System Innovation in Spatial Development: Current Dutch Approaches

A system innovation is a cross-organizational qualitative intervention that various system participants bring about together through their various contributions of different kinds of knowledge and skill. The term refers to the innovation of an entire system involving many actors. Spatial development refers to both the dynamic in land use, and changes in the development and implementation of spatial plans. The current large number of societal and spatial developments taken as a whole in a country such as the Netherlands increase the pressure on space and create the need for a powerful system innovation. This paper explains the system innovation which is going on in the Netherlands now, drawing on such themes as the coproduction of policy, public–private partnership and demand management. A process architecture for area development is more and more proposed, in which project envelopes are formed, the scope is optimized and surplus profits are ploughed back into the area (value capturing). The future will tell whether this new approach will really work and whether the traditional values and performance of Dutch spatial planning will be safeguarded under changing circumstances.