N ORV ISION A SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE FOR THE NORTH SEA REGION Vision Working Group with representatives from spatial planning offices from the participating countries and regions prepared by PLANCO Consulting GmbH, Essen, Germany Lilienstr. 44, D-45133 Essen Tel. +49-(0)201-41921 Fax +49-(0)201-411468 e-mail: [email protected] HTTP://WWW.PLANCO.DE N ORV ISION A SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE FOR THE NORTH SEA REGION PREFACE N ORV ISION is an advisory document which is hoped to influence spatial planning in the North Sea Region. It is expected that projects to be developed under INTERREG III and beyond will include measures which conform to the vision and which seek to put it into practice. This is not an official document and not part of the statutory planning system. Before getting its final form, it has been intensively discussed with representatives from NSR regions, with Interreg IIC project leaders and with others. In its analytical part the report presents a generalised picture of the region. It is inevitable that some local detail will be lost in that process. NorVision was prepared according to the boundaries of the NSR defined in INTERREG IIC. At a late stage, the boundaries for INTERREG III were announced which added territory in The Netherlands, The UK and Belgium. This was unfortunately too late to be included in NorVision. It is hoped that the principles of NorVision will also be relevant for the widened region. NOTE Names of regions are normally expressed according to the respective national wording, where they apply to the name of administrative units (example: Danish Sønderjylland). But where they express a geographic area, and a specific English word exists, the latter has been used (example: the Danish area of ‘Jutland’). Spatial Vision Working Group T ABLE OF C ONTENT 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The North Sea Region - A vision for its future................................................................................................... 1 1.2 What is the purpose of the Vision....................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 The North Sea and spatial development ............................................................................................................ 3 1.4 Who is the Vision aimed at?................................................................................................................................ 5 1.5 The spatial Vision process .................................................................................................................................. 5 1.6 Structure of the report ......................................................................................................................................... 5 2. SUMMARY 2.1 The Vision and basic values................................................................................................................................ 7 2.2 Development aims................................................................................................................................................ 8 2.3 Visions into aims.................................................................................................................................................. 9 3. SPATIAL CHARACTERISTICS 3.1 Purpose of the analysis, limitations ................................................................................................................. 11 3.2 The North Sea ..................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.3 Urban system...................................................................................................................................................... 14 3.4. Rural areas.......................................................................................................................................................... 15 3.5. Nature areas, cultural heritage and tourism .................................................................................................... 18 3.6. Transport infrastructure and traffic flows........................................................................................................ 20 3.7. Energy.................................................................................................................................................................. 26 4. FUTURE CHALLENGES 4.1. Approach............................................................................................................................................................. 27 4.2. Globalisation and continued economic growth .............................................................................................. 27 4.3. Information technology and knowledge society.............................................................................................. 29 4.4. Mobile society..................................................................................................................................................... 30 4.5. Changing life styles............................................................................................................................................ 31 4.6. Towards equality between men and women.................................................................................................... 32 4.7. Pressure on the environment – conflict among short- and long-term benefits............................................ 33 4.8. Changing relationship government - individual .............................................................................................. 34 5. THE VISION 5.1. What does the Vision stand for......................................................................................................................... 35 5.2. Basic values reflected in the Vision ................................................................................................................. 35 5.3. The Vision: Ten statements............................................................................................................................... 37 6. AIMS AND STRATEGIES 6.1. Aims and Strategies for the NSR as a whole ................................................................................................... 43 6.2. Aims and Strategies for the urban regions ...................................................................................................... 63 6.3. Aims and Strategies for rural areas.................................................................................................................. 75 7. VISIONS INTO ACTION 7.1. Introduction83 7.2. Key themes for sustainable development........................................................................................................ 83 7.3 Visions into projects .......................................................................................................................................... 87 7.4. Continued dialogue with the actors.................................................................................................................. 87 7.5 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................................ 89 N ORV ISION A SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE FOR THE NORTH SEA REGION ANNEX 1. Delimitation of the North Sea Region ................................................................................................................... 90 2. Projects proposed by Interreg III ......................................................................................................................... 91 3. Examples for potential cooperation projects identified by the VWG..................................................................... 92 3. Notes ........................................................................................................................................................ 98 MAPS European Interreg II C Regions..................................................................................................................................... 1 The North Sea Region................................................................................................................................................... 2 Habitats in the Wadden Sea Area ............................................................................................................................... 13 Existing Urban Settlements ......................................................................................................................................... 14 Urban population growth in Scotland 1971-1991 ........................................................................................................ 17 Population density ....................................................................................................................................................... 18 Nature Potential Areas, World Heritage Sites According to UNESCO, Main Tourism Areas ...................................... 19 Priority TEN measures relevant for the NSR ............................................................................................................... 22 Major Nodes and transportation networks................................................................................................................... 23 Sea transport flows of port with significant transport volumes across