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Adaption strategies for public services in large-scale rural municipalities

Project

Rural areas

This project contributes to the research aim 'Rural areas'. Which funding institutions are active for this aim? What are the sub-aims? Take a look:
Rural areas


Project code: REFORDAT-69, II-1-F 41-2011.05
Contract period: 12.07.2011 - 30.06.2013
Budget: 63,864 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research

For the creation of comparable living conditions in rural areas in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) the need-based supply of accommodations of services for the public is of particular importance and furthermore one of the essential defiance for the future. It is all about the areas accumulation, health care, accommodation with convenience goods and as well as the assurance of mobility. Besides, radical demographic changes complicate increasingly an at the same time qualitatively high-grade equipment, an economic capacity and the good accessibility of the facilities. Particularly, falling birth rate since the beginning of the 1970s and regional very different job- and education-oriented migration from the rural areas have triggered a fundamental change in population structure. Characteristics are mainly decreasing number in children and youth, the increase of the population group of the more than 60-year-old, decreasing household size and pluralisation of lifestyle, as well as an increasing expectancy of life (Kocks 2003, Milbert 2004, Klingholz 2010). The developments are also characterized by a high spatial and structural heterogeneity, and result in high spatial and temporal differentiation. In addition, there is always simultaneity of growth and shrinkage in immediate spatial neighborhood. This means, two neighboring districts of one community can develop in opposite directions. All these trends are changing the demand for facilities and services of general interest considerably, both in quantitative and qualitative terms (Winkel et al. 2010). A shrinking population utilises existing facilities, for example institutes of education, less economically. At the same time the need for creating age-specific infrastructures expands. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the supply situation is still characterized by the existing spatial structure of local governments in rural areas with relatively large area communities, which have sometimes over 100 districts. This makes it increasingly difficult to guarantee and to organize general interests and services for the public. The creation of equal living conditions in all areas is one important goal of the German constitution and the Regional Planning Act. That is why the adaptation of general interest to changed conditions and new challenges takes on greater significance in the rural areas. Stabilizing measures in the area of social infrastructure are essential for the maintenance of quality of life. Hence, within this project proposal the conceptual possibilities to react to changed basic conditions concerning services of life should be determined. It focuses on deconstruction and concentration, innovative conceptual adaptation and alternative funding body including privatization. This project proposal focuses on the social (punctiform) infrastructure such as institutions of education, healthcare facilities, local supply of convenience goods and the tend to ensure mobility. In addition, the technical (reticular) infrastructure will have to be adjusted for economic reasons to the new general conditions in the near future. This field of study should be analyzed in a separate research project due to its huge complexity.

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