The state of public participation in spatial planning in the european union: Public participation in spatial planning between theory and practice

Abstract

There is a big gap in the field of involving the public in the process of spatial planning, between the description in literature and implementation in practice. There has been a notable increase of publication and literature on the topic of public participation in the last 15 years, which can be attributed to the importance and complexity of this field. In the article, we will make an overview of the current situation in the field of public participation in spatial planning in the European Union (EU), based on the review of available literature. The research is focused on the most written about areas in the literature: the legislative basis for participation, the stakeholder inclination towards public participation and the studies of practical examples. With the review of participation in those three key areas, the current state of the field of public participation in spatial planning, in theory and in practice in the EU will be shown.

Keywords

• public
• participation
• inclusivity
• spatial planning