate change is needed in order to deal with these impacts, but the implementation of national adaptation strategies is inhibited by multiple obstacles. Regional strategic frameworks are just emerging, adaptation is of little priority to local agendas and policy mainstreaming is limited on all administrative levels. This paper provides a better understanding of the governance of adaptation to climate change in Switzerland, an example of a federal system with a strong focus on subnational levels and multilevel governance. We conceptualize governance as a network of policies, measures, actors and knowledge, and visualize their interactions using D3.js, a data-driven JavaScript library. The findings illustrate the typical division of labour in federal multilevel governance systems. The national level provides a strategic framework and funding and conducts coordinating measures at subnational levels, especially the local-level implementation of concrete measures. Conducting comparable mappings for other countries would allow interesting comparisons and insights into common barriers and opportunities to adaptation to climate change.

Recreational activities have undergone a change from mainly passive forms (e.g. rest, relaxation, reinvigoration, solitude and escape) to more active forms (e.g. mountain biking, climbing and running). Correspondingly, the demand for forest recreation infrastructure to support the more active forms has increased. However, very little is known about what features characterise the planning and management of forest recreation infrastructure. This study takes four in-depth mountain-bike trail cases in Switzerland to characterise the planning and management of forest recreation infrastructure. The analysis is performed using the institutional analysis and development framework (Ostrom in Governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1990) and qualitative data based on cases and interviews. We argue that by considering the identified external features (formal and informal rules, location) and process features (partnerships, public participation, conflicts, profitability perspectives, time frame of process, funding of process and approval), we can better plan and manage active forms of forest recreation. Conflict situations and response strategies associated with mountain-bike-trail planning and management are also identified. The findings are relevant for other regions facing the growing use of forests for recreational and leisure activities.

Among the different functions forests offer, recreation is increasing in importance to a growing global population. This is at a time when multifunctional forest management can no longer cover its costs solely from the revenue from wood production. The governance of forest recreation is assumed to be different from that of other forest functions but is poorly understood, which limits proper forest management. Meanwhile, conflicting interactions between forest users are increasing. In this paper, we study forest recreation governance with a particular focus on forests in urban areas in developed countries. The paper first identifies key governance challenges for forest recreation and then provides a better understanding of forest recreation governance, focusing on the role of stakeholders and institutions. This is done using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. We use urban forest areas of Switzerland to illustrate and exemplify the developments in forest recreation and their consequences for forest governance. The study draws on different empirical sources and analysis techniques, including statistical data, focus groups and document analyses. The findings show that six main action situations need to be considered when analysing forest recreation governance. In each action situation, several stakeholders are involved. We argue that understanding the governance of forest recreation is one of the future challenges in forest management and planning, particularly in urban areas. Finally, our study shows that the applied framework is appropriate and useful in analysing the structure and arrangements of forest recreation governance. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Since 1990, cross-border cooperation in the European Union (EU) has been funded by the INTERREG programs. The planning and implementation of INTERREG projects, as well as the preparation of regional development strategies in each INTERREG program area, involves state and non-state actors. The different institutional frameworks of the EU and the participating nations makes cross-border cooperation a complex task of coordination. This article aims to clarify the role of INTERREG in the development of cross-border governance in the Lake Constance area. The main influence of INTERREG up until Funding Phase III (2000–2006) can be seen in the involvement of new actors from economics and civil society. In the subsequent funding phase (IV), which introduced strict and detailed guidelines for project application and implementation, thus complicating access to INTERREG funding, the involvement of new non-state actors in INTERREG projects seems to be declining. Today, the most important actor in cross-border...