ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction into territorial impact assessment as it has been developed as a tool to assess policy impacts in the context of European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON). It discusses how this tool has been further developed to assess territorial impacts of future development trends. In the field of European spatial planning and regional development, the idea of a territorial impact assessment (TIA) has been brought into the European debate as part of the cooperation around the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP). The chapter focuses on understanding the specific territorial dimension of the selected trends. For the first time the methodologies used in the territorial impact assessment of policy interventions have also been used to assess the impact of future trends. The results suggest that this exercise was worth the effort as these methodologies help in understanding the wide variety of both exposure and sensitivity of European cities and regions to future trends.
