Regional planning guideline review : using MOLAND as part of the strategic environmental assessment process

Abstract

The urban fabric of the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) has expanded rapidly over the past 20 years. In an effort to coordinate development across the region the “Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area” were introduced in 1999. These were updated in 2004 as the “Regional Planning Guidelines: Greater Dublin Area 2004-2016” and are currently in the process of another review to become the “Regional Planning Guidelines: Greater Dublin Area 2010-2022”. As part of the review a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) was undertaken to evaluate the effect of several future settlement patterns on the region’s environment. The MOLAND model was used to simulate four scenarios of possible future settlement patterns for the GDA. These four scenarios were then evaluated in terms of several indicators of sustainability and the results discussed in terms of the implications of these future settlement patterns on the environment of the region.