Evaluating trends in the consideration of urban green spaces in strategic spatial planning: Insights from Romania

In Europe, strategic spatial planning is increasingly recognized as a public-sector-led approach that brings together multiple actors in collaborative settings to build long-term visions for urban development. Despite the growing importance of urban green spaces (UGS) in fostering sustainable and liveable cities, systematic longitudinal and comparative analyses of UGS integration into strategic urban plans remain scarce. Drawing on established normative criteria for “good” strategic plans and evidence from practice, we propose an evaluation framework to assess the communication-oriented, evidence-based, action-oriented, collaborative and adaptive dimensions of plans. We apply the framework to three generations of strategic plans from 18 Romanian cities. Our results indicate that, while UGS are frequently mentioned, their integration into actionable strategies is inconsistent. We observe, however, a positive trend in the incorporation of UGS into successive plan iterations. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to use a longitudinal research design to systematically assess changes in the quality of strategic urban plans, with a particular focus on UGS. We discuss our framework and findings in the context of broader debates about the nature of strategic planning and the mainstreaming of environmental aspects into strategic plans. Applying the framework in different countries and planning contexts could assess its transferability and reveal how institutional arrangements, planning traditions, and socio-political environments influence the quality of strategic plans over time.