POLYCENTRISM, STRATEGIC SPATIAL PLANNING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

Ever since polycentrism was promoted by the EU in ESDP as an a-priori view valuable to adopt it gained popularity and it has been included in policy documents of the Member States. The paper will explain the context of European, national and regional policies and also the visions of regional development regarding urban polycentric regions to highlight their relevance as a distinct spatial level of planning. For the national context we chose the example of the German federal state; its objectives regarding spatial planning are still marked by the contradiction between the principal of balanced spatial development across the country and the promotion of an European alternative model of development. This case also highlights the changes induced by the shift of the political views and inclusion of new development directions in policy documents. Polycentrism on regional level is being exemplified on Randstad scale by pointing out the way the development of this region is promoted by superior administrative tiers and how different forms of governance have emerged. Finally, the paper examines how a model of spatial interaction and residual analysis can provide useful information in pointing out the intensity and direction of the relationships among urban centres, becoming thus a measure of polycentricit