The new 'reverse planning' paradigm. Curbing urbanization by downzoning

This Focus explores the theoretical, regulatory, and operational challenges of downzoning as a key mechanism for achieving the European objectives of zero net land take, as framed by the 2021 Soil Strategy, the 2025 Soil Monitoring Law and the Nature Restoration Law. Facing the proven limits of relying solely on ex-post compensation and desealing – which remain structurally asymmetric in cost and timeline compared to the rapid pace of greenfield impermeabilization – scientific and planning attention must shift toward prevention and the deconstruction of planning residuals. Through a comparative lens examining the Italian context alongside European experiences in Belgium (Flanders) and Norway, the collected papers delineate the legal, economic, and institutional burdens involved in eliminating development rights. From the accounting limitations of land-use classification systems to the paradoxes of market-value- based financial compensation schemes, this issue demonstrates that curbing urbanization forecasts requires adopting adaptive planning models, elevating spatial governance to the metropolitan scale, and embedding robust equalization mechanisms to guide a just spatial and ecological transition.