Development since 2021

Land consumption in Upper Austria apparently curbed

Last year, 33 hectares were used for parking lots and other traffic areas in Upper Austria.

(Bild: APA/Helmut Fohringer)

Upper Austria is the sad leader in terms of land consumption, say some. Upper Austria is the third most economical federal state in this discipline, say others. So which is true? Presumably both - depending on which data basis and comparison parameters are used. 

Depending on the (political) point of view, different terms and calculation bases are used - consciously or unconsciously. For example, the WWF states that 4.25 hectares per day were consumed by construction or other intensive use in Upper Austria in 2022. Regional Planning Councillor Markus Achleitner (ÖVP) contradicts this by referring to an outdated methodology of the Federal Environment Agency, from which this value results.

Decline for three years
Achleitner has been using the data from the digital land use plan (DORIS) for his calculations since last fall. And according to this data, land use for settlements, transport areas and leisure facilities in Upper Austria has decreased significantly since 2021. The increase in building land dedications and traffic areas has therefore almost halved. There has also been an annual decline in building land reserves, i.e. undeveloped plots of building land - see chart.

(Bild: stock.adobe, Krone KREATIV)

Zoning versus building development
The Provincial Councillor is proud: the current figures prove "that our Upper Austria. Spatial Planning Act amendment is working" - it came into force in 2021. However, the WWF remains unimpressed: "The Achleitner figures are not comparable with the official calculations of the Federal Environment Agency or the Austrian Spatial Planning Conference. They refer to the zoning, not to the actual building development. That is a big difference," says WWF soil protection spokesman Simon Pories. So the battle for soil protection continues.