RRA LUR hosts the third meeting of ROBUST project partners
The third meeting of the partners in the ROBUST: Unlocking Rural-Urban Synergies project took place in Ljubljana from 2 to 4 October. Led by representatives of the University of Wagenigen (Netherlands), more than 60 participants from 25 research institutions, cities and regions from all over Europe spent three days studying relationships between urban and rural areas.
The following topics were discussed by five working groups: sustainable food systems, new business models and labour markets, public infrastructure and social activities, cultural connections and ecosystem services. Slovene research partner OIKOS led the group on sustainable food systems, a field in which together with the Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region it is focusing on short food supply chains in the Ljubljana Urban Region.
The meeting also included a presentation of spatial analysis of night satellite images for the cases of Frankfurt/Rhein-Main and the Ljubljana Urban Region, which enables better understanding of functional changes in rural-urban environments and economies. This innovative approach, developed by Rolf Bergs and Moneim Issa (PRAC) with the help of publicly accessible data, represents a new way of using empirical tools to support decision-making in spatial planning policies.
In addition to the theoretical part of the meeting, participants also had the opportunity to view an example of good practice in the Ljubljana Urban Region. Following a welcome address by RRA LUR director Lilijana Madjar, participants took a boat trip along the Ljubljanica accompanied by Maša Bratina of the Ljubljana Marsh Nature Park and learnt about the historical and modern connections of Ljubljana with the Ljubljana Marsh area.
