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Young Planners’ Summer School 2022

Summer School for Young Planners and Regional Developers on “Sustainable Futures for the Baltic Sea Region”

20 participants, students and practitioners, from the Baltic Sea Region gathered in the Young Planners’ Summer School which took place in Greifswald, Germany, August 22 – 26, 2022. Formed in five international and interdisciplinary teams participants developed ideas on the Sustainable Futures for the Baltic Sea Region by 2040. Welcome to get acquainted with some key details, highlights and the results.

Themes, Teams & Presentations of results

Participants were allocated to and developed ideas for the five themes:

Climate Change Impacts on human settlements – Baltic States Roof Planning Strategy 2040 – Presentation
Vulnerability of marine & coastal environments – Creating strategic partnerships across land-sea border to reduce eutrophication – Presentation
Demographic challenges and inclusive societies – Yellow neighborhood guide for the Baltic Sea Region – Presentation
Transforming Mobility – Splashing benefits of Rail Baltica – Presentation
“Future-proof” Energy Systems – Transforming brownfields into renewable energy sites – Presentation

Decision of the Jury

Although all developed ideas were mindfully framed and addressed by appropriate solutions and are definitely worth to be considered by spatial planners and regional developers from different levels, the jury needed to decide upon one winner – this years’ award went to the team Transforming Mobility with proposal Splashing Benefits of Rail Baltica: Connecting Rural Areas of the Baltic States to the European Rail Network. Solution outlines a way to better connect rural areas along the new Rail Baltica high speed railway line, which is currently under construction in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Members of the Jury:

Alda Nikodemusa / VASAB (Visions & Strategies around the Baltic Sea) Secretariat
Lukas Kühne / Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building)
Prof. Sebastian van der Linden / Earth Observation and Geoinformation Science Lab, University of Greifswald
Dr. Alexander Drost /Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research

Mentors:

Jens Kurnol /Head of Division for European Spatial and Urban Development at the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR)
Paula Prenzel /Assistant Professor of Regional Development at the University of Greifswald
Daniel Schiller /Professor and Chair of Economic and Social Geography at the University of Greifswald
Lisann Schmidt /Research Associate at the Chair of Economic and Social Geography at the University of Greifswald
Christine Tamásy /Professor of Human Geography at the University of Greifswald
Liene Gaujeniete /Spatial Planning Expert at VASAB Visions & Strategies around the Baltic Sea & the organizer of the BSR Young Planners` Summer School in 2019

Young Planners’ Summer School 2022 was ogranised jointly by the University of Greifswald, VASAB & Federal Institute for Reseach on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR).

Big thank you to all participants, organisers and supporters – week of learning, exchanging, addressing challenges and fun to appreciate. And a lot of discussions to remember and ideas to implement for the better common future of the Baltic Sea Region.

Please see pictures and highlights below.

The Summer School has been made possible by the Project “Spatial development in the Baltic Sea Region: Organisation of a Summer School for young planners” funded by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building. The project partnership consists of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR, Germany), VASAB (Vision and Strategies around the Baltic Sea), and the Institute of Geography and Geology of the University of Greifswald (Germany).