Recent advances in sustainable multifunctional land and urban management in Europe: a review

Abstract

This review discusses high impact research in sustainable urban and land management. The focus is on large European projects that have a holistic and multi-disciplinary assessment approach towards the total environment. This paper clearly indicates that many projects propose decision-making tools partly supported by numerical models. Successful projects were identified as applying the following criteria: a communicative and holistic approach involving economic, environmental and social sciences throughout the project; sufficient geographic coverage; engagement of stakeholders from a wide variety of sectors; and plans for dissemination of project outcomes and active knowledge sharing.

Keywords:

• environment
• integration
• planning
• policy
• research consortia
• stakeholder involvement

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding and support received from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Union (Knowledge from Science to SOcietieS (KNOSSOS) project funded by Framework 7), the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (Globe) Europe, Globe European Union and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (replacing the Club of Rome). Sponsors had no part in performing the review. Particular thanks go to Thierry Lucas (UNEP) for coordinating sponsor feedback regarding earlier versions of this review paper and to Andy Hollis for proof-reading the paper. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of any party who has supported the work.