Spatial planning

Sustainable settlement development, economical use of land and affordable housing – daily challenges for many municipalities and priorities in the new regional development programme. We have developed the ‘workshop’ event format to sensitise decision-makers in the municipalities. Keynote speeches provide specialist input, attempt to raise awareness and highlight alternatives and opportunities, supplemented by successful examples of implementation. We focus on a different topic depending on the region: securing building land or redensification are just two examples. Lively and exciting discussions, intensive dialogue and networking round off the ‘workshop’.

The regional planning department of the province of Salzburg regularly monitors the state and development of the retail sector. To this end, detailed surveys and analyses of all retail sectors and sales areas are carried out at around 5,000 locations throughout the province (Büro Schossleitner / SIR). They are used, among other things, to assess the supply of important goods, the need for new large-scale retail businesses, shop vacancies and, in particular, the local supply of goods to the population. All retail businesses are surveyed with pinpoint accuracy and are used in a variety of other ways via the SAGIS. They are used by the SIR, for example, in spatial analyses for the demarcation of town centres in municipalities.

Securing areas for residential purposes is one of the central spatial planning tasks of a municipality. A range of spatial planning instruments and other land policy measures support them in pursuing an active land policy and thus promote affordable housing and (subsidised) housing construction. How are the spatial planning instruments used now and has anything changed in recent years? Which instruments and approaches are relevant and useful in the individual municipalities in order to achieve appropriate solutions? For details, see the study.

The SIR’s training and continuing education program has a long tradition: for more than 30 years, we have been compiling a comprehensive program. The focus is on topics related to our core work and current issues related to them. We are happy to share both our own expertise and the knowledge of external experts. Our primary target group is municipalities and all those working in the municipal environment (spatial/local planners, project developers, architects, civil engineers, energy consultants, property developers, etc.). The programme is tailored to the needs of the municipalities and thus contributes to supporting the challenging tasks in municipal work. The SIR seminars offer basic knowledge and knowledge updates, promote awareness-raising, present practical examples and contribute to a broad network. For details, see the current seminar programme.

We support the agendas of the province and the municipalities as part of transnational, EU co-financed projects. They produce concrete results in Salzburg and serve to exchange know-how, new expertise, innovative solutions and networking. Current projects:

Facilitate the implementation of the EU Soil Strategy in municipalities in the Alpine region, capitalising on transnational knowledge, mutual learning and concrete cross-sectoral implementation at local level.

• Funding body: Interreg Alpine Space Programme (European Regional Development Fund)
• Duration: 09/2024 – 08/2027
• Co-financing by the European Union
• Project website: https://www.alpine-space.eu/project/soilourinvisibleally/

The EU project SOIL:OurInvisibleAlly, funded by the INTERREG programme, is dedicated to sustainable soil management in the Alpine region. As part of the project, 12 partner institutions from Austria, Germany, Italy, France and Slovenia are working together on an interdisciplinary basis to protect and conserve soil – one of the most important but often neglected resources – in the long term. The project looks at the topic from the three perspectives of forestry, agronomy and spatial planning, with the SIR focussing on the spatial planning aspects of soil management. In the pilot region of Oberpinzgau, the project is investigating how sustainable land use can be integrated into planning processes in order to strengthen the region’s resilience to environmental changes and promote future-orientated land use.

Total project budget: EUR 2,761,200
of which 75% ERDF funding from the EU

Anchoring the ecological network in the spatial planning systems of the Alpine region

• Funding body: Interreg Alpine Space Programme (European Regional Development Fund)
• Duration: 11/2022 – 10/2025
• Co-financing by the European Union
• Project website: alpine-space.eu/project/plantoconnect

Ecological connectivity is a fundamental tool for the protection of biodiversity, but it is not sufficiently taken into account in Alpine spatial planning systems. The existing protected areas have been established to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem functions, but to be effective they need to be connected by an ecological network. An overarching concept for ecological connectivity planning that regulates the implementation of (transnational) corridors in the Alps is currently lacking. Therefore, regional networks, including the planning methodology of corridors, need to be harmonised and spatial planning systems in the Alpine region need to be further developed accordingly.

This is where the EU project PlanToConnect comes in and will show how the consideration of ecological connectivity can be promoted in the spatial planning systems of the Alpine countries. As part of the transnational cooperation, a planning strategy and capacity-building activities will be developed and tested in order to integrate biodiversity and ecological connectivity into spatial planning instruments and policies. The results and experiences developed in previous Alpine Space projects (e.g. ALPBIONET2030, OpenSpaceAlps) will also be taken into account and applied and tested in the planning of ecological networks in the partner regions of the Alpine Space. This joint development will contribute to the improvement of a coherent network of green and blue infrastructures in the Alpine Space.

Total project budget: EUR 2,461,927
ERDF funding from the EU: EUR 1,846,446

The project OpenSpaceAlps refers spatially to the Alpine region and to the area covered by EUSALP – EU Strategy for the Alpine Region. Seven institutions from Austria, France, Italy, Germany and Slovenia are involved in the realisation of the project. The SIR is leading the project as the lead partner.

The aim of the project is to promote the sustainable development of the Alpine region by preserving open spaces as part of the Alpine green infrastructure. With the help of networked, multi-level, transnational spatial planning, the integration of ecosystem functions and needs are taken into account in policy. By applying a participatory approach, we strengthen and coordinate regional, national and transnational spatial planning processes. In this way, we contribute to the programme objectives by improving the integration of ecosystem services into the political system of the Alpine region. Initiating and facilitating a process for the adoption of new spatial planning approaches in the Alpine Space countries is therefore a must.

Study ‘Practical application of spatial planning instruments to support subsidised housing in Salzburg’

Order form SIR floor price information

Infrastructure costs in settlement development, 2022:

Guide

Set of slides with notes

Slide set is available as PDF on request