| The Netherlands and our country both belong to proactive spatial planning nations,
characterized by the government’s active intervention in spatial development. Since 2008, the
Netherlands has undergone comprehensive deepening of its decentralization reform, streamlining
the division of powers between the central and local authorities. It transitioned from a centralized
vertical spatial planning system to a decentralized parallel one by several means such as
restructuring the spatial planning management department and the superior government giving
up the planning approval power. Therefore, in order to draw lessons from the Netherlands’ reform
experience and inspire the deepening of our country’s territorial spatial planning, this article
takes the Netherlands’ national-provincial-municipal three-tier spatial planning system as a case
study, analyzing the synergistic transmission methods and mechanisms of spatial planning in
the context of decentralization reform. The research shows that the Netherlands’ spatial planning
system in the new era has undergone multidimensional innovations in terms of content formulation,
approval authority, and implementation pathways, building upon the existing “national-provincial municipal” three-tier framework. In the new era, the Netherlands’ spatial planning focuses on
the material living environment, with the environmental vision and environmental planning
serving as important means, while administrative regions and regional agenda areas act as units
of spatial governance. They strengthen the synergy and transmission of spatial planning through
the alignment of objectives, spatial unit designations, and collaborative assessments, considering
both the top-down coherence and the interaction of multi-level cooperation. The material living
environment encompasses ten elements: buildings, infrastructure, water, water management
systems, underground spaces, sky, landscapes, nature, cultural heritage, and world heritage. The
environmental vision serves as a vital medium for aligning objectives and tasks. At the national
level, environmental visions clearly identify key national interests through 21 national priority
issues, allocating responsibilities between the national and local governments accordingly. At the
provincial level, the environmental vision, exemplified by the North Holland Province, aligns with
national interests and converts them into five provincial planning actions, clarifying the focus
of provincial government management and guiding local spatial development visions through
differentiation. At the municipal level, the environmental vision coordinates with provincial actions
to allocate spatial protection and development arrangements. For instance, based on its urban
development positioning and in close conjunction with three provincial actions closely related to
itself, Waterland designates a planning concept prioritizing protection followed by development,
establishing various protective areas and further arranging spatial development themes. Spatial
unit designation serves as an important organizational approach for implementing planning visions.
The Netherlands utilizes administrative regions as spatial units in planning actions, forming
the foundation of the Netherlands’ spatial planning system. To promote multi-level and multi stakeholder cooperation, the Netherlands has also established various regional agenda areas. For
example, the 16 newly created NOVEX regions are important spatial organizational units for implementing the national environmental vision. As an implementable plan, environmental planning plays a crucial role not only in constructing control
rules for the material living environment but also in coordinating with and supporting diverse spatial policies or planning at different levels and categories.
In the case of the Waterland environmental planning pilot studied in this article, it underwent coordination and assessment with spatial policies at five
levels: supra-national, national, provincial, regional, and municipal. Overall, the collaborative transmission of spatial planning in the new era of the
Netherlands demonstrates several insightful characteristics. Firstly, in terms of planning effectiveness, the environmental vision functions as a strategic
guiding plan, while environmental planning serves as a control and implementation-oriented plan. Secondly, based on the object of planning, namely
the material living environment, each level of government has distinct areas of focus and responsibilities. Thirdly, in terms of planning transmission and
coordination, the central government in the Netherlands empowers authorities by emphasizing five planning objectives and 21 national priority issues,
while provincial and municipal governments actively engage in hierarchical alignment through spatial objectives, planning actions, agenda areas, and
coordination assessments. Fourthly, concerning the direction of planning reform, it demonstrates a shift towards multi-level cooperation and governance
under the overarching principle of streamlining the power delegation process. Although it is still too early to evaluate the effectiveness of the Netherlands’
spatial planning reform, insights can be drawn for our country’s territorial spatial planning: first, it should promote the operation and transmission of
territorial spatial planning in a combination of retract and release, including the “tightening” of the control requirements of the bottom line of national land
spatial development and protection, the “tightening” of the planning approval power of the simplified procedure, the “loosening” of the local government’s
power of planning interpretation, the “loosening” of the planning management mode; second, it should strengthen diversified spaces unit design and
planning arrangements, explore the formation of two types of space units, administrative districts and special districts; third, it needs to speed up the
formation of a territorial planning system that matches rights, responsibilities, and benefits, attaching importance to relevant work such as emphasizing
planning legislation, compiling lists of responsibilities for governments at all levels, and refining township planning. |
