Land Use Policy 27 (2010) 864–868

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Land Use Policy

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol

Climate protection and compact urban structures in spatial planning and local
construction plans in Germany
Wolfgang Wende a , Wulf Huelsmann a , Michael Marty a , Gertrude Penn-Bressel a , Nikolai Bobylev b
a
Federal Environment Agency Germany, Wörlitzer Platz 1, 06844 Dessau, Germany
b
Research Centre for Interdisciplinary Environmental Cooperation, Russian Academy of Sciences, POB 45, 195267, St. Petersburg, Russia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The paper discusses opportunities for integration of the climate protection strategy declared by the
Received 23 June 2009 German government into spatial and urban land-use plans in Germany.
Received in revised form The paper gives a brief overview of German climate protection related legislation, gives some statistics
12 November 2009
on energy demand in the housing sector in Germany, and identifies opportunities for climate change
Accepted 15 November 2009
mitigation in urban areas through enhanced spatial planning and energy-efficient homes.
Drawing on statistical analysis the paper identifies discrepancies between trends in population densities
Keywords:
and actual housing floor space.
Spatial planning
Urban land-use policy
The paper further identifies opportunities for increasing heating efficiency of houses by managing the
Climate change spatial arrangement of apartments and buildings.
Climate protection The overall conclusion of the paper is that adjustments in the spatial planning legal base in Germany
Climate change mitigation are necessary to integrate specific climate protection tools that will allow an increase in energy efficiency
in housing.
© 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction and basic definitions on climate protection
The paper discusses opportunities for integration of the cli-
mate protection strategy declared by the German government into
spatial and urban land-use plans in Germany. At present, a large
number of research and development projects are being initiated in
Germany which address the questions of climate protection (miti-
gation) and adjustment to climate change (adaptation) in spatial
planning, environmental planning and residential development.
The challenges of climate protection (mitigation) are the main focus
of the present paper. Climate change mitigation means implement-
ing policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance sinks
(Pachauri and Reisinger, 2007). In spatial planning practice there
are three main opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
ning, through the creation of sufficiently great structural density
and emissions reducing traffic solutions; and in spatial planning,
through the achievement of greater CO2 binding by reforesta-
tion; and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by modification
of land-use (Bulkeley and Kern, 2006; Dawson et al., 2009).
Thus, such questions as building spatial orientation for maximum
heat capture, the development of energy-efficient urban–suburban
relationships, as well as possibilities for the minimisation of
infrastructural systems for individual motorised traffic, are to be
addressed with the objective of maximising energy efficiency.
Overview of contemporary German legislative base on
climate protection and spatial planning

• potential energy savings through favourable location of new res-
idential and commercial developments;
• energy-efficient design of buildings;
• production of energy using renewable resources.
Energy-saving and energy-efficient spatial and residential
development is the main focus, e.g. in local development plan-
E-mail address: nikolaibobylev@yahoo.co.uk (N. Bobylev).
Comprehensive planning practice in the German spatial plans
(Raumordnungsplanung) and urban land-use planning system
(Bauleitplanung), which includes zoning, or preparatory land-use
plans (Flaechennutzungsplaene), and local construction develop-
ment plans, or legally binding land-use plans (Bebauungsplaene),
faces the challenge of contributing its share towards global climate
protection. The legal foundations for spatial planning in Germany
demand the inclusion of the interests of general climate protection
at the regional level. Particularly the Spatial Planning Law (ROG) as
amended as of June 30, 2009, requires, under Art. 2, Sect. 2, No. 6, the
application of the following spatial planning principle: “. . .the spa-

0264-8377/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2009.11.005
 W. Wende et al. / Land Use Policy 27 (2010) 864–868
tial requirements of climate protection must be taken into account,
both by measures to counteract climatic change and by those which
serve the purpose of adaptation to climatic change. In this context,
the spatial prerequisites for the expansion of renewable energies
and for thrifty energy use are to be created.” The Federal Build-
ing Code (BauGB), e.g., mentions requirements for general climate
protection in Art. 1, Sect. 5, Clause 2 at the local level: the munici-
pal zoning plan and the local construction development plan “are
to contribute to securing an environment consistent with human
dignity and to protect and develop the natural basic living con-
ditions, which shall also be carried out in such a manner as to
meet the responsibility for general climate protection”. However,
there is a controversy in the legal-scientific literature as to whether
this interest in general climate protection authorises municipalities
to incorporate stipulations in favour of the global climate in con-
struction development plans; or whether the BauGB only allows
stipulations to reduce local or regional air pollutants in those plans
(Mitschang, 2008). The German Federal Environment Agency (UBA)
has a clear view that a municipality which establishes a new local
plan for urban development may include urban development mea-
sures which promote the interests of global climate protection in
this plan (BUND, 2008). Thus, municipalities are encouraged to take
not only local interests into consideration when drafting a develop-
ment plan; they may provide stipulations which stem from global
considerations as well.
Since climate protection is controversial in local construction
development planning, at least from a legal point of view, the
UBA has conducted a legal study to examine the position of cli-
mate protection (Janssen and Albrecht, 2008). The legislation has
created the planning category “local construction development
planning” exclusively for the purpose of fulfilling urban develop-
ment projects; thus municipalities are banned from using this type
of planning instrument for purposes other than those of urban
development. Undoubtedly, local construction development plan-
ning may address stipulations to improve the local climate, e.g.
reducing air pollutants. But the question arises whether global
climate protection can be considered as an urban development
driver—which seems to be at the core of this legal discussion. In
this connection however, the following applies: the objectives of
urban land-use planning stated in BauGB in Art. 1, Sect. 5, Clause 2,
to wit: the contribution of urban land-use planning towards ensur-
ing an environment consistent with human dignity, as well as for
the protection and the development of the natural basic conditions
of life, include responsibility for general climate protection, and
thus, constitute a consolidation of the central concept of sustain-
able urban development. It is important that the new BauGB Art.
9, Sect. 1, No. 23 b, explicitly makes possible stipulations in a local
construction development plan for the use of renewable energies,
e.g. solar and wind. Thus, the above-mentioned urban develop-
ment and climate issues are duly reflected in legislation, and further
efforts should be directed towards concretisation of the particular-
ities that would facilitate protection of global climate. Protection of
global climate is not the main task of urban development, but this
issue may, and should be addressed within the context of urban
development planning practice.
Statistics on land-use, housing development, and energy
efficiency in Germany
A study by the German Federal Statistical Office shows that past
efforts to save heating energy in the area of housing have been
nullified by the increase in heated living space (cf. hereinafter:
UBA, 2007, 31f). Thus, the heating energy consumption of private
homes increased by 2.8% from 1995 through 2004, even though the
865
required heating energy per square metre of living space decreased
by about 9% during the same period. The reason for this is that
heated living space grew by 13% during this period. The number
of households, and hence the number of flats used, has increased
by approximately 5% – along with an increase in the population of
only approximately 1% – the increase in heated living space by a
total of 13% can be explained for the most part by an increase in
the consumption of residential space per household, and especially
the consumption per capita of the population. A closer analysis
of the data of the Federal Agency of Building and Regional Plan-
ning (BBR) shows that it is primarily consumption of residential
space by older people in one- or two-person households, who have
remained in detached houses or large family flats after their family-
raising period, which contributed to a major degree to the societal
per capita increase in consumption of residential space. Particularly
in the years since 1995, many detached houses have been built,
although the housing stock in many regions, considered purely
arithmetically, would have sufficed to provide even families with
children with sufficiently large flats. However, that would have
required motivating older people to move into smaller flats after
the end of their family-raising years. In the course of the demo-
graphic change in Germany, there is the danger that additional
single-family houses will be built in regions which are already
stagnating today, while flats and detached houses which are today
inhabited by older people might become vacant in large numbers
within a few years.
Suggestions for mainstreaming climate protection into
spatial and local development planning norms
Spatial planning
The plans of the state and regional planning system pro-
vide additional initial possibilities for residentially related energy
savings and efficiency through spatial planning (e.g. via the central-
location system and the axial system in Germany (Janssen and
Albrecht, 2008). In compact and dense spatial or urban develop-
ment structures, the actual requirement for residential buildings
must be met in the context of the central-location system. Exist-
ing capacities for construction are to be exhausted primarily along
development axes. In future, the requirement for home or flat
ownership should preferably be met using available and suitable
building stocks.
The protection of open space should be more strictly and more
forcefully applied in regional planning, since consistent open space
protection can prevent the continued energy-inefficient increase of
residential and traffic areas. Consistent spatial planning protection
of open space can thus prevent CO2 emissions as a follow-up result
of residential development. We can gain extra open and green space
by conducting dismantling programmes in cities and towns where
demographic transformation has resulted in the reduction of the
demand for new housing.
The above-mentioned spatial planning aspects are imple-
mentable by using categories of the German spatial planning act;
for instance by defining spatial priority areas for open space pro-
tection, or priority areas for the development of dense settlement.
If these stipulations are once formulated in a regional plan (and/or
in an urban land-use plan) the stipulation becomes mandatory for
further regional and local development practice.
Urban land-use planning
The general climate protection and energy efficiency strategies
of urban development in Germany are oriented towards the fol-
866 W. Wende et al. / Land Use Policy 27 (2010) 864–868
Fig. 1. Heat loss due to the effect of wind and of the position of buildings in the
terrain (DIFU et al., 1997).
lowing models:
• upgrading the residential stock energy supply and utilisation sys-
tems;
• low-shade positioning of structures during the winter, and
active-constructive shading during the summer;
• energy-saving arrangement of housing blocks and flats;
• site selection of buildings (e.g. optimisation of infrastructure con-
nections to the district-heating network);
• avoidance of individual motorised traffic.
For development planning in Germany, this means a further-
reaching consolidation of these general principles, and their
application to local climate protection strategies (Janssen and
Albrecht, 2008):
• steering and concentration of spatial urban growth, priority for
internal development and maximum possible avoidance of exter-
nal development, preservation of the carrying capacity of the
natural space (CO2 sinks; cf. Brown and Southworth, 2008);
• concentrated expansion of residential areas at efficient traffic
and infrastructural locations and routes, local public transport
in residential cores (UBA, 2005);
• appropriate positioning for new residential building areas (see
Fig. 1 and the explanations below);
• reduced spatial demand for stationary and mobile traffic, support
for car-pooling;
• greater mixed-use structuring, diversified economic structures,
utilisation diversity;
• site preparation for use of solar energy and other regenerative
energy sources (e.g. geothermal energy), sustainable use of local
resources and power systems;
• preservation and development of the municipal and regional
green and open space.
Fig. 1 shows several examples for different amounts of heat loss
dependent on location and exposure of buildings to the wind. Hill-
tops are less appropriate sites for new residential areas from the
heating energy-saving point of view. Wind shaded positions can
save about 50% of average heat energy needs.
The climate protection strategies presented here can be
reflected in land-use and municipal zoning (in Germany in the
preparatory land-use plan) (BauGB Art. 5, Sect. 2):
• general and/or special types of structural use, for mixed spatial
structures and mixed use (BauGB Art. 5, Sect. 2, No. 1);
• specifications of the urban development density (minimum
objective value);
• identification of residential cores;
• space for non-local traffic under the public transport concept;
• location, size and accessibility of infrastructural facilities;
Fig. 2. Controlling wind direction by planting and positioning of the buildings (DIFU
et al., 1997).
• areas and sites for energy supply systems, e.g. facilities for cogen-
eration or wind parks.
The following climate protection relevant categories can be
established and stipulated on a mandatory basis in municipal con-
struction development plans (in Germany legally binding land-use
plans) (Janssen and Albrecht, 2008; Schröter, 2009; Scholz et al.,
1998; DIFU et al., 1997).
Art. 9, Sect. 1, several nos. apply:
• types and dimensions of structural utilisation (no. 1);
• height of structural facilities (no. 2; heat energy savings of up to
18% possible; cf. Schröter, 2009);
• style, positioning and roof orientation (no. 2; savings up to 10%
possible);
• land areas to be built on/not built on (no. 2);
• size, depth and width of plots of land for building (no. 3; savings
up to 5 kW h/m2 per year heat energy);
• facilities for the use of renewable energies, in particular the use
of solar energy (no. 23 b);
• planting (no. 25; savings up to 3–6% of heat energy; see Fig. 2).
Tree plantations can have a positive effect on the heat balance
sheet of buildings. Deciduous plants are appropriate for shading
buildings in summer and are diaphanous to solar rays in winter.
Protection from wind exposure can be provided by dense evergreen
plantations. Planting measures can be stipulated in legally binding
land-use plans with reference to Art. 9, Sect. 1, No. 25 of the German
Federal Building Code (BauGB).
Fig. 3 illustrates the effect of urban density on surface-to-volume
ratios, and the effects on heat demand. Compact and high-volume
building shapes are much more energy-efficient than low volume
buildings. For example, the heat demand of eight 2-storey ribbons
of row houses is only around 56% of that of 64 single-family homes,
whose heat consumption is given as 100%. For four 4-storey rib-
bons, the figure is 40%, and for a 4-storey block-edge building,
around 36%. This shows the importance of promoting high urban
density to prevent heat losses and indirect CO2 and greenhouse
gas emissions. The type of urban structuring can be stipulated in
legally binding land-use plans under Art. 9, Sect. 1, Nos. 1 and 2 of
the German Federal Building Code.
 W. Wende et al. / Land Use Policy 27 (2010) 864–868
Fig. 3. Surface-to-volume ratios of different building shapes at equal building masses (64 flats) (DIFU et al., 1997).
Conclusions
Climate protection, energy efficiency, and use of renewable
energy resources play an increasingly important role in spatial
and urban planning. Density of an urban settlement and its spa-
tial organisation play an important role in the amount of energy
consumed by the community. Creating compact urban structures
is one of the key factors for climate change mitigation.
New, strategically oriented policy tools for management of res-
idential space are necessary. These tools should enable housing
provision while avoiding creation of low-density urban settle-
ments. Municipalities, regions and the German states should
allocate land for new housing construction in regional, spatial, and
urban land-use plans only where actual immigration causes hous-
ing space deficiency. In the latter case construction permits should
be available only for projects that are optimized spatially to ensure
their energy efficiency. Important issues to consider are building
stock density and transport links; availability and proximity of sup-
ply infrastructures (e.g. heating); maximisation of opportunities to
use natural lighting, heating, and cooling; and reservation of space
for energy generation from renewable sources (e.g. wind and solar
parks).
Socio-demographic factors are also worth consideration. Finan-
cial and social incentives should be available to elderly residents
that would allow them to move into smaller flats after the end of
their family-raising period. Young families should be encouraged
to rent or acquire existing houses rather than building new ones.
Incentives should be given to upgrading and modernisation of old
residential stock to fit requirements of young families. Obviously
this would open another opportunity to increase energy efficiency
of homes during renovation. Such socio-energy efficiency inte-
grated projects should be given priority in obtaining planning and
building permits, as well as further assistance from the state.
Existing planning tools should be improved to allow climate
mitigation. As shown in part 4 of the article, specific planning cat-
egories of planning law can be implemented more effectively to
867
increase energy efficiency of houses, and reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions.
The authors have developed a few ideas and suggested how they
can be integrated into existing codes and norms. Of course, these
can serve just as a starting point in meeting the enormous challenge
of mainstreaming climate change concerns into land-use plan-
ning at a variety of levels (e.g. country, regional, municipal). The
authors recognise the current lack of knowledge on new and more
comprehensive approaches and measures in spatial and urban
planning. Moreover, climate protection and adaptation measures
should be coordinated to achieve synergies. The formulated ideas
and suggested solutions show a significant potential in integrating
planning measures into climate change mitigation task. Currently
the German Federal Environment Agency is carrying out some
research projects in this area with a focus on concrete measures
on how urban environments should be designed to reduce green-
house gas emissions. However, comprehensive applied planning
guidelines for climate protection still need to be developed.
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