The spatial planning of logistics is an emerging topic due to scarcity of land, environmental impacts and the transition to a circular economy. This paper proposes a policy information tool for these issues, including a new logistics cluster typology applied in suitability maps. The validity and applicability of this tool are tested in a Dutch policy lab. The analysis reveals two stakeholder views: one emphasising an informed multilevel dialogue and the other pointing to local freedom of decision making. Applicability can be improved by training, updating and deciding on a clear status of the tool in the policy process.@en

By combining different perspectives and methods of empirical research, this PhD thesis
generates multi-disciplinary insights into the rise of the logistics complex and its planning
discourse whilst focusing specifically on XXL distribution centres (DCs) in the Netherlands.
Since the 1980s, the building footprint of this complex has increased fourfold, to approximately 80 million square metres, generating a new large-scale landscape type: Landscapes of Trade.
The research addresses urgent issues regarding the seemingly ubiquitous growth pattern of DCs in the Netherlands, the dominant and increasingly challenged policy narrative of the Netherlands as a ‘gateway to Europe’, and the public-private actor network that appears to fall short of adequate DC planning and development. Other issues are the claimed employment benefits of DCs, the balance of the benefits and burdens of logistics, and the provision of useful spatial planning information for logistics clusters in the emerging circular economy. This thesis shows how historical, economic and institutional dynamics have shaped the rampant expansion of the logistics complex in the Netherlands. The thesis argues that a new logistics policy narrative is necessarily grounded in the contemporary dynamics and policy goals that are quite different from the conditions in the 1980s. Further research and planning practice along these lines would include open information provision in the logistics spatial planning discourse with an international scope, intensive and multifunctional land use, reverse logistics enabling circularity in DCs, as well as added value of DCs for local communities and businesses.@en

In the Netherlands, a shift occurred over the last two decades from positively framed spatial-economic policies promoting the development of extra-large distribution centres (DCs) and their claimed positive employment benefits towards a critical stance questioning the benefits of such policies, fuelled by the connected debate regarding the extensive land use and environmental impacts of DCs. In this paper, we unravel the assumed regional employment benefits of DCs into (i) direct employment benefits within the DCs, (ii) indirect employment benefits in the supply chain, and (iii) employment benefits from structural changes in regional production systems around DCs. We analyse these benefits using detailed business microdata and logistics-building data over a 20-year timeframe in the East-Southeast freight corridor (from Rotterdam to Germany). In the corridor, logistics footprint has doubled, and average DC size has tripled in this timeframe. We demonstrate that, although part of the hypothesised benefits can be spatially identified, employment benefits of new DCs decrease over time, due in part to automation and use of migrant labour. The expected co-agglomeration of manufacturing near DCs does not occur structurally, and although DC-favouring regions have successfully established competitive logistics business ecosystems, they can be vulnerable to a spatial-economic lock-in, relying primarily on the logistics sector. The spatial-economic policy narratives framing DCs as employment catalysts are thus of limited validity.@en

The increasing demand for logistics real estate calls for a better understanding of the location dynamics of logistics firms. Previous empirical studies have largely focused on describing the spatial patterns of logistics but not on explaining the factors that lead to them. To fill this void, we develop a unique dataset of logistics buildings in the Netherlands and employ it in a multinomial logistic regression model to study the impact of key spatial factors on logistics development in the Netherlands during the period 1990-2020. In general, we find a positive influence of highway accessibility on logistics development. Contrary to previous studies in the US, we find a positive influence of rail accessibility and a negative influence of accessibility to airports. The effect of port accessibility and other factors varies with the type of logistics development. Finally, we also present probability maps that illustrate the combined effect of these factors.@en

Like other countries with large ports, the Netherlands developed a policy narrative to acquire a key position in global value chains starting in the 1980s, through the spatial development of its hinterland logistics complex. The negative environmental effects of logistics, such as landscape transformation and congestion, have increasingly come to be seen as spatial policy problems. The literature on policy narratives emphasizes the importance of balanced trade-offs and learning from alternative views. In this paper, we discuss why the ‘Gateway to Europe’ narrative has remained in place. This paper systematically reviews spatial planning documents, advisory reports and academic papers between 1980 and 2020 to develop a chronology of logistics planning concepts pertaining to economic and technological milestones. It also maps policy influences, aiming to identify underlying causal policy theories on logistics development and its spatial-environmental effects. We determine that critical reports have been structurally ignored, challenges have been outsourced and advocacy coalitions have been unbalanced, increasing path dependency and risking a spatial-economic lock-in. Looking at the ‘Gateway to Europe’, we point to pitfalls in the policy narrative and the policy-learning process, enabling policymakers to avoid them in the future.@en

Trade infrastructure and logistical activities have long been a source of prosperity as well as nuisance. The gains and pains of logistics, however, are not distributed equally across regions and cities. Important trade hubs such as Rotterdam or Chicago have built strong trade institutions and accumulated urban wealth, hereby making a successful trade-off between the global gains of trade and the local pains of congestion and pollution (Cronon, 1991; Kuipers et al., 2018). Since the rise of global supply chains, such hubs have grown beyond their city boundaries and formed logistical hinterlands. These extensive areas appear to represent a less favourable trade-off between gains and pains, judging by the increasing criticism against distribution centre developments, regarding landscape degradation, congestion (CRa et al., 2019) and precarious jobs (Bergeijk, 2019). In the hinterland of Rotterdam, the building footprint of logistics has increased fourfold since 1980 (Nefs, 2022), while congestion and labour shortages have also increased steeply and the planning system has been decentralized, giving more responsibility to local governments (Nefs et al., 2022). This paper discusses whether hinterland logistics can be regarded as a spatial justice issue, and how this may be reflected in the local spatial planning discourse. @en

In Europe, very large distribution centres (XXL DCs) are increasingly appearing on planning agendas due to their growing spatial footprint and environmental impacts. Although the emergence of XXL DCs has gained traction in academic research, empirical knowledge about the process that leads to their oft-debated location choice, geometry and landscape integration is still scarce. This paper aims to improve our understanding of this process, analysing the decisions of key stakeholders in the planning-development dialectic behind four exemplary XXL DC transactions, in the Netherlands. Our analyses shed light on the motivations of public and private actors as well as the (lack of) planning rules that shape these transactions. We find that specific incentives in the Dutch decentralized planning and legal-financial system contribute to logistics sprawl. Existing planning instruments that could steer logistics developments, such as environmental and employment quality regulations, are largely left unused. Our study suggests that multilevel planning competencies and international market standards are important variables in explaining XXL DC outcomes. Unlike often assumed in the literature, internationalization has – next to stimulating the growth of XXL DCs – contributed to more sustainable location choices and landscape integration.@en

This chapter revisits the most significant international definitions of the metropolitan landscape. It shows methods of mapping and measuring the metropolitan landscape, most of them developed at TU Delft. Additionally, it discusses one of the tools that can be used to develop the metropolitan landscape and reflect on its qualities and challenges: the Community of Practice (CoP). The organisation and some of the outcomes of a Dutch CoP for metropolitan landscape development (coordinated by the Deltametropolis Association 2016-2023) are highlighted. The chapter draws conclusions on metropolitan landscape challenges and sets an agenda for spatial planning and research in this field.@en