VASAB Vision for the Territorial Development of the Baltic Sea Region in 2040
Shaping the future with Vision 2040
The VASAB vision is a forward-looking document presenting the desirable future for the Baltic Sea Region as a whole, comprising the land-based and maritime spatial elements of the Region, respecting its diversities and specificities, and embracing sustainability and integration throughout.
VASAB Vision 2040 is structured around these metaphors:
Each tab below decribes Important Pillars of VASAB Vision 2040 (Including Ministerial Tallin Declaration on Spatial Resilence). Click on each of the tabs to explore more details, defined future actions to achieve goals set in VASAB strategic documents.
Vision – a Baltic Sea Region for the next generations
The Baltic Sea Region in 2040 is one of the first regions that has achieved the sustainable, digital and just transition utilising its territorial specificities. It is a spatially balanced and interconnected Region where a healthy Baltic Sea is the central asset around which the Region prospers. In 2040, we envision to hand over to the next generations:
- A DIVERSIFIED AND FRESH BALTIC SEA REGION. The diversity of places, nature and people in all corners of the Region co-exist and stimulate each other.
- VIBRANT PEARLS OF ALL SIZES. Rural areas, the functional areas of small and medium-sized towns, cities and metropolitan areas in the Baltic Sea Region offer high quality of life and are well networked with Pearls building on their own comparative advantages, capabilities and complementarities between them.
- WELL-CONNECTED STRINGS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PLACES. Physical and virtual connectivity for goods, people and their knowledge is green, secure, efficient, reliable and affordable all over the Baltic Sea Region, linking the Region to the rest of the world, as well as small and big places in the Region with each other. Energy production is carbon neutral, secure, decentralised and well-connected throughout the Baltic Sea Region.
- RESILIENT PATCHES OF ECOSYSTEMS AND UNIQUE AREAS AT SEA AND LAND. Sea and land environments of the Baltic Sea Region have high levels of biodiversity, intact, continuous and unbreakable ecosystems and overall a healthy nature securing the livelihood, production and good quality of life in all parts of the Region.
- COOPERATIVE SEA AND LAND PLANNING SYSTEMS. Advanced and transnationally coordinated landuse and maritime planning systems across sectors, borders, and levels of administration in the Baltic Sea Region make the Region a pioneer in the sea and land planning, improving the resilience and security.
We envision a Baltic Sea Region where the next generations will enjoy a high quality of life based on our mindset shift towards sustainability in all aspects of life, on more cohesion, integration, solidarity and macro-regional cooperation, and on a wiser use of technology for the common good of places and people. Adequate policies and joint actions help in coping with challenges across various levels, sectors and borders.
Pearls
Pearls describe the urban and rural network and settlement structure of the Baltic Sea Region. The Pearls are the anchor points of spatial development and by clustering people and ideas they are important drivers of change towards a green and digital transition. Pearls are urban centres and their functional areas. They all are characterised by mutual interdependencies; they are linked and depend on each other, regardless of whether they are in sparsely populated areas, coastal regions or the mainland of the Baltic Sea Region, forming an integrated network and overall resilience. Whether a Pearl is perceived as local, small and medium-sized or metropolitan depends on its spatial context and function in the wider regional, national or transnational territory.
As population density and settlement structures differ widely in the Baltic Sea Region, the function of place is more important than its number of inhabitants. For instance, a comparably small place in Northern Finland or Sweden can have a much higher importance for the development of the area and the provision of services than a place of the same size in the shadows of Berlin, Hamburg or Warsaw.
By 2040 all places, rural areas, small and medium-sized towns, cities and metropolitan areas offer high quality of life building on their own comparative advantages and complementarities and being well networked with and across each other.
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Patches
Patches represent a sustainable management of the commons where natural resources are in balance with human activities. They are understood as the blue and green commons of the Baltic Sea Region. They describe larger geographical areas which are important for ensuring a good quality of life, ecological livelihoods, sustainable production and resilient supplies in the Baltic Sea Region. Patches offer ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea Region and are mutually interdependent to one another, often sharing similar characteristics or being closely linked. Patches form the mosaic of the Baltic Sea Region comprised by the blue and green ecosystems and also representing the natural and cultural heritage of the Baltic Sea Region and its people.
By 2040 the terrestrial and maritime environment has high levels of biodiversity, resilient ecosystems and overall, a healthy nature all over the Baltic Sea region.
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Strings
Strings describe secure physical and virtual connectivity and energy networks across and within the Baltic Sea Region. They support interaction and cooperation between people and businesses, including knowledge sharing. Strings connect regions across border and territorial specificities, cover sea connections, and overcome place accessibility difficulties through digital Strings, making connections faster and more direct. Strings are well-designed, resilient and implemented with respect to and in co-existence with the unique physical environment of the Baltic Sea Region. Strings are characterised by a sustainability, digitalisation and innovation shift together with responsible consumption and connect different places and people in the Baltic Sea Region. This includes also viable investments which ensure military mobility, e.g. via the dual use of infrastructure, and the necessary measures for resilient transport and the protection of critical infrastructure for road, rail, maritime, energy and virtual infrastructure networks and hubs.
By 2040, the Baltic Sea Region ensures green, efficient, safe, reliable and affordable physical and virtual connectivity for both goods and people. By 2040, energy production across the baltic sea region is carbon neutral, secure, decentralised and well connected.
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Systems
Planning Systems are essential for putting the long-term perspective into practice. Terrestrial and maritime spatial planning comes with different scopes, tasks, rights, responsibilities and obligations. These are defined in various laws and differ between countries. Furthermore, there are planning practices and tools (e.g., in the field of digitalisation) which shape the various planning Systems.
By 2040 the various relevant planning systems communicate smoothly across countries, sectors and levels of governance.
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Resilience
Territorial resilience is essential and uprising ingredient of contemporary spatial planning and its importance in Baltic Sea Region has been strengthened by VASAB Ministerial Tallinn Declaration on Spatial Resilience, adopted by the Ministers responsible for spatial planning and development of Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and Estonia.
Building territorial resilience means identifying spatial aspects which might define and support solutions e.g. for connectivity, resource distribution, crisis-resilient infrastructure, strengthen community resilence, response to extreme climate conditions etc.
Download your copy of VASAB Vision 2040 here
