From the bottom to the top

Sustainability in urban planning is not only about what we build and how. Equally important is where we build and why. A thorough understanding of dependencies can guarantee that the chosen solutions are truly sustainable.

The built environment takes up an increasing part of our planet.  If the long-term, historic de-densification trend continues until 2050, global urban land use has been estimated to increase from about 1 million km² to over 2.5 million km². In Finland, the urbanisation pressure is especially high in the Helsinki-Uusimaa area. Due to the planning monopoly vested in municipalities, local decision makers have both the power and the responsibility to decide how the land within the municipality is used. In the race for short-term economic growth and in competition for new residents and business establishments, the limit for expansion is often drawn at the point where the exceptions in the legislation end.

”Sustainable cities” is one of the 17 global ambitions included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the context of urban planning, sustainability includes the carbon balance, and resilience for climate change in the wider sense. Every aspect is important, and every action counts. However, urban planning does not occur in a vacuum, and several other SDGs are directly linked to land use. Two of them are “Life on land”, and “Life below water”.

The first one concerns the goal to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. The second one concerns the goal to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. All of these are deeply interconnected. Urbanisation causes deforestation, changes in local water cycles, loss of habitats, air-born and water-born pollution, and the consequential destructions of food webs, all of which affect species in ways we cannot foresee. In turn, deforestation and destroyed water cycles are directly linked to climate change. How we use our land determines what is left to protect. Sustainability in urban planning is not only about what we build and how. It is equally important where we build and why.

The goals and visions of the UN SDGs materialise in our national legislation, scattered over different sectors with heterogenous and conflicting needs and interests. The legal provisions defining the outcome of a given situation can, for instance, be found in the Land Use and Building Act, the Water Act, the Act on the Organisation of River Basin Management and the Marine Strategy, the Nature Conservation Act, and the Environmental Protection Act, as well as numerous sector-specific guidelines, and recommendations. When decisions on land use are made top-down with little or no knowledge about other SDGs and the prerequisites or parameters for their successful implementation, there is a severe risk that rules aimed at protecting certain interests cannot perform their tasks. This inevitably follows when the all-over-shadowing interest of growth forces the exceptions in the legislation to be invoked, for instance, regarding water-permits or interfering with groundwater levels for the purpose of building housing and infrastructure in new areas. If we want long-term urban growth to be sustainable, we need to make sure that our gate keeper legislation at the bottom is formulated in a way that makes unsustainable short-term planning impossible from the top. However, this is not enough. Sustainable urban planning within the larger framework of sustainable land use is only achievable when sufficient and accurate information is open, and accessible at every stage in a transparent decision-making process. Sustainable urban planning needs to start with where and why – only then is it appropriate to continue with what and how.

Pia Björkwall

The author holds a PhD from Hanken School of Economics and teaches commercial law at Aalto University.