Bridging Policy Streams of Minerals and Land Use Planning: a Conceptualisation and Comparative Analysis of Instruments for Policy Integration in 11 European Member States

Endl, Andreas and Gottenhuber, Sara Louise and Gugerell, Katharina (2020) Bridging Policy Streams of Minerals and Land Use Planning: a Conceptualisation and Comparative Analysis of Instruments for Policy Integration in 11 European Member States. SHAPING URBAN CHANGE – Livable City Regions for the 21st Century. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2020, 25th International Conference on Urban Development, Regional Planning and Information Society. pp. 95-105. ISSN 2521-3938

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Abstract

Minerals play an important role for the European economy, hence the secure and sustainable supply of minerals is of political importance for the EU and its Member States (MS). Despite the fact that Europe has a potential for minerals development, access to minerals is, however, influenced by different stakeholder interests, often reflected in competing forms of land-use and institutional complexity of two policy streams of minerals and land use planning. Recent public sector responses in EU MS introduce new instruments such as safeguarding or protection of minerals deposits or valorisation schemes for minerals development, both aiming to bridge the two policy streams. However, there are significant challenges for governments andpublic administrations on all levels to achieve the effective integration of the two policy streams: Institutional and administrative fragmentation, unclear roles and duties, coordination deficiencies between levels of governance (departmentalism) or lack of willingness or ability to collaborate (Endl, 2017; Gugerell, 2019). Thus, our research identifies different approaches to policy integration of minerals and land use planning policy based on a qualitative analysis of 12 case studies from 11 different EU MS. Against this background, the article conceptualises and analyses policy integration with regards to: 1) instruments for horizontal and vertical integration; 2) degree of integration - full versus partial integration (e.g. for horizontal integration: considering integration ex-ante/in the design versus ex-post/during implementation); 3) which aspects of horizontal or vertical policy integration are outlined (e.g. protection of deposits or design of land use plans); and 4) the capacity and willingness for policy integration by different actors. The results indicate two central characteristics for policy integration: (i) the mix of different types of instruments for horizontal and vertical integration and (ii) capacity of the involved actors. Across the 12 case studies we identified a mix of regulatory, economic or informative instruments, national strategies/ policy guidelines across horizontal as well as vertical policy integration. However, we recognised a trend across all 11 countries: instruments that signify full integration of minerals and land use planning on both horizontal and vertical levels; the application of soft rather than coercive instruments; and a prevalence for instruments in the form of planning tools and/or maps with the objective of enhancing knowledge of potential land use, mitigate land use conflicts and/or integrating minerals into land use planning processes. Our research shows that across 11 countries policy instruments are assembled to policy mixes for integrating minerals and land use planning policy combining regulatory, economic (fiscal) tools, (national) strategies and guidelines and information-based instruments. In the specific context of instruments for minerals planning (e.g. multi-criteria assessment, safeguarding) the results indicate that in order to support the integration of land-use and mineral policy, instruments should be adapted to the land-use planning system and a good fit with the actual processes on the lower level of implementation (local and regional). Moreover, the results illustrated that willingness and capacity of actors play a crucial role for policy integration and implementation. Against this backdrop, more centralised public administration can more readily supportlower levels to manage policy challenges: they can support lower levels by providing expertise, capacity building activities and create platforms where the different policy sectors can meet. Conversely, in decentralised systems and systems where policy design and implementation are dispersed among differentlevels of government the willingness to collaborate between higher and lower levels of government is important to support later policy implementation.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Policy instruments, Mineral policy, policy integration, Mineral resources, Land-use planning
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor Q Science > QE Geology
Depositing User:	REAL CORP Administrator
Date Deposited:	02 Feb 2021 09:16
Last Modified:	02 Feb 2021 09:16
URI:	http://repository.corp.at/id/eprint/645

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