The article deals with the issue of spatial plans at the local level. The aims of this paper are (1) extracting the characteristics of local spatial plans that can be compared more broadly (2) identifying, on this basis, the role of spatial plans at the local level in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In achieving these aims, the authors have critically examined spatial plans and their performance, as well as the planning systems they belong to. Hence, they have investigated the types of local plans in each country, their legal features, and the layout of their content. This examination has revealed a host of problems in the workings of the CEE planning systems. The article highlights those spatial planning issues that could be the subject of more in-depth international comparisons. The study provides additional evidence that in countries where spatial plans are legislated, there are more (mutually differentiated) legal problems in their application. Such problems have been analyzed. Besides procedural problems, discrepancies between the contents of different types of plans (e.g., general plans and detailed plans) are very often a problem. The paper also proposes a novel method for detailed comparisons of selected aspects of spatial plans. It can be applied to a large number of countries and also to other aspects of spatial planning. Last but not least, the paper emphasizes the need for a detailed multi-stage consultation of each aspect to be compared.

Despite the growing quantity of ecosystem-services-related research, there is still a lack of deeper understanding on cultural ecosystem services (CES). This is mainly due to the perception of CES, which can vary by geographic location and population. In this study, we present a Public Participation Geographic Information System (PPGIS) method in a Hungarian microregion. Our goal is to increase understanding on how cultural services are perceived in this geographical context and level, and how this relative importance is related to biophysical landscape features. We also consider the influence of accessibility on the perceived landscape and compare our findings with the results of other studies with different sociocultural backgrounds. The research consists of participatory mapping with 184 persons that were digitized and analyzed with GIS and statistical software. During the analysis, we identified CES hotspots and compared CES with landscape features, as well as CES perception with accessibility. Our results showed positive correlation of CES with land covers related to built-up areas, as well as aesthetic and recreational services with water bodies. Compared to other studies, we found different spatial relationships in the case of spiritual services, and higher importance of agricultural land covers during the CES perception, thanks to the Central-Eastern European (CEE) sociocultural background. Our study highlights the effect of accessibility on CES perception; nevertheless, these relationships varied by different infrastructural elements. We conclude by discussing the implications and limitations of our study and encouraging future landscape research to apply the PPGIS method in this geographical context.

The socialist era postponed suburbanisation in Central and Eastern European countries. After 1990, the process became extremely intensive and transformed the compact form of cities into more decentralised and dispersed urban structures. Therefore, the study aims to identify the main trends in land-cover transformation caused by urban sprawl in peri-urban areas of three Central and Eastern European cities (NUTS 3 level: the Pest County, Bratislava Region, and Krakowski subregion). In addition, we identified various policy tools for green infrastructure protection. We further investigated the extent to which the presence of legal means of nature conservation affects the stability of natural and seminatural areas. The research used an original questionnaire and spatio-temporal analysis. It has been confirmed that after decades of socialism, a highly intensive urban sprawl process started in the analysed regions. It generally slowed down after 2000 except for the Krakowski subregion. The majority of new artificial areas replaced agricultural land. Despite the dynamic urban sprawl, almost one-third of the analysed Central and Eastern European peri-urban areas were stable natural and seminatural areas. The traditional nature conservation tools proved to be effective in preserving natural and seminatural areas, but the protection of landscapes exposed to urban sprawl needs specific tools. The effectiveness of urban sprawl control is hindered by the fact that spatial planning competences are dispersed. This research may influence monitoring urban sprawl and offer an innovative method because it combines spatial analysis (quantitative approach) with the impact of policy tools (qualitative approach).

The spatial planning act should define the key values of a given planning system. However, legally defining these values does not guarantee their smooth or efficient implementation. Though, it should provide guidance in their subsequent interpretation. Spatial planning law defines values but does not guarantee their realisation. The articulation of values in spatial planning law must, as a rule, be more general, detailed by specific provisions and considered in judicial interpretation. The aim of this article is to extract and comparative analysis spatial planning values comprised within national legal acts of Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. It then sets out to compare these values to the planning practices within these countries. Values stated in legislation at the national level are also applicable at lower planning levels, particularly at the local level. Their inclusion in acts is therefore very important from the perspective of planning practice. For the purposes of this article, values in spatial planning are those comprised within national laws on spatial planning matters. This refers to the values explicitly identified and included at the beginning of such laws. The way these values are framed and understood is explored in the article. The legal recognition of values in spatial planning can provide a basis for their wider implementation. However, there are several barriers against their successful implementation. Different jurisdictions engage with these values in distinct ways. The same applies to actual planning practice. Identifying and comparing the ways in which spatial planning values are framed in the laws of the surveyed countries made it possible to single out values that are repeated in all systems (e.g., sustainable development, environmental protection, protection of architectural properties and public interest) and values that are framed differently across Central East European planning systems.

During urbanization in developing countries, fragmentation of green infrastructure due to increasing populations and the expansion of construction land leads to an extremely serious imbalance between the supply and demand for urban ecosystem services. In this study, the central city of Zhengzhou, a central city in central China, was selected as the study area and the excessive demand for six ecosystem services, namely, air purification, flood regulation, heat regulation, hydrological regulation, CO₂ sequestration and recreational services, was quantitatively evaluated. The entropy method was used to calculate the weights of various ecosystem services, and spatial overlay analysis was performed to obtain the comprehensive ecosystem service excessive demand. Finally, bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to explore the response of population density to comprehensive excessive demand for ESs. The results of this study indicate that: (1) The most prevalent need is for more CO₂ regulation service throughout the study area. (2) Except for hydrological regulation service, the spatial distribution of the remaining highly excessive ecosystem service demands are mostly concentrated in old neighborhoods. (3) Of the six excessively demanded economic services, rainwater regulation obtained the greatest weight, reflecting the poor urban infrastructure configuration for countering the rapidly increasing threat of flooding caused by climate change in the city. (4) The comprehensive ecosystem service excessive demand results show that there are eight priority green infrastructure implementation blocks in the central city of Zhengzhou. (5) There were three agglomeration types between population density and comprehensive excessive demand for ESs: high-high type, low-high type and low-low type. The spatial distribution characteristics of population density and comprehensive ES demand are positively correlated. The results of this study could help to provide information for decision making when delineating the priority areas and types of green infrastructure implementation in developing cities.