Short Description of the Project

In rural areas as well as outside large urban agglomerations or European metropolitan regions respectively, small and medium sized towns play an important role. In these areas they take over a number of important tasks, such as providing opportunities for commercial activities, offering services and social as well as medical infrastructure. Demographic decline and migration as well as economic stagnation might cause a decrease in importance and functionality of towns and cities and will decrease the quality of life. Due to the situation of municipal and national households, and because of the complexity of the challenges of sustainable urban development, the margins for political and administrative actions to guide the future development of these cities are rather small. In many cities, spheres of action are gradually limited to the fulfilment of the most essential tasks. However, traditional approaches and sectoral planning concepts are generally insufficient to allow for the development and formulation of feasible solutions and options to deal with the future challenges. Cities and regions that already maintain cross-sectoral and integrated development approaches seem therefore most likely capable for handling the tasks of the future.

On this stage the project starts. For the beginning of the project IDEA-CITIES, the cities and project partners join into a network for developing and implementing Integrated Urban and Spatial Development Concepts (IUSDC). The network will facilitate intensive transnational exchange and a joined learning process. Moreover, the project towns establish partnerships with cities of comparable size and structure. Within the partnerships the cities develop urban, regional and spatial concepts to develop solution and implementation approaches for their specific tasks. Main topics of the partnerships are cities in structural change, cities in border regions f.e.. Following this the IUSDC will be implemented in a demonstrative manner with the purpose of exploring the practicability, applicability, and possible fields of use of the instrument. Furthermore, the chances for using EU-funds in the upcoming EU budget and household period (2007 – 2013) will be improved on a national and transnational level.

Download the Project sketch here.