Report ESPON TEDI - Territorial Diversity in Europe GLOERSEN, Erik, et al. & ESPON coordination unit Abstract Main areas of analysis: - Identification of the particular territorial specificities that the territories under investigation (mountain, island and sparsely populated and peripheral areas) are subject to. - Analysis of the chain of causalities between these territorial specificities and the constraints and opportunities they lead to in terms of facilitating economic and social development. - Identification of the comparative advantages of these regions by emphasising their specific development opportunities, i.e. not shared with other types of territories. - Investigation of the temporal change linked to the impacts of current macro-trends on these territories, highlighting their degree of vulnerability to external factors. - Identification of the key levers available for future policy actions aiming to take full advantage of the specific potentials of the concerned territories and counterbalancing social and economic trends that could hamper or block development. Reference GLOERSEN, Erik, et al. & ESPON coordination unit. ESPON TEDI - Territorial Diversity in Europe. Luxemburg : ESPON coordination unit, 2010, 320 p. Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:78567 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 Version 12/05/2010 The ESPON 2013 Programme Territorial Diversity (TeDi) Targeted Analysis 2013/2/8 Final Report EUROPEAN UNION Part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund INVESTING IN YOUR FUTURE ESPON 2013 1 This report presents the final results of a Targeted Analysis conducted within the framework of the ESPON 2013 Programme, partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The partnership behind the ESPON Programme consists of the EU Commission and the Member States of the EU27, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Each partner is represented in the ESPON Monitoring Committee. This report does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the members of the Monitoring Committee. Information on the ESPON Programme and projects can be found on www.espon.eu The web site provides the possibility to download and examine the most recent documents produced by finalised and ongoing ESPON projects. This basic report exists only in an electronic version. © ESPON & Nordregio, 2010. Printing, reproduction or quotation is authorised provided the source is acknowledged and a copy is forwarded to the ESPON Coordination Unit in Luxembourg. ESPON 2013 2 List of authors Erik Gløersen, Alexandre Dubois and Mélodie Martin (Nordregio, Sweden) Jacques Michelet and Frédéric Giraut (University of Geneva, Switzerland) Danut Gitan, Mioara Bocanici, Andrei Zvoristeanu, Ana Ildico Abrudean and Danut Ungureanu (CEFIDEC, Romania) Nicholas Konsolas, Emmanouil Christofakis, Dimitris Skouras and Nicholas Karachalis (Panteion University, Greece) Jana Farrugia, Gordon Cordina and Lino Briguglio (Islands Consulting Services, Malta) Grétar Thór Eythórsson (University of Akureyri, Iceland) ESPON 2013 3 Foreword ESPON TeDi is an applied and exploratory project addressing the issue of economic and social development in regions with geographic specificities such as mountainousness, insularity, demographic sparsity and high population density in peripheral regions. It is a targeted analysis based on an initial request from a group of stakeholders composed of: The Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development (Lead Stakeholder), - The Cyprus Ministry of the Interior, Department of Town Planning and Housing, - The Finnish Ministry of Employment and Economy, - The Malta Environment and Planning Authority, - The Romanian Ministry for Development, Public Works and Housing, - Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis, - The Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Development, - The North Sea Commission, - Euromontana, - Icelandic Regional Development Institute Byggðastofnun. The three latter stakeholders have had observer status in the project Steering group. Based on a series of case studies, described below, the study explores the capacity of regions with geographic specificities to contribute to the achievement of the Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategies. As such it focuses on the comparative advantages and development opportunities, and the policies that need to be applied to trigger them. Among these advantages, one may for example mention natural resources that may generate extractive industries, tourism or specialised knowledge-intensive activities, small scale economies with a higher degree of flexibility and adaptability or specific assets making it possible to attract highly qualified employees. The project has actively involved insight providers in the regions through interviews and other exchanges, and sought to understand the processes of leading to the formulation of regional development strategies as much as assessing performance levels and objective advantages or handicaps per se. Elements of territorial diversity, such as mountainousness, demographic sparsity or insularity always occur within a regional context, ESPON 2013 4 as one component within a wider range of social, economic, institutional and physical characteristics. They effects they may, or may not, have are intimately connected to their historic development path. Therefore, attempts at disentangling the chains of causality leading from the geographic specificities envisaged in this study to certain types of economic or social characteristics are extremely complex. As part of the Action programme of the Territorial Agenda, the ESPON TeDi project focuses on identifying development opportunities in case study areas with geographic specificities such as mountainousness, (double) insularity, demographic sparsity and/or the combination of a peripheral location and high population densities. The case study territories are at widely different scales, with institutional statuses ranging from nation states to groups of communities and whose level of development and economic capacity is sometimes well above or well below European average values. This makes the identification of common analytical frameworks for the understanding of their development processes challenging. ESPON 2013 5 Table of contents A Executive summary .......................................... 15 B Report ............................................................ 31 1. Main results, trends, impacts ................................... 31 1. Characterising TeDi areas in terms of geographic specificities ................................................................ 31 a. Mountain areas ...................................................................................................... 31 b. Islands ..................................................................................................................... 35 c. Sparsely populated areas ....................................................................................... 39 2. Relevance of geographic specificities for economic growth and social sustainability ............................................... 45 a. Importance of settlement patterns ........................................................................ 45 b. Causal relations linking geographic specificities and socio‐economic processes .. 47 2. Options for policy development ................................ 55 ESPON 2013 6 3. Key analysis / diagnosis / findings and the most relevant indicators and maps .................................. 66 1. Demographic trends as an indicator of social and economic sustainability ................................................ 66 2. Economic specialisation as source of competitiveness and vulnerability ............................................................... 73 3. Sustainable exploitation of natural resources benefiting local communities ....................................................... 82 4. Improved accessibility as a factor of development .......... 87 4 In case the research addresses themes being dealt with by ESPON 2006 and produces opposing results, an explanation of these differences and a presentation of proposals for further European research, case studies, etc. ........................................................................... 87 5. Issues for further analytical work and research, data gaps to overcome ....................................................... 89 C Scientific report ................................................ 93 1. Policy context and theoretical foundations for policies ambitioning to “turn diversity into strength” ................... 98 a. Policy context ......................................................................................................... 98 b. Theoretical framework ......................................................................................... 106 2. Contrasted territories ................................................ 110 a. Synthetic characterisation of the case study areas ............................................ 110 ESPON 2013 7 b. Description of geographic specificities in TeDi areas .......................................... 113 c. Statistical challenges in the understanding of settlement patterns in TeDi areas ..................................................................................................................... 131 d. Land use ................................................................................................................ 140 e. Conclusion: