Anna M. HERSPERGER¹, Cristian IOJA², Frederick STEINER³ & Constantina Alina TUDOR^2
1Swiss Federal Research Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape (WSL), Landscape Dynamics, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland, anna.hersperger@wsl.ch;
²University of Bucharest, Centre for Environmental Research and Impact Studies, Nicolae Bălcescu 1, 010041,
Bucharest, Romania, cristian.ioja@g.unibuc.ro, alina.hossu@g.unibuc.ro;
³The University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture, 310 Inner Campus Drive Stop B7500, Goldsmith Hall, Austin, TX 78712-1160, United States, fsteiner@austin.utexas.edu

COMPREHENSIVE CONSIDERATION OF CONFLICTS IN THE LAND-USE PLANNING PROCESS: A CONCEPTUAL CONTRIBUTION

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Land-use conflicts are defined as situations in which involved parties or constituents have incompatible interests concerning the use of a certain parcel of land. Such conflicts frequently center on who is to maintain control over the land, who possesses the right to participate in decision making about its management, and on the social and environmental impacts of its development or new use. An aspiration of land-use planning is to coordinate current and future societal needs while minimizing conflicts. Recently, planning has focused mainly on conflict negotiation, focusing for example on communication and community engagement. However, an understanding of an area’s possibilities for land-use conflicts has the potential to support sound allocation of social and financial resources to prevent or reduce disagreements. We propose a conceptual contribution for the comprehensive consideration of conflicts in land-use planning process, focusing on anticipation and negotiation. Examples from our research in Switzerland and Romania are used to illustrate how techniques of anticipation and processes of conflict negotiation can address potential land-use conflicts systematically.