VI - World Planning Schools Congress

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Open Access
Agglomeration benefits and polycentric growth: envisioning an efficient central metropolitan area in Belgium
(AESOP, 2016) Boussauw, Kobe; van Meeteren, Michiel; Sansen, Joren; Storme, Tom
In Flanders (Belgium), the regional government engages itself to develop an efficient ‘metropolis Flanders’, which is large enough to assume an important economic position in the network of urban regions of the north-western European delta. The heart of this urban agglomeration is the metropolitan core area that comprises roughly the functional space of the quadrangle Brussels-Leuven-Antwerp-Ghent, also known as the ‘Flemish Diamond’ (Albrechts & Lievois, 2004). This densely populated core area is well accessible and embedded in the European context, but experiences a variety of pressures. For example, a large portion of the predicted population growth of Flanders and Brussels is expected to settle in this area. As a consequence, the development of a ‘metropolis Flanders’ should be based on solid strategic planning policies. The current paper reports on a research project (Van Meeteren et al., 2015), aimed at determining whether the defined metropolitan area operates as a well-integrated urban agglomeration, and at developing a spatial vision on strengthening this metropolitan core area through a stakeholder debate. We make this analysis respectively with regards to the labour market, the housing market, and the transport sector (with the emphasis on public transport). The study is positioned within the guidelines as set out by the Green Paper on Spatial Policy in Flanders (Flemish Government, 2012), meaning that the emphasis will be put on the ability to support a spatial visioning process, rather than aiming for an exhaustive spatial analysis. The exercise is carried out in a complex institutional context. Boussauw et al. (2013) indicate that the central-Belgian metropolitan area spreads out across three administrative regions (Flanders, Brussels Capital Region, and Wallonia), with the Dutch-French language border as a very strong barrier within some subsystems (e.g. within a range of public services), but nonetheless negligible in many other subsystems (e.g. international businesses).
Open Access
Comparative study of social and environmental perspectives in the development and management of resilient micro regions: the Itajaí Valley (Brazil) and the Seine Basin (France)
(AESOP, 2016) Torres Moraes, Sergio
In Brazil, the regional development shows concerning deficiencies in awareness of social, environmental and economic relations in the planning and management of territorial structures. Despite the development of new approaches to planning and legal land management tools, planning of most Brazilian cities and regions have not yet considered important aspects such as, macro-drainage studies or geotechnical and environmental vulnerability maps (Tucci and Bertoni, 2003). There is also a gap in the development of rural income programs, housing and effective social inclusion, thus facilitating the occupation of urban and rural areas subject to risk and increasing environmental and social vulnerability of the population. Thus, the understanding of the need to develop skills to deal with crisis and shortages of all kinds within a process of development in Brazilian cities and regions lead us to the purpose of this article: to contribute to a thought on the possible construction of strategies and guidelines for structuring a governance system able to develop resilient territories.
Open Access
Rural planning: comparing India and Canada
(AESOP, 2016) Agrawal, Sandeep
Rural communities help fuel economies of many countries and in some cases the national character. Most importantly, they carry the weight of feeding the world. But their issues and challenges do not get the attention they deserve. Rural economies, large and small, all over the world are dealing with the same issues – pressures of urbanization, international trade, environmental stress, and out-migration. This study compares rural areas in two countries, one is developing and the other is developed, namely, India and Canada, respectively. The Canadian focus is on one province i.e. Alberta as the situation varies considerably from province to province. Despite varying levels of urbanization, rural communities remain critical to the economic, social and environmental fabric of both countries. Interesting sets of similarities and differences that we find can help us understand the rural communities better and potentially derive some helpful lessons and policy solutions. One important common thread between the two countries is a strong governance system in their respective rural areas. India’s 74th Constitutional Amendment created a Panchayat Raj system, which is a strong system of governance in which gram panchayats (village councils) are the basic unit of local administration. Canada’s rural governance has two tier system of local government: one is upper tier regional government which consists of several municipalities including rural areas in between, grouped together under a single regional administrative and political structure. The other is rural local government that is responsible for physical and social services, housing, taxation and other local economic development. The most common form of rural municipality in the province of Alberta is a municipal district, also known as counties in other parts of Canada.
Open Access
Strategic planning practice in a global perspective: the Case of Guangzhou, China
(AESOP, 2016) Xie, Shuyi
As the vital city in south China since the ancient time, Guangzhou has been losing its leading role among the rising neighboring cities, especially, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, since the late 1980s, with the overloaded infrastructure and deteriorating urban environment in its old inner city. Fortunately, with the new expansion of the administrative area in 2000, the municipality of Guangzhou considered it as an unprecedented great opportunity for future development to solve a series of alarming urban problems. Thus, for the first time, strategic planning was introduced to China by the municipality for providing more convincing and scientific basis towards better urban future, as the first attempt in China. Differed from traditional Chinese planning practices, which rigidly and dogmatically focused on future blueprints, the strategic planning of Guangzhou proceeded from analyzing practical challenges and opportunities towards establishing reasonable developing objectives and proposing corresponding strategies. Moreover, it was pioneering that the municipality invited five planning institutions for proposals, among which, the paper focuses on the one proposed by China Academy of Urban Planning & Design from its theoretical basis to problems’ defining and analyzing process, as well as planning results.
Open Access
The impacts of returning rural labors on the demands of public service facilities in county towns in Central China
(AESOP, 2016) Wanshuchang, Hu; Yun, Qian
Urban-rural migration has been one of the hot topics during the rapid urbanization era in China. Several decades on, millions of rural labors in China have migrated from Central China to the coastal cities. While in recent years due to higher living cost and decreasing job opportunities in coastal industries, an increasing number of urban-rural migrants went back to their hometown. They are called ‘returning rural labors’ in this paper. Majority of them settle down in the county towns rather than their original rural villages, which might generate dramatic changes on these county towns, especially in the central provinces such as Anhui. Preliminary surveys in these county towns reveal that the demands of most returning rural labors on public service facilities are different to original county residents, which could be the most vital consequences by the returning rural labors. Although some existing research findings have focused on the returning rural labors, there is few of thorough investigation and analysis on the influences on the demands of public service facilities by the massive returning rural labors. Currently, the provision of public service facilities in these county towns follows the same way of the other county towns, usually according to the inflexible standards of national codes such as the “index of one thousand person”, which can hardly match the real social demands of the county towns with very large number of returning rural labors.
Open Access
Regional planning in Brazil: past and present
(AESOP, 2016) Tavares, Hermes Magalhães
Brazil, in the global scenario, is a typical example of unequal development. The Southeast region, strongly industrialized, has a level of development much higher than peripheral regions such as the Northeast and North. This is subject of this work, which is focused in the politics of regional planning in Brazil. This study deals with the evolution of the regional planning politics in Brazil and discusses some key questions of this process, mainly those related to the present moment. Brazil has a long experience in this field, which is explained by some important features: an extent territorial area of 8.5 millions of km2; an historical process of occupation and development which caused accentuated social and territorial inequality; and the fact that one of his macro-regions – the Northeast – has 2/3 of the his space (900,000 km2) submitted to periodic droughts, with strong impact on the poorer population. During decades the regional planning in matter was directed to the Northeast, which was considered the “problem region” of the country, resulting in a macro-regional planning approach. Since 2007, the country adopted a national politics of regional planning. It means to follow a politic that no more search to reach a macro-region, but multiple “meso-regions” dispersed in the entire territory. The research which supports this study aimed to answer questions related to two moments: that of the macro-regional politics and their consequences; and that of the “meso-regions” and their future perspectives.
Open Access
Paradigms in conflict: new perspectives for the regional development in the Brazilian Semiarid region
(AESOP, 2016) Kraus, Lalitá; dos Santos Vitorino Costa, Aldenilson
This article presents the political project of coexistence with the Brazilian Semiarid (CSA), which is being developed and defended by a regional network in order to lead to new policies and a new paradigm of development. The objective of the article is to analyse the conception of regional development inner to this new paradigmatic proposal, showing that a more socially just development is possible in the region. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in the Brazilian semiarid region lives 13% of the national population and it represents 11% of the Brazilian territory. Here we can find 60% of the Brazilian population that lives in extreme poverty condition and half of its population (more than ten million people) has no income or merely depends on governmental benefits. The region is characterized by a social structure based on a concentration of wealth, income, water and land. At the same time, it is an area susceptible to a threatening desertification process. It is characterized by economic stagnation, dependence on government resources and low human development index. This poses the urgent need for public policies that can reverse this dramatic situation.
Open Access
A Critical evaluation of the latest regional planning efforts in Turkey
(AESOP, 2016) Dedekorkut-Howes, Aysin; Kaya, Nursen; Howes, Michael
There are a series of problems and issues planners face that are best dealt with at a regional scale such as air quality, water quality, habitat protection, transportation planning, urban sprawl (land use and growth management), economic development and social equity (Wheeler, 2000). However, regional planning is easier said than done. Planning usually occurs within administrative boundaries but economic development and environmental systems transcend these. Most of the time political boundaries do not reflect an economically, ecologically and socially functional region (Calthorpe and Fulton, 2001). When the region is ill-defined planning may not achieve its goals. Planning powers and authority are usually fragmented among competing local governments and agencies with different missions. The new millennium saw the first systematic regional planning efforts in Turkey to guide development. While there have been regional plans since 1960s these have been ad hoc, on a needs basis. The purpose of the earlier plans was to bring some order into the development taking place outside municipal boundaries due to the rapid population growth. However, these plans were not well defined by law at the time resulting in unceasing arguments over the function, content, scale, quality, legal basis of the plans as well as the responsibility and authority to make them (Tekinbaş, 2001).
Open Access
Ecological intervention as catalyst for rural development: a case study of Yingdong Village in Chongming world-class eco-island
(AESOP, 2016) Chen, Haisu; Yang, Tianren; Zhang, Yisha
Chongming, the third largest island in the north-east Shanghai in China, has strategic significances in Shanghai’s regional development offering a large amount of greenland and farmland. With the completion of a new bridge in Chongming which connects Shanghai Central City and Jiangsu Province, the local government plan to turn Chongming from a rural area to an urban area for creating more industry revenue. Now it is facing with contradiction between ecological protection and industry development, between urbanization and localization, especially when it claimed to be a world-class eco-island since years before. All the villages in the world are facing the same difficult choice: to be a rural area with decreasing population and depression or to be an urban area by destroying the natural resources. Yingdong Village is located in the eastern part of Chongming county, which is built by reclamation during the 1980s-1990s. Nowadays, it aims to be an ecological village with great development in agricultural and tourism industries. It is awarded as ‘national ecological exemplary countryside’ in the mid-2000s. It is an excellent reference for other villages in Chongming or even in China. For a better understanding of it, the authors take interviews and field research in Yingdong Village. Hence, this paper gives a case study of Yingdong Village from three parts.
Open Access
Fishing as survival strategy of urban resident of small cities at the delta of Amazon River
(AESOP, 2016) dos Santos Valota, Ed Carlos; Fonseca da Costa, Sandra Maria
The economy of floodplain is based mainly on fishing, logging, ranching and agriculture. Its vegetation of flooded forests and weeds in lakes provide food and shelter for aquatic and terrestrial life, as well as natural pastures. There, in the lowland areas, survive about 1.5 million inhabitants, known as riparian zone, making use of its resources. Some of the residents living in urban areas, especially in floodplain sites, have a rural way of life due to the practice of extraction, featuring the country in urban and vice versa. Several Amazonian cities are located in the forest, located along of large rivers and drained by numerous small streams. In the city of Ponta de Pedras, located in the Marajó Island, in the Amazon Delta region, a riverside rural population triggered the Local Authorities in order to occupy a space in the city, because their children needed to have access to school and families also needed access to basic infrastructure (water, electricity and sewerage). More than a third of the urban area of the city of Ponta de Pedras sits on floodplain area bordering the river Armazém and Marajo-Açu River. This place is known popularly by Carnapijó neighborhood, however, this information is not official but a name made by the residents through a popular consensus. The Carnapijó neighborhood has riverside town characteristics more intensively, for instance its streets connected to the river (ending or going against it), than other places of the city. This place has its own dynamics connected to the Amazon region’s, influenced by tide dynamic. The urban occupation of this neighborhood has grown over the years; however, the characteristics of the local residents have also changed, little, but changed. Earlier people who were living there were fishermen.
Open Access
The “false bottom” of EU regional policy? The potential detachment of regional policy funding and regional planning strategies
(AESOP, 2016) Purkarthofer, Eva
Looking at the sectoral policies the European Union has a mandate for, regional policy (recently mainly addressed as cohesion policy) can be regarded the most relevant for spatial planning. Though regional policy was never seen as part of what is commonly understood as European spatial planning, its explicit spatial dimension and territorial organization suggest a connection with spatial planning, first and foremost with planning at the urban and regional level. The character of this connection, however, differs between member states and changes with every cohesion policy reform. The 2006 reform seemingly diluted the spatial dimension of regional policy in favor of the objectives of growth, jobs and competitiveness (Dühr, Colomb, & Nadin, 2010). At the same time, however, the reform established sustainable urban development as eligible element in the course of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This was emphasized even more in the subsequent reform in 2013, which stipulated that at least 5% of each country’s ERDF resources shall be allocated to integrated actions for sustainable urban development (European Union, 2013). Although the impact of this regulation will only be visible in a few years’ time, evaluations and academic research from previous programming periods have confirmed that the effects of regional policy go beyond socio-economic impacts, triggered by the sheer redistribution of money within the EU. Instead, regional policy is also affecting spatial planning and planning actors through the ideas on strategic planning, integrated development, partnership, evaluation and the exchange of know-how and best practice that it promotes.
Open Access
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
(AESOP, 2016) Randolph, Rainer
We are publishing here the extended abstracts presented at the IV WPSC. Those which were discussed in the Track Sessions, as well as a considerable number of contributions in Plenary and Special Sessions and Roundtables. Farnak Miraftab´s Opening Keynote “Insurgency, planning and the prospect of a humane urbanism” was published (in portuguese) in ANPUR´s journal Revista Brasileira de Estudos Urbanos e Regionais (Brazilian Journal of Urban and Regional Studies), v.18, n. 3 (2016), p. 363-377 (http://rbeur.anpur.org.br/rbeur/article/view/5499). It is our conviction that these texts reflect an important panorama of ideas, thoughts, experiences and practices of the nearly 600 researchers, scientists, students and practioneers who attended the congress in Rio de Janeiro with the aim to have an unique opportunity to discuss the matter of planning with colleagues from all over the world. As it puts our colleague Carlos Balsas in the conclusions he wrote about his experiences by participating the discussions at the congress: “Attention was directed at the need to look forward to more planning not less, more planning research not less, and more educational opportunities to strengthen urban and regional planning. … Alternative paradigms based on the radical deconstruction of prevailing knowledge sets and philosophies by some of those living in southern and northern hemispheres are making positive strides and can be confidently further developed”
Open Access
Spatial analysis of city network chracteristics on internet information flow in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, China
(AESOP, 2016) Zhang, Yisha; Chen, Haisu
The conventional methods of analyzing city networks are mostly based on the economic or demographic statistics, which are often criticized for data missing and lack of relational data that can indicate the connections between cities. Meanwhile, another upcoming difficulties is how to make a quantitative distinct expression of the strengthened interaction and interdependence between cities with the advent of globalization, information and developed communication network. In this paper, qualitative and quantitative research are made to study the network relationship between cities through the construction of intercity information flow network under the background of regionalization and the networking information. Internet searching indexes from the main searching engines in China like Baidu’s Index, 360’s so Index and Sina’s Weibo Index are used as a quantitative method to construct the regional urban information flow network, reflecting the exposure rates of selected keyword from most Chinese users on the Internet and visualizing the intercity relationship, and analyze the city network characteristics and influencing factors of one of the three "growth pole" areas in China —— “Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei” urban agglomeration, which was preliminarily built up as pilot trenchant since the early period of the Republic of China with clear hierarchy and close links to the business of urban network system and used to be one of the fast-developing regions in the modern history of China’s urbanization but now seems to have encountered the bottleneck of economic development comparatively.
Open Access
New operational programmes and governance - reducing or deepening peripheralization in Central and Eastern Europe
(AESOP, 2016) Raagmaa, Garri
One of the horizontal principles of Structural Funds (SF) states that “each Member State shall in accordance with its institutional and legal framework organise a partnership with the competent regional and local authorities“ (EU 2013, 341). This derives from the overall target of reducing regional differences. The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the new Operational Programmes (2014–2020) of the EU Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states are better equipped to reduce regional disparities and involve local and regional authorities in policy making: whether they learned from the previous (2007–2013) period and initiated changes in the policy framework. There should be serious concerns among regional policy makers of CEE countries, where national spatial polarization has sharpened over the last decade. This situation is somewhat paradoxical because CEE benefited several times more from the EU extensive cohesion and common agricultural policy transfers; SF form the lion’s share of their public investments since 2004. CEE countries jumped on the globalization and Europeanization train in the early 1990s. As a result, new declining regions have emerged and already existing patterns of spatial differentiation have intensified (Gorzelak & Goh 2010, Artelaris et al 2010). DGP per capita and migration data show strong and gradually growing polarization between main metropolitan areas and the rest of the countries. Most affected are remote rural regions and some industrial agglomerations.
Open Access
Designing a framework of indicators to assess regional sustainability and form spatial planning priorities
(AESOP, 2016) Lazoglou, Miltiades; Vagiona, Dimitra
Sustainable development is the “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987). Its main priorities are to enhance economic development, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection (Leiserowitz et al., 2006) by linking what should be sustained (e.g., resources) with what should be developed (e.g., infrastructure) and the emphasis has often differed from extremes of “sustain only” to “develop mostly” to various forms of “and/or” (Kates et al., 2005). Many studies acknowledged the role of spatial planning in this process (Brackhahn B., & Kärkkäinen 2001; Adams et al., 2012; Nadin & Stead, 2008). Indicators provide the possibility to find economic, social and environmental impediments and are also useful tools to communicate ideas, thoughts and values (Kaptagaeva, 2013). Therefore, they are the most appropriate means to measure the level of sustainability of an area and to promote relevant policies (UN, 1992). It is profound though that using indicators to evaluate the level of sustainability requires constant feedback information and data spatially and timely focused (Vagiona et al., 2010).
Open Access
Planning and peri-urban spaces: a case study
(AESOP, 2016) Conti, Alfio; Sosa, Florencia; Andrade Oliveira, Amanda
The current Brazilian urban landscape is not very attractive, be it because of the high costs of living associated with housing, as well as transportation between cities, or because of the worsening quality of life. Due to these negative circumstances and the presence of a strong regional network of highways, rural spaces are becoming more and more attractive for people who live and work in metropolitan areas, creating regional decentralization among people and operations, allowing new forms of living in rural areas that are more and more urban. The urban diffusion or metropolization of territories (INDOVINA, 1998) is relatively new to Brazil, as exemplified by medium-sized cities (AMORIM 2007, AMORIM, RIGOTTI, CAMPOS 2007) as strategic players in this phenomenon, due to the high adaptability of the individual characteristics of each region (CONTI, 2013). These new processes transform and redefine transportation patterns, housing options, as well as the localization of the productive, commercial and service sectors, in addition to the reasons and tendencies associated with the territorial distribution of peri-urban areas (CICCOLELLA, 2012). In this new reality, there’s a gap between the urban diffusion of the territory, and the instruments of local and regional planning and land use. These tools have not yet succeeded in assimilating the changes in course that have presented themselves in the absence of urban strategies that take into account both the transformation of this space, as well as the absence of regulatory instruments. The hypothesis of this study argues that the main tendency of the process of urban growth in peri-urban areas is tied to the logic of the very market that takes advantage of the pressures of urbanization, and above all, of the inadequacy of the regulations as well as urban and regional planning at a regional scale.
Open Access
Spatial planning systems in Latin America: towards an international comparative perspective
(AESOP, 2016) Galland, Daniel; Elinbaum, Pablo
Spatial planning systems refer to the set of administrative, technical and juridical processes to manage urban and territorial dynamics within specific national contexts (Mazza, 1996; Healey, 1997). As such, spatial planning systems and policies influence spatial development through land-use planning and other regulatory means (CEC, 1997; Newman & Thornley, 1996). Their character is often described in relation to legally established objectives, tools and procedures that form part of national planning systems (Alterman, 2001; Nadin & Stead, 2008), which vary widely across national, sub-national and urban scales. Besides their technical, administrative and juridical dimensions within the public domain [i.e. planning as an institutional technology (Mazza, 1996)], spatial planning systems should also be addressed from their institutional dimension (Janin Rivolin, 2012). For the purposes of analysing and comparing planning systems from an international perspective, aspects such as the interaction between public and private spheres, economic development, social complexity and the diversity of stakeholder interests and values turn out essential. In other words, the diversity of spatial planning systems and policies that influence spatial development processes is not only shaped by the plurality of legal-administrative and technical arrangements, but also by an array of internal and external driving forces such as social models (Nadin & Stead, 2008), planning cultures (Knieling & Othengrafen, 2009) and governance traditions, amongst other dimensions.
Open Access
Assessment of "social" and "economic" sustainability in peri-urban territories: a proposal of methodological framework and its application to Lisbon Metropolitan Area
(AESOP, 2016) Costa, Pedro; Pinto, Teresa Costa; Ferreiro, Fátima; Bernardo, Fátima; Colaço, Conceição; Santos, Sebastião; Lopes, Ricardo; Coelho, Rosa
Carried out within the framework of the multidisciplinary research project PERIURBAN (Peri-urban areas faced with the challenges of sustainability: developing scenarios for Lisbon Metropolitan Area) this article aims to propose, discuss and implement criteria for assessing the sustainability of peri-metropolitan territories at the social and economic level, starting from its application to the specific case of 5 parishes in Lisbon Metropolitan area. The peri-urban territories have gained a renewed interest in contemporaneity, in the face of the challenges of sustainability. However, the exploitation of its potential requires an approach that goes beyond the classic urban perspectives of a space to be consolidated and (re)developed. To that extent, a more comprehensive perspective is required, focused on their specific needs and their particular aptitude to contribute to an increase of the life quality of the population. Recognizing that the opportunity of these territories lies in the ability to integrate multiple sectoral policies and visions in the territorial planning process, the PERIURBAN project intended to develop scenarios with a view to identifying the main constraints and potentialities of the peri-urban areas, with the active cooperation of the stakeholders involved in its change.
Open Access
Living the urban periphery in Gauteng, South Africa
(AESOP, 2016) Sarah Charlton1*,; Harrison, Philip; Rubin, Margot; Todes, Alison; Goodfellow, Tom; Meth, Paula
African cities are often claimed to be sprawling, with peripheral growth being seen in rather polemical terms: either involving the marginalization of the poor to the city edge or the construction of exclusive elite enclaves, disconnected from the rest of the city. This paper argues for considered research which is specifically focused on the peripheries of urban areas in Africa, and makes the case for a particular methodological approach to this exploration. It uses the case of the Gauteng City Region in South Africa to illuminate what these urban peripheries and this method brings into focus. Whilst there are some studies that point to complex spatial change on the urban edges of cities in Africa (see for example Todes 2014; Doan and Oduro 2012), research has often tended to overlook peripheral areas or focus on a donor-driven conception of the ‘peri-urban’ concerned primarily with changes to land use and agriculture (Mbiba and Huchzermeyer 2002). Yet it is increasingly apparent that the edges of many large cities and city-regions in Africa are spaces of complex urban transformations encompassing multiple processes of spatial change. In some, large-scale formal investment in housing and economic activity is evident historically and currently. In others, the growth is mainly happening through informal land development or a complex mixing of formal and informal processes. But there are also places of decline in local economies and population, and so theoretical framings which focus only on growth are misleading. While “new centralities” which offer prospects for employment and livelihood are emerging in some localities, governance is often weaker and more fragmented on the edge than in the core, which can produce inequalities in capacity and strategic direction.
Open Access
How is the Regional Planning Strategy, a new tool in the planning and building act 2008, been implemented in Norwegian counties? To what degree is the regional planning strategy functioning according to the planning and building acts’ intentions?
(AESOP, 2016) Higdem, Ulla; Hagen, Aksel
The new Planning and Building Act of Norway (PBA) from 2008, introduced a new tool in regional planning, named the Regional Planning Strategy (RPS) (PBA 2008). This paper aims at evaluating how this new tool is understood, interpreted and implemented as practices. The evaluation is conducted as a part of, but also as a supplementary research project to the comprehensive evaluation EVAPLAN2008 of the planning section of PBA. EVAPLAN2008 revolves around the extent to which PBA works in line with the intentions of local and regional planning. Planning legislation in Europe is constantly changing, ranging from adjustments to major amendments (Miljøverndepartementet 2007-2008). A common feature is a call for coherence and comprehensiveness enabled by strategic planning (Salet and Faludi 2000). Our RSP evaluation of the Norwegian adaption to this European trend will contribute to a broader understanding of how the concept of strategic planning is understood and implemented within different institutional contexts. We will draw lessons learned from relevant evaluations in European countries, and in particular from countries that have similar planning strategy provisions, such as Denmark (Sehested, Groth, and Caspersen 2008).