The objective of the project is to develop land-use planning processes in the Nordic countries so that new innovative operating environments are created and the land-use planning practices evaluated and compared. The project will create a best-practice proposal for a Nordic planning procedure.

The hypotheses to be tested in the project are: 

• Innovative, inspirational and user-friendly urban environment can be created in cooperation between different actors – the cities and external partners. The land-use planning process may be participated by actors across national borderlines. The planning process can be opened to Nordic actors by describing and clarifying the practices, rules and regulations in different countries. Open process may facilitate the harmonization of regulations.
   

• The comparison of land-use planning processes and methods that will be carried out in the partner cities is an efficient way for bringing together professionals from different Nordic countries and creating a forum that promotes innovation. The residents’ possibilities to participate and influence land-use planning will be compared, and new methods for the residents’ participation and tools for finding out their wishes and needs will be innovated.
   

• The partner cities will select an interesting planning task and define the planning program and the cooperation model. In the first project workshop the different methods and processes have been compared and evaluated. The actual planning tasks and guidance will be carried out by each partner city. In the second workshop the plans will be evaluated and analyzed.
   

• In addition to the Final Report, recommendations promoting the harmonization of land-use planning will be published. The recommendations will be presented to international experts in the project’s Final Conference in Oulu.