Dealing with Sustainability Trade-Offs of the Compact City in Peri-Urban Planning Across European City Regions

Abstract

The compact city has become a leading concept in the planning of peri-urban areas. The compact city concept is often advocated as “sustainable” because of claims that include lower emissions and conservation of the countryside. The literature shows, however, that there are certain trade-offs in striving for compaction, especially between environmental and social aspects of sustainability. In this article, we describe expressions of the compact city concept in the planning practice of several European urban sample regions, as well as policies and developments that contradict the compact city. We look at examples of positive and negative impacts of the compact city that were observed in the sample regions. Further, we discuss attempts by planners to deal with sustainability trade-offs. Being aware that developments in the peri-urban areas are closely connected to those in the inner city, we compare the sample regions in order to learn how the compact city concept has been used in planning peri-urban areas across different contexts in Europe: in Western, Central and Mediterranean Europe, and with growing, stable or declining populations. We conclude with recommendations with respect to balance in applying the compact city concept.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all our co-workers in the case studies who do not appear as co-authors in this paper. In addition, we are grateful to the stakeholders that participated in the research project. We also thank two anonymous reviewers on their insights and useful comments on how to improve the earlier version of this manuscript. The research was done in the Integrated Project PLUREL (Peri-Urban Land Use Relationships – Strategies And Sustainability Assessment Tools For Urban-Rural Linkages) funded by the European Commission through its 6^th Framework, Contract No. 036921. The Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) contributed through Kennisbasis to the writing process of this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Judith Westerink

Current Address: Judith Westerlink, Team Nature and Society, Alterra Wageningen UR, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Dagmar Haase

Current Address: Dagmar Haase, Humboldt University Berlin, Institute of Geography, Germany.

Annette Bauer

Current Address: Annette Bauer, Department of Spatial Planning, Government of Central Franconia, Ansbach, Germany.

Carmen B.E. M. Aalbers

Current Address: Carmen B.E.M. Aalbers, Team Governance, Alterra Wageningen UR, Wageningen, The Netherlands.