Project results

The report "Integrated approaches for sustainable urban-rural development" published by the German Federal Environment Agency at the end of 2019 summarizes the key results of the project. The findings of the project show that there is already a wide range of strategic approaches, instruments and institutional forms for better collaboration between cities and their surrounding areas. Rather than establishing new instruments, administrations and policy makers should make greater use of existing possibilities - especially informal instruments of regional planning - and to integrate sustainable urban and peri-urban development into existing policies. In particular, the development of regional food strategies can be an important entry point and catalyst for achieving sustainable urban rural development. 

In parallel four in depth reports were published: 

All reports are in German but contain an English summary. 

A summary of the project results with regard to the role of regional food strategies can also be found in the article "Seven at a Stroke – Regional Food Strategies as the Key to More Sustainable Urban-Rural Cooperation" published in January 2020 by Stephanie Wunder and Franziska Wolff in the Critical Agricultural Report.

Furthermore, the project team published a number of discussion papers: