Adaptation strategies to spatial planning and regional development

The term "demographic change" describes a change in the age structure of a society's human population. This includes various aspects, such as birth rates, death rates and migration in or out of the society, which determine the nature of a demographic change. In Europe's aging societies, demographic change is a crucial issue today and even more so in the future.

Alps and Demographic Change

It is known that the Alpine space differs greatly from its surrounding metropolitan areas. Therefore, it requires specific in-depth studies for accurate spatial planning and regional development. Separate analyses of each
Alpine area are needed in various fields such as migration, cost and quality of settlement and housing, labor market, changes in regional demand for public services (i.e. transportation, healthcare, education) and changes in consumer behavior related to key economies such as tourism and agriculture.

DEMOCHANGE Alpine Space Project

The project "DEMOCHANGE" is co-funded by the “Alpine Space Programme”, the EU transnational co-operation programme for the Alps. The Alpine Space "DEMOCHANGE" project's aim is to better understand the past, current and future regional and spatial impacts of demographic change specifically within the mountain regions. Therefore, it is allocated to the programmes priority “Competitiveness and Attractiveness”, which is one of three thematic fields, the Alpine Space Programme is aiming at. DEMOCHANGE is the first and currently only project addressing the important effects and opportunities that exist as a result of demographic change in the Programme.

Knowledge Transfer Project partners

Thirteen key partners from Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland have joined forces to elaborate concrete strategies in ten model regions. The regional findings will be merged to create strategies which can be generally applied across the Alpine space and disseminated effectively through the transnational DEMOCHANGE exchange network. These strategies will also be shared and put to practical use through a series of workshops and international conferences. This intensive information and knowledge transfer will allow people in the Alpine space to understand how to prepare for demographic change and to address the challenges that will arise as its result.