POLICY PERSPECTIVE
The main aim of the policy perspective is to identify Transnational Needs and Challenges.
The identification of transnational needs and challenges in regard to spatial development in the Alpine Space will be based on an analysis of relevant transnational and national documents and selected relevant research results as well.
Therefore the meaning of two terms have a crucial influence on results:
A)Sustainable Spatial Development (SSD)
Spatial development is a really multi-faceted task that integrates all spatially relevant aspects of sectoral policies and processes. Sustainable spatial development is the attempt to transfer the general sustainability objectives to spatial development, by this bridging the gap between the concept of sustainability and its spatial implications (cf. Marzelli, Lintzmeyer & Schwarz 2008). According to Keiner (2005) the following objectives in can be considered as such a concretisation of sustainable spatial development objectives:
- Densify settlements and economically use land resources
- Reduce traffic through co-ordination of urban development and public transport and promote environmentally compatible tourism
- Safeguard environmental quality and protect the population from immissions and risks from waste treatment, disposal and natural hazards
- Protect, promote and establish links between unintersected and semi-natural stretches of land
- Decentrally concentrate economic activities, central-place-functions and settlement nodes
- Secure access to land as a factor of production in centres of economic development
- Efficiently use energy
- Safeguard access to basic infrastructural needs of energy and communication
- Secure cultural landscapes through agriculture that operates nature-oriented
- Protect valuable architectural ensembles of villages and landscape
What are for the Alpine area most relevant transnational topics of SSD ?
B)Transnational approaches What does it mean to speak of a transnational dimension?
The INTERREG III programme (cf. Dosch et al. 2005, pg. 662) defined a clear cross-border/transnational character of activities – which is true also for the Alpine Space Programme.
A transnational dimension is given if operations and activities have been
- jointly selected and
- implemented in two or more member states or associates,
- or implemented in only one state, but are significantly affecting other member states or associates.
While the first two criteria are relatively easy to verify, the latter may be difficult to assess and even more to quantify e.g. in the case of flood protection or transport infrastructure.
The relevance of transnational activities for spatial development is also expressed in the objectives of the Alpine Convention Protocol on Spatial Development Article 4. Consequently, transnational needs and requirements of spatial development would refer to
- spatially relevant issues that require activities of two or more member states
- or to needs or activities of one member state that have far-reaching consequences that also affect other member states or such consequences can be obviously concluded from the type of activity.
The documents analysed are listed in the article Document & Sources.
Outcomes
The outcomes of transnational and national doucments are presented along some central key questions of such a transnational sustainable spatial development:
- Which type and dimension of transnational operations are documents dealing with?
- What are added values of transnational spatial development expected in these documents ?
- What are obstacles for transnational spatial development observed for a transnational SSD ?
- What are proposals and good examples transnational spatial development referred to in the documents ?
- What are key stakeholders for transnational spatial development and the topics in the documents ?
Find answers on these key questions following further the links above!
These transnational needs and challenges may in a later stage also be used as a methodological tool in the project analysis to assess which of the needs and challenges are being addressed in Alpine Space projects and which of these have been unrepresented.