1 - Context 

In the Alpine region, metropolisation has given birth to changes in the urban system and the urban-rural relationships. The dichotomy between small settlements (alpine towns/villages/hamlets) and important metropolitan growth areas (e.g. Lyon, Milan, Munich, Vienna, Triest and other large towns) can be solved through a challenging role of high-potential small and medium-sized Alpine cities and the catching areas around them.


 

2 - Objectives 

InnoCité is a territorial ecosystem approach, which facilitates a complementary positioning of small/medium-sized Alpine towns. It proposes itself as an empowering toolkit for decision-makers, which desire to find a complementary positioning toward large Alpine agglomerations.

According to the renewed Lisbon Agenda, the objectives consist in enhancing a sustainable development of these cities by:

       implementing sustainable spatial planning to reduce economic and social disparities across borders,

       improving their attractiveness and quality of life creating a common vision taking into account residential, administrative, economic functions,

       setting transnational regulations for multinational companies and SMEs to expand and invest in the Alpine Space region. These regulations should attract companies to small and medium-sized towns as well as contribute to the infrastructure and identity of these towns.

3 - Methodology

A balanced territorial development policy is linked with a necessary reinterpretation of governance.
This objective is to be achieved through the implementation of participatory methods involving various stakeholders (public authorities, politics, specialists of spatial planning, economists, urbanists, local SME's etc) in private/public partnerships, in order to share a common governance culture ensuring sustainability and transferability of the project results.
Partners integrate results into their local, regional and national programmes by favouring an effective political commitment.

InnoCité project integrates many places of experimentation :

       France (Rhône-Alpes Region): Neuville-sur-Saône; (Franche-Comté Region): Lure

       Germany (Bavaria): Garmisch-Partenkirchen city and county

       Austria (Lower Austria): Hollabrunn and Bad Vöslau; (Salzburg): Köstendorf, Neumarkt, Straßwalchen;

       Italy (Lombardy Region): Voghera and Darfo Boario Terme

       Slovenia (Primorska Region): Koper

Some experimentations are taking place in different towns at the same time, for exemple, Neuville-sur-Saône (FR), Lure (FR) and Voghera (IT) are working together on a transnational exchange on Town Centre Management. Other experimentations, like in the Austrian pilot-sites, some exchanges are done on more specific subjects like Architecture and Urban design.

See more infos on the project on the Alpine Space Project InnoCité page.