Planning and decision-making processes according to the Planning and Building Act

Demolition and deterioration of nature and other valuable areas often occurs following planning and decision-making processes under the Planning and Building Act (PBL). Landfutures Research Area 2 (RA2) therefore assumes that much of the power to control land development in directions that are not sustainable and that contribute to a lot of degradation of nature and other valuable areas lies in planning and decision-making processes under the Norwegian Land Use Plan, and that much of the power to change this also lies in changing such processes.

RA2 will contribute to more sustainable land development and nature conservation by investigating how practices, incentives and systems can be changed in ways that help politicians make decisions that contribute to the destruction and degradation of nature and to unsustainable land development.

Goal

1. Investigate why and how municipal and regional planning and decision-making processes result in unsustainable land development and the degradation of nature and other valuable areas.

2. Investigate what needs to be changed in planning and decision-making processes, incentives and management systems in order to achieve national goals and international obligations related to sustainable land development and nature conservation.

3. Strengthen the ability of county municipalities and state administrators to support and guide municipalities so that planning and decision-making processes under the PBL contribute to a greater extent to more sustainable land development and less degradation of nature and other valuable areas.

RA2 will examine specific planning and decision-making processes through case studies. Two types of planning and decision-making processes are examined: i) Strategic municipal and regional planning and decision-making processes related to spatial planning and nature and ii) Specific development plans proposed by private or public actors related to, for example, energy production, industry, urban sprawl and the development of cottage areas. Both the formal and informal parts of the processes will be included.

Relevant topics in RA2 include regional plans, municipal plans (KPS and KPA), major zoning plans, land use planning, land and nature accounts, land and nature neutrality, impact assessments, risk and vulnerability analyses and formal objections.

Theme

This research area has the following themes:

• Planning and decision-making processes

• Motivation and area reduction

• Sustainable land use management system

• Transformative planning capacity