Under conditions of globalisation, the central entity of competition are regions. It is crucial for an efficient regional development and for an appropriate understanding of needs and potentials of (global) regions to understand the interrelation of (smaller) regions in its functional context. Up to now, there is no concept, that describes and qualifies regions in a way, that is also taking intra-regional differentiation as an important location factor in itself into consideration. There is not only a need for a better understanding of material factors of regional development, but also of the social capital as a key factor of competitiveness within the regional planning scheme.
It is the aim of he project to develop a concept that describes, analyses and qualifies (global and) regional structures in its (wider) geographic context. In order to do so, the project realises a research project that combines a (standardised) analysis of regional development with the development of a standardised concept to describe (smaller) regions and its interrelation to (global) regional entities. A permanent academic discourse about how to adapt the results will accompany the project.
In order to integrate the existing knowledge, the project will collect all knowledge that exists of the partner regions and will connect them into one scheme. It will evaluate the regional development in each region, thus describing the regional specificities in a standardised way. Finally it will describe tendencies of development and develop alternative strategies, that are to be evaluated. In doing so the project develops a scenario on a long term perspective to prevent negative effects like loosing potentials from biodiversity or additional cost to prevent devastation of rural landscapes.

Objectives:

I. Research on 8 rural regions with the following levels of research:
- a specific regional heathland
- heathland as geographical entity with specific material resources, socio-cultural capital and organisation
- heathland as a specific type of cultural landscapes within its wider geographic context
- heathland as cultural landscape with specific contributions regarding the challenges of global warming and globalisation, including ecological, social, economic, socio-cultural and organisational aspects
- We will also evaluate, what are necessary actions for a sustainable preservation of the regional economic, ecological and social capital, to strengthen territorial cohesion, under consideration of the general EU- objectives cohesion and convergence.

 II. Developing a concept to describe and qualify regional strategies
- The cultural landscape “heathland” , regional context, management system
- Typologies of functions: rural landscapes (here: heathlands) within the rural – urban context contribute to the region (in a global sense)
- Concept: (global) regions as a material, social and organisational system of material social, economic and ecological resources, specificities of a regional entity within the context of a (global) region
- General scheme about the interrelation between structure of a cultural landscape and its geographic context, regional functions and potentials, multilevel governance and regional management

The development of the concept is closely interrelated with the research in the 8 regions. For them it will describe basic findings of the regions in a generalised way.

In each partner heathlands the main processes are to be identified and analysed. The results will be analysed in order to develop a typology for management systems regarding land use, social organisation etc.

By comparing the description in the partner regions, a general scheme can be formulated, that can describe (global) regions in a standardised way.

III. Tools to describe (global) regions in the context of globalisation and global warming
III- The general scheme developed is basically universal. It will be discussed in a international working group.
IV The working group will accompany the process of project, in order to discuss the universal relevance of the finding of the project. It will be included into the preparation of the workshops and will discuss the results of the milestones.
V The final results of the project will be presented on an international workshop.