The international project „Natural Flood Retention on Private Land“ will end in spring 2022. During 5 years of intensive networking and collaboration, members from numerous european countries have addressed the objectives, trade-offs and prospects of flood risk management concepts within this COST-Action. Discussions centered on potential synergies of land use and flood management, knowledge of nature based solutions and natural water retention measures.

On 21 and 22 October the International Conference "Gender and Sustainable Urban Development in the Post-pandemic" can be followed in streaming. The UNESCO Chair on Gender in STI of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and the Advisory Group on Gender Issues to the Executive Director of UN-Habitat (AGGI) are pleased to invite you to follow this event live.

Free registration at protected link. 

Three ARL position papers dealing with central topics of spatial development - multilocal living, migration, and equivalent living conditions - are now available in English! 

The findings set out in the publication (Zibell/Damyanovic/Sturm, 2019), edited by Routledge, include the theoretical framework with an introduction to existing concepts and debates on linking space, gender and development (incl. planning)

To mark the launch of ARL’s interactive knowledge and communication platform, the ARL invited entries to a non-commercial photo competition from March to July 2021, asking participants to reflect on how spaces change over time. We were delighted with how multifaceted the entries were, the range of perspectives represented, and the approaches taken to visualising criticism, paradoxes and contradictions.

In view of the growing significance of cross-border and international cooperation, the ARL seeks on one hand to share its findings more internationally. Watch our little welcome clip!

The next congress will take place in summer 2022 in Bielefeld, Germany and will deal with the topicfocus on digitalisation and spatial development

One of the results of the cooperation of the working group are the first videos in the video series "Statements on Planning". 

Intending to enforce further thematic discussion and narrow down the scope of the joint work, the group met in Berlin, Germany, on 23-25.08.2021.

The first joint meeting of the working group was held on March 3-4, 2021.

These key issues and others were widely brainstormed by the whole group during the first online meeting [in January 2021].

Planning theories are a prerequisite for intentional action in planning practice and serve the profession's understanding of itself.

Systems of spatial planning and territorial governance in Europe are well established and maintained. There is a huge amount of energy expended on ‘planning’ as demonstrated by the multiple types of plans at all levels. These tools are used to pursue a common objective to steer spatial development to achieve a wide range of economic, environmental and social objectives. They increasingly engage with citizens in that task. ‘Plans’ are usually multifunctional, dealing with a combination of visionary, strategic, policy and regulation tasks.  

The final report is online.

With two final conferences, the ARL transferred the knowledge gained during the work process and disseminated the results to more than 200 participants. 

Building on the discussions of the working group "Border Futures", the volume "Border Futures - Zukunft Grenze - Avenir Frontière. Future viability of cross-border cooperation" emerged.