Page - 429 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

429 concerted effort of many actors” (Klages 2012, p.  323, translation by the authors). This statement also applies to the ‘climate-resilient, green and biodiverse city’. 19.3 Health as  an  Issue in  Local Landscape Planning in  Germany and  the  UK  – The  Status Quo In order to understand how health issues are considered in landscape planning in Germany and the UK, it is necessary to know some basics about their planning sys- tems, which are briefly introduced. This serves to clarify why we have chosen cer- tain instruments for a deeper investigation. Finally, at the end of this section, we note our findings regarding the recent considerations of health in landscape planning. 19.3.1 The (Landscape) Planning System in  Germany Landscape Planning in Germany is an independent official planning instrument regulated by §§ 8–12 of the German Federal Nature Conservation Act (Bundesnaturschutzgesetz  – BNatSchG) and the respective sections of the nature conservation acts of the 16 German federal states.2 Landscape Planning generally exists on four different spatial-administrative levels or tiers: federal state, region (or similar administrative units, e.g. counties), municipalities, and partial areas of municipalities. On each of these levels, landscape plans cover the entire planning area, which means they comprise settlements as well as non-settlement areas (the only exception being North Rhine-Westphalia). Landscape planning aims to achieve the objectives of nature conservation as laid down in § 1 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG) through protection, management, development and restoration of nature and landscapes. These objectives are the long-term safeguard- ing of: (1) biological diversity; (2) the performance and functioning of ecosystems, including their ability to regenerate, and the sustainable provisioning of natural resource functions; and (3) the diversity, uniqueness and beauty as well as the rec- reation value of nature and landscapes. Thus, landscape planning serves as a spa- tially oriented sectoral planning instrument for nature conservation, and delivers an ‘ecological contribution’ to comprehensive land use and spatial planning and other sectoral plans, such as traffic, agricultural and forestry planning. Requirements for- mulated by the landscape plans have to be integrated into the respective spatial or land-use plans at the same spatial level in order to become legally binding. Nonetheless, spatial or land use plans and sectoral plans have to consider the 2 In detail, legal regulations for Landscape Planning differ between the German  federal states, e.g. in terms of planning levels and the integration of landscape planning issues into spatial planning. These differences can be neglected for the purposes of this chapter. 19 Linking Landscape Planning and  Health