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Territorial approach is crucial for sustainability goals
Daniel Baliński is deputy director of the Strategy Department in the Polish Ministry of Funds and Regional Development and co-coordinator of the SUL-NBS Partnership In the Urban Agenda Partnership we have been working on strengthening sustainable land use practices and implementation of NBS in Europe. The evidence from ESPON studies was an integral part of this work, and cooperation with projects such as GRETA and SUPER was established, whereby we looked for synergies and exchanged expertise. The results of the SUL-NBS Partnership show that a territorial approach is crucial for achieving sustainability goals, but it is still not sufficiently utilised. Cooperation in functional urban areas (FUAs) – that is, beyond administrative borders of a city – helps to manage land use and deal with urban sprawl, but joint FUA planning, especially spatial planning, is often lacking when looking at the European context. In order to promote the FUA approach to urban planning and management, especially in regard to urban sprawl, the partnership prepared a guidebook on FUA cooperation with recommendations to different governance levels. The guidebook draws from, among other things, ESPON projects, such as SPIMA (Spatial Dynamics and Strategic Planning in Metropolitan Areas) and adds best practices and recommendations from the partners. For example, in Stuttgart Region, Germany, coordinated spatial planning at the FUA level contributed to reduced land take; and, in Poland, integrated territorial investments in FUAs aim to reduce the costs of urban sprawl, e.g. through integrated transport projects. Following the work of the Urban Agenda, Lithuania, a SUL-NBS partner, decided to set mandatory guidelines for local spatial plans to introduce cooperation within regions on a partnership basis, with a view to a functional approach in urban planning and governance. This rising popularity of the FUA approach calls for even more territorial research showcasing the benefits of FUA collaboration in the land use and NBS context, as well as equiping decision-makers with easy-to-apply tools, targets and indicators.