This paper explores the changes in the Serbian spatial planning legislation and system as they relate to the political, socio-economic and institutional context and reflect societal dynamics and broad democratization processes. Drawing on the literature on societal and institutional embedding of planning, evolution of planning systems and the theory of transition, we present the case study of the changing societal context and planning legislation in the Republic of Serbia by comparing the contents, processes, and tools prescribed by the laws enacted in 1985—before the fall of communism—and in 1995 and 2003—in the post-communist era. We find that the societal context and the level of political centralization in particular, are strong determinants of spatial planning legislation and system in Serbia. Other factors, such as the economic system and circumstances, professional culture and institutional maturity also significantly influence planning laws and their implementation. Planning systems and laws, indeed, mimic the societal dynamics with tendencies in path-dependency and discontinuity as well as innovation and re-invention that evade easy qualifications. The case study exposes the complex nature and meaning of societal transition vis-à-vis evolutionary and transformational views of planning.

Resilient cities have emerged as novel urban ecosystems that respond to the increasing challenges of contemporary urban development. A new methodological approach is needed to measure and assess the degree of resilience of the urban landscape during the ongoing planning process, considering different planning and design scenarios. Based on this consideration, the first attempt of this study was to develop a resilience index that summarizes the application of resilience theory in urban landscape planning. Is geodesign an appropriate tool to assess urban resilience? This was the main research question and the topic of the workshop ’’IGC—Resilient City of Belgrade’’ at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade (Master Landscape Studio). The main result of this research is a model for urban resilience assessment with IGC geodesign, which allows to measure scenario changes through developed resilience indicators (index), which are determined by a set of parameters (area, redundancy, diversity, porosity, carbon sequestration, edge type, edge length, etc.). The methodological approach allows quantifying the impact of adopted innovations in geodesign scenario proposals, which plays a crucial role in strengthening the connection between landscape planning and design. In the context of the novel urban ecosystem, future urban landscape planning should focus on resilience as a measure to achieve sustainable development goals, supported by geodesign as a collaborative and spatially explicit negotiation tool.

From the perspective of its inherent promises, difficulties, elusiveness, and relative discontinuity, the pursuit of integration in planning could be compared to the Quest for the Holy Grail. The aim of this paper is to identify the main commitments and impediments to pursued integration in the former Yugoslavia’s planning from the late 1950s until the late 1980s, drawing on the theoretical discourse, legislative, and institutional framework and the case study of the spatial plan preparation in the Socialist Republic of Serbia. During the chosen period, different aspects of integrated approach to spatial and urban planning were pursued in a context of creating and failing to deliver a unique Yugoslav version of the welfare state – the self-management socialism. In this light, the intended integration is contrasted to poor outcomes, which led to the loss of legitimacy and the final dissolution of the state, its ideology, governance, and socio-economic planning. The conclusion reflects on the main merits and pitfalls of the former Yugoslavia’s experiment to illuminate some general risks associated with the integrated approach in planning.

Negative trends in land use and land cover changes (LULCCs) are embodied in environmental, economic and social problems, keeping entire societies away from sustainable development goals (SDGs). This recognition incites a need for securing comprehensive and transdiciplinary knowledge on the complex interplay between LULCCs and their drivers. It should inform land use policy makers and produce adequate sustainable social responses. However, fragmentation in both academic and governmental arenas is an important impediment to the needed application of sustainability to land use policy. With this regard, the study offers a transdisciplinary, bottom-up and reproducible framework for understanding key drivers of LULCCs at the national/regional level where sustainable land use policies should be defined. Its main component is the repeated measure ANOVA of the experts’ survey data. The analysis allows aggregation of experts’ different disciplinary, professional and experiential perceptions and produces comparable results. It is tested in Serbia in three sub-periods during post-socialism. Main results confirm that LULCCs and drivers are complexly intertwined and need to be analysed within a comprehensive and transdisciplinary framework. Furthermore, the study should enable the transdisciplinary discussion, learning and knowledge coproduction that are required to inform land use policy makers about the needed trans-sectoral coproduction of policy responses towards SDGs.

Integrated local land use planning (ILLUP) is promoted as one of the planning instruments in giving territorial expression to societies’ goals, such as sustainable development. Similar efforts were invested in Serbia twice – during the post-WWII socialist period and during the transition towards democratic capitalism after 2000. However, our research on local land use planning as an integrated approach revealed significant inconsistencies in the practice in Serbia with the intended ILLUP. This directed the literature search and review and helped conceptualize not only process-, but also system-related social ILLUP requirements needed for employing the instrument. Apart from offering the heterarchical structure of ILLUP requirements, the paper explains its evolution and advocates calibrating the contextualization with standardization during ILLUP research.