Spatial planning in the Baltic States, affected by depopulation

Three Northern European countries over the last century have had similar political experiences, in 1990-1991 they have re-established independence and developed an individual political and administrative system. From 2004, when all Baltic countries became members of the European Union, the land use and spatial planning systems were developed with many similarities, as well as differences. The topic of this study is a survey of the national land policies and spatial planning systems in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in the context of sustainable development, needs of society and depopulation. The aim of the article is to examine the problems, needs of society and tendencies in land usage, as well as systemic features of spatial planning in the Baltic countries. It is very important to analyse how countries realize the implementation of sustainable development strategies in land use planning and in the context of depopulation. It was found that the Baltic countries are facing similar problems in land use and spatial planning documents but there are also differences regarding planning procedures of documents, their hierarchy and types of planned measures. The study has shown that people in these countries want more natural environment and eco-industrial development. Also, it was approved as necessary to create an index (engineering method) of sustainability in spatial planning.