PLUREL
Science for Sustainable Rural-Urban Regions
PLUREL is an integrated project under the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme for research. Sustainable rural-urban land use relationships require proper policies and planning. PLUREL aims to contribute to this by developing strategies as well as planning and forecasting tools. These will help analyse urbanisation trends in the European Union, while they will also contribute to better guidance of urbanisation processes and to minimise their negative impacts.
PLUREL’s main study subject is the so-called Rural-Urban Region (RUR). The idea of a RUR is an extended form of a Functional Urban Region, i.e. the concept used to describe an urban core and its surrounding commuting ring. The RUR extends beyond today’s rings of intense interaction with the core city, as it also includes lands for recreational use, food supply and nature reserve functions in predominantly rural areas.
Thirty-one universities, research institutes and private enterprises from fifteen countries participate in PLUREL. Partners do not only come from Europe, but also from China, a country where rural-urban regions are rapidly developing. Inclusion of greater Hangzhou amongst the project’s seven case study regions therefore provides an interesting perspective for the European situation. Rural-urban-regions in France, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands, Slovenia and the United Kingdom are also studied. The regions studied represent a wide variety in terms of political, economic, land-use and other characteristics. They all have in common, however, that links between their urban and rural areas are under rapid development. Stakeholders in all cases, such as local planners and interest groups, are actively involved in project work. Detailed local analyses are combined with studies at the European level. In this way conclusions can be drawn for Europe as a whole, based on a typology of rural-urban-regions.
For further Information, please contact:
Dr Alberto Longo
Lecturer in Environmental Economics
Institute of Agri-food and Land Use
School of Biological Sciences
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 6537
E-mail:
a.longo@qub.ac.uk