How can effective spatial planning sustainably reduce land consumption and at the same time use building land more efficiently? And what obstacles exist?
These and other pressing questions were addressed at the Soil Protection Conference on December 10, 2024 in the Ilse Wallentin House, hosted by the Institute of Spatial Planning, Environmental Planning and Land Use Planning, the Institute of Law and NHP Rechtsanwälte.

After a welcome address by BOKU Vice-Rector Christian Obinger, Federal Minister Leonore Gewessler addressed the political challenges of spatial and land use in her keynote speech.

Gernot Stöglehner from the Institute for Spatial Planning, Environmental Planning and Soil Management at BOKU Vienna highlighted the threat to soil posed by increasing land use for construction and arable land in his presentation “On the necessity of a quantitative soil protection target” and emphasized strategic action and clarity of objectives for effective soil protection.

Dragana Damjanovic and Paul Hahnenkamp from the Vienna University of Technology then addressed rezoning and reallocation to development areas as well as building restrictions as possible control elements in their presentation “On the legal implementation of quantitative soil protection” and stated, among other things, that a quantitative limitation of land use does not fundamentally violate the self-administration rights of municipalities.

Teresa Weber from SFU Vienna answered her presentation topic “Can taxes and levies contribute to soil protection?” with a clear yes and expanded it to include the question of the constitutional framework for this. She sees possibilities for a contribution to soil protection in property tax and vacancy taxes.

Daniel Ennöckl from the Institute of Law at BOKU Vienna spoke on “New developments in contractual land use planning”. After giving an insight into the basic ideas of contractual land use planning, he addressed the tension between this and constitutional law. In view of the case law to date, he believes it is doubtful whether a mandatory contract area regulation can be provided for.

Martin Niederhuber from NHP Rechtsanwälte concluded in his presentation “EU Restoration Regulation - a balanced approach to curbing soil consumption” that this urgently needed regulation pursues soil protection through an integrative approach and concrete objectives.

Conference programmme