Instruments of Land Policy: Dealing with Scarcity of Land

In dealing with scarce land, planners often need to interact with, and sometimes confront, property right-holders to address complex property rights situations. To reinforce their position in situations of rivalrous land uses, planners can strategically use and combine different policy instruments in addition to standard land use plans. Effectively steering spatial development requires a keen understanding of these instruments of land policy.

This book not only presents how such instruments function, it additionally examines how public authorities strategically manage the scarcity of land, either increasing or decreasing it, to promote a more sparing use of resources. It presents 13 instruments of land policy in specific national contexts and discusses them from the perspectives of other countries. Through the use of concrete examples, the book reveals how instruments of land policy are used strategically in different policy contexts.

Jean-David Gerber is Associate Professor at the University of Bern, Switzerland (tenure track).

Thomas Hartmann is Associate Professor at Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands.

Andreas Hengstermann is a PhD student at the Institute of Geography, Research Unit Urban and Regional Planning, University of Bern, Switzerland.