ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the Czech spatial planning, in the past decades, exposed to both global and specific local pressures shared with other countries of the former Soviet domain. The combined effects of political and economic change coincided with an increased impact of delayed and hurried international integration and globalization. The chapter provides the changing scene that has influenced planning since 1990. It describes the actual state of the art in terms of traditions, legal frameworks, mission, and role of planning. It characterize major changes, problems and challenges; and it describes the dimensions and directions of current changes in terms of public interest as a cornerstone of modern planning, actors and driving forces and the planner's role in the changing environment of planning. The chapter is an outcome of the research project WD-07-07-4, 'The conception of spatial planning and territorial disparities', supported by the Ministry for Regional Development of the Czech Republic and elaborated at the Czech Technical University in Prague.
