OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT 2007-2013 Investing in your future www.bgregio.eu EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)) and the State Budget of the Republic of Bulgaria. NATIONAL CENTRE FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT NATIONAL CONCEPT FOR SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT for the period 2013-2025 The national space – our common heritage for the future Sofia, 5 November 2012 This document is published with the financial support of the European Regional Development Fund and the project “Programming of Regional Development for the period 2014-2020”, financed by Operation 5.1: “Programming, management, monitoring, evaluation and control”, Priority Axis 5 “Technical Support” of OP “Regional Development 2007-2013”. 1 NATIONAL CONCEPT FOR SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT FOR THE PERIOD 2013 – 2025 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 1. MAJOR CHALLENGES AND POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE 11 NATIONAL SPACE 1.1. Political and legislative framework 11 1.2. The place of the NCSD in the system of strategic documents 15 1.3. Objectives, tasks and principles of the NCSD 16 1.4. Factors influencing the national space 19 1.5. Summary conclusions – the challenges of the spatial development 24 2. MODELS AND SCENARIOS FOR SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT 28 2.1. Spatial models 28 2.2. Elements of the spatial structure 28 2.3. From monocentric to polycentric spatial development – selection of an urban 32 model and scenario for spatial development 2.4. Vision, strategic objectives and priorities 42 3. STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL SPACE 46 3.1. Polycentric urban network – the basis for balanced development 46 3.2. Social infrastructure 56 3.3. Engineering infrastructure – links and accessibility 64 3.3.1. Transport infrastructure 64 3.3.2. Engineering infrastructure 70 3.4. Spatial dimensions of the resources-based economic development 75 3.4.1. Agriculture and forestry – current state, objectives, development prospects 76 3.4.2. National concentrations of production and business activities – mining, energy 79 generation, processing and logistics industries 3.4.3. Tourism – seaside, mountain, SPA, cultural and ecological/alternative tourism 81 3.4.4. R&D centres 84 3.5. Natural and cultural values – guarantee for the national identity 88 3.5.1. Natural values 88 3.5.2. Territories with cultural values 96 3.6. Territories with specific characteristics 104 2 4. THE NEW PHILOSOPHY OF SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT 113 5. ANNEXES 117 5.1. List of abbreviations 117 5.2. Glossary 120 5.3. List of geographic terms 121 6. REFERENCES 122 6.1. Laws and ordinances 122 6.2. EU and international organizations documents 123 6.3. Publications 124 6.4. Strategies, programmes, plans and projects 126 6.5. Publications in Internet 128 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The National Concept for Spatial Development of the Republic of Bulgaria for the period 2013- 2025 has been elaborated as part of the project “Programming of regional development for the period 2014-2020”, financed by Operation 5.1: “Programming, management, monitoring, evaluation and control”, Priority Axis 5 “Technical Support” of OP “Regional Development 2007-2013”. This is the first document of its kind concerning the spatial development of the territory for the past three decades, which covers the entire area of the country and is being elaborated under the conditions of restored property rights on land and forests in all its modalities, increased number of actors in the process of planning and governance of the territory, a more democratic decision- making process and membership of the country in the European Union. The National Concept for Spatial Development for the period 2013-2025 (NCSD) is a mid-term strategic document, which outlines the directions for land-use planning, governance and protection of the national territory and aquatory and creates preconditions for spatial orientation and coordination of the sectoral policies. Together with the National Regional Development Strategy 2012-2022 (NRDS) it is a principal document in the most recent legislation of the country and a long-aspired instrument for integrated planning and sustainable spatial, economic and social development. The structure of the document comprises four sections. The introductory Section One, “Major challenges and potential for development of the national space”, makes an overview of the political and legislative frameworks, the objectives, tasks and principles on which the NCSD is based, as well as the major factors influencing the national space. The main objective of the National Concept for Spatial Development for the period 2013-2025 is “Spatial coordination of the processes in the national territory through establishing a spatial and land-use planning base and a regulator for implementation of both regional planning and individual socio-economic sectoral planning at the national level in the context of the common European spatial development for the purposes of achieving complex integrated planning”. The NCSD was elaborated on the basis of the following more important principles: . Integrated planning and complex treatment of all problems of the territory; . Scientific approach to planning, mandatory for all spatial planning levels and activities; . Priority protection of public benefit for guaranteeing the balance with individual interests in the implementation of the ideas and priorities of the national land-use planning policy; . Publicity, transparency, partnership and public involvement in the decision-making process at all stages of work on the NCSD; . Consistency, coordination and continuity of the planning process, contributing to the rational and adequate utilization of the experience accumulated over the years; . Inter-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary approach and synergy in the generation of ideas promoting creativity and innovations; . Concentration in terms of thematic scope, financial and geographic aspects, available resources and timeframe for the purpose of achieving more adequate behaviour in the use of the limited resources. A major instrument used in the elaboration of the National Concept for Spatial Development is the Geographic Information System (GIS) with the proposed structured database of geo-spatial 4 data, which is used for analyses, testing of models, assessment of territories and core-cities and visualization of the results. An analysis was made of the influence of the major geo-political, global, social, economic and ecological factors on spatial development and the most important challenges, which the country might face, were outlined. One of the gravest problems during the next decades will be the demographic crisis in all its multi-faceted manifestations. The decrease and ageing of population in Europe will continue and Bulgaria will make no exception. For this reason all possible demographic scenarios envisage diminishing of the population size. Section Two is devoted to the theoretical fundamentals of the spatial model, its principal elements, parts of the macro-spatial structure – central over-urbanized territories and peripheral, under-urbanized territories, to which one more category has been added – natural, non-urbanized territories; the development poles and development axes, natural and cultural values of national significance. In this section the model for spatial development is selected, the formulated vision and the related strategic objectives and priorities are specified. The spatial model for development of the national territory is a multi-layer one and synthesizes different layers of information, functions, processes and priority elements of diverse hierarchic ranks in a unified dynamic system. The alternative spatial models are based on the existing situation and the possible changes in the polycentric structure of cities evenly distributed on the territory of the country. The assessment of the possible alternatives of a limited, moderately developed polycentrism and strongly developed polycentrism prove that the most appropriate model for the country is the model of moderate polycentrism with opportunities for phased development over time depending on the impact of domestic and external economic, geopolitical and demographic factors. The general trend laid down in the Concept is overcoming the threat of orientation towards monocentrism, promotion of the movement from monocentrism towards moderate polycentrism, which expands and comes closer to developed polycentrism over time. The National Concept for Spatial Development of Bulgaria for the period 2013-2025 creates a theoretical basis for the implementation of this model, which will guarantee the complex integrated planning, ensuring harmonic unity of social, economic, ecological and land-use planning. It does not plan resources, but rather measures, defines directions of the regional policy and the related spatial planning, orients the Managing Authority in the selection of the cities to be supported under the OPRD and coordinates sectoral policies by reorienting them with respect to the national space. The NCSD covers the entire national territory but refrains from being omnipotent by orientating the traditional analysis of the environment-related components and factors towards territories, sites and processes of national significance and laying the focus on them. As regards human settlements in their capacity of bearers of the priorities of the national policy for spatial development, the NCSD pays special attention to both cities and larger villages, which occupy an important