Case study of the region “Lake Constance/Upper Swabia“September, 1999
Examples of innovative co-operation projects between rural and urban areas within the region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia
Dr.-Ing. Stefan Köhler
Director of the Regional Association of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia
1Background and general information
1.1Location of the region “Lake Constance/Upper Swabia“
The region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia is one of 97 regional planning areas in Germany (see map in annex 1). It constitutes one of a total of 12 planning areas within the federal state of Baden-Württemberg (see map in annex 2), and is located in the south-east of the state, occupying the northern shore of Lake Constance and bordering with Bavaria to the east. Lake Constance itself forms the border with Austria and Switzerland. The region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia is part of the “European region of Lake Constance“ (EUREGIO).
1.2Institutional framework
The regional planning authority is the Regional Association of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia, which is based in the town of Ravensburg. Its sphere of competence covers three administrative districts comprising a total of 87 towns and local authorities. The region covers an area of exactly 3500 km² and has a current population of 595,000.
According to the regional planning law of Baden-Württemberg, the Regional Associations are public bodies and, as such, are responsible for the administration of their own activities. The Regional Associations in Baden-Württemberg are made up of local authorities and thus have political committees, e.g. administrative committee, planning committee and association assembly.
1.3Tasks of the Regional Association
The tasks of the Regional Association of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia include :
-Drafting and updating of the regional plan
-Drafting and updating of the overall landscape plan
-Advising of development planning authorities
-Participation in regional planning procedures
-Implementation of location search procedures for infrastructure facilities
-Drafting of a regional planning information system
-Launching of and participation in regional development promotion initiatives
Due to its proximity to Austria and Switzerland, the Regional Association of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia has initiated various inter-regional projects (Interreg) on topics such as “Cross-border raw material preservation“ or “Improvement of cross-border rail transport“, thus promoting the unification of Europe and introducing a new element of co-operative endeavour to planning culture.
1.4Regional categorisation
The NUTS level at European level is II / III. The regions of Germany (“planning regions“ defined by the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR), see map in annex 1) are located between NUTS levels II and III.
Within Baden-Württemberg, the region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia falls within the regional planning category of “rural regions with a measure of urbanisation“. Within the Federal Republic of Germany, however, is classed as an “medium-density urbanised area with no large regional centre“. In fact, the region has a predominantly rural structure and is characterised by a large number of small to medium-sized towns with populations of between 10,000 and 25,000. There are only two towns with populations approaching 50,000 (Friedrichshafen and Ravensburg).
1.5Lake Constance/Upper Swabia as an urbanised rural area
Selected issues for rural-urban partnerships
The top-priority issues of rural-urban partnership, or intensified co-operation between the rural and urbanised parts of the region, are as follows:
-development of the settlement structure,
-improvement of traffic links and communications in order to increase accessibility,
-regional and economic structural change.
The next priority is that of continuous structural change within agriculture and forestry and the increasingly conflict of interests between housing, traffic and tourism development on the one hand and conservation on the other. A specific feature which should be added to the table is the large-scale extraction of raw materials (gravel) in the Lake Constance/Upper Swabia region.
Another secondary priority is the improvement of planning culture and the promotion of co-operation in the interaction between local authorities (town and parish councils, administrative districts).
2General data about the region
2.1Basic aspects
There are three aspects which should be stressed from the outset in any structural analysis of the region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia.
a) The region of Lake Constance is characterised by the great variety of its natural landscape (especially in terms of topographical, geological and climactic differences). This naturally results in structural differences, e.g. from the point of view of farming, tourism and communications.
b) The region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia is characterised internally by major structural differences with regard to urbanised and rural areas. This has made it necessary to differentiate between an urbanised part with a high population density, and the remaining, predominantly rural area (see map in annex 4). Within the urbanised area lies the common regional administrative centre of Ravensburg/Weingarten. In the following statistical analyses, this also gives rise to structural differences in individual topic areas such as economic structure and job market.
c) Over the past ten years, the region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia has seen a huge increase in population in all its subordinate regions. This is mainly due to migrations arising from German Reunification and the opening of borders within Europe. This extremely high population increase has had a strong impact on the development of housing and communications, in some cases leading to problems concerning the adaptation of the technical infrastructure (overloading of capacities).
2.2Population
The region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia has a current population of 594,422. In comparison with the 1987 figure of approx. 528,917, the region has thus seen a population increase of 66,500 or 12.6 % over a period of ten years or so (see graph in annex 5). Given the region’s size of 3,500 km², this means a population density of 169.8 inhabitants/km² as per 1998. This figure is far below the regional and national average, thus creating the impression that most of the region should be classed as a rural area.
The percentage population increase between 1988 and 1992 was more or less the same in all three districts of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia. After 1992, it levelled off in the Ravensburg and Lake Constance districts. In the Sigmaringen district, however, the high growth rates continued into the year 1995, although here too the annual population increase has been much lower since then. From 1997 to 1998, the population increase in the Lake Constance/Upper Swabia region fell to only 0.5 % per year.
If we break the population development down into the 87 towns and local authorities, we can see that the number of inhabitants has only declined in a very small number of communities. At the northern boundaries of the region, but also particularly around Lake Constance, individual population decreases were recorded over specific periods between 1987 and 1998, while all other towns and communities maintained or increased their population. Population gains of above 10 % and population losses of more than - 3 % have only been evident in small communities with less than 5,000 inhabitants which account for very large percentages despite seeing only slight changes in absolute terms.
2.3GDP/capita
The per capita GDP in 1994 was DM 39,642. This is slightly above average compared with Germany as a whole (DM 39,180), but below average for the region of Baden-Württemberg (DM 44,893). Within the region itself, the per capita GDP varies insignificantly at district level between DM 40,177 in the Ravensburg district and DM 38,625 in the Sigmaringen district. There is little point in differentiating any further between the 87 towns and communities of the region, since the majority of the population does not live and work in the same place.
2.4Population with higher education
There are no detailed statistics for the population as a whole covering all age groups. Instead, the proportion of six-formers in all schools and the proportion of students are used as an indicator. The proportion of six-formers in all the region’s schools in 1995 was 20.5 %, i.e. slightly below the regional average in Baden-Württemberg (21.5 %) and the national average in Germany (22.0 %). The average number of students per 1000 of the region‘s population was only 7.7 in 1995, a figure far below that of Baden-Württemberg (22.2) and Germany as a whole (22.7). However, this low figure reflects the absence of a university rather than any inferior level of education among the population living and working in the region, which only offers technical colleges and a teachers‘ training college.
2.5Active population by activity sectors
The following statistics do not include the self-employed and civil servants, as they are not subject to national insurance and are not therefore incorporated in the official statistics.
In 1998, only 1.15% of the region’s national insurance contributors worked in the primary sector (farming). Differences are apparent within the region in that a comparatively higher number of people still work in farming in the less densely populated Sigmaringen district (see data and graph in annex 6).
50.8 % of the region’s employees work in the manufacturing, building and energy/mining sector. There are significant differences within the region in that “only“ 46.7% of all employees work in this sector in the Ravensburg district as opposed to 53.7 % in the Lake Constance district and even 54.3 % in the Sigmaringen district. If we break the figures down to local authority level, it is clear that the proportion of employees in secondary industry is rather low in the towns of Ravensburg and Weingarten in the Ravensburg district due to their strong bias towards the retail sector and the number of colleges they support. In the town of Friedrichshafen and its neighbouring communities, the proportion in this sector is extremely high, due to the number of medium and large-scale companies located there (see section 2.6).
There are similarly large inner-regional differences with regard to the number of jobs in trade and the
service sector. The centrality of Ravensburg as a shopping town means that the proportion of employees in the trade and transport sectors is higher than average.
The same goes for the service sector. The proportion of employees in this sector in the more sparsely populated Sigmaringen district is significantly below the regional average.
Unemployment in the region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia is currently relatively low at approx. 7 % compared with Germany as a whole, and indeed most European countries. While a rise in unemployment figures was recorded in the years before 1992, it has fallen again since 1993 (see graph in annex 7). At the beginning of the 90s, unemployment rose largely due to a major decline in orders in the industry, affecting the southern part of the region (Lake Constance district) in particular. Since the mid 90s, health policy reforms have hit the service sector especially hard, resulting in a rise in unemployment in the region’s spa towns and health centres (especially in the northern part of the Ravensburg district).
2.5Number of cars/1000 inhabitants
In 1998, 685 motor vehicles (incl. lorries, buses and tractors) or 536 private cars were recorded per 1000 inhabitants, a figure roughly corresponding to the regional average of Baden-Württemberg and slightly above the German national average (see data in annex 8). The number of cars reflects the level of material assets and is thus an indicator of prosperity. Within Germany itself, the quality of traffic links is more important for regional development and particularly as a location factor (see section 2.7 with regard to the rather problematic aspect of the region’s communications and accessibility).
2.6Regional functionality/productive specialisation
As far as land use is concerned, the region is still dominated by farming. In 1993, 57 % of the region’s land surface was put to agricultural use. There are major regional differences in terms of land use and land management, however. While the Lake Constance area is characterised by specialised cultures (fruit, wine and hops), the eastern part of the region, particularly towards the Alps, is mainly devoted to dairy farming. The other parts of the region are divided between arable and livestock farming. The number of farms fell by 20 % between 1979 and 1991 alone. This trend has persisted and is set to continue in the coming years too in view of the AGENDA 2000. However, farming now plays an increasingly subordinate role in terms of numbers of jobs and economic power.
The manufacturing industry is currently still a dominant sector. The region is characterised by its large number of medium and large-scale companies which employ a workforce of between 1000 and 5000 (e.g. MTU, DORNIER, ZF and Zeppelin in the Lake Constance district, Sulzer-Esch-Wyss in the Ravensburg district and the kitchen equipment manufacturers Geberit and Alno in the Sigmaringen district). In addition, there is a large number of smaller, often highly specialised firms.
The service sector is mainly dominated by the tourist and health industries. Holiday-making and day tripping play an important economic role on the shores of Lake Constance, while the spa towns and health centres in the northern part of the Ravensburg district are strongly dependent on the health industry (see graph in annex 9).
Industrial and service locations are maintained and promoted by regional planners particularly in the vicinity of the regional centres (see map in annex 10).
2.7Large-scale transport networks and communications
The large-scale transport networks of the region are moderate to poor. There are no direct links to the high-speed long-distance rail system (ICE or IC trains). In terms of regional rail transport, however, the infrastructure can be described as moderate to good (see map in annex 11).
A link to the motorway network only exists in the eastern part of the region. This motorway also provides the main link to Austria and East Switzerland. Despite good shipping links including car ferries, Lake Constance acts as a barrier. The main Alpine ridge to the south of Lake Constance, which also runs from west to east, forms a further barrier in the south of the Lake Constance/Upper Swabia region. The entire region lacks an efficient west-east traffic route (see map in annex 12).
The sustained population increase and the level of tourism are resulting in an overloading of the road network on a seasonal basis, and particularly on the northern shore of Lake Constance. Due to the inadequacy of local budgets, it has been impossible for at least two decades to adapt the efficiency of the road network to the needs arising from the population increase and tourist boom.
2.8Type of political administration
The federal structure and subdivision of the Federal Republic of Germany is mirrored within the region. The 87 towns and local authorities within the region have sovereign powers in terms of development planning (zoning and development plans). The approving authorities are the district administrator’s offices of Lake Constance, Ravensburg and Sigmaringen with regard to development plans and the regional council of Tübingen with regard to zoning plans (again, see map in annex 2). The Regional Association of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia is the planning authority for the region, which draws up the regional plan and drafts proposals concerning the network of the regional centres and development axes, for example (see map in annex 3). Together with the administrative districts and other agents, the Regional Association works to promote inter-regional projects.
In individual cases, informal committees are set up. An example of this is a steering committee which was established in the context of the “Region of the Future“ competition, and which works on projects transcending local boundaries.
2.9Main agents of the development process
As far as the structural development of the region is concerned, an important role is played by the district administrators and Lord Mayors, i.e. the political decision-makers of the three districts and the representatives of the larger towns. A certain amount of power is also wielded by the chambers of industry and commerce and the Regional Association of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia, which often plays a mediating role. The Regional Association comes into play especially when it comes to major projects involving several local authorities or the entire region.
Particularly as a consequence of the Agenda 21 principle, conservation associations, trusts and pressure groups are increasingly making themselves heard, taking on responsibility and playing an active role in the implementation of certain measures. An important partner in the region of Lake Constance/Upper Swabia is the Bodensee Stiftung (Lake Constance Trust), for example, which groups together the conservation associations from all parts of the lake.
2.10Development model
The development model below shows the necessary role of co-operative partnerships with conservation groups and other associations and pressure groups as a complement to government planning.
An important task for the future will be to turn rules and regulations into voluntary partnerships between those involved or affected (“voluntary commitment“), coupled with a transfer of responsibility from the top down.
Though hard to reproduce in a development model, dynamic elements and flexible forms of action should be promoted.