After one year of research, testing and implementation, the ESPON project RURALPAN has come to an end. The project, coordinated by the County of Innlandet, aimed to develop strategies to improve territorial planning in shrinking societies, i.e. rural areas facing demographic challenges such as depopulation and ageing, as well as economic decline and lack of access to public services.

RUPIL – the Rural Planning and Innovation Lab

A key feature of RURALPLAN has been the development of the Rural Planning and Innovation Lab (RUPIL), a replicable method designed to support rural areas across Europe facing demographic decline. RUPIL promotes collaboration among societal actors, helps to mobilize resources, build knowledge-based decision-making, and creates new roles for policy-makers while promoting innovative strategies for regional development. By shifting from traditional growth models to a more realistic planning focused on long-term sustainability, RUPIL has been tested in three pilot regions: Albula (Switzerland), Malung-Sälen (Sweden), and Os (Norway). While facing similar challenges due to their shrinking aspects, these three pilot cases also reflect the diversity of shrinking areas in Europe in terms of demographic development, thus enhancing the replicability aspect of the results. The project addressed and defined key issues such as youth retention, local labour markets, ageing populations, and outdated planning frameworks.

An interactive toolbox to guide local authorities in replicating the RUPIL methodology in their own territory was also developed to maximise the replication potential of the project.  It includes practical guidance on how to carry out strategic planning through a co-creative, bottom-up approach, involving residents, businesses, policy-makers, and municipal administrations.

Integrating shrinking aspects into planning for rural areas

Building on the experience of the RUPIL, twelve key recommendations emerged from the RURALPLAN project:

• Planning narratives should move away from associating shrinkage with failure and focus on promoting sustainable, socially, economically and environmentally conscious local development for a better quality of life.
• A realistic approach to spatial planning should be prioritised to integrate expected demographic change and make it a key part of the process.
• Cross-sectoral, inter-municipal and multi-level cooperation is key.
• The RUPIL methodology should not be carried out as an ‘isolated’ activity but must be embedded in formal local planning governance.

With 40% of Europe’s population currently living in a shrinking region, mountain areas are particularly vulnerable. As presented in our 2022 position on demographic change, it is predicted that most mountain countries will be affected by population decline, with a stronger trend in the southern countries, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. With its emphasis on co-creation, knowledge-based strategies and the involvement of social actors, RURALPLAN contributes to rethinking rural-urban linkage and explores new opportunities for regional attractiveness.

RURALPLAN was implemented by Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences (Norway),  Linköping University (Sweden) and the Swiss Center for Mountain regions (Switzerland), under the guidance of a group of stakeholders led by the Innlandet County Authority (Norway) and which also included Euromontana (France), the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO (Switzerland), and the County Administrative Board of Dalarna (Sweden).

For more information, please visit the project web page.