The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning

Research Project: "Regional Landscaping"

Project briefing

  • Status Completed
  • Project duration October 2016 – October 2020
  • Programme MORO

How can the spatial planning contribute to an active landscape policy within the meaning of the European Landscape Convention? This was the central question studied by the "Regional Landscaping" field of research. The "Regional Landscaping" demonstration project served to sound out control instruments and mechanisms addressing the landscape transformation in five model regions, and to trial innovative approaches. In addition, one associated partner region delved into specific cross-border issues of regional landscape design in the context of landscape-related projects, searching for transferable solutions and recommendations for regional landscaping activities on various spatial planning levels. All the demonstration projects have been successfully concluded now, yielding interesting results for diverse regional landscaping approaches. These were the subject matter of the results meeting "Designing Regional Landscapes. A Regional Planning Task".

Background

Germany has been witnessing a comprehensive and dynamic landscape transformation for a number of decades now. This transformation has many different reasons: the energy turnaround, climate change and changing agrarian structures, but also the continuing expansion of settlements. Not all regions are affected by this in equal measure. This raises questions concerning the plannability and controllability of an accelerated landscape transformation, and the role of the spatial planning. Although the spatial and landscape planning can draw on various formal and informal toolsets, the planning practice is still beset by partly significant deficits in utilizing the provided control instruments and mechanisms. 

Objective

The results meeting of the demonstration project's "Regional Landscaping" research field was held on 15 and 16 September 2020 as a two-day online event. The meeting was aimed at reflecting upon the results from the model regions and cross-sectional evaluation jointly with ca. 80 participants from the sciences and planning practice. The discussion was based on infographics summarily illustrating the results of the demonstration projects and accompanying research. In addition to which several presentations on significant landscapes in Germany, landscaping in (sub-) urban landscapes, and landscape in spatial planning provided further stimulating content. The participants exchanged views in six parallel working groups, with the discussion also centring on their assessments of the need for action relating to key regional landscaping topics, as well as the success factors for and obstacles to landscaping.

Contractor of the project was agl Hartz ⋅ Saad ⋅ Wendl, Landschafts-, Stadt- und Raumplanung, Saarbrücken.

Contact us

  • Dr. Fabian Dosch
    Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development
    Division RS 6 "Urban, Environmental and Spatial Monitoring"
    Phone: +49 228 99401-2160
    Email: fabian.dosch@bbr.bund.de

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