Governance in the context of land management is defined by the policies, using appropriate instruments and mechanism and the institutional, administrative framework. Making better use of existing instruments as well as introduction of new innovative mechanisms, based on a circular land use approach, will help keep more of Europe’s land in beneficial use. The main challenge related to land management governance in Europe is the diversity of administrative and planning systems in EU members’ countries as well as dynamic private sector initiatives e.g. in urban development and agriculture. Different countries have taken different approaches to land management and have different planning culture including: law and regulations, fiscal and economic system, complexity of investment’s procedure and public information and communication. Content of this topic includes a common focus of many innovative approaches are being defined by the partner s’ countries as a research needs.
These research needs have been further subdivided in four subtopics: 1) Policy and institutional aspects of land management, 2) Spatial planning, 3) Conflict management and 4) Circular land use and land management. CTT-LM 1.1: Policy and Institutional aspects of land management
Policy and institutional aspects of land management are related to a broad scope of “land management” issues like: political regulations and public involvement, social and environmental needs, right of ownership, financing of land purchase, establishing and enforcing development controls, instruments mechanisms, which are focused on land management. The proposed research topics can be related to the efficiency of administrative procedures, management of land uses and spatial policy coordination. Identifying innovative solutions as well as institutional capacities required to carry out all of these tasks seek to introduce a new, holistic and systemic approach to land management, including urban-rural interaction. The integrated approach to land management reflects importance of co-ordination within broader as well as specific local context. Many research questions which are included in the national reports refer to these aspects of land management.
CTT-LM 1.2: Spatial Planning
Spatial planning goes beyond traditional land-use planning to bring together and integrate policies for development and use of land with other policies and programmes. Spatial planning plays an important role in achieving the spatial relationships between societal needs, economic activities and natural capital stewardship and is designated to regulate use of land balancing private and public interests.
In Europe, the relationship between spatial planning and measures to protect and enhance the soil and land varies from system to system. Due to the growing complexity and speed of the changing processes related to the particular context of land, it is more and more important to be able to have a real-time and flexible response to problems and opportunities. A general requirement for better and effective spatial planning is that environmental and societal objectives should be identified at an early stage of the planning process. It is crucial to develop support measures and guidelines that serve this purpose. There is a need to define multi-purpose guidelines which should respect various spatial planning scales (from global to local) and which should strengthen the ability of “land management” to deal with spatial, temporal and sectoral interdependencies among economic activities and with interrelationships between environmental and socio- economic objectives. Operational elements of spatial planning, e.g. new agencies and revolving funding instruments are required to coordinate different aspects of land management and improving soil land management quality.

CTT-LM 1.3: Conflict management among different land use options
Conflicts are an inherent part of land management. Competition among various land use options could create land use conflicts. Conflicting objectives exist in all types of spaces, on all scales and they reach beyond the set of instruments of spatial planning as “mutual spatial management process”. These conflicts exist, and to deal with them in an adequate way require the scientific basis for the adequate balancing of decisions and proposed solutions. Spatial vision systems are not compatible enough with one another. Also the interdependence of the different actors of land use decisions has been only partially understood up until now and a strong demand exists for empirical research. Better land management and integration of different land use targets could support reconciliation of potential conflicts on different scales and minimize negative impact on society, ecosystem services and quality of space. All topics related to the land management have been also related to the conflict management. From this perspective, conflict management seems to be an important and widespread issue across many countries. Management of conflicts is needed in the context of land ownerships versus public interests, local and worldwide effects (like climate change adaptation, urban- rural interdependencies etc.).There is a need to establish an integrated approach to conflict management, which should be coherent with all aspects of land management. There are research needs expressed by INSPIRATION’s National Key Stakeholders to identify stronger involvement of wide range of stakeholders especially end- users into the process of land conflict management on to address societal challenges.

CTT-LM 1.4: Circular land use and land management
Land is a finite resource. That is why better land use and management should present a strategic approach for sustainable development of settlement structures as well as efficient use of land as a resource. Land-use from the perspective of circular economy refers to circular land use and management. Circular land management also offers a starting point for the achievement of the EU goal ”no net land take by 2050“ and the international goals related to a no–net–land degradation This concept can be described with the slogan “reduce - recycle – avoid”, and is focused on new, innovative ways to minimize the consumption of land by reusing and redevelopment of, derelict and under-used land sites as well as on de-sealing abandoned brownfields as a compensation measure for newly urbanised areas in order to achieve a zero land take balance.In this context, the circular land management concept presents a comprehensive strategic approach for steering the development of settlement structures. Circular land management also offers a starting point for the achievement of the EU goal ”no net land take by 2050“ and the international goals related to a no–net–land degradation. Furthermore, circular land management can contribute to the implementation of strategies for climate adaption and “healthy” cities. Research is required to understand the patterns of behaviour and interdependencies of actors active in land-related policy areas. It is important to combine the strategies and instruments of circular land management through applied research and pilot case studies and in the sense of modular “tool boxes” to qualify a sustainable land management. As a part of sustainable land use the circular material management should be included. Since many European standards are affected by this, this action should take place on the European level.