ABSTRACT
From the end of the 1980s, especially, there has been a growing realisation of the interdependence of spatial and environmental policy. The Dutch government published its viewpoint on the cohesion between these two policy fields at the end of 1997 in a policy document entitled Environment and Space. This policy document will focus primarily on these two policy fields; the relationships with other policies concerned with the physical environment such as water, nature, housing and transport, will only be indirectly referred to. The extra value of a broader integration of policies for the physical environment has been acknowledged and will be explored in the future, but it is too complex to be contemplated at present.
