| Network Conference 2011/Warsaw Regional Forum | overview conferences |
Eco-System Services as a Support for Development of Functional Regions
(21-22 October 2011, Warsaw, Poland)
The Network Conference 2011 was combined with the Warsaw Regional Forum on "Functional Regions – Towards a New Paradigm of Territorial and Cohesion Policy".
Summary
The annual conference 2011 of Spa-ce.net – the Network of Spatial Research and Planning in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe – focused on eco-system services as a support for development of functional regions. In close cooperation with the participants of the Warsaw Regional Forum, which was organised by the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Geographical Society and the Polish Ministry of Regional Development, actual prospects and constraints of eco-system services were discussed in light of the topic "Functional Regions – Towards a New Paradigm of Territorial and Cohesion Policy".
21 October 2011
Around 80 researchers, planners, policy makers and practitioners analysed the possibilities of definition, classification and purpose of functional regions within several plenary sessions. From the host perspective, as Poland assumed the Presidency of the European Union Council, the pretension of contributions of the Warsaw Regional Forum can play an important role to strengthen the territorial dimension in future cohesion policy.
22 October 2011
Parallel to five sessions of the Warsaw Regional Forum, two Spa-ce.net sessions with together 10 presentations were linked with the questions: What are eco-system services and how can eco-system services acceptable are integrated in the spatial planning process as well as in planning documents? With special focus on cross-border regions in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, the analysis of chances and challenges resulted in intensive and gainful discussions about:
Despite the meeting in Warsaw, many questions in the field of eco-system services and there connections to spatial planning in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe are open. There is still a high research need in future. As for that the next Spa-ce.net conference has been offered to take place in Hungary at the end of September 2012.