This paper aims at positioning spatial development at the crossroads of the conflicting needs for spatial mobility and spatial sustainability. Suc tensions have explicitly been recognized in recent local, national and international policy documents. A reconciliation of such antagonistic driving forces in our modern network economy requires a solid theoretical framework in which the relevant force fields are depicted and in which the uncertainties inherent in any attempt at steering human behavior in space are explicitly recognized. This requires an analytical framework in which relevant scenarios are systematically projected on a model structure describing the above mentioned force field. This paper will try to offer an operational methodology for coping with the above mentioned conflicting issues in planning for sustainable spatial development. Particular attention will be given to the spatial scale of analyzing sustainable development. The methodology will be illustrated by presenting empirical results from a case study undertaken in the western part of the Netherlands, the so called Randstad. (A)
Abstract