Scientific Dialogue on Cities, Rural Areas and Rising Energy Prices

December 2010 – The First ESPON 2013 Scientific Report presents the methodologies used within ESPON projects to explore comparative advantages and develop concepts, indicators, typologies and European maps on territorial development, competitiveness and cohesion through a dialogue among researchers, practitioners and policy makers. The three scientific papers included in this report address the importance of metropolitan agglomeration, the potentials of rural areas and the territorial impacts and opportunities for the production of renewable energy sources.

The aim of this report is to substantially contribute to the scientific dialogue among researchers and experts around Europe aiming at building a scientific base for future policy development.

One of ESPON’s objectives since the beginning in 2002 has been to support the establishment of a European wide research community in the field of European territorial science. This could increase interest and competences in research on European territorial structures, trends, perspectives and impacts of EU sector policy.

ESPON has hitherto promoted the scientific component of the programme through scientific conferences and workshops, cooperation with European organisations in the fields of regional science, geography and spatial planning, as well as with a dedicated series of ESPON reports mainly targeting the scientific community.

This report presents three scientific papers arising from ESPON research carried out between 2008 and 2010 under the auspices of the ReRisk, FOCI and EDORA applied research projects. Together, the three scientific papers collectively reinforce the importance of metropolitan agglomeration, the significance of connectivity and the shared vulnerability to climate change. They reinforce the territorial diversity of the EU and the variety of potentials for economic growth that exist in different regions of Europe. Each of the three paper presents new insights into processes of change that require further examination, but each also rigorously explores how data might be analysed. During the former ESPON 2006 Programme two reports on scientific progress were published. This ESPON Scientific Report continues and further develops this tradition of scientific dialogue by subjecting the research findings to examination through presentations at learned society conferences and individual peer review.

The ESPON 2013 Programme intends during its lifetime to issue additional Scientific Reports. The ambition for the last one during this Programme is to document the scientific progress made looking across the research and analyses undertaken from 2007-2013.

Please find below the report and its collection of 20 maps.