DAZWISCHEN - Future-oriented structural change in the Rhenish mining area

Map of the Rhenish Mining Area

Future-oriented structural change in the ‘Rhineland District‘

The “Rhineland District”

The " Rhineland District” is the study region of the "DAZWISCHEN" project and includes the districts of Düren, Euskirchen, Heinsberg, Rhein-Erft-Kreis and Rhein-Kreis Neuss, the city region of Aachen and the city of Mönchengladbach.

At around 55 billion tonnes, it is the largest lignite depository in Europe and is therefore unique in its size and effect. For decades, the slowly moving open-cast mine edges have subjected the area to far-reaching infrastructural and spatial restructuring, which has left a strong landscape- and economic imprint on the area. By the middle of the, the end of the decarburization of the mines Inden (2030), Hambach (2040) and Garzweiler (2045) should be reached, which means that a rethink is now required at all planning levels.

The Project

The project "DAZWISCHEN - Future-oriented structural change in the Rhineland District" is being carried out by the joint partners of the Faculty of Spatial Planning at the TU Dortmund University, the Chair and Institute for Urban Design at the RWTH Aachen University, the Institute for Applied Social Science GmbH infas, as well as the Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier GmbH, the district of Euskirchen and the city of Düren, and sees itself as a laboratory for adaptation of the structural changes that will come to the area once the open-cast mines have reached the end of their decomposition.

In the course of the first two years, the central structural changes are to be identified on the basis of multi-level analyses. Based on the analyses, future-oriented and sustainable development strategies and models will be developed to stimulate a far-reaching energy turnaround in the region. In doing so, regional economies, mobility and settlement development are to be conceived as sustainable, climate- and resource-saving as possible and closed material cycles and recycling economies are to be implemented.

To this end, the project will distinguish between the three areas and scales of the Rheinland district as a whole, the district of Euskirchen and the city of Düren. With the help of real-life laboratories, an interdisciplinary process will bring together and allow the worlds of science, business, politics and interested citizens to cooperate.

The aim of the project is to present regional development strategies within three years, accompanied by a digital multi-hierarchical spatial information system. The implementation of these strategies is envisaged in a second part of the project starting in the fourth year of work.

Period

2020 bis 2023

Cooperation Partners

Institute of Spatial Planning, TU Dortmund University, Prof. Dr. Stefan Greiving
Chair of Landscape Ecology and Landscape Planning, TU Dortmund, Prof. Dr. Diet- wald Gruehn
infas Institute for Applied Social Science GmbH
Future Agency Rheinisches Revier GmbH
District of Euskirchen
City of Düren

Funding body