Climate Change and Spatial Planning Regulations: The Role of Spatial Plans in the Protection and Shaping of Green Spaces in Selected Southern European Cities

This article examines how municipal spatial plans address the protection and shaping of green spaces in selected cities of Southern Europe, with particular attention to their regulatory content and relationship to climate-related challenges. The analysis compares seven cities—Athens, Montpellier, Sassari, Setúbal, Bucharest, Bilbao, and Madrid—characterised by broadly similar planning traditions but differing in their exposure to climate change. For each city, the relevant spatial plans were identified and analysed with regard to how green spaces are defined, regulated, and integrated into planning frameworks.
The findings show that differences in the intensity of climate change impacts do not translate into fundamentally different approaches to green spaces within spatial plans. Instead, variation relates primarily to how regulatory instruments incorporate strategic objectives and to the presence of detailed legal guidelines governing green spaces. The article highlights the decisive role of municipal spatial plans in shaping green space protection and underscores the persistent challenge of linking strategic climate goals with binding regulatory planning tools.