Stockholm - SLL Tillväxt, miljö och regionplanering (TMR ...

320SUMMARYwork on the 1991 Regional Plan came to a completion,the new geopolitical situation in the Baltic Sea Regionnaturally could only be examined for the first time inmore scope and depth in connection with RUFS work.The transition of the former planned economies anddictatorships to democratic, market economies is proceedingrapidly. One of the points of departure in theapproved RUFS 2001 is the Stockholm Region’s developmentas a centre for the Baltic Sea Region.The RUFS process has also given greater attention tothe Archipelago than earlier regional planning. A standardlevel is indicated for traffic in the Archipelago,focused on the needs of the resident population. Thiswork is currently being followed up and expanded withthe preparation of a sub-regional plan for the Archipelagoregion.From Environmental Assessment toSustainable DevelopmentAs early as 1997, as part of the regional planning procedure,work was begun on an environmental assessmentof the regional plan. At the same time, work gotunderway on an assessment of the social and economicconsequences of the plan. During 1999, a programmewas developed whereby strategic environmental assessmentwould function as a guideline for the upcomingwork on impact assessment. The work required developingnew methods, since this was the first time a strategicenvironmental assessment of a regional plan hadbeen carried out. The methodological work was carriedout in co-operation with the National Board of Housing,Building and Planning and the Swedish EnvironmentalProtection Agency through the SAMS project(Social Planning with Environmental Objectives inSweden). Both regional reference groups as well as expertgroups were connected with the work.The aim of the three impact assessments was to havethem together form a basis for assessing the plan’spremises and to contribute to an increased understandingof its effects, thereby improving the basis for adecision which could lead to long-term sustainabledevelopment. The point of departure was that the assessmentsshould introduce important aspects at an earlystage in the planning process, contribute to illuminatingdifferent alternatives, point out conflicting objectivesand synergies, as well as increasing the transparency ofthe planning process.After the consultations in the year 2000, it wasdecided that the three impact assessments should beintegrated into a collective assessment, dealing with allthree dimensions of sustainable development. Social,economic and environmental aspects are the threeperspectives which together describe the requirementsfor long-term sustainable development. Prior to thisthere were few examples of similar descriptions at a regionallevel and with such a long-term perspective, andthus the methods had to be developed while the workwas in progress.Methods and ModelsThe Office of Regional Planning and Urban Transportationworks on the region’s development in a longtermperspective, often 15–30 years. There are a numberof more or less established methods, as well as more orless sophisticated forecasting and modelling tools tocreate these images of the future for us. These include,for instance, methods for forecasts and scenarios of populationdevelopment, settlement and traffic, as well asfor socioeconomic analyses and impact analyses.Part 4: The Basic IssuesPopulation GrowthPopulation growth is an important point of departure