UPWr scientist appointed to the Spatial Management Council of Germany

• Zathey has been involved in cross-border and regional planning for over 20 years – as a scientist and a local government official
• How do the Germans and the Poles understand spatial planning and management?
• Internationally, urban planning has returned to the multi-functionality of new urban developments
• Space is an exhaustible resource, like natural resources. It therefore requires protection
• Cross-border cooperation with Germany dates back to 1991

The Spatial Management Council of the Federal Republic of Germany – appointed by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building – is a team of scientists and representatives of important social circles. It operates on the basis of § 23 of the Spatial Planning Act of Germany and advises the Federal Ministry on basic issues of spatial planning, especially in the context of strategic planning policies taking into account various not only environmental, but also social factors.

– You can sit on the council as an honorary member, but the distinction provides tremendous opportunities to develop professional and scientific contacts – admits Dr. Maciej Zathey from the Institute of Spatial Management at the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, who is one of two representatives on the council from universities and professional organisations outside Germany. In addition to a Pole, Minister Klara Geywitz also invited a Luxembourger to join the council, acknowledging their previous research and activities related to spatial management.

Local government and cross-border cooperation

Dr. Zathey is associated not only with a university (before the UPWr for 13 years he was with the Wrocław University of Technology), but also with the local government. He is the director of the Institute for Territorial Development, a local government unit of the Lower Silesian Voivodship created as a result of the evolution of the Voivodship Urban Office in Wrocław, which deals with the implementation of the voivodship's tasks concerning development and spatial planning policies.

– I have been involved in regional and cross-border planning at local government level for over 20 years. I am the co-author of a joint concept for the future of the German-Polish border area, i.e. recommendations on how we could develop the area, and above all, how we could connect in this area at the border and across the border – says Dr. Zathey, who has also worked in teams developing concepts for the cross-border projects Interreg Europe and Interreg Lower Silesia-Saxony. These projects then resulted in cooperation with, among others, the joint planning office of Berlin Brandenburg and the administration of the Berlin Senate.

– The Brandenburgs honored me for my contribution to building European unity, but I also cooperated with the Ministry of Regional Development of Saxony and the area of Upper Lusatia and its regional planning office located directly at the border of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. I understand the German planning system, I recently published two articles in local journals about Polish-German cooperation in the area of spatial management, so as you can see, the recommendation to the council was not by chance – smiles Dr. Maciej Zathey.

Poland and Germany – similarities and differences

When asked about the differences in the understanding of spatial management and spatial planning on both sides of the Oder river, he first explains that in the case of a division into competency levels, one can talk about similarities. Both in Poland and in Germany, spatial planning is in the competence of municipalities, which are responsible for local spatial development plans and studying spatial development conditions and strategies.

– At the same time, the significance of these documents – in the context of the organisation of this space – is different. In Germany, for example, documents relating to the hierarchy of the settlement network are prepared with greater care, so that the role of the settlement unit, the necessary functions assigned to it and public services are defined at the level of the planning document. And if the spatial planning document specifies it, it is obligatory to guarantee the financing of the functioning of these services – explains Dr. Zathey, clarifying that the settlement unit is simply a city.

The UPWr scientist, who is also a long-standing local government official, admits that spatial planning in Poland, despite the existence of local development plans, operates on a voluntary basis, which he does not hesitate to call laissez-faire.

– We’re not concerned about the consequences of maintaining or failing to maintain public services in specific spaces. We generate ineffective structures, enjoying the freedom of planning without recognising that this freedom is dominated by chaos – admits Dr Maciej Zathey, and adds that in Polish planning reality no attention is paid to the costs generated for the next decades, which will be paid by the people - due to, for example, mono-functionality dominating the spatial development of Polish cities.

Mono-functionality of cities – a dead end

According to the researcher, the division of functions is an extremely unfavourable stage for the development of cities and social tissue – it results in districts or settlements dying out after office hours, or areas dominated by short-term rental apartments, in which there are practically no ordinary residents.

SPACE TAKEN OVER BY BUILDINGS AND FUNCTIONS IS LOST FOR ANOTHER 150 YEARS AND IS VERY DIFFICULT TO REGAIN.

– And we should aim for a mix of functions, the function related to the performance of work, and therefore offices, should be intertwined with housing and services. In Poland, however, we can observe a negative spatial segregation of functions and services in large cities, as well as segregation in terms of people's wealth. So-called gated communities are an example of segregation. And I don't believe in stories about increasing the safety of residents by using barriers. As research shows, placing barriers between two social groups strengthens mutual distrust and aversion – says Dr. Maciej Zathey, emphasising that these effects, seemingly unrelated to spatial planning, are in fact connected with social psychology and directly bind spatial management with the adopted models of social development – participatory and communal, or exclusionary and individualistic.

When asked which experiences of German spatial management should be implemented in Polish reality, Dr. Maciej Zathey says that the most important thing is consistency and the ability to coordinate spatial policy, which makes it possible to eliminate spontaneous solutions, when, for example, decisions on development conditions are issued on behalf of the developer or in connection with the need to achieve a business objective and not a social or public one. And he reminds us that there is no need to reinvent the wheel – Polish planning documentation from the 1960s, 1970s and as recently as the early 1980s was better than that prepared today ordered by developers, in isolation from public services and even people.

Space recycling – a trend or necessity?

– In Germany, space recycling is currently enjoying great popularity. We still do not understand that space is another resource, like mineral resources, soil or water. And therefore exhaustible. Space taken over  by buildings and functions is lost for at least another 150 years and is very difficult to regain. Hence the concept of recycling space, i.e. reusing it and looking for solutions aimed at not covering more space with concrete – explains Dr. Zathey, adding that space is necessary for the healthy functioning of society and the economy, but at the same time the socio-economic-environmental balance has been lost. Development is defined by economic growth.

– If someone says that they do not see a connection between land use and climate change, I say to them that they are profoundly mistaken, because that connection does exist. It is a relationship between spatial development and functioning of the economy and efficiency of the economy's functioning in space - stresses the scientist from the Institute of Spatial Management, who is planning to conduct research on the energy efficiency of spatial and settlement structure, how we function as a society in this structure and how the economy functions, and to what extent the arrangement of this space can help reduce the negative effects of climate change and global warming.  

Not just the Council

The Spatial Planning Council of the Federal Republic of Germany's 20th legislature officially began on the 5^th of April. Meetings will be held through irregular and frequent sub-group meetings and plenary meetings convened on a quarterly basis, and will address planned legislative work in Germany.

Cross-border cooperation in the field of spatial planning can be followed on the German-Polish Spatial Planning Portal. The German-Polish Intergovernmental Commission for Regional and Cross-border Cooperation was established in 1991 on the basis of Art. 12 of the bilateral Treaty of Good Neighbourship and Friendly Cooperation During the 10th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission, held in Warsaw in May 1999, it was decided that the German-Polish Spatial Planning Commission would be incorporated into the Intergovernmental Commission as a fourth committee, the Committee for Spatial Planning.

The first meeting of the Committee was held at the invitation of the Office of Housing and Urban Development one year later, and concerned the agreement of a long-term plan of the Committee's activities. The main priorities at that time were preventive flood protection, cooperation within the framework of the Community initiatives INTERREG III B and PHARE / ISPA, as well as updating land-use planning studies. The Committee's current priorities are the implementation of the '2030 Common Future Vision for the development of the German-Polish interaction area' and cooperation in the field of maritime spatial planning (the Committee has set up a working group for this purpose). Documents were also developed. These include the 2030 Common Future Vision for the German-Polish interaction area, the 'Development of supra-regional transport infrastructure in the Oder Partnership area' map, a document titled 'Development of supra-regional transport infrastructure in the Oder Partnership area', a map of planned investments in the German part of the German-Polish interaction area and a map of planned investments in the Polish border area along the German-Polish border. Dr. Zathey was involved in the production of all of these documents. Currently, together with an international team, he is finalising a study showing the strategy of railway infrastructure development in the Polish-German interaction area.