DC Noise workshop on Interreg Policy Forum Vital Rural Area

Vital Rural Area, one of the projects within in the Interreg IVB North Sea Programme that DC NOISE is cooperating with, organized a large Policy Forum on September 17-18 2009. Host of the forum was the partner region of Norfolk. DC NOISE was well represented at this forum by taking on the organization of one of the workshops. Facilitator of the workshop was Arjen Brouwer of Bureau PAU in Groningen, colleague of Roos Galjaard, who is the transnational project leader of DC NOISE. During the workshop Arjen told about the objectives and work in progress of DC NOISE, before starting the discussion with the participants on planning and design strategies for coping with demographic change and – in particular – rural decline.

In the workshop Arjen also gave a small preview of the Transnational Housing Atlas and invited the participants to witness the launch of the interactive website on the DC NOISE midterm conference in March 2010. Inspired by the examples of the housing atlas and a theoretic ‘framework of decline strategies’ thought up by PAU, the participants presented to be very eager in exchanging own examples and ideas of how to adapt to a new demographic situation: from the demolition by state of whole villages in Eastern Germany to the introduction of rule free zones for modern ‘pioneers’ on former farmsteads in Denmark to the reorganization of an outgrown village in Western Germany into its former historic structure.

One of the objectives of DC NOISE – to raise awareness among politicians and policy makers about population decline as a realistic challenge – on the Policy Forum got certainly fulfilled. As well as in the workshop as in the plenary part of the forum, the participants agreed that an important challenge for a large part of rural Europe lies in thinking of strategies to maintain a good quality of life while population densities are decreasing.

For more information about Vital Rural Area you can visit the website of Vital Rural Area. In the right hand navigation bar of this website you will find a button that links you through to the Policy Forum website with videos, photos and powerpoints of the workshops and presentations.
  

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