Strategic Planning for the Development of the Danube Area

The article includes concepts, information, methodologies of spatial planning focused on the Danube carried out within the European projects "Donauregionen" and "Donauregionen+", financed by the European Union through the South East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme. The article proposes solutions for solving problems related to the opportunities offered by the Danube as an important corridor to support the economic growth and competitiveness of functional regions in the Danube area. The current situation in the Danube River riparian land-use planning policies involves (a) creating the spatial concept of the Danube area interregional level, b) developing integrated strategies to develop sectoral strategies embodied in the Danube area, the Transdanube strategy and development strategies for the Danube region as a whole. In this general scheme, indicators have been proposed, designed on four main areas (natural conditions, housing and human resources, technical infrastructure and transport, and economy). Based on the analyses conducted in the project, five Danube sub-regions and 19 Transdanube regions were established. Using the forecasting methodology proposed in the “Donauregionen+” project, three types of scenarios were developed for each sub-region: pessimistic, realistic and optimistic. All these scenarios have resulted in GIS cartograms, based on groups of territorial indicators that highlight the socio-economic development capacity of the Danube sub-regions