Ton De Nijs, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
Future Land Use in the Netherlands - Evaluation of the National Spatial Strategy (assigned to theme
The effects of the new National Spatial Strategy policy document, recently adopted by the Dutch government, have been evaluated by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. This evaluation included a spatial projection of future land use in 2030. Therefore, the proposed spatial measures have been implemented in the Environment Explorer. The spatial projection shows that the largest urbanization probabilities are found near existing urban areas such as the Randstad, especially around the major cities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, where spatial pressure is high. Developments here are so extensive that it will be hard to allocate them within the policy measures in the long term, while avoiding restrictive areas. For the national landscapes urbanization will depend on the implementation of new policy measures. On the one hand, municipalities involved will be allowed to build homes for their local populations and provide land for local and regional businesses. On the other, large-scale urban developments in national landscapes will not be acceptable. The creeping urbanization will have long-term adverse effects on the value of these landscapes. In most combination areas there will be sufficient space for urbanization to allocate all new developments up to 2030 except for the Randstad provinces (Noord & Zuid-Holland and Utrecht) and the province of Limburg. Especially in North-Holland and Limburg, will the space available in combination areas be limited in the long term. There will be enough space to allocate for residential and industrial developments but not for water storage, recreational and green areas.
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