Expert Bases in Demography for Municipal Spatial Planning

: When spatial planning, both strategic and operational, is undertaken at municipal level, expert bases in demography represent an important element of analysis. However, the applicable legislation, including implementing regulations, does not prescribe any such demographic requirements and spatial planners are left to their own devices when it comes to identifying the necessity of formulating such expert bases and their content. The reality is that a municipality will seldom commission a demographic study in its own right, and even if it does so, such a study is frequently dismissed as irrelevant to the preparation of a spatial planning document or applied unprofessionally. This thesis underlines the need for demographic analyses in municipal spatial planning and their proper application in the design of strategic and operational spatial planning acts. While drawing attention to the existing legislation, the theoretical aspects and practical cases, the thesis explores the core content of demographic expert bases for the purposes of well- functioning municipal spatial planning with a special focus on housing and development of social infrastructure. The thesis deals with basic demographic aspects of spatial planning, provides a brief presentation of EU spatial planning and development documents and the significance of demographic expert bases in legislation, professional resources and practical work in spatial planning at municipal level. In the analytical part, a practical case of designing expert demographic bases (for the Municipality of Škofja Loka) is presented. In the outcome, the paper provides instructions on how to design such expert bases that will serve as orientatio