Resource description:
This article assesses the extent to which spatial plans across Europe demonstrate transformative potential for biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES). Building on a comprehensive spatial planning conceptual framework developed within the BioValue project, the study evaluates 28 spatial plans from Italy, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland. The authors analyse how five characteristics holding transformative potential—restructuring, multiscale, path-shifting, innovation and phasing out—are relfected across four core components of plans: visions, strategies, information baselines, and actions/instruments/regulations. These characteristics are applied through four analytical lenses to examine spatial planning systems in relation to transformative approaches for biodiversity and ES valorization: governance of spatial planning, the mitigation hierarchy, sectoral provisions, and biodiversity and ES.
The results show that while spatial plans often incorporate visions and strategies that reference deep systemic change, the overall transformative potential remains uneven and generally limited. Characteristics like restructuring and multiscale appear more frequently in revised plans, whereas more disruptive changes (e.g., through innovation or phasing out outdated practices) is comparatively rare.
The analysis also highlights important gaps that limit transformative change, including limited use of the mitigation hierarchy, poor integration of ES beyond qualitative references, weak engagement and integration with key sectors such as mobility, energy and water, and rigid regulatory frameworks.
The study concludes that although some spatial plans embed characteristics with transformative potential, a systemic and biodiversity-centred transformation is still insufficiently articulated in most European planning systems. Strengthening ecological knowledge bases, strengthening cross-sectoral collaboration, and deploying more ambitious regulatory and strategic tools are critical steps to improve long-term outcomes for biodiversity and ES.
This article provides a robust, transferable methodology for evaluating the transformative potential of spatial plans and offers evidence-based insights relevant for planners, researchers and policy-makers seeking to advance biodiversity-inclusive spatial planning.
Author/Contact:
University of Trento
Contact: Davide Geneletti, davide.geneletti@unitn.it
Advantages:
- Presents a tested and replicable framework for assessing the transformative potential of spatial plans for biodiversity and ES.
- Provides comparative evidence across diverse planning systems and governance contexts.
- Identifies concrete transformative opportunities and synergies for enhancing biodiversity-inclusive planning practices.
Constraints:
- Assessment is based on plan content, not implementation outcomes, which may differ in practice.
- Plans vary in structure and terminology, affecting comparability.
- Transformative change remains constrained by wider policy, institutional and socio-economic settings not fully reflected in plan documents.
DOI reference:
DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2025.2582608