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Implemented by

Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities:

the Urban NEXUS

Nexus 201519/06/2015

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Collaboration across Administrative Boundaries

Institutionalized Horizontal Municipal Cooperation -Governance Contributions for Better Managing Natural Resources

in Urbanized Regions: Experiences from Germany

Fifth Regional Workshop on Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: The Urban Nexus

Chiang Mai, June 18, 2015

Martin SchreinerUrban Development Specialist

GIZ-Consultant

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OUTLINE

A. INTRODUCTION – HORIZONTAL FRAGMENTATION AND THE URBAN NEXUS

B. INSTITUTIONALIZED INTER-MUNICIPAL COOPERATION IN GERMANY

B.1 BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE GERMAN STATE

B.2 COUNTIES – INITIAL SOURCE OF INTER-MUNICIPAL COOPERATION

B.2.1 POLITICAL LEGITIMATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATIONSB.2.2 BASIC FISCAL STRUCTURE OF COUNTIESB.2.3 NEXUS-RELATED TASKS OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATIONS

B.3 SPECIAL PURPOSE ASSOCIATIONS

B.4 INSERT: CLUSTERING IN THE PHILIPPINES

B.5 REGIONAL PLANNING: COOPERATION BETWEEN MUNICIPALITIES UNDER STATE GUIDANCE

B.5.1 SPATIAL STATE PLANNINGB.5.2 COMPREHENSIVE REGIONAL PLANNING

C. SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

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A. INTRODUCTION – HORIZONTAL ADMINISTRATIVE FRAGMENTATION AND THE URBAN NEXUS

• The NEXUS Project has identified several challenges for integrated resource management in cities

• Horizontal administrative fragmentation emerged as a major risk to implementing the NEXUS approach

• Local and regional governance structures frequently require adaptative change to improve management of natural resources

• Permanent improvement of cooperation between municipalities in fast urbanizing areas can provide a major impact

• Thus, institutional arrangements for mitigating or overcoming municipal fragmentation need to be explored to enhance organizational sustainability of the NEXUS approach

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STYLIZED HORIZONTALLY FRAGMENTED URBAN AREA

MUNICIPALBOUNDARIES

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COHERENTLY BUILT-UPSETTLEMENT AREA

OPEN SPACE:AGRICULTURE,FORESTS,OTHER

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• Achieving lasting improvement of cooperation between municipalities requires institutionalization

• A few examples from Germany shall highlight organizational types of institutionalized municipal cooperation:

• Counties (Landkreise)

• Special Purpose Associations (Zweckverbände)

• Regional Planning Associations (Regionale Planungsgemeinschaften)

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B.1 BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE GERMAN STATE

NATIONAL LEVEL

16 STATES (INCL. THREE CITY STATES)

INDEPENDENT CITIES

COUNTY-AFFILIATED MUNICIPALITIES;

COUNTIES

MUNICIPAL LEVEL

STATES

LAWS

LAWS

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• Germany is a highly decentralized state

• The national level implements its policy goals through laws and transfers of tax revenues

• The relative autonomy of the single states is roughly comparable to the relative autonomy of the states in Australia

• From the perspective of the municipal level: the vast majority of administrative interactions occurs between the municipal level and the state level

• There are just two types of municipalities: independent cities andcounty-affiliated municipalities

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GERMANY’S COUNTIES AND INDEPENT CITIES(AREAS SHADED IN YELLOW INDICATE INDEPENDENT CITIES)

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B.2 COUNTIES – INITIAL SOURCES OF INTER-MUNICIPAL COOPERATION

• The county as a cooperative administrative entity as it exists today was a result of major administrative reforms in the early 19th century

• A county is a functional association of neighbouring municipalities and simultaneously a territorial entity, having its own administration and professional staff

• German state governments assign core tasks such as general public education and police protection to the county administrations for execution

• State governments ‘lease’ the county administration and pay for a substantial share of the budgets for the public school system and the police

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• The duality of state tasks and municipal tasks within county administrations has been a defining feature ever since the counties’ inception

• Three central features of counties can be identified:

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1. The counties represent the cornerstone of institutionalized inter-municipal cooperation ensuring that interests of smaller municipalities gain more clout vis-à-vis neighbouring independent cities

2. The counties encompass the institutionalized permanent link between the municipal and the state level – counties are at the heart of co-operating and managing across levels of government

3. The county administrations form the operational core units which other special purpose associations or agencies can be attached to

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B.2.1 POLITICAL LEGITIMATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATIONS

• Citizens who reside in a county elect a county parliament (county council) every five years, with council members holding honorary posts only

• The county council elects the county’s chief executive (county commissioner) for a period of six years (limited tenure)

• The county chief executive serves as director of the county administration and at the same time serves as chairperson of the county parliament - a powerful position

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CITIZENS

COUNTYASSEMBLY

COUNTYCOMMISSIONER

VOTE

FOR

COUNTYADMINISTRATION

PRO

VIDES

SERVICES

HEAD

S

ELECTS

HEADS

POLITICAL-ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF COUNTY

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B.2.2 BASIC FISCAL STRUCTURE OF COUNTIES

• Municipalities are chief financiers of county administration, thus having a keen interest in high-quality performance of county administrations

• Composition of revenue for county administration’s operational budget:

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Composition of County Revenues

45%

35%

10%10%

Transfers from municipal budgets Funding from the State's budgetFees for services Local taxes, debt

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B.2.3 NEXUS-RELATED TASKS OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATIONS• Key rationale for county administrations is the cost-effective provision of public

services, which smaller municipalities on their own could neither deliver in sufficient quality nor quantities - county administrations realize economies of scale

• County administrations manage sectoral areas of environmental protection encompassed by the WEF Urban NEXUS:

• Fresh water supply• Waste water management • Solid waste management• Landscape preservation / preservation of open space• Management and maintenance of nature reserves (maintenance of

biodiversity)• Management of public transportation, in particular networks of bus routes• Construction and maintenance of secondary roads within the county• Construction control authority – approval (or disapproval) of construction

applications

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B.3 SPECIAL PURPOSE ASSOCIATIONS (SPAS)• Germany rapidly urbanized in the 1880s and 1890s.

• It became apparent that for effectively handling solid waste management, fresh water supply/waste water treatment, and public transportation the ‘catchment’ areas of counties and independent cities frequently were too small

• To tackle the problem of sub-optimal spatial extension for providing specific public services, the organisational tool of the special purpose association was developed in the late 19th century

• Without the preceding decade-long existence of county administrations, the organizational accomplishments of SPAs in the area of environmental services are hard to imagine

• County administrations serve as organizational cores for SPAs; hence are essential preconditions

• All SPA’s are legal entities under public law

• The German states all have a ‘Law on Municipal Cooperation’, which provides the legal framework governing SPAs

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• An SPA is a combination of independent cities and counties to execute certain tasks, which are assigned to them by state law or national law or which they can execute on their own on a voluntary basis

• Each SPA has to have a ‘Charter of Association’, which defines tasks, duties of members, organizational structures, budgets and fees

• If the entity’s goals require, it is possible that other organizations governed by public law or owned by the public sector become members

• Like counties, SPAs are responsible for a certain activity in a clearly defined territory

• Many modern environmental facilities such as solid waste processing plants or waste water treatment plants require large up-front investments

• Due to territorial extent SPAs can mobilize the cash flows (amount of user fees) required for decades to re-finance initial plant investment

• Key areas of engagement - public transportation, solid waste treatment, water supply – NEXUS topics

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• An outstanding example of an SPA was the SPA for the Area of Greater Berlin of 1912

• It was one of the very first SPAs, which took on tasks vital for sound spatial development in an urban/suburban/rural region permeated with networks of mutual functional relationships:

• Consolidation of a highly fragmented electric tram network into one public sector-owned corporation

• Wholesale purchases of forests, lakes and agricultural areas from the Prussian state and private land owners to preserve large green belts and parks (‘Forests-Forever’ Contract of 1915)

• Results of these efforts are still visible:

• Berlin is one of greenest cities in Germany

• In the Eastern part of the city, citizens still enjoys a tight network of electric trams

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FORESTS ACQUIRED BY SPA GREATER BERLIN IN 1915(AREAS SHADED IN GREEN)

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URBAN MASTER PLAN BERLIN 2004 – 2015/2020

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B.4 INSERT: CLUSTERING IN THE PHILIPPINES • The concept of forming clusters in the area of solid waste management is

gaining traction• Clusters consist of municipalities working together and sharing resources to

jointly pursue a special purpose• Top-down regulatory activities and bottom-up initiatives from local government

units (LGUs) are complementing each other

National Level Activities• The National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) has agreed upon

guidelines on the clustering of LGUs for solid waste management in December 2013

• The guidelines are awaiting final approval by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)

• DENR will issue the guidelines as an Administrative Order • A cluster will take the form of a separate legal entity with its own board

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Pilot Efforts at LGU Level – Naga City and Santa Rosa

• Naga City launched Metro Naga Development Council (MNDC)

• Metro Naga Development Council consists of 15 LGUs

• It is a separate legal entity with a secretariat, which is headed by an executive officer

• The council members are mandated to allocate 2% of their total budget to the activities of MNDC

• MNDC was active in the area of clustering solid waste management and prepared a joint solid waste management plan in 2004

• Currently MNDC is in the process of updating the data from 2004 with a view on tackling the issue again

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• Like Naga City, Santa Rosa has previous organizational experience in cooperating with adjacent LGUs

• In the case of Santa Rosa organizational context is the Integrated Watershed Management Program (IWMP) for Laguna Lake

• The Santa Rosa sub-watershed consists of Santa Rosa and three adjacent LGUs (Biñan and Cabuyao, Laguna Province; Municipality of Silang, Cavité Province)

• The private sanitary landfill used by Santa Rosa will be approaching its capacity limits in the upcoming years

• The quantity of waste generated by Santa Rosa on its own is not sufficient to cover costs of modern waste treatment technologies such as waste-to-energy

• Hence, Santa Rosa is looking to form a cluster together with the LGUs of the sub-watershed group

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B.5 SPATIAL STATE PLANNING AND REGIONAL PLANNING: INSTITUTIONALIZED COOPERATION BETWEEN MUNICIPALITIES UNDER STATE GUIDANCE

B.5.1 SPATIAL STATE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

• The operational initiative (executive power) for preparing spatial state plans rests with the state government

• A ministerial-level spatial planning agency of the state prepares the spatial state plans

• Central outcomes of state-level planning are spatial state plans

• Spatial state plans set binding policies for long-term spatial development of the entire state in the form of objectives for spatial development

• Objectives take the form of drawings (maps/plans) or text statements

• Objectives are binding designations which address regional plans and municipal master plans

• Regional plans and municipal master plans must comply with objectives formulated in spatial state plans

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European Spatial Development Perspective – ESDP (not binding)

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Federal Concepts of (nationwide) Spatial Development (not binding)

Spatial State Planning (legally binding)

Comprehensive Regional Planning (legally binding)

Comprehensive Municipal Planning (Master Plans, Zoning Plans) (legally binding)

Sectoral Plans incl. Environm

ental Plans (NEXU

S)

Construction Permit (legally binding)

HIERARCHY OF PLANNING LEVELS

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B.5.1 SPATIAL STATE PLANNING (cont’d)

• The ministerial-level spatial planning agency has to perform wide-ranging participatory procedures when drafting or altering a spatial state plan

• Core stakeholders to be involved in the drafting process are regional planning associations, municipalities, other sectoral public agencies, chambers of commerce, NGOs, and all citizens

• Core contents (frequently highly aggregated):

• System and hierarchy of central locations

• System of main transportation axes

• Designation of settlement areas / determination of future spatial expansion of settlement areas

• Designation of open space including areas for agriculture and forests

• Designation of locations for major infrastructure utilities which are important for the entire state including waste processing plants, landfills, and waste water treatment plans

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B.5.1 SPATIAL STATE PLANNING (cont’d)• A spatial state plan must be accompanied by a comprehensive environmental

report• Environmental reports explore and investigate impacts of settlement expansion

on water / soil / other objects of environmental protection including renewable energies (NEXUS topics), forming core elements for long-term management of the natural resource base

• A substantial portion of the comprehensive environmental report must be integrated into the spatial state development plans as objectives binding subsequent regional plans and municipal master plans

• The proposals from the environmental report are subject to a process of balancing competing interests, which is performed by the ministerial-level spatial planning agency in permanent consultation with the state assembly (special committee)

• Once the state assembly has approved the final draft, the state government publishes the plan as a legal decree, making it effective

• Time horizon of spatial state plans: approx. 15 to 20 years• Scale of maps: 1:250,000/1:300,000

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NATIONAL LAW ON SPATIAL

PLANNING(FRAMEWORK LAW)

&PLANNING LAWS

OF STATES&

NATIONALNATURE

CONSERVATIONLAW

&NATURE

CONSERVATIONLAWS OF STATES

LEGAL DECISIONS:

NATIONALADMINISTRATIVE

COURT&

ADMINISTRATIVECOURTSOF THE

GERMANSTATES

(LÄNDER)

NATIONAL GENERAL ADMINSTRATIVE LAWCRIMINAL CODE –

ANTICORRUPTION PROVISIONS

LEGAL COMMENTARY

BALANCING COMPETING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INTERESTS -

INTEGRATINGRECOMMENDATIONS OF

ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTS (NEXUS TOPICS)

INTO SPATIAL STATE DEVELOPMENT PLANS

AND REGIONAL PLANS

CORE LEGAL DETERMINANTS OF THE PROCESS OF INTEGRATING FINDINGS FROM ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTS INTO SPATIAL PLANS

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JOINT SPATIAL STATE PLAN BRANDENBURG/BERLIN 2009

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B.5.2 COMPREHENSIVE REGIONAL PLANNING• The German states are divided into regions• Both federal law and state law stipulate the delineation of regions and

preparation of regional plans • Institutional actor in the region is the regional planning association

(RPA)• Members of the RPA are the counties and independent cities• The RPA has a regional council, which decides on the drafts of plans• Counties are represented by their county commissioner, independent

cities by their mayors; other members of regional councils are elected from city and county councils in a proportional manner

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B.5.2 COMPREHENSIVE REGIONAL PLANNING (cont’d)• The regional council maintains a professional regional planning office,

which prepares the regional plan • The draft of the regional plan is subject to procedures of extensive

stakeholder consultations • The regional council must consent to the finalized draft• Then, the regional plan must obtain formal approval from the ministerial

spatial planning agency of the state to become legally effective• The regional plan has the legal character of a regional statute

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B.5.2 COMPREHENSIVE REGIONAL PLANNING (cont’d)

• Core contents of regional plans (precise; sometimes accurate down to the plot level):

• System and hierarchy of central locations within the region

• System of transportation axes within the region

• Designation of settlement areas / determination of future spatial expansion of smaller municipalities

• Designation of open space including areas for agriculture and forests

• Designation of locations for infrastructure utilities relevant to the region including waste processing plants, landfills, and waste water treatment plans

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B.4.2 COMPREHENSIVE REGIONAL PLANNING (cont’d)• A regional plan must be accompanied by a comprehensive

environmental report• Environmental reports explore and investigate impacts of settlement

expansion on water / soil / other objects of environmental protection including renewable energies (NEXUS topics)

• Environmental issues previously investigated by the environmental report for spatial state development plans do not need to be explored again

• Regional plans set binding policies for long-term spatial development of the region in the form of objectives for spatial development

• Objectives of regional plans are legally binding for subsequent municipal master plans

• Time horizon of regional plans: 15 years• Scale of maps: 1:100,000

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EXCERPT FROM REGIONAL PLAN REGION “HAVELLAND-FLÄMING”WITH MAP LEGEND, 2014

(AREA DIRECTLY ADJACENT TO SOUTH-WEST OF BERLIN)

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C. SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

C.1 SUMMARY

• Counties, Special Purpose Associations (SPAs), and Regional Plan Associations (RPAs) emerged as examples of institutionalized inter-municipal cooperation across administrative boundaries

• In historical sequence, counties (1820/30) facilitated SPAs (1890/1910)

• SPAs generated the organizational preconditions for RPAs (1920/1960)

• Each type of entity contributes to a moderately successful containment of municipal ‘silo-thinking‘ through its in-built capacity to facilitate coordination

• In particular RPAs contribute to an increasing integration of the requirements of environmental protection in medium term spatial planning beyond municipal borders; currently a trend slowly gaining momentum

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C.2 CONCLUSION

• Cooperation of municipal entities calls for some enabling prerequisites:

• Principal acceptance of institutional arrangements by vast majority of electorate and across political party lines

• Stable national legal framework

• Organizations equipped with sufficient fiscal resources and professional staff

• Long term tradition of combining bottom-up/top-down approaches

• Long term practice of engaging in multi-stakeholder discussions and dialogue

• Long term tradition of political compromising

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Thank you very much for your attention!