OpenSpaceAlps kicks off in Altenmarkt, Austria

Sustainable development of alpine open spaces by enhancing spatial planning governance

OpenSpaceAlps is one of the fifteen projects approved in the frame of Call 4 of the Interreg Alpine Space programme. It brings together seven partner institutions from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia to work on the topic of near-natural open spaces in the core Alpine and EUSALP areas. The partner from Slovenia is the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana.

The main objective of the OpenSpaceAlps project is to foster sustainable development of the Alpine area by contributing to the safeguarding of open spaces featuring environmental and natural values. In the valleys, these open spaces are decreasing due to e.g. development of settlements and transport related areas, whereas in the higher altitudes they are being dissected by tourism, forestry and agriculture related infrastructures. The path taken is to initiate and facilitate processes towards adoption of new spatial planning approaches in the alpine countries as well as to promote multi-level, transnational spatial governance.

The initial meeting of the project partners was held in Altenmarkt, Austria, on 5 and 6 November 2019. Beside discussing the first steps in implementation of the project, presentations were held about development of open space planning instruments in the Federal State of Salzburg as well as more generally in the Alpine area.

For additional information about the project please contact the Lead Partner Salzburg Institute for Regional Planning and Housing (SIR) representative Philipp Vesely (+43 662 623 455/29, openspacealps@salzburg.gv.at ) or Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (UIRS) representative Andrej Gulič (+386 1 420 1317, andrej.gulic@uirs.si).