Spatial Planning: Indicators to Assess the Efficiency of Land Consumption and Land-Use

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the importance of socio-environmental efficiency indicators for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in spatial development planning. Although environmentally inefficient settlement development structures are resulting in an ongoing unsustainable use of land-resources, even the new instrument of SEA has its limitations to promote the necessary structural changes in spatial development planning. The chapter starts with a description of the spatial development trends in Germany and introduces the national sustainability target concerning efficiency of land-use for settlements and traffic. Based on current urban growth research, Section 17.3 offers a detailed overview of available indicators that can describe the efficiency of regional and urban spatial structures in relation to land use and land consumption. Section 17.4 verifies the relevance of these indicators in relation to contrasting urban development models. Section 17.5 gives conclusions and recommendations for the German spatial planning framework, promoting the use and integration of indicator-related socio-environmental data to assess the efficiency of zoning of new developments for residential areas and traffic infrastructures in SEA procedures in regional planning.