A methodological concept for territorial impact assessment applied to three EU environmental policy elements

Abstract

EU policies require either impact assessment or evaluation, depending on the character of the policy elements. A relatively new requirement is the need to assess the territorial impacts of a policy as proposed in the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) and promoted by the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) 2006 programme. Territorial impact assessment (TIA) is defined as “a tool for assessing the impact of spatial development against spatial policy objectives or prospects for an area” (European Communities 2000). This paper summarises and further develops basic work on TIA and presents a methodological concept and the first results of such a TIA approach, applying it to EU environmental policy (civil protection, water, biodiversity).