In the future, ensuring the availability of groundwater in an adequate quality and quantity will become increasingly
challenging. Protecting groundwater involves taking appropriate measures to ensure that aquifers are recharged and that groundwater pollution is prevented. 

On November 24^th, 2023, the international Information and Initiative Group “Gender and Spatial Transformation” conducted their second online workshop to explore key concepts in the field of gender and spatial transformation.

Decision support systems and platforms for cities and regions

On 27 and 28 November 2023, AlpPlan and the Interreg Alpine Space project PlanToConnect jointly hosted the hybrid workshop “Ecological connectivity and spatial planning: From concepts to implementation”.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 Video Challenge who displayed creativity, vitality and good communication skills to explain the significance of their built environment research: "Addressing Grand Challenges.

EXTENDED DEADLINE: Abstract submission still possible until 15 December 2023.

Guiding principles for urban planning establish an overarching orientation for urban structural development, which orients the work of most urban planners over a certain time period, as well as a local authority’s coordinated set of urban development objectives.

The second in-person meeting of the ARL international working group Urban Planning for Health Equity took place in Vienna from 9th – 10th October 2023 at Technische Universität Wien. 

Regional parks, green belts, and other regional open space strategies form part of the regional management of thelandscape in urban regions. This takes place through projectoriented, collaborative processes, with coordinated measures intended to protect open spaces by ensuring their use and enhancing their aesthetic qualities. They thus supplement the formal instruments of regional planning.

A joint project with IGB starts in March 2024 - will you join us?

The preservation of heritage encompasses the efforts made by society and professionals to preserve historically significant
monuments and buildings (heritage assets) that are recognised as valuable.

In this video Prof. Dr. Hubert Job explains how the Plan to Connect project uses an augmented reality sandbox to communicate spatial planning topics to the public.

Addressing the German-speaking Alpine region and its green infrastructure across borders - this is now the task of a new format within the ARL Bavarian Regional Working Group.

Cast your vote! Watch the 2-minute videos of the 2023 Postdoc Video Challenge and help decide which one will receive the People’s Award prize.

Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) is a dynamic, ongoing, and iterative process which aims to sustainably develop coastal zones. ICZM seeks to move beyond sectoral perspectives and follow the guiding principle of sustainability.  

As a societal structure and guiding principle, subsidiarity emphasises the precedence of individual self-determination and personal social responsibility. Larger communities or state institutions should only help individuals or smaller communities to help themselves if they are unable to cope. 

The ARL is currently establishing an international working group (IAG) “Resilient Metropolitan Regions – Spatial Planning and Management for Urban Transformation” and looking for participants.

On October 5^th, 2023, the members of the international IIG “Gender and Spatial Transformation” conducted their first online workshop to discuss the main terms and concepts in the field of gender and spatial transformation.

When discussing land policy in Germany, one inevitably cannot avoid the example of Munich. Accordingly, the ARL International Working Group of the ARL “Land Policies in Europe” met in Munich in September 2023 to continue its international reflections on land policies across 12 European countries. 

News from the International Working Group Small Towns and Metropolitan Cores: towards cooperation? An upcoming special issue of the European Journal of Spatial Development is in preparation and will contain findings and conclusions of three years of work.

The ongoing economic globalisation is resulting in new challenges for a competitive location policy.

On 24 September 2023, a major change to the planning system in Poland, passed by Parliament on 7 July 2023, came into force.

Over the past year, a lot has happened on ARL’s Knowledge and Communication Platform.

Refusal and the Computational City - From (de)coding the machine to (en)coding care

At the German Congress of Geography (DKG’23) in Frankfurt am Main (DE), Hubert Job and Marco Pütz hosted an AlpPlan thematic session with insights and discussions around the implications of climate change and energy transition for Alpine spatial planning.