An online conference was organised by ESPON on the 16th of February addressing the challenges of shrinking areas across Europe. András Igari expert of Division for Urban and Regional Development of HETFA, held a presentation entitled ‘The functional area concept as an entry point to the development of rural regions – focusing on large lake regions’.
Igari’s presentation focused on the results of ESPON LAKES international project, with a special emphasis on the functional links of Large Lake regions. He also focused on the challenges and opportunities of integrated spatial development. In his presentation, the evolving role of different spatial characteristics in European regional policy was highlighted. He suggested to address the problems of complex, fragile but functionally interconnected areas such as the Large Lake regions in an integrated way. Strengthening links and cooperation across administrative borders can be an important step towards the integrated development of the lake regions, and this approach should be considered for other functional areas facing for example population decline.
The presentation of András Igari is available here.
Source of picture: www.unsplash.com @hoczika