Flanders’ is characterized by scattered spatial policy that has resulted in great loss of energy, biodiversity, time, money and space.
The ‘Bouwmeesterscan’ is a tool to help signal weaknesses and opportunities in spatial policy for local governments, and translates these into a concrete agenda of projects and policy changes for the transition towards a healthy and sustainable living environment. Spatial decisions are connected to challenges such as the energy transition, the mobility shift healthy urban environments and a balance between ecology and productive open space.
Assenede is situated North of Ghent on the Dutch border in the direction of Terneuzen. It is a rural municipality with a focus on agriculture and lies on the crossroads between three kinds of landscape, with wet creek land in the north, and dry sandy forests in the south. The scaling up of agriculture production has led to a rapid loss in scenic quality and biodiversity. At the same time the urban structure is scattered and suffering from aging and depopulation. How can we anticipate on this demographic shift and focus on built environment that profits from and at the same time contribute to the strengthening of existing landscape qualities?
