The Spatial Planning System’s Influence on Civic Participation Digital Transformation in Europe

Spatial governance and planning systems (SGPS) are methods that governments use to control and guide the development of city land and property rights. The goal of this paper is to find out if there are any linking factors between SGPS and the level of public engagement in the city planning process. According to The ESPON COMPASS study [13], which included 28 EU and 11 non-EU countries, three distinct SGPSs currently dominate in Europe. They primarily differ in their decision-making processes regarding the allocation of unoccupied urban land [2]. The paper compares the three most common SGPSs in Europe: The Conformative system, the State-led system, the Market-led neo-performative system depending on the level of civic engagement and the method and digital tools employed for urban communication. This paper reviews the academic literature and categories the interrelationships among the various key factors: level of citizen engagement; information flow, engagement tools and methods, digital participatory tools depending on SGPS. The analyses are based on secondary data from The IAP2 framework on public participation [5, 18], The Spectrum of Blended Participation [1], and The functionality of commonly-used digital participatory mapping tools [10]. Through this analysis, the authors have developed “The taxonomy of factors influencing civic participation digital transformation depending on the Spatial Governance and Spatial Planning System (SGPS)”. There are significant differences between these systems regarding the extent and nature of civic society engagement in the process, particularly in the implementation of modern digital civic engagement tools in the city planning process. These differences have a significant impact on civil rights, specifically in terms of transparency and the ability to influence decision-making processes concerning the allocation of free city land use.