Alignment of Spatial, Transportation and Environmental Planning: Practices Underpinning Strategic Approaches in Developing Countries

Abstract

The debate and discourse for the need to align spatial planning, transportation planning and environmental management strategically, functionally and operationally to inform modelling is ongoing internationally since the early 2000s. This incorporates the articulation of the planning instruments used by the professionals within these functional fields and the way in which it is coordinated and applied as to enhance strategic planning and decision making.With the approval of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) (Act 16 of 2013) and the SPLUMA Regulations (23 March 2015) in South Africa, the last bastion of 'Apartheid' planning legislation from the previous political dispensation was reformed. Although this process is still legislatively being finalized at provincial and municipal levels of government through adapting new transformation structures, guidelines, policies and regulations, the opportunity exists to assess the impacts of alignment to improve strategic planning, modelling, coordination and decision making.In this chapter the alignment between the policy and legislative frameworks, guidelines, processes and the need for integration will be discussed. The approach presented in this paper will especially guide planning within developing countries based on the learning experiences from spatial systems in developed countries.