Grönplanens roller och innehåll: Implementering och inflytande i den fysiska planeringen

Sammanfattning: In Sweden, municipalities play a decisive part in the spatial planning due to their plan monopoly. Green infrastructure can be applied in spatial planning to reduce the effects of several societal challenges, such as loss of biodiversity and climate change. The purpose of this study is to investigate how green plans are used in physical planning and to identify potential development opportunities to strengthen its roles in the physical planning and in climate adaption. Eleven municipalities were divided into two groups based on the duration of which they had been working with green plans. A content analysis of their green plans and interviews with officials of the eleven municipalities were conducted. The results show that the aims of the green plans retrieved from the content analysis were matching what the officials said about the practical roles of the green plans. The roles were, for example, to secure the inhabitants’ access to green urban spaces and to be a support structure to facilitate the integration of nature considerations in the planning process. Examples of barriers hindering the application of the green plan were economic factors, planning traditions and ignorance regarding the multifunctional properties of greenery. Areas of improvements were the digitalization of the green plans, constructive dialogues between officials and inhabitants or politicians in formulating the green plan, as well as the balance between the strategic guidelines and the practical directions of the documents. Most of the green plans specify their possible roles in adapting to climate change. Still, the conveyed connection between climate adaptation and green infrastructure planning is lacking in the practical stage. In conclusion, focusing on the multifunctionality of green structure and the interaction with other plans seem to be two successful ways of strengthening the green plan’s roles in physical planning and further its connection to climate adaption.