Research team: Simon Bell, Alicia Montarzino and a PhD student to be appointed, with support from Catharine Ward Thompson and Peter Aspinall
Keywords: land use change, scenario modelling, indicators, functional urban region
OPENspace is one of 31 partners in this integrated project under the EU 6th Framework of Research. The project is being coordinated by Copenhagen University and includes partners from many European countries. Around 80 researchers are involved in total.
The Integrated Project PLUREL will develop new strategies and innovative planning and forecasting tools that are essential for developing sustainable rural-urban land use relationships. These strategies and tools, generic in nature, will support the analysis of urbanisation trends in the EU so that ways can be identified to support this process and mitigate its negative impacts. In this way they will help improve the quality of life of the population living in cities as well as in the peri-urban and rural surroundings. PLUREL will evaluate costs for the implementation of these strategies, and aid stakeholders to better understand, plan and forecast the interactions between urban, peri-urban and rural areas.
PLUREL’s main subject of study is the Rural-Urban Region (RUR), based on the concept of Functional Urban Region as an urban core and its surrounding commuting ring which can extend to include both the rural and peri-urban regions. The RUR, however, extends beyond today’s rings of intense interaction with the core city and include areas of recreational use, food supply and nature reserve functions in predominantly rural areas. As well as generic Europe-wide research the project will also focus on 6 case study areas representing different urban situations.
OPENspace is involved in several aspects. Simon Bell is the overall social science coordinator for the project, responsible for seeing that all the aspects where social science is involved. More direct research includes the developments of social or quality of life indicators as part of scenario modeling of different possible outcomes.
The project extends over 47 months starting in January 2007. The value of the complete project is some €8 million while the share for OPENspace is €250 thousand over the life of the project.