Spaces and projects of European importance

Europe is facing numerous challenges nowadays. Hence, forces are needed to counteract these challenges and strengthen cohesion in Europe. An easy, but not simple, way to experience the value and meaning of cooperation is through visible, international projects of common European interest in spaces or areas of European importance. Determining such projects and areas is considered a core of the spatial planning approach that sets the priority for taking action in an area according to its specific location or its specific problem. What happens around or alongside such areas is not only important for the respective spatial areas; it is also in the interests of the nation states involved and of the whole of Europe, as well. These spaces and projects can have far-reaching consequences and opportunities that may be exploited or, otherwise, will be lost. To describe the 'areas and places of European importance', we can start from the following: the compilation of regions and projects of national importance creates a sustainable base for a supranational spatial perspective on various nationally significant areas and projects. Moreover, spaces and projects of European importance are major components of large-scale spatial planning. However, European spatial planning does not exist; in addition, there is no European transport strategy either. And, as there is no European transport strategy, there cannot be an integrated European spatial and transport strategy. Such a strategy would have to set reliable spatial, scheduling and financial priorities. Thus, Europe is left with the task of developing an integrated strategy, which is more than grouping together mutually diversified national visions and plans. This paper explains the concept of spaces and projects of European importance by using experiences from the INTERREG project entitled CODE 24 (COrridor DEvelopment 24) on the corridor from Rotterdam to Genoa, now known as the Rhine-Alpine Core Network Corridor. Based on the scientific findings from this project, the areas and projects of European importance are identified for the Orient/East-Med Core Network Corridor along with various aspects (such as organizational plans and financial resources) required for integrated spatial and transport development. Finally, this contribution demonstrates that an action-oriented spatial planning approach is needed in order to achieve territorial cohesion in Europe.Europa steht heute vor zahlreichen Herausforderungen. Daher sind Anstrengungen erforderlich, diesen Herausforderungen zu begegnen und den Zusammenhalt in Europa zu stärken. Ein naheliegender, aber nicht einfacher Weg, den Wert und die Bedeutung der Zusammenarbeit zu erfassen, sind gut sichtbare internationale Projekte von gemeinsamem europäischen Interesse in Räumen bzw. Gebieten von europäischer Bedeutung. Die Festlegung solcher Projekte und Räume ist Kernstück des planerischen Ansatzes, der die Priorität für Maßnahmen in einem Gebiet entsprechend den spezifischen Standorten oder spezifischen Problemen festlegt. Was in oder im Umfeld dieser Räume passiert, ist nicht nur für die jeweiligen Regionen wichtig, sondern es liegt auch im Interesse der beteiligten Nationalstaaten und ganz Europas. Diese Räume und Projekte können weitreichende Folgen und Chancen haben, die genutzt werden können oder andernfalls verloren gehen. Um die "Räume und Orte von europäischer Bedeutung" zu beschreiben, können wir zunächst davon ausgehen, dass die Gesamtschau von Gebieten und Projekten von nationaler Bedeutung eine verlässliche Grundlage für eine supranationale räumliche Perspektive auf diese Räume und Projekte ermöglicht. Darüber hinaus sind Räume und Projekte von europäischer Bedeutung wichtige Bestandteile der grenzüberschreitenden, großräumigen räumlichen Planung. Eine europäische räumliche Planung gibt es jedoch nicht; ebenso wenig wie eine gemeinsame europäische Verkehrsstrategie. Eine integrierte europäische Raum- und Verkehrsstrategie existiert dementsprechend nicht. Eine solche Strategie müsste verlässliche räumliche, zeitliche und finanzielle Prioritäten setzen. Somit steht Europa vor der Aufgabe, eine integrierte Strategie zu entwickeln, die mehr ist als die Bündelung diverser nationaler Visionen und Pläne. Dieser Beitrag erläutert die Zusammenschau von Gebieten und Projekten von europäischer Bedeutung anhand der Erfahrungen aus dem INTERREG-Projekt CODE 24 (COrridor DEvelopment 24) entlang des Korridors Rotterdam-Genua, dem heutigen Kernnetzkorridor Rhein-Alpen. Basierend auf den wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen aus diesem Projekt werden die Räume und Projekte von europäischer Bedeutung für den Orient/East-Med Corridor sowie weitere Aspekte (z. B. Organisationspläne und finanzielle Ressourcen) benannt, die für eine integrierte Raum- und Verkehrsentwicklung erforderlich sind. Schließlich zeigt dieser Beitrag, dass ein handlungsorientierter Raumordnungsansatz erforderlich ist, um einen territorialen Zusammenhalt in Europa zu erreichen

Planungsmehrwert

Planungskulturelle Ansätze tragen zu einem vertieften Verständnis der Planungspraxis bei, indem sie die Denkmuster und Handlungsroutinen von Planenden und Planungsinstitutionen auf Basis (gesellschaftlich) typischer Orientierungen und zugehöriger Werthaltungen identifizieren

Odour and H2S degradation in a full scale biofilter with a mineral based organic coated filter media

[Abstract] In order to minimize the odorous emissions from sludge storage tanks on the waste water treatment plant «Niederrad» of the city of Frankfurt/Main, about 12.000 m3/h of foul air has to be treated. Due to high Hydrogen-Sulphide (H2S) loads, the installed standard biofilter systems failed operation after one year. Thus, one of the existing filter beds was filled with a mineral based organic coated material; the other one was re-filled at the same time with a standard biofilter media to allow a comparative study. In a long term monitoring program from May 2006 to June 2007, both media were compared regarding degradation of H2S and odour. The one-year measurement program revealed that the mineral high performance media performs much better then the standard organic media

Nutzungsregime im Wandel

"Teilen statt Kaufen", "Reparieren statt Wegwerfen" – diese und ähnliche Slogans spielen in der Debatte um nachhaltige Formen des Konsums eine immer prominentere Rolle. Sie illustrieren die Vorstellung einer Wirtschaftsweise, in der durch intelligente und funktionsorientierte Gebrauchsmuster natürliche Ressour­cen effektiver eingesetzt werden. Doch wie ist es um die praktischen Umset­zungsmöglichkeiten solcher Strategien bestellt? Welche ökologischen Entlastungs­potenziale sind realistisch und welche Entwicklungsperspektiven tun sich auf

Öko-Effizienz auf dem Prüfstand

Strategien der Nutzungsdauerverlängerung und Nutzungsintensivierung von Produkten sind ein wichtiger Ansatz für die Reduzierung der Materialströme. Um die ökologischen Auswirkungen zu untersuchen, hat das IÖW erstmals einen konsistenten konzeptionellen Rahmen entwickelt

Educating planners in Europe: A review of 21st century study programmes

A  Education for urban, regional and spatial planning has become a regular subject throughout most European nations; this can be attributed in part to European policies promoting planning and spatially balanced development, but also to the recognition that planning can support sustainability. Nevertheless, there is lingering and justifiable concern about the status, profile and recognition of planning as a profession in its own right with the result that planning and planning education remain contested territories in academia. Conceptions of planning differ between countries and over time. The array of different planning cultures and associated educational models and pedagogies that traditionally have coexisted in Europe mean that education for planning can be either very visible or leading a shadow existence being embedded in programmes of other disciplines. While planning education provision customarily has been shaped by changes in planning practice paradigms and the profession, in 21st century Europe the provision is also influenced by European integration policies, the Bologna process and powerful transformations affecting the higher education sector writ large. This review seeks to advance our understanding of the complex dynamics at work, which to date have been only partially explored in the literature, by taking stock of the current state-of-play of planning education provision in Europe. Aside from examining the factors influencing planning education in Europe, an inventory of planning education programmes available throughout the member states of the Council of Europe was developed to quantify the provision as a critical first step. Figures indicate a substantial increase in the number of programmes when compared to limited historical data. Data also suggest an underdeveloped provision for education in planning in about ten per cent of European countries. Country case studies with historically differing planning cultures and education provision, i.e., Spain, Portugal, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are used to compare and explore trends and developments (e.g., in respect to programme structure, curriculum content and focus, professional conceptions, specialisms) in detail. Findings demonstrate, both, an enduring power of national preferences and traditions but also some emerging commonalities. Overall a picture of increasing pluralism and diversity of education models transpires in the aftermath of Bologna which may contravene efforts to establish cross-national professional recognition and standards. Education for planning seems to embrace trends to provide increasingly international learning experiences and degrees while the provision of flexible recognised (online) degree programmes remains sparse. Recommendations for future actions and strategies to further develop and strengthen the field which is at present complex and little coordinated conclude the contribution

Changes in the Cerebrospinal Fluid and Plasma Lipidome in Patients with Rett Syndrome

Rett syndrome (RTT) is defined as a rare disease caused by mutations of the methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2). It is one of the most common causes of genetic mental retardation in girls, characterized by normal early psychomotor development, followed by severe neurologic regression. Hitherto, RTT lacks a specific biomarker, but altered lipid homeostasis has been found in RTT model mice as well as in RTT patients. We performed LC-MS/MS lipidomics analysis to investigate the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma composition of patients with RTT for biochemical variations compared to healthy controls. In all seven RTT patients, we found decreased CSF cholesterol levels compared to age-matched controls (n = 13), whereas plasma cholesterol levels were within the normal range in all 13 RTT patients compared to 18 controls. Levels of phospholipid (PL) and sphingomyelin (SM) species were decreased in CSF of RTT patients, whereas the lipidomics profile of plasma samples was unaltered in RTT patients compared to healthy controls. This study shows that the CSF lipidomics profile is altered in RTT, which is the basis for future (functional) studies to validate selected lipid species as CSF biomarkers for RTT