NadpisFormulation matters! The failure of integrating landscape fragmentation policy
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2020
AutořiAubrechtová, T, Semancikova, E, Raška, P
JournalSustainability
Issue10
Pagination3962
ISSN20711050
Klíčová slovaEnvironmental policy integration, Green, Internal consistency, landscape fragmentation, Policy documents, SMART policies
Abstract

Uncoordinated land development results in landscape fragmentation, which is a complex and serious environmental threat to the Czech landscape. It poses a challenge especially for (post)industrial urban agglomerations with extremely low connectivity of green-blue infrastructure. Environmental and spatial planning strategic policy documents are considered to represent long-term communicative instruments for effective environmental protection. Current experience shows that policy documents are commonly poorly integrated, and burdened by formulation inconsistencies. In this study, we (i) specified the driving factors causing landscape fragmentation, describing how the issue is understood by environmental and spatial planning strategic policy documents and (ii) identified criteria for the formulation of these documents at the national and regional governance levels. A content analysis of 12 strategic policy documents enabled the calculation of internal consistency and an assessment of their inter-and cross-sectoral integration. The results revealed formulation flaws in documents, leading to serious misunderstandings of the meaning of the landscape fragmentation between environmental (biocentric) and planning (anthropocentric) policy domains. This aspect makes the horizontal and further vertical cooperation between policy domains difficult. Guidelines for the formulation of strategic policy documents may improve their intelligibility and support smoother environmental policy integration.

URLhttps://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/3962
DOI10.3390/SU12103962