The aim of the PURR Project is to create and test new ways to explore the territorial potentials of some rural areas and small and medium-sized towns in peripheral parts of Europe around the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the Baltic Sea. These places face problems such as ageing, migration, poor accessibility, restructuring of traditional industries etc.

More about the PURR Project by Dr. sc pol. Visvaldis Valtenbergs, PURR project expert

In times of global economic recession European rural regions are especially vulnerable to rising unemployment, depopulation, declining financial investments and credit possibilities. Instead of addressing specific needs of diverse rural territories policy responses of European governments have focused more on developing large urban settlements and industrial areas. To increase the potential of rural regions their territorial capital, development drivers, opportunities and constraints should be better understood and incorporated into realistic spatial development policy options. Instead of traditional “rural-urban dichotomy” integrated conception of cities and countryside must be promoted based on their functional interdependencies.

Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences together with Norwegian and British partners is working on the project „Potential of Rural Regions” – PURR, which is funded by ESPON 2013 Programme (European Spatial Planning Observation Network). The aim of this project is to create and test new ways of exploring the territorial poten­tials of some rural areas and small and medium sized towns around the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the Baltic Sea.

To assess partnering rural areas in European perspective, PURR project researchers will use results from other ESPON projects including also EDORA (European Development Opportunities in Rural Areas). The project will examine small and middle sized rural areas in Notodden (NO), Cesis (LV), North Yorkshire (UK), the Cambrian mountains of Wales (UK) and Dumfries and Galloway (UK).

In PURR researchers will develop one or more innovative methodologies to assess territorial potential and test the methodology/methodologies by applying them to each of the five partner regions. These methodologies will be developed so that they can be used in analyzing territorial potentials of other rural regions. 

Main policy questions of the PURR project are - how does each partner region fare stand in a European context? What can be innovative methodologies for explaining the territorial potentials of rural areas in Europe? What are the policy options for sustainable regional development? How can these methodologies be developed and applied in other parts of Europe?

How would project stakeholders benefit from the project? 

• Participating regions will receive results of the benchmarking of their territories in a European context.
• Participating regions will receive development alternatives that can be translated in policy actions and project ideas.
• Regions will benefit by long term planning perspective based on Europe-wide research. 

Project activities 

1. Benchmarking each partner region in a European context, based on a cross-thematic review of relevant ESPON findings and on the regions’ existing development and assets.
2. Collecting further, more detailed information from the partner regions, including more detailed information on territorial assets, governance and policy integration.
3. Developing (one or more) innovative methodologies to assess territorial potential, as well as testing these methodologies by applying them to each partner region.
4. Developing a set of policy options for sustainable regional development for each partner region, based on the benchmarking and the assessment of territorial potential.
5. Explaining how the methodologies might be developed and applied in other parts of Europe. 

PURR will capitalize on the extensive work undertaken in the context of EDORA on rural development opportunities. The nine themes are: (1) Demography, (2) Rural employment, (3) Rural business development, (4) Rural-urban interactions, (5) Access to services of general interest, (6) Role of cultural heritage in rural development, (7) Institutional capacity, (8) Climate change, (9) Farm structural change and the role of agriculture in rural development.