20.03.2013
Spatial planning is more than just settlement development
Mountain landscapes dominated by agricultural and forest land-uses will
change in the decades ahead. Thus cantons should also pay attention to these
marginal areas when they revise their spatial development plan ("Richtplan") as
part of the implementation of the revised Swiss Federal Spatial Planning Act. This
is an important conclusion of the "Mountland" research project, which
investigated global change impacts in three Swiss mountainous regions under the
supervision of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape
Research WSL.
The revision
of the Swiss Federal Spatial Planning Act implies that cantons must adjust
their spatial development plan ("Richtplan") on cantonal level within the next
five years. Public discussions in this regard focus on the reduction of
oversized construction zones. However, a spatial development plan refers to the
development of space in general and therefore also to areas used for
agriculture and forestry. For cantons in Swiss mountainous regions in
particular these areas are of great economic, environmental and social importance.
Global change impacts pose major challenges for the development of these
landscapes.
Spatial planning should take account of landscape changes
For the development
of Swiss mountainous regions, the revision of spatial development plans should take
account of future changes in the entire landscape i.e. also outside of
settlement areas. The results of the Mountland research project reveal that
climate change and socio-economic developments will lead to major changes in
the three regions investigated i.e. in the central Valais, the Vaud Jura and the
Davos region. Environmental scientists, economists and political scientists
from several research institutes within the ETH-Domain have contributed to this
project over the past four years.
Results imply
that by the middle of the 21st century, the conditions for forest development will
have deteriorated in dry areas such as the central Valais to such an extent that
the forest’s protection against avalanches or rock slides will decrease in
lower-lying areas. In contrast, in higher areas of the Davos region forest
development will lead to an increase of natural hazard protection while at the
same time the recreational value of the landscape and the quality of the
habitats for rare species is likely to decrease. Furthermore, the silvopastoral
landscapes in the Jura, which are characterized by their open grown trees,
climate change and the impacts of the new agricultural policy are likely to
lead to a gradual loss of these traditional landscapes.
Identifying conflict zones in mountain landscapes
To respond to
these challenges, federal and cantonal institutions have already numerous policy
measures at their disposal. The analyses of the “Mountland” research project,
however, show that there is still considerable potential in the coordination of
sectoral policies such as agricultural and forestry policy. Spatial planning
has a key role to play in this regard. First, the definition of new spatial
categories that explicitly relate to conflict zones between agricultural and
forestry activities could serve to facilitate the coordination of individual
environmental, agricultural and forestry policy measures. This would allow the
cantons and municipalities to set priorities in the planning of their mountain
landscapes, so as to be able to make efficient use of scarce tax revenues. This
is of particular importance when cantons and municipalities are planning land
consolidation to make more land available for construction, which is an
important aspect in the revision of the Spatial Planning Act. Second, the
results of "Mountland" point to the need for policy measures adapted to local
conditions i.e. a regionalization of policy measures since the effects of global
change will differ greatly between regions and landscapes. There are only a few
instruments and solutions that may be successfully applied across different mountainous
regions.
Publications
Further information
- Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
CH-8092 Zürich
Tel.: +41 44 633 29 57
Mobile: + 41 79 667 53 31
E-Mail: gret @ nsl.ethz.ch
