10. A Spatial Development Strategy for Climate Change – The Western Pomerania Example

The Regional Planning Association Western Pomerania conducts the research project ‘Spatial Development Strategy for Climate Change in the Planning Region Western Pomerania’. This project is part of the action program ‘Demonstration Projects of Spatial Planning’ (MORO) of the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs. The Strategy aims at a combination of adaptation measures and measures for climate protection, which can be effectively communicated to the public. Five fields of action that are geared towards the most important spatial factors and that are discussed by experts and other stakeholders ensure an integrated Adaptation Strategy. The fields of action ‘biodiversity’, ‘agriculture, forestry and fishery’, ‘water management and water cycle’, and ‘settlement and urban development, mobility, tourism, power generation and energy distribution’ build on one another and show a number of interactions. The fifth field of action addresses the regional measures for climate adaptation. Upon project completion in 2011, a coherent Strategy for regional development will be presented. The Strategy will also address the parameters precipitation and temperature and the indicator rise in sea level, which are influenced by Climate Change. The Strategy contains the planning direction in terms of protection of regional biodiversity, adaptation of agriculture and forestry, protection of ground- and drinking water, settlement and urban development and tourism as well as new mobility and power generation concepts. Measures for climate protection that offer development opportunities for local authorities, industry and private enterprise receive a supporting regional context. The Spatial Development Strategy will be politically binding by way of the resolutions of the Regional Planning Association Western Pomerania and will direct regional planning in the coming years.