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Transit Oriented Development (TOD) for Inclusive and Sustainable Rural-Urban Regions

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TOD-IS-RUR (Transit Oriented Development (TOD) for Inclusive and Sustainable Rural-Urban Regions)

Période du rapport: 2021-01-01 au 2022-12-31

Transforming TOD into a sustainable planning concept for rural-urban regions

Recent policy reports of the European level as well as national and regional governments, point to sprawled rural-urban development as one of the greatest challenges to achieve sustainability in Europe and elsewhere. Highlighting mobility-urbanisation processes as both the cause and remedy of sprawl, these reports focus on Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) as a promising counterstrategy. Integrating transport and land-use planning, TOD holds the potential to facilitate mobile lives while redirecting car-dependent sprawl to sustainable projects at strategic nodes along the public transit system. Yet, current TOD has an undifferentiated, model-based approach to mobility-urbanisation relations as well as an entrenched urban bias in planning. This approach is producing strategies that are at odds with differentiated mobility-urbanisation relations in rural-urban regions (RURs) (see image example of RUR). As a result of this lack of TOD strategies sensitive to rural-urban hybrid landscapes, current TOD is producing environmental unsustainable and social unequal side-effects and risks in RURs. If Europe is to make a transition to inclusive and sustainable urbanisation, the contextualisation and extension of TOD is essential, as most Europeans live in differentiated rural-urban areas, not in undifferentiated urban cores.

Research and training focus on Transit Oriented Development (TOD) conceiving public transport as a backbone for Inclusive and Sustainable urbanisation in European Rural-Urban Regions (TOD-IS-RUR). This ITN will analyse and develop innovative context-based TOD approaches for RURs by bringing in expertise, methods and training from the interdisciplinary domain of urban studies, and drawing on a wide-range of European rural-urban contexts. 9 beneficiary academic partners and 12 partner organisations, create a unique platform for 10 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), providing innovative, interdisciplinary and intersectoral expert-level training (see image TOD-IS-RUR Training). The research and training will prepare a new generation of highly-skilled professionals able to meet the scientific and societal challenge of countering urban sprawl in the spatial contexts where most Europeans live, developing much-needed approaches for socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable TOD for RURs.

The research programme is structured by objectives at the level of the regional network (WP1:ESR1-4), the local station area (WP2:ESR5-8), and the overall TOD concept (WP3:ESR9-10). WP1 will trace and harness the regional interplay of mobility and urbanisation in RURs. WP2 will deepen the context-based approach on the local level, studying and developing the place-specificity of the station area. WP3 will make use of the research progress of WP1 and WP2 and feed back into them with a meta-reflection producing a conceptual approach, from which academic and non-academic partners can make use to further develop TOD for specific RURs. (see image TOD-IS-RUR Work Program)
Year 1
The first year of the TOD-IS-RUR project has been dedicated to the setting up of the project, execution of the recruitment process, and organising the training program of TOD-IS-RUR. At the network level, all ESRs took part in the Kick-off meeting as well as in the Research Design Week. Within the frame of the first network-wide training events, ESRs designed posters and interviewed the Partner Organisations, published on the TOD-IS-RUR website. At the local level, ESRs took part in scientific and transferable skill courses organised at their host institutions, as well as attended conferences, workshops and PhD schools.

Year 2
The second year was dedicated to further developing the TOD-IS-RUR research and training program as well as building collaborations with non-academic partners, through organising network-wide events, preparing publications, and carrying-out the secondment plans.
The ESR research projects of WP1, WP2 and WP3 are progressing as planned. WP3 successfully coordinated the interdisciplinary Framework Paper (April 2022), a collaborative work of all ESR fellows and co/supervisors.
On the training level, all ESRs participated in the network-wide training events Studio Paris, Workshop Berlin and Studio Lausanne. Two extra training events were organised, aiming at strengthening interdisciplinary research competences. Parallel to following courses at the host and secondment institutions, the ESRs attended multiple international conferences, workshops, symposia, and writing retreats.
The Framework Paper, along with the TOD talks and the continuing progress of the program is published on the website as well as on social media platforms, thus successfully communicating the project to the scientific society, industry, civic society and the general public.
Year 1
The first year of the TOD-IS-RUR project has been dedicated to the setting up of the project, execution of the recruitment process, and organising the training program of TOD-IS-RUR. At the network level, all ESRs took part in the Kick-off meeting and the Research Design Week as well as designed posters and interviewed the Partner Organisations, published on the TOD-IS-RUR website. At the local level, ESRs took part in scientific and transferable skill courses organised at their host institutions, as well as attended conferences, workshops and PhD schools.

Year 2
The second year was dedicated to further developing the TOD-IS-RUR program as well as building collaborations with non-academic partners, through organising network-wide events, preparing publications, and carrying-out the secondment plans.
The ESR research projects of WP1, WP2 and WP3 are progressing as planned. WP3 successfully coordinated the interdisciplinary Framework Paper (April 2022), a collaborative work of all ESR fellows and co/supervisors.
On the training level, all ESRs participated in the network-wide events Studio Paris, Workshop Berlin and Studio Lausanne. Two extra training events were organised, aiming at strengthening interdisciplinary research competences. The ESRs attended courses at the host and secondment institution, multiple international conferences, workshops, symposia, and writing retreats.
The Framework Paper, along with the TOD talks and the continuing progress of the program is published on the website as well as on social media platforms, thus successfully communicating the project to the scientific society, industry, civic society and the general public.
TOD-IS-RUR Training structure
Example of a rural-urban context. Flanders
TOD-IS-RUR Work Program structure