1. ESPON Seminar Liège – 17 November 2010 Erik Gløersen Department of Geography – University of Geneva

2. The GEOSPECS project Development opportunities and challenges in specific types of territories: Mountain areas, Islands, Sparsely populated areas, Outermost regions, Border regions, Coastal areas, Inner peripheries. + densely populated areas within each of these types of areas TeDi areas

3. Policy context Mention of TeDi areas in EU Treaty (Article 174) EU-Parliament intergroup Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion 5 th Cohesion Report DG REGIO Working paper on areas with geographic specificities (Philippe Monfort, 2009) Regional policy focusing on growth and sustainable development rather than on compensation for handicaps

4. The TPG Alterra, Wageningen University, Netherlands Centre for Mountain Studies, Perth College, UK University of the Aegean, Greece Nordregio, Sweden Louis Lengrand et associés, France CEPS/INSTEAD, Luxembourg Leibniz Institute of Ecological and Regional Development – IÖR, Germany Coastal & Marine Resources Centre, University College Cork, Ireland Federal Environment Agency, Austria Eureconsult, Luxembourg

5. The GEOSPECS project

6. TeDi areas as social constructs and geographic objects

7. Designation ≠ characterisation Delimitation of geographically specific areas

8. Sparsely populated areas Average regional population densities? Delimitation of geographically specific areas

9. Or population potential? Advantages: - Reflect the main issue of sparsely populated areas: limited population of functional areas - Not determined by regional borders Delimitation of geographically specific areas

10. Border and coasts: From lines to areas Delimitation of geographically specific areas

11. Border areas or cross-border regions? Is it meaningful to delineate border areas?

12. Research questions To what extent can the types of geographic specificities contribute to the understanding of the diversity of development preconditions and ambitions across Europe?  How can these categories be useful for policy-making?

13. Research questions Against what types of targets should the development potential of TeDi areas be assessed, and what bodies have the capacity to define these targets? How can one measure the degree to which individual TeDi areas exploit their development potentials?

14. Research questions What examples of good practice can one observe in terms of identifying development potentials and drawing social, economic and ecological benefits from them?

15. Next steps Establishing a Spatial Reference Framework Consultation process Guidance notes on transversal themes Interim report in March 2011 10-15 case studies