Evaluating National Urban Planning: Is Dutch Planning a Success or Failure?

Planning on a national level performs a different function to planning on a local level. Uncertainty plays a larger role, as national planning is often more abstract, i.e., local government has its own responsibilities for the precise location of activities, and zoning of land use. National planning is a process in which public and private agencies each play a different role, and neither of these agent can control the outcome. This paper is about the evaluation of one aspect of Dutch national planning: the concentration of urban development, in which there is a tradition of different government agencies each having a different role in planning. This paper examines how to evaluate a complex national urban planning policy.OTB Research Institut