About REFINA

National Strategy for Sustainable Development and Policy of the German Federal Government

Reducing the consumption of land and encouraging sustainable land management is the central objective behind Germany's Sustainable Development Strategy. In view of the growth in land consumption for housing and transport, which in comparison to population growth is increasing overproportionately and affecting many spheres, an implementation of this approach is urgently required and is to be achieved by 2020 by employing a dual strategy. This consists, on the one hand, of quality control - protection of peripheral areas by developing the inner cities (ratio of city to periphery development = 3:1) by means of land management with the vision of circular land use through land recycling.

Consumption of land in Germany

The Sustainability Principle in Land Consumption

Sustainability in land consumption means giving greater consideration to risks and side effects when taking decisions. In the long term, this concerns a reorientation away from the expansion of settlement towards renewing the existing housing stock by making use of brownfields and vacant lots to achieve a higher density of settlement while retaining a high residential quality. This requires a complete rethinking of land use policy and intelligent focusing of instruments. One possible strategy is the circular land use management, which involves urban and regional land management based on the goals of sustainability. To this end, public and private investments must be more strongly oriented towards the development of urban areas thus creating an attractive range of inner-city land for housing.