Scholz, J. Rural Regions in Europe. A new typology based on regional development potentials RURAL REGIONS IN EUROPE- A NEW TYPOLOGY BASED ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT POTENTIALS

Structural changes in rural areas and a changing rural policy increasingly demand for an analysis to understand inter-coupled social, environmental and economic systems as well as political issues to develop new cross-sectoral development strategies for European rural areas. This might be one step to support a successful performance of sustainable development on the level of EU politics. Therefore, EU FP7 Project RUFUS started to create a new typology of rural regions which shows the diversity of rural areas in Europe regarding their development potential by using a multi-sectoral indicator set. By means of the typology, policy makers and stakeholders will be provided with a better understanding about the different dimensions of rural potentials and related policy interactions. The developed typology seems to be feasible to show the diversity of existing characteristics and development potentials for different European regions. Within the typology, six different types are derived. Two are characterised by high urban influence and referred to as ‘significantly urban ’ and ‘urban’. The other four are characterised as `rural`. The rural regions range from socio-economically successful regions with high tourism and nature potential to economically lagging behind regions which are also characterised by a strong population decline. Beside the current state, also the development potentials are derived. The reliability of these types will be checked within the RUFUS project by case studies