ABSTRACT
The process of European integration, alongside the effects of globalisation, has considerable consequences for spatial development. Regions and cities in the Single European Market are becoming increasingly interlinked with more and more people living and working in more than one country. Trade flows in the European Union have considerably increased since the 1950s, accompanied by significant traffic impacts and environmental pollution. In this chapter, major economic, societal and environmental trends that affect the spatial development of the EU territory, and the key issues that emerge from these trends for spatial planning, are discussed. By ‘spatial development’, we refer not merely to spatial impacts in relation to physical infrastructure or changes to the built environment but also more generally to the way in which global and European trends affect land use, environmental quality and the socio-economic performance of Europe’s cities and regions. Spatial planners working at all scales have to be increasingly aware of such trends and their regional and local impacts so as to be able to address undesirable changes to the spatial structure of their territories.
