What will be the role of the spatial planner concerning the circular economy? Which are the planning instruments she or he can use? For the VRP congress, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the establishment Spatial Structural Plan of Flanders, David Dooghe was asked to shortly reflect on these questions.
Concept Spatial Structural Plan of Flanders 1997
Lessons from the congress
The great urgency for a sustainable use of space. Dare to pose the question: "What do you want as a city?" Create partnerships between the government and the broad civil society. These are some lessons the speakers, evaluating the Spatial Structural Plan of Flanders from 1997, shared at the VRP congress celebrating the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Plan. The congress not only looked back, but also forward. The new planning policy for Flanders was presented and it stated ambitions such as: looking ahead, making strategic choices and working together. Furthermore, several speakers introduced new challenges that lay ahead such as: the commons, superdiversity, health and circular economy.
Urban Circular Economy
For the challenge circular economy, David Dooghe was asked to shortly reflect on what will be the role of the spatial planner concerning the circular economy and which are the instruments she or he can use. As the three scenarios developed for the research Urban Circular Economy illustrated: for an urban circular economy to take off, the spatial planner needs to look broader than just focusing on materials flows and their logistics! The new business models that are connected to this economy will also have an impact on how the facilities or public, collective or private spaces are used and thus on how they need to be planned or designed.
In the research an instrument was developed: the Urban Circular Passport. This passport can be utilized by spatial planners to get an insight on how a municipality or a company can develop if the Urban Circular Economy becomes mainstream.
Overview spatial effects scenario Business Almost as Usual
Urban Circular Passport
The Urban Circular Passport consists of two parts. One part gives an insight into what is the current state of affairs and to what extent do the current or future policies and projects match with the growth of the (niche) markets. Where do frictions between policies and private initiatives arise, but also what partnerships between the government and the broad midfield are needed to get a step further? Who can take the lead? Different themes are considered separately: stakeholder analysis, materials and logistics, facilities, and public, collective and private space.
The second part of the passport shows the possible spatial effects for the three scenarios. Where is the Urban Circular Economy already visible in the urban network? For now, the passport only looked at the spatial effects concerning materials and logistics, various facilities and the public, collective or private space.
As the case studies of Rotterdam and Antwerp show, all scenarios will always, in one way or the other, be present in the city, but expected is that one will be the new mainstream economy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Urban Circular Economy is not one size fits all nor can we look at this economy solely as an economy. This new economy will continue to evolve in the already existing city, and from the spatial planner an integrated and customized approach is expected. To support such an approach, the Urban Circular Passport can be an instrument as it looks at the influence of Urban Circular Economics in different sectors, giving insight into current and future policies, projects and (niche) markets and in the desired and unwanted spatial effects. It can help to, speaking in terms of the new policy planning for Flanders: looking ahead, making strategic choices and working together.
The text (in Dutch) and the supporting slides, presented at the congress can be found here. The presentations of the other speakers can be found here.