21st Century (2000–present)

SVIR (Structuurvisie Infrastructuur en Ruimte)

2012 · Russia · Western & Central Europe · National modernization and capital-city building · Planned by NL national government
Map of the Randstad conurbation in the Netherlands, the core region addressed by the national spatial strategy SVIR (Structuurvisie Infrastructuur en Ruimte).
Map of the Randstad conurbation in the Netherlands, the core region addressed by the national spatial strategy SVIR (Structuurvisie Infrastructuur en Ruimte). · CC BY-SA 3.0

Core idea

Structural vision integrating infra & space

Why it matters

National framework preceding NOVI

Description

The Structuurvisie Infrastructuur en Ruimte, a national spatial strategy adopted by the Dutch government in 2012, integrating infrastructure and spatial development policy in a single framework document. The SVIR pared back the national government's role in spatial planning, devolving most decisions to provinces and municipalities while concentrating state involvement on thirteen national interests such as main transport corridors, ports and energy networks. It replaced the earlier Nota Ruimte and national mobility policy.

Significance

The SVIR is significant as the moment the Netherlands, long a byword for strong national planning, deliberately decentralised and slimmed down its national spatial policy. It framed a decade of debate about whether the state had withdrawn too far from housing and spatial coordination, and it set the stage for the later Nationale Omgevingsvisie (NOVI), which partially reasserted national direction.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.