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Problem, research strategy, and findings:There are more than 400 U.S. metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) overseeing multiple transportation projects totaling billions of dollars, yet these crucial organizations and their history and current role are generally unknown or confusing to many planning practitioners and scholars. MPOs face major challenges in developing meaningful long-range regional transportation plans, challenges rooted in their history that planners should understand as they grapple with metropolitan planning efforts. MPOs may approve projects and their funding, but disparate agencies and often competitive local governments control budgets and actually build projects. MPOs, moreover, do not fully represent all regional interests and have no control over the local land use decisions that would support less autocentric communities and human-powered modes. I provide a metareview of the history of regional transportation planning and the MPOs responsible for it, describing U.S. metropolitan transportation planning from the early 20th century. Federal legislation in the 1960s first suggested a regional forum for conversations about metropolitan transportation. Federal legislation in subsequent decades made incremental if incomplete progress toward creating a meaningful regional forum, adapting institutions and practices to increase stakeholder involvement as well as the scope of transport planning, yet MPOs have multiple limitations that planners can address. Takeaway for practice:History suggests that MPOs can be a force for regional change. Planners and policymakers could anchor future reforms to MPOs’ existing legal and administrative frameworks. Planners should revisit the membership and voting structures of MPO boards to ensure better stakeholder representation and permit some MPOs to generate and direct transportation funds at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines the importance of planning awards. Topics covered include the value of planning practice in a context of unfavourable political ideology, how awards highlight the practical outcomes of the art and science of town and country planning, and positively promote planners and professional practice.

The relocation of 400,000 Beijing municipal employees to Tongzhou promises to reduce congestion and pollution in the city center. Further, the relocation could facilitate economic cooperation and integration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei megaregion. Together, these initiatives can help make Beijing and Northern China more resilient, though critical issues of the connectivity of Tongzhou to the rest of Beijing and the megaregion need to be addressed. This paper focuses on two questions related to the success of these efforts: (1) How many additional commuters can be expected to use the existing subway stations in Tongzhou as a result of the relocation; and (2) How can Tongzhou be better connected to the megaregion's high-speed rail network and a major airport. To answer the first question, a GIS-based model was used to analyze subway ridership data to estimate changes in rush hour commuters at Tongzhou's subway stations under three scenarios. The results estimate substantial increases in commuters unless large proportions of the workers move their residences to Tongzhou. To answer the second question, a Moving Platform Infrastructure Network (MPIN) was conceptualized as an innovative alternative to provide needed access to high-speed rail and a major airport. The resulting MPIN provides fast and environmentally sensitive connections, while potentially reducing congestion at the Beijing South railway station. In addition, the MPIN concept could be used in other parts of the megaregion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Till date, Nigeria can not boast of a specific, well-formulated, clear regional development policy framework despite several urban planning, development and governance initiatives including passage of regulations at both federal and state government levels that have been undertaken since independence by successive post-colonial governments. Most of the country's claims of regional development are products of other policies, and intentions, which do not have any bearing on, deliberate regional planning policies. Policy and decision-making on development planning often do not incorporate the implications of the ways in which we use land and the consequences for different places (economic planning). The neglect of place, in particular, the way that different policies combine to affect places in different ways (regional planning), has contributed to a range of negative economic, social and environmental outcomes. This paper relies mainly on the secondary data and literature exploration to demonstrate that the little role accorded to spatial planning, especially, regional planning, in the development efforts is largely responsible for the underdevelopment, imbalance, and inequalities in the country, as well as poverty of the citizens. The conclusion of the paper is that regional planning should be an integral part and complementary to economic planning in the national development planning of the country. For regional planning to aid in the development of the country and promote the well-being of the citizens, appropriate recommendations have been included in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal communities worldwide are faced with climate change effects that include sea level rise and increases in the severity and frequency of storms. We present a framework for coastal adaptation to these impacts in planning efforts, using the landscape of the Toms River-Barnegat Bay ecosystem in New Jersey (eastern coast of United States, 90 km south of New York City) as a case study. This plan is a proof-of-concept, showing that collaborative design can improve the ability of shore regions in many regions to recover from storms and sea level rise if it uses a broad concept of the shore’s ecological and geomorphological structures. Ecological connections are maintained or restored from the sand beach through the tidal bay to the mainland Pine Barrens, allowing species to migrate inland as their ecosystems change over time. This plan also re-envisions shore tourism by attracting visitors to the larger and wider shore area, an approach that can maintain or even increase social and economic activity as sea level changes. Transportation routes connecting the changing shoreline area to inland sites help to integrate social activities throughout the region. Watershed based projects to handle stormwater runoff from severe inland storms are also required. These principles can be applied in any coastal landscape where sea level rise is expected. This approach was fostered and supported by a USHUD program – Rebuild by Design – to incorporate unique, collaborative, architectural and ecological approaches to changing climate and sea level rise in Hurricane Sandy-affected states. These ecological concepts can be adapted for use to maintain biotic and economic processes in threatened coastal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current mobility patterns mean that many trips cross one or several municipal borders. This emphasises the need to integrate land-use and transport planning at regional functional scales. However, the Swedish planning system is characterised by a ‘municipal planning monopoly’, where local governments control the formal planning instruments. The lack of formal means for regional-level planning has sparked initiatives that can be characterised as soft spaces in planning. The paper analyses how soft space planning as spatial strategy making at regional level is influencing local-level planning. The analysis covers 10 municipalities in the Swedish Region of Skåne. The results illustrate that the dialogue-based process has established a broad consensus on the need to consider the regional scale in municipal planning. However, the results also show that the impact on planning is limited since the consensus-based process resulted in strategic objectives with limited influence on prevailing planning practices. Findings also illustrate that key concepts for operationalising the strategies – including densification and public transport accessibility – were defined and used differently in different municipalities. Consequently, a more stringent use, and stricter definitions, of core concepts could be a way to strengthen the capacity of soft space regional planning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the debate on whether the Resource Management Act (RMA) in New Zealand should be amended or reviewed. Topics discussed include the steps in the evolution of planning in the country, local government reform, and issues to be resolved with RMA including regional spatial planning, adaptation to climate change and more government guidance.

European Union spatial policies have become a key institutional context in which to study policy transfer processes in European border areas. These policies are, however, only the most recent part of these transformation processes which raises a need for more historically sensitive approaches. An historical perspective is important, since border regions are historical processes with particular path-dependent development trajectories and power structures. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion concerning the transformation of European border regions by looking at the policy transfer of regional development discourses in the Finnish Torne Valley. The study material consists of strategic development documents produced by the Finnish border municipalities and the municipal-based co-operation organizations from the 1930s to 2013. The examination, based on critical discourse analysis, shows that the transformation process is driven by national trends and the dominant planning discourse. Nevertheless, the particular border setting and local discourse on ‘united Torne Valley’ have also intertwined with political and economic processes during different time periods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyzes issues and current urban planning practices, as they appear through the topics chosen by students for their Master’s internship dissertation at the University of Strasbourg the last twenty years. We observe a clear shift of subjects from economy as a dominant field towards transport and mobility. However, the very foundations of geography do not seem disturbed, since we observed that both the operational and study dimensions persist as key points, confirming that urban planning remains in essence a field of action, beyond its changing points of interest.

Las áreas verdes urbanas (AVU) proveen servicios sociales y ecológicos, en función de su distribución, superficie y accesibilidad. Se evalúan dichos atributos para las AVU de Santiago mediante métricas de paisaje. Se muestra que el 91% de las AVU tiene tamaño menor a 5.000 m². Las comunas de bajos ingresos y mayor población presentan un mayor número de áreas verdes (NP), pero de menor tamaño (< 1.000 m²). Las cuatro comunas de más altos ingresos concentran el 32,2% de la superficie total de áreas verdes, mientras que las cuatro comunas más pobres sólo tienen el 4,1%. El indicador de accesibilidad propuesto (IAc) muestra que en La Pintana (bajos ingresos) el 19,6% de la población tiene acceso a un área verde de al menos 5.000 m² cerca de su vivienda (300 m); en San Miguel (ingresos medios) el 45,3% y en Vitacura (altos ingresos) el 74,1% de la población. La normativa urbana chilena favorece la proliferación de AVU de pequeño tamaño.Green spaces provide social and ecological functions within urban environments. The magnitude of these depends on the size, distribution and accessibility of such spaces. These attributes of the green areas in Santiago de Chile are evaluated using landscape metrics. The results show that 91% of green spaces are smaller than 5,000 m2. Municipalities with higher population and lower income levels had a greater number of green spaces, but these are smaller than 1,000 m2. The four municipalities with the highest income levels have 32.2% of the total green space surface, while the four municipalities with the lowest income levels barely exceed 4.0%>. The proposed accessibility indicator (IAc) reveals that in the La Pintana municipality (low income level), 19.6% of the population has access to a green space of at least 5,000 within 300 from their home, while this figure is 45.3% for San Miguel (medium income level) and 74.1% in Vitacura (high income level). Chilean urban legislation tends to promote the creation of smaller green spaces.

El presente artículo hace una revisión de cómo han realizado distintos tipos de ciudades su posicionamiento en el sistema global mediante el estudio de casos signifcativos. En la parte empírica, se realiza un análisis comparativo entre las actuaciones urbanas realizadas por 37 ciudades en dos periodos de tiempo diferentes: entre 1980 y 1995, que corresponde a la etapa de transición industrial, y entre 1995 y 2005, que responde a la etapa postindustrial. Se concluye que aquellas actuaciones vinculadas a la calidad de vida urbana y al marketing urbano han ido adquiriendo mayor relevancia que otras más vinculadas a la planifcación estratégica de carácter económico. Asimismo, las actuaciones de marcado carácter material dejan paso a otras más relacionadas con aspectos inmateriales. En suma, se observa un proceso de transición desde un modelo basado en los elementos tangibles de una ciudad hacia otro más preocupado en la búsqueda elementos inmateriales.Tis article reviews diferent city case studies in terms of their positioning in the global city system. In the empirical section there is a comparative analysis of 37 urban experiences across two periods of time: 1980-1995 which corresponds to the industrial transition, and 1995-2005 which relates to the post-industrial stage. Te article concludes that actions relating to urban quality of life and urban marketing are becoming more important than others more related to strategic economic planning. Furthermore actions of a more material nature are giving way to more immaterial ones. As such, a transition process can be observed fom a model based on tangible elementos of the city towards one more concerned with the recovery of more intangible assets.

Los servicios de transporte público operan de manera sistémica, así como lo hace todo aquello que se mueve en la ciudad. Toda intervención que se haga respecto a uno de los modos que la gente usa para movilizarse afecta inevitablemente al resto. Desde que en Santiago entró en operaciones un Sistema Integrado de Transporte Público, como es el Transantiago, pasó la hora de seguir haciendo inversiones en proyectos aislados relativos a la movilidad urbana. Es hora más bien de racionalizar sistémicamen-te dichas inversiones y evaluarlas en consecuencia. Los grandes proyectos de transporte urbano deben dejar de ser la idea emblemática de algún gobernante. En cambio, deben pasar a ser evaluados y decididos desde una visión sistémica y organizada sobre el territorio, el desarrollo urbano y la movilidad, estableciendo mejor el óptimo social de las inversiones públicas y privadas. De esta manera se servirá mejor al interés común de los habitantes de la ciudad.Public transport services operate in a systemic manner and so does everything that moves in the city. Interventions in one of the modes people use to move around affect inevitably the rest. Today, when a new Public Transport Integrated System as Transantiago is operating, whatever its problems, it makes no longer sense to keep making investments in isolated transport projects. It is time to rationalize such investments from a systemic point of view, evaluating them likewise. Large urban transport projects should no longer be the emblematic idea of some individual Government authority. Instead, they should be evaluated and decided upon from the standpoint of a systemic and organized vision of the territory, urban development and mobility, thus better establishing a social optimum of public and private investments. In this way the real common interest of the city dwellers would be better served.

Las grandes ciudades del mundo que han resuelto su problema de transporte público lo han logrado principalmente a la luz de las siguientes dos políticas públicas: una expansión significativa de la red de Metro y trenes urbanos, y una firme regulación en el uso del automóvil. La evidencia empírica a nivel mundial ha permitido constatar que la expansión de redes de Metro genera una reducción mucho más efectiva en el uso del transporte privado que otras medidas como por ejemplo subsidiar la tarifa del transporte público. Adicionalmente, la existencia de una importante red de Metro o trenes urbanos permite aumentar notablemente la efectividad de políticas regulatorias al uso del automóvil, como tarificación vial y gravámenes específicos, entre otras, ya que los automovilistas habituales sí ven en el Metro una alternativa real de transporte, no así en los servicios de buses.Large cities around the world that have successfully addressed their public transport problems have made it mainly through the folio wing two public policies: a significant expansion of the Metro or urban train networks, and a tight regulation of the use of automobiles. Empirical evidence worldwide shows that the expansion of the Metro network produces a much more effective reduction in the use of private transport than alternative policies as for instance subsidizing the tariff of public transport. Besides, the existence of an important Metro or urban train network enlarges the effectiveness of other regulatory policies to the use of automobile, as road pricing and specific taxes, since the users of automobiles see in Metro a reasonable alternative of transport, which is not the case for buses.

En la planificación estratégica de una ciudad un elemento de partida está constituido por la imagen que diversos públicos tienen de la misma. El concepto de imagen de ciudad es multidimensional y no se limita únicamente a aspectos urbanísticos sino que incluye otras dimensiones. El objetivo de este trabajo es conocer qué dimensiones son las que utilizan los líderes de opinión en la formación de dicha imagen. Para ello, se ha llevado a cabo un trabajo de campo en el que a los líderes de opinión externos seleccionados se les pidió que valoraran un conjunto de cuestiones relativas a una determinada ciudad. Tras validar las escalas de medida, se estima un modelo teórico que ayuda a comprender cómo se forma la imagen de una ciudad. La interpretación y las consecuencias que se deducen del modelo complementan el diagnóstico y sugieren actuaciones a realizar para mejorar la imagen de la ciudad.In strategic city planning a starting point is an evaluation of the image of the city from diverse viewpoints. The concept of city image is multidimensional and it is not limited solely to urbanisticfeatures since it includes other dimensions. The objective of this article is to identify the dimensions that opinion leaders use in the formulation of this image. To achieve this, fieldwork was conducted in which selected opinion leaders were asked to value a range of questions relating to the city. Having validated the measurement scales, a theoretical model is constructed to understand how city images are formed. The interpretation and consequences derived from this model complement the diagnostic and lead to actions to undertake to improve a city's imag.

The article describes the circumstances in the field of regional planning in Slovenia where new administrative and spacial organization-regions will be introduced. The new administrative organization will have a great impact on further spatial development of Slovenia. How the long term spatial development will go on dependsnot only on law, but also on the development strategy and development policy based on clear development targets. A new spatial and administrative organization is a good occasion for further development, wich was proved on several good examples introduced several decades before in various parts of the world. New administrative territorial improvements have been done on the base of known main and sectorial aims, strategies and measures. Changes toward better urban and spatial long term development in Slovenia are not possible without adequate measures, policies and strategies. On the contrary, the dispersion of administrative competence without these measures could deteriorate the spatial circumstances.

Este escrito refiere a la evolución de la planeación de ciudades en Portugal, con un énfasis especial en la revitalización del centro de la ciudad. Se identifican cinco períodos, los cuales son: el nacimiento de la planificación de ciudades (antes de 1820), la monarquía constitucional (1820- 1910), el régimen de dictadura (1926-1974), el"tercer movimiento" (1974-1985) y la fase de unión europea (1985-2003). Se argumenta que, a pesar de no haber un lapso directo correspondiente entre desarrollos históricos, los cuatro mayores movimientos internacionales _embellecimiento de la ciudad, renovación de la ciudad, ciudad empresarial y ciudad creativa y sustentable_ todos ellos hicieron su inicio en PortugalThis paper discusses the evolution of city planning in Portugal with a special emphasis on revitalization of city centre. Five periods are identified as: the birth of city planning (before 1820), the constitutional monarchy (1820-1910), the dictatorship regime (1926-1974), the `third wave' (1974-1985), and the European Union phase (1985-2003). I argue that even although there may not be direct temporal correspondence between historic developments, the four major international movements of the city beautiful, urban renewal, urban enterprise, and the sustainable and creative city all made their debut in Portugal

The assessment of the performance of planning is debated. The evaluation of the conformance of a given national planning system with a set of principles is similarly received with critical and favourable remarks. A relevant case study consists of the conformance of European landscape planning practice with the principles of the European Landscape Convention (ELC). Italy incorporated in 2004 the principles of the ELC with the Code on Cultural Assets and Landscape (CL), which opened the way for new laws, tools, observatories and atlases. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the usefulness of an assessment exercise concerning the conformance with the ELC of planning practice in Italy. We scrutinize planning systems and tools established by peripheral administrations, according to a qualitative and comparative framework. We refine our analysis by focusing on 10 most recent cases and identifying critical issues in current landscape planning practice. The results are promising and show that landscape planning in Italy is increasingly in line with the ELC. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The twentieth century witnessed spatial transformations in Brazil and in the United States. The late ingress of Brazil in capitalism determined the pattern of economic growth, distribution of wealth and the shape of regions and cities. The United States privileged position in postwar economy contributed to increase investments and add millions of consumers in domestic market. However, they have some common elements: both experienced industrial decentralization which changed the subnational economic balance; both have adopted urbanization patterns that reinforced social inequalities and both are using similar strategies to face the post-1970`s economic changes. Today, the urban and regional policy have been driven by guidelines that highlight elements such entrepreneurship, good governance as well a friendly land regulation to stimulate economic growth. But, the transplant of practices among countries do not consider its institutional features, political balances or living conditions. In a world supposedly without differences equality was replaced by efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing has assumed a prominent position in current regional planning and development. There is, however, no coherent body of knowledge on how designing contributes to, alters or influences planning processes. Our essay explores a leading example: the contributions of designing to Dutch regional planning and development, and identifies topics for scholarly research that will improve the understanding of design approaches in planning and advance regional design practice. We interviewed stakeholders involved in Dutch regional planning practice and identified eleven contributions of designing: four to the content and seven to the process of planning. An exploration of scholarly literature in landscape architecture and urban design added more depth and understanding to these contributions. We conclude that the long-term scope of regional design means its impacts must also be evaluated over the long term. Moreover, stakeholder involvement in a design process draws attention to the political aspects of designing and the need to develop skills to balance multiple interests. Finally, as designing and planning are never the same in different situations, empirical research and design experiments in different planning settings can reveal which characteristics determine the potential of designing in different planning contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moral issues in urban planning involving technology, residents, marginalized groups, ecosystems, and future generations are complex cases, requiring solutions that go beyond the limits of contemporary moral theory. Aside from typical planning problems, there is incongruence between moral theory and some of the subjects that require moral assessment, such as urban infrastructure. Despite this incongruence, there is not a need to develop another moral theory. Instead, a supplemental measure that is compatible with existing moral positions will suffice. My primary goal in this paper is to explain the need for this supplemental measure, describe what one looks like, and show how it works with existing moral systems. The secondary goal is to show that creating a supplemental measure that provides congruency between moral systems that are designed to assess human action and non-human subjects advances the study of moral theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several scholars, including Pierre-Yves Saunier and Renaud Payre, have studied how the members of the various networks of the ‘urban internationale’ attempted to overcome professional and political cleavages throughout the twentieth century. In contrast, only a few scholars have scrutinized the ways in which international professional institutions sought to prevail over interlingual difficulties. Although various institutions restricted communication to English, French, and German, many members had only a limited command of foreign languages; additionally, amateur interpreters further impeded multilingual conversation. Resulting language difficulties worsened professional and political conflicts within the urban internationale. Charting the attempts of the International Federation for Housing and Town Planning (IFHTP) to establish an international notation of town plans and an interlingual glossary for urban planning, this essay studies attempts of the urban internationale to facilitate communication across borders during the interwar era. Through the example of the IFHTP, this article studies how planners within this international network organized transborder expert cooperation. It focuses on the debates surrounding the creation of a notation system and a glossary, designed to facilitate communication between planners from Western industrial societies while largely excluding connections to the Colonies and other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Finland the construction of post-war neighbourhoods started in 1950, but its ideological background was in the planning of the 1940s. As has been shown, the principles of Anglo-American neighbourhood unit planning and regional planning influence the structural principles that were adopted for neighbourhood units. This paper presents another narrative for the period by analysing the work of the architect Alvar Aalto, who was a pioneer of Finnish regional planning and was significantly active in community planning. After having established good relations with Finnish industry, he got the chance to develop his own community planning principles. They became close to the principles of neighbourhood unit planning but, at the same time, were personal and extended beyond them. This paper examines in closer detail three of Aalto's plans and the way he combined planning and building design. In this way it is possible to better understand the ideas of the 1940s and the importance of Finnish industry during this time. Aalto's activity during the 1940s also explains his success in later decades. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Effective integration across policy domains and between spatial scales is indispensable in dealing with the inherently complex process of policy formulation and implementation at all levels. In this paper, we examine the key features of Ghana's spatial planning system focusing on the mechanisms and challenges of policy integration in practice. We show that a combination of path dependence and recent reforms has inevitably created two distinctly separate planning systems: an established Development Planning System and a newly instituted Spatial Planning System. Under the established notion of the 'spatial' being distinctively separate from the 'socio-economic' in planning, these two systems deploy separate institutional and legal arrangements as well as policy instruments to accomplish the task of planning. Within this context, mechanisms to ensure effective policy integration were found to be weak and ineffective. Moreover, the absence of a tradition of strategic regional planning and a culture of strategic partnerships among local authorities, the lack of appropriate institutional arrangements and sustainable sources of finance and duplicitous institutional functions were the key barriers to effective integration within the new concept of hierarchical spatial planning. We argue that a new paradigm of integrated planning under a unified planning system is urgently needed as a pre-condition for effective multi-level policy integration. We suggest that some forms of institutional restructuring would be necessary to establish a tradition of integrated planning. Finally, we recommend the use of legally binding mechanisms to institutionalize and enforce a culture of strategic alliance among local governments in cross-cutting matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical planning is influenced by a number of variables. The key among these in the Ghanaian context is the system of land governance. This paper attempts to examine the extent to which the decentralised planning system of Ghana is capable of addressing the challenges facing mid-sized cities, particularly under the reformed land governance system. This is important because physical planning in Ghana is organised under a system whereby land is governed and/or owned by authorities other than the state apparatus. Two key questions are the basis for this enquiry-how is physical planning in Ghana conceived and actually executed? What are the characteristics of the reformed land governance system of Ghana and how have these affected decentralised physical planning and spatial governance? A case study approach which enables a detailed and holistic analysis of the phenomenon was used to investigate physical planning practice in a selected mid-sized city in Ghana. The study establishes that physical planning in Ghana is not driven by long-term sustainable development visions; there is the absence of planning concepts, principles and norms; and there is no clear land use regulator. The study recommends that the local government bodies in Ghana take up their responsibility as land use regulators by improving the capacity of their physical planning departments to deliver on their mandate. It is also recommended that physical planning be conducted in a participatory manner within the framework of the National Development Planning (Systems) Act 1994 (Act 480). It is argued that this will imply a move away from 'zoning and rezoning' to strategic spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A growing body of literature suggests that the segregation of infrastructure and urban/regional planning is at the root of contemporary problems facing many of the world's metropolitan areas. More recently, the introduction of new telecommunication infrastructure highlights the invisible borders that exist within critical infrastructure that provide advantages to some areas such as transportation and disadvantages to others. This paper attempts to understand the nature of inter-sectoral and intra-sectoral borders across infrastructure in Australia and the US. It examines the sometimes contradicting market-led vs. government-led models adopted in the two countries to deliver broadband communications and transportation. The findings identify similarities and differences between the two countries, and reiterate that in order to achieve social equity, and enhance the provision of infrastructure to non-profitable areas, government intervention is required. The paper concludes with a call for performance-based policies that go beyond traditional borders in an effort to better address the contemporary wicked planning problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses an argument that spatial planning is a planning practice and provides a tentative framework for developing and integrating a set of theories of spatial planning. It cites 3 kinds of evidence that the expert spatial planner draws on namely the tools, the object and context. It suggests that various types and forms of planning practice invoke different mixes of systematic and appreciative-experiential knowledge in the social co-construction of knowledge involved in planning.

Greenbelts are the best-known growth management policies in Germany. As part of its regional plans, they attempt to keep undeveloped areas permanently open, thus avoiding sprawling, i.e., land consumptive forms of urban development. However, the effectiveness of such land use designations in terms of guiding and limiting urban growth has rarely been the subject of in-depth research. This is the first study to present a GIS-based analysis of the restrictiveness of greenbelt designations in Germany and their impact on urban spatial structure and land use. The key question is to what extent greenbelts actually limit urban growth, both individually and in combination with other policy instruments of open space conservation. Key indicators are the tightness of greenbelts around urban areas and their effect on the regional patterns of urban growth, measured by the increase of built-up areas in contained (the inbound area) and uncontained (outside the greenbelt) communities. Our empirical results for four case study regions suggest that greenbelts are an effective means of open space preservation. The impact of greenbelts on spatial urban structure, however, seems to be limited due to a relatively low degree of tightness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims at analyzing the colonization during fascism in Sicily, Italy in 20th century. Various topics discussed include agricultural reform in Sicily in 1950s, policies of urban planning, political decision making in Sicily, history of Fascist politics, World War I in Italy and land reclamation laws over there.

Urban and regional planning is a complex decision-making process that often involves multiple objectives, especially concerning the purpose of balancing the protection of ecosystems and economic development. We aim to establish a quantitative approach to the recent integrated regional planning in China, known as major function zoning (MFZ), by developing a spatial decision support system (SDSS). The SDSS is developed on the basis of the geographical information system (GIS) which offers powerful functions in spatial analysis and visualization. SDSSs can not only evaluate a variety of geographical features, such as the suitability of land use, but also support the decision makers in choosing, with the participation of stakeholders, between multiple alternatives. This system was applied in a case study of the Beijing – Tianjin metropolitan area by establishing an integrated assessment model of regional development and an index system. Through spatial analysis of different indices developed in group workshops, two alternatives were proposed according to development-oriented and protection-oriented objectives. In the protection-oriented alternative, a higher proportion of area was sited in prohibited zones (28.6%) than in the development-oriented alternative (21.5%); after negotiations with the stakeholders, the former was adopted as the final scheme for MFZ of Beijing – Tianjin metropolitan area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]