Author/Contact:
Heidi Wittmer, Yuanzao Zhu, Karla Locher-Krause*
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ
Resource description:
The analytical framework has been adapted from Wittmer et al. (2021) to explore, in practice, the transformative potential of spatial planning processes for enhancing biodiversity values to society. In detail, it helps to:
- understand and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the spatial planning, environmental assessment and economic and financial instrumental perspectives in terms of their transformative potential to enhance biodiversity and foster sustainable development.
- identify remaining gaps in terms of addressing indirect drivers and enabling transformative change.
- analyse how instruments can be improved in terms of coherence and concerted action to boost their potential and effectiveness in creating transformative change in spatial planning processes.
The conceptual framework consists of five building blocks for sustainability transformations and argues that intended interventions are much more likely to encourage transformation to sustainability if embedded within a more comprehensive framing of transformative change (main image) consisting of:
- A compelling transformative vision (block 1) that mobilises new common sustainable narratives.
- Knowledge on how to change a particular system (block 2) that connects visions to actions and provides a continuous learning process.
- Navigation of the dynamics inherent in changing development pathways (block 3), phasing-in new sustainable solutions and phasing out unsustainable practices (Loorbach and Oxenaar 2018).
- Emancipated agency providing room for inclusive deliberation (block 4) and the emergence of diverse, open-ended, bottom-up processes
- Transformative governance reflects this framing by being inclusive, informed, integrated, adaptive and accountable (block 5)
The outcomes of transformative processes can only be fully understood ex-post. However, transformative ambition and transformative potential can be assessed ex-ante. For that, we have synthesised so-called ambitions, which help to identify and evaluate how ambitious a measure is in terms of transformation towards sustainability and bending the curve for biodiversity. Using the ambitions as orientation when formulating objectives can help to address cross-cutting challenges that currently affect biodiversity.
- Ambition 1: spatial planning safeguards, restores, allows recovery and enhances biodiversity. As is emphasised in target 1 of the KMGBF, inclusive spatial planning should be ensured to bring the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance, including ecosystems of high ecological integrity, close to zero by 2030.
- Ambition 2: spatial planning significantly contributes to balanced and responsible consumption and production without external social and environmental costs.
- Ambition 3: spatial planning significantly contributes to reducing socioeconomic inequalities.
Advantages:
- • The building blocks from the transformative change framework bring together the elements that should be considered within the spatial planning process to make transformative change possible (vision, knowledge, dynamics, agency, and governance) in a stru
- • Spatial planning and, with it, landscapes-related decisions are characterised by multilevel processes that emerge from the interaction between multiple actors, processes, and institutions, from local to global levels. These make them critical arenas for
- • The three ambitions (1. SP safeguards, restores, allows recovery and enhances biodiversity 2. SP significantly contributes to balanced and responsible consumption and production without external social and environmental costs; 3. spatial planning signif
Constraints:
- • The framework needs to be adapted to different contexts.
DOI reference:
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8435377