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Department of Spatial Planning

Zukunft Stadtregion Ruhr (ZUKUR)

Duration: July 2017 - July 2020

Scope: 1.8 million euros

Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

ZUKUR is the acronym for a research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), in which 10 departments of the Faculty of Spatial Planning as well as three practice partners participated. ZUKUR stands for Zukunft-Stadt-Region-Ruhr.

The project aimed to think together the preservation of natural livelihoods in terms of climate resilience and universal social participation to address socio-ecological inequalities with the specific characteristics of cities in the Ruhr region. This thinking together is still missing in the reality of life in the Ruhr urban region, which is characterized by considerable socio-ecological inequalities and climate risks.

ZUKUR accompanied the ongoing transformation process of the region on three spatial levels. The three levels region, city and neighborhood each formed backdrops for reallabs. In these, innovative solutions for dealing with climate risks and socio-ecological inequality were developed with practice partners and citizens.

The practical partners include the Regionalverband Ruhr / RVR (Reallabor Region), the city of Bottrop (Reallabor Stadt) and the city of Dortmund (Reallabor Quartier Dortmund-Marten).

The Research Group European Planning Cultures was involved in work packages 4 and 5.

Karsten Zimmermann, Dahae Lee (2021)Environmental Justice and Green Infrastructure in the Ruhr. From Distributive to Institutional Conceptions of Justice

Karsten Zimmermann, Dahae Lee (2021) Building Resilience in the Context of Multi-Level Governance—Insights from a Living Lab in the Ruhr