Georg Lenz

Georg Lenz (2012), Regional Development on the Example of the Styrian Volcanic Region - Developmental Process with Sustainability, Institute of Urbanism; 1st reviewer: Grigor Doytchinov, 2nd reviewer: Reinhold Lazar; 200 pages, German.

The requirements for the rural areas and its villages and communities are becoming more diverse which was shown by the example of the region “Styrian volcano land” over a period of about ten years. In the present study the author has approached primarily this finding with empirical methods and presented the specific practices of regional development in the region “Styrian volcano land”. These empirical methods are based on three main pillars: In the first part, the essential framework and structure of education and intervention models for sustainable regional development in an historical review were considered. Different methodological approaches to regional development are displayed to identify important key messages and responses such as demographic change, economic changes and climate change . Based on the results of the first part in the second step of the present work, the view has been addressed in the future: In the presentation of scenarios and interviews with experts, possible future functions of regional development are presented and discussed. In addition the analysis of the empirical results of the previous steps and integrating experiential knowledge of actors from practice, with recommendations for tools and methods for sustainable regional development were used. The analysis of the study also provided deeper insights to illuminate the thematic, strategic and methodical approach in the region “Styrian volcano land”. Based on the infrastructure focus the regional innovation centers were selected for transfer to other case studies. The evaluation of the model region “Styrian volcano land” shows innovative, thematic, strategic and methodological approaches. The presented findings and insights of this review of regional development activities of the volcano country should provide an overview of the opportunities and problems. At the same the aim of the region is contrasted with the following results, in order to create a solid foundation for an open discussion.

To top