News

Archive of 2012

PURPLE regions participate in Committee of the Regions Open Days

Apr 5, 2012

PURPLE members will participate in Committee of the Regions Open Days in Brussels 8-11 October. A regional partnership led by Flanders will hold a half day workshop on: Contributing to rural urban bonds in peri-urban regions.

PURPLE members will participate in Committee of the Regions Open Days in Brussels 8-11 October. A regional partnership led by Flanders will hold a half day workshop on: Contributing to rural urban bonds in peri-urban regions.

PURPLE members will participate in Committee of the Regions Open Days in Brussels 8-11 October. A regional partnership led by Flanders will hold a half day workshop on: Contributing to rural urban bonds in peri-urban regions.

The partnership consists of: Communaute urbaine de Dunkerque (FR), Elche (ES), Flanders (BE), Regional Authority Frankfurt Rhein-Main (DE), Nord-Pas de Calais (FR), Randstad Region (NL), South Moravian Region (CZ), Stavanger Region (NO), Stuttgart Region (DE), Surrey County Council (UK)

Challenges for regions include:

1. The limited integration of the city with its surrounding areas and the countryside where the physical barriers are not so visible (peri-urban) but where there is a lack of functional, spatial and sectoral cooperation.

2. Managing competition for resources by urban and rural functions.

3. Setting effective policies and strategies to encourage the development of rural-urban bonds.

4. Engaging all governance levels.

5. Identifying and transferring best practice in order to stimulate better a understanding of rural-urban bonds in peri-urban areas and disseminate more effective strategies.

More details on the programme will follow.

Link to Open Days

European Cities - discovering the spatial dimenson

Feb 20, 2012

A Eurostat report with data on the spatial dimension of European cities collected as part of the Urban Audit.
A Eurostat report with data on the spatial dimension of European cities collected as part of the Urban Audit.

What is a city? - Spatial units

Data are collected for four different levels of spatial units: 
- the "core city" is the administrative unit, for which a rich dataset is generally available. 
- the larger urban zone (LUZ) is an approximation of the functional urban zone centred around the city. 
- sub-city districts (SCD) is a subdivison of the city according to population criteria. 
- the "kernel" was created for some capital cities where the concept of the "Administrative City" does not yield comparable spatial units.

Cities interact with their peri-urban neighbours. Urban–rural connectivity and inter-urban relations have become critical for balanced regional development. This article explains the thinking behind functional urban zones which look beyond core cities.

Eurostat report

What is the Urban Audit?

Governance of Metropolitan Regions - European and Global Experiences

Feb 20, 2012

New publication on this Forum of Federeations seminar, hosted by the Committee of the Regions.

As part of the program “Local and Metropolitan Governance” and in preparation of the upcoming 5th Summit of Europe’s Regions and Cities in 2012, in Copenhagen on 22-23 March 2012,  the Forum of Federations and the CoR held a one and a half day workshop in Brussels on June 20-21, 2011 on metropolitan governance that will inform the debates of the Copenhagen summit.

PURPLE was invited to take part in this workshop.

Report

PURPLE presentation