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This paper examines the potential of a holistic approach for urban and regional strategies in order to understand the way this might contribute more effectively to current global challenges. Part of a wider research strategy investigating the extent to which low carbon and spatial quality can be delivered at a regional level, it demonstrates benefits of adopting a range of processes to deliver integrated and sustainable urban development. The case studies examined include the Landscape Observatory (Spain), the Room for the River (the Netherlands) and HS2/HS2LV (UK). The Landscape Observatory has raised public awareness of the value of landscape to the extent to which there is now a public law protecting landscape in Catalonia. An investigation of projects dealing with climate adaptation in the Netherlands demonstrates the potential and significance of introducing low carbon and the quality of space in urban and regional infrastructure projects. An examination of the HS2 high-speed rail project in the UK illustrates how it might be possible to impact on the perception and development of a singular engineering project in order to convey a wider sustainable vision and the impact that this might have on future landscape in towns, cities and rural areas. The significance of development of procurement processes, policies and legislations as part of the administration phase of urban and regional landscape schemes are also considered necessary for future landscape strategies. Initial outcomes indicate that successful delivery requires the development of a landscape vision and the understanding of low carbon and spatial quality concepts through design in order to be better expressed in the infrastructure and create added value to our cities and regions.

This paper argues that, in order to deliver sustainable urban and regional landscapes, an integrated approach of individual elements such as legislations, design thinking and biodiversity needs to be considered. It forms part of a wider research project, examining the extent to which low carbon and sustainability can be delivered effectively in landscape strategies, which covers examples from the 'Landscape Observatory' (Spain), the 'Room for the River' and 'New Dutch Waterline' (Netherlands) and the 'HS2LV' project (UK). The Netherlands case study, presented in this paper, consisted by two large scale landscape projects is used to illustrate this approach. The 'Room for the River' and the 'New Dutch Waterline' are used to demonstrate how the idea of landscape, low carbon and design quality can shape the effective implementation of landscape strategies. Key elements and effective ways of delivering sustainable places have been identified through a series of real time visits, interviews and observations. The development of procurement processes, legislation, and understanding of the role of landscape sustainability and landscape quality as well as the importance of spatial representation of these ideas will be presented and discussed in order to illustrate a sustainable holistic approach and the tremendous impact that this has on the landscape and the region.

This commentary seeks to prompt new discussion about the place of urban planning history in the era of contemporary globalisation. Given the deep historic engagement of urban planning thought and practice with 'place' shaping and thus with the constitution of society, culture and politics, we ask how relevant is planning's legacy to the shaping of present day cities. Late twentieth century urban sociology, cultural and economic geography have demonstrated the increasing significance of intercity relations and the functional porosity of metropolitan boundaries in the network society, however statutory urban planning systems remain tied to the administrative geographies of states. This 'territorial fixing' of practice constrains the operational space of planning and, we argue, also limits its vision to geopolitical scales and agendas that have receding relevance for emerging urban relations. We propose that a re-evaluation of planning history could have an important part to play in addressing this spatial conundrum.