Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung

Circular land use management in cities and urban regions

As part of the ExWoSt (Experimental Housing and Urban Development) research programme sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs (BMVBS) and the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR), research in the field "Fläche im Kreis - Kreislaufwirtschaft in der städtischen/stadtregionalen Flächennutzung" (Land in a cycle - Circular land use management in cities and urban regions) was conducted from 2003 to 2007. The works were, on behalf of the Federal German government, carried out by German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) in cooperation with the Leipzig project team Stadt + Entwicklung (city and development) and the special research team for institutional analysis (sofia) in Göttingen/Darmstadt.

Circular Land Use Management is an integrative policy and steering approach investigated in the ExWoSt research field. Its central idea is a changed philosophy of land use. This changed philosophy of use can be synoptically described by the formula "avoidance - reuse - balancing". The prior, systematic objective of Circular Land Use Management is to fully utilise all potentially available, previously used sites. In this system, the use of virgin land is tied to a very limited set of conditions.

Simulation games

The central methodology used by the ExWoSt research were simulation games where private and public sector players from five model regions jointly reviewed potentially usable existing instruments (step I of the games: Existing instruments, horizon 2010) and new instruments (step II of the games: New instruments, horizon 2020) all aiming at Circular Land Use Management.

These simulation games were geared to achieving the land use policy goals formulated by the Federal German government in the context of its National Sustainability Strategy. The land use policy goals formulated for the horizon 2020, i.e. a reduction of the current level of land consumption for new settlements and public thoroughfares to 30 hectares a day, and priority for inner-city development (ratio between core-area development and fringe-area development = 3:1), are intended to be achieved with the help of a twin-pronged strategy combining quality control - i.e. avoiding the use of fringe areas by developing core areas and enhancing the value of built-up residential areas - and quantity control - i.e. limiting the use of virgin land.

The simulation games on Circular Land Use Management involved the Stuttgart urban region, the Mölln region, the region of Rhine-Hesse/Nahe, the city of Duisburg and the Northern Thuringian planning region.

An additional activity performed in all five regions as part of the status-quo simulation games was to draw up integrated action plans for Circular Land Use Management in urban settings and urbanised regions. Each of these describes a bundle of instruments that can be locally implemented or initiated in order to reduce land use and promote brownfield and greyfield redevelopment.

Reviews of existing instruments

The simulation status-quo games revealed, as a result of the reviews of the existing instruments, where the deficits are on the way to Circular Land Use Management. These deficits could of course be mitigated by more consistent application of the available instruments, and/or slight readjustments of the underlying legal framework. Still, misdirected incentives or incorrect steering of land use cannot be entirely ruled out if just the toolkit of existing instruments is used. If Circular Land Use Management is the goal, the actions of the players involved in the land use market cannot be influenced with sufficient effectiveness just by using the existing instruments and the incentives set by these. Reaching the Federal government's ambitious goals for the reduction of land consumption will therefore require new instruments to set adequate incentives allowing reaching these goals, which can have an effective impact both on land use and on the status land is given in land use plans.

Based on the results of the simulation games, various existing and new instruments have been combined into a policy mix for Circular Land Use Management in urban contexts and urban regions. This policy mix serves to place the priority on downtown development and - in response to the respective needs in the urban region in question - to increase the rate of brownfield redevelopment, step up conversion and dismantling activities, and conserve open spaces and areas dedicated to recreational purposes. It includes existing instruments that place the emphasis on supporting the development of core areas, like

  • regional plans
  • multi-municipality plans
  • the identification of space requirements (as a key ingredient for regional planning as well as preparatory and binding zoning)
  • information instruments to influence municipal and administrative decisions on land use
  • other neighbourhood and site plans (e.g. test plans, framework plans, master plans)
  • the assignment of responsibilities in a Circular Land Use Management system in urbanised regions
  • a fundamental decision on land use policies
  • existing funding programmes and additionally
  • information instruments for land owners
  • marketing.

The following existing instruments should be used to protect open spaces and areas for recreational purposes, especially in growing urban regions:

  • concepts for areas serving the purpose of compensation for land use (areas for compensation and replacement measures), pools for compensatory areas and compensation measures
  • definition of protected areas by the nature conservation authorities
  • preserving and enhancing the value of: recreational spaces, special outdoor uses, greenhouse production, agriculture.

Shrinking regions, towns or cities need supplementary instruments to adequately counter the consequences of outward migration, vacancy, loss of functionality and excess space availability:

  • urban restructuring
  • financial support programmes focussing on brownfields/greyfields and C-class space.

New toolkit for Circular Land Use Management

In future, existing instruments should be combined with new or comprehensively reformed instruments to ensure that economic incentives are available. These instruments will essentially seek to pursue three approaches:

  • to exert influence on land prices (e.g. through a comprehensive reform of taxes on land or reforming property acquisition taxes) in order to reduce the incentives for prospective private and public builders to resort to space newly qualified as building land,
  • to implement pricing mechanisms for earmarking greenfields for development purposes (e.g. through tradable rights to qualify land as development land, or through a charge for earmarking land for development purposes, each in connection with cost-benefit analyses) so as to give the municipalities additional motivation for the development of core areas;
  • to implement new funding schemes, and perform appropriate modifications of existing financial support schemes so as to facilitate Circular Land Use Management (e.g. through reforms of the German system of municipal equalisation transfers, through soft loans, real estate funds, liability insurance for dismantling, subsidies to renaturation projects) in order to give a major boost to the development of urban core areas.

With the targeted players and directions of action being highly different, the only feasible thing is evidently to bundle these instruments, i.e. to use them concurrently, if a major contribution is to be made to achieving the goals of Circular Land Use Management. As these instruments have hardly any influence on the spatial allocation of their effects, they always have to be developed and applied in combination with the established planning and legal instruments.

Aiming to create an appropriate toolkit for Circular Land Use Management, various measures are being proposed to the Federal government. For instance, altogether 14 activities that can be implemented in the short- to mid-term as well as in the longterm are being recommended, some of which will require further research or investigations:

  • improving the steering impact of spatial planning
  • stepping up financial support to projects aiming to mobilise high-potential sites in urban core areas
  • strengthening the support to private brownfield revitalisation initiatives
  • providing technical support in conception and practical implementation of B-class land funds
  • providing technical support in conception and practical implementation of C-class land funds
  • mobilising existing sites with potential which are owned by the Federal government
  • promoting the spreading of information about sites and an awareness of land availability
  • advancing the instruments of urban restructuring
  • creating a resilient mechanism for cost/benefit balancing in the context of nondedication of land to development purposes or earmarking new land for development
  • considering implementation of a levy on earmarking greenfield sites for development
  • reviewing the implementation of tradable rights to earmark land for development purposes
  • reviewing a comprehensive reform of taxes on land
  • reviewing purpose-tying for core-area development projects within the system of municipal equalisation transfers
  • reviewing an expansion of the duty to dismantle/to reduce impervious surfaces, and a rollout of liability insurance for dismantling.

The Federal government has only limited scope for exerting influence in a process of rollout and implementation of Circular Land Use Management as the Federal state governments and the municipalities have considerable leeway to shape their approach in the fields of spatial planning and building law. It will therefore be of crucial importance that the Federal government and further major groups of players - Federal states, public players at municipal and regional level, private enterprise, institutional land owners, the real estate industry as well as private households and owners of small properties - closely cooperate in creating a suitable framework for Circular Land Use Management.

The research done in the ExWoSt field "Fläche im Kreis" has shown that the approach of Circular Land Use Management across policies and action areas is a necessity in order to overcome the deficits inherent in the implementation of sectoral or isolated activities and instruments.

The simulation games have demonstrated that the public authorities must take on the role of a central player and motor in initiating and implementing Circular Land Use Management.

Publications in English

Preuß, Thomas, and Uwe Ferber:
Circular land use management in cities and urban regions - a policy mix utilizing existing and newly conceived instruments to implement an innovative strategic and policy approach, 20 p., Difu Paper, Berlin 2008 (pdf, 1,99 MB)

Preuß, Thomas, and Uwe Ferber:
Circular Flow Land Use Management: New Strategic, Planning and Instrumental Approaches for Mobilisation of Brownfields, 13 p., Difu Occasional Paper, Berlin 2006