ABSTRACT
The reduction of pollution emissions and environmental degradation can only be achieved through a holistic approach, since effective mitigation strategies demand that, all agents contributing to the negative effects of development, globalisation and environmental erosion must coordinate and perform better. Europe has progressed in developing comprehensive strategies to address urban climate mitigation through the discipline of spatial planning. Spatial planning harmonizes all performed actions within the natural and built environment and sets the patterns of human activity. As spatial planning is concerned with the organization of the physical spatial structure of large regions and provides the framework and directives for large-scale proposals, solutions and regulation, it supersedes in hierarchy urban planning and affects its processes of in essential ways. Environmental planning, an integral component of spatial planning for urban systems, must harmonise sectoral actions to take place in physical space. Globalised economies have depleted natural environments and can have negative impacts on local economies when local parameters are disregarded.
