Bernd Mielke Boeken

In North Rhine-Westphalia, planning actions between the State and municipalities have traditionally been limited. Recently, however, there has been a significant shift with the rise of various forms of regional cooperation aimed at diverse goals. These initiatives range from intermunicipal collaborations addressing specific issues, like regional retail strategies, to integration-based efforts such as the REGIONALE programme, and institutional innovations like regional land-use planning and the Aachen city region. This dynamic development, particularly notable in the Ruhr region, has reached levels previously deemed unimaginable. In response, the ARL’s Regional Working Group for North Rhine-Westphalia established a work group to explore “New Approaches to Regionalisation.” This group investigated numerous regionalisation strategies from multiple perspectives, emphasizing their integration into existing regional frameworks. The contributions include a survey auditing these new regionalisation approaches, a comparative analysis of planning area demarcation procedures in other German states, and a discussion on the evolving demands for spatial observation resulting from these new strategies. The work group's conclusions encapsulate their findings and insights from this comprehensive examination.