Regional Environmental Planning

Regional environmental planning can be either a statutory process or a less formal one, undertaken, in either case, by subnational scales of government to promote sustainable development within their jurisdiction. Planning regulations and procedures were formalized in developed countries during the 20th century as a means of controlling land use. Proposed changes to land use (e.g., building a road or constructing domestic or industrial premises) were made subject to a review process under the auspices of the local government and with opportunity for public participation. This was effectively a form of environmental governance, before either popular or institutional concern for the environment became commonplace. These procedures are still fundamental to land use regulation but have been enveloped in a complex multiscalar framework designed to contribute more actively to the promotion of sustainable development. This entry focuses on the formal process of regional environmental planning, as seen in the European Union concept of spatial planning, using the practice of the United Kingdom as an example. It briefly reviews other practices and relevant scholarly work.

Increasing interest in environmental issues since the 1970s has coincided with an era of enhanced governmental involvement in the promotion of economic development at the regional and local scales. Reconciling these interests, alongside social considerations (both the provision of essential services and spatial equity in the distribution of economic activities are seen as undesirable neighbors), is fundamental to the promotion of sustainable development. The concept of spatial planning, as institutionalized in the European Union (EU), was designed to accomplish this. Spatial planning is in part a matter of provision of services needed for existing and projected development (e.g., schools, transport, hospitals, energy generation, waste, minerals), recommending where within the jurisdiction of the plan relevant facilities should be located and also minimizing the impact of necessary development on the environment at both the site of development and beyond. Importantly, the various services should be considered in an integrated fashion—that is, the planning should involve cooperation both between different local authorities and also between different areas of responsibility, both within and between local authorities.

The “region” can vary in scale according to context from the subnational to multinational and might or might not be politically defined. The EU vision of spatial planning considers both supranational regions within the EU and subnational regions within the member states. In the United Kingdom, a subnational regional scale for planning was established with the creation of the Regional Assemblies. The presently recognized regions (devolved administrations and groups of preexisting local government units [i.e., county councils and unitary authorities] within England) were defined for the purposes of both economic development and regional planning by the creation of the Regional Development Agencies Act of 1998. Although presently subject to reorganization, the regional scale continues to be the level of governance at which spatial planning is based through the medium of the Regional Single Strategy. The latter involves the cooperation of multiple local authorities as well as nongovernmental organizations (Table 1) and forms the context within which more detailed planning occurs at [Page 2385]the local authority level and for specific services. Regional and local authorities are required to undertake appraisals of the environmental impact of their plans under a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive. Proposals for specific developments (e.g., a wind energy farm or wastewater treatment facility) are then subjected to the more internationally widespread practice of environmental impact assessment.

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