Spatial Planning

Our Master's in Spatial Planning offers 6 specialisations which are oriented towards Cities, Climate Change, Regional Mobility and Planning.
Spatial planners are fascinated by on-going and future changes in cities and regions and take on the role as managers of those spatial transformations - think of: regenerating shopping districts or old industrial sites; designating water retention areas; shaping urban mobility concepts for the future. Related challenges vary in scale, from individual property to European policy making. The program sub-title 'managing smart cities and regions' reflects the challenges of current and coming urban societies, at a time that ambitions for a 'New Urban Agenda' for the 21st century are formulated, with policies and strategies to create more sustainable and equitable urban spaces.
Why study Spatial Planning at Radboud University?
You are interested to develop a different understanding of planning and forms of practices. Required smart and sustainable solutions for current planning problems are generated in multi-actor settings responding to and working with different stakeholders.
You want to create socially, environmentally, economically just places.
We're a small, almost 'family-like' department that covers a broad range of topics with a strong track record in related research.

The Master's specialisation 'European spatial and environmental planning' prepares for a career in the area of strategic spatial planning and European spatial planning and territorial cooperation.
The spatial impacts of European Union policy are visible wherever we look. Transnational transport connections, such as the Öresund bridge, or nature protection through the Natura2000 network, are examples of the influence of EU policy on land use patterns in our regions. The freedoms of the Single European Market give EU citizens the right to work and to buy a house in another country, and companies the opportunity to settle anywhere in the EU. The globalisation of the economy and increasing interlinkages between regions have led to a growth in transport volumes across the EU, as exemplified by recent expansions of many European airports. Many of these EU developments have considerable spatial and environmental implications.
This international and European dimension to spatial and environmental planning in the nations and regions of the EU is the focus of our full-time international Master specialisation on 'European spatial and environmental planning' (ESEP).
The Master's in European spatial and environmental planning is a specialistion of the Master's programme in Human Geography.

The programme aims to prepare students for a future role as city developer, either in the public or in the private sector.
This specialisation provides a land and real estate development perspective on urban development. Cities face continuous processes of both expansion and transformation. Population growth and economic growth lead to expansion, while processes of obsolescence and decline lead to a demand for urban transformation projects. These processes usually require investments in land and property (re)development, while planning interventions provide guidelines to investors, sometimes as opportunities, but also as barriers to what an investor might see as a profitable investment.
The type of investments and the requirements to these investments change over time. Many European cities have 'matured' and increasingly have to deal with urban transformation, while megacities in Asia and Latin America still show rapid growth. The global financial and economic crisis has slowed down real estate investments, leaving cities with stalled developments. Climate change and policies for sustainable urban development have put new challenges to land and real estate investments, but have also created new opportunities for smart city developers.