LUMASEC Event on Occurrence of urban sprawl and information

Steering the urban use of land by giving planning permission is one of the oldest instrumentsof municipalities to govern their urban history. By giving planning permission or selling land,municipalities are initiating building activities and stimulating urban development. This workssince decades and has become a “classical instrument” of urban planning. It was and still isa key instrument of municipalities to manage urban development.

However, challenges like creating an EU market, globalisation or climate change causeimpacts far beyond the municipal control. So this and other “classical instruments” are notsufficient any more to tackle today’s challenges. The focus point shifts from steeringdevelopment to initiating development within the set framework. The steering of land use hasbeen opened up by a “management component” to become land use management forsustainable cities. This management component ties on the one hand links to stakeholderswithin and outside a city department to initiate urban development. And on the other hand themanagement component causes a focus on inner urban development like brownfields ordeprived areas in addition to growth of the urban settlement structure. Within this theallocation of land still remains a key factor for urban development, but it becomes a part of amanagement process instead of a final point.