Land-Use Planning in Municipalities as a Driver for Sustainable Residential Building in Finland: A Regional Innovation System Approach

Abstract

Land-use planning has been identified as an important tool in pursuing sustainability by guiding the construction and development of our built environment. Sustainability action places large requirements for municipalities to develop and introduce priorities in their planning. Land-use planning system in Finland relate to regulation and decisions of authorities connected to national, regional, and municipal levels. In general, municipal level has the most power in decision making by holding e.g., planning monopolies. Municipal land-use planners operate in the junction of different actors including businesses, local politicians, citizens, and research institutions. Thus, they provide an interesting opportunity to study the operationalization and objectives of land-use planning in different regions. This study takes the regional innovation system approach to illustrate planning systems, involvement of different stakeholders and the sustainability objectives of land-use planning in varying regions in Finland. Quantitative methods (i.e., exploratory factor analysis, statistical tests) are used in the online survey data analysis. Our results suggest a strong connection between informal planning system and municipalities’ sustainability objectives as well as stakeholders representing research and governance organizations whereas statutory planning system is more connected with users of existing knowledge. Regarding regional characteristics, urban municipality planners were found to perceive informal planning as more important than planners in other municipalities. Additionally, connected to the results on sustainability objectives, urban municipality planners paid attention especially on goals for sustainable building, while those working in other municipalities emphasized both goals on sustainable building and securing ecosystem services.