Criteria and Procedures for Regional Environmental Regeneration: A European Strategic Project

Many regions of the world are facing the issue of regeneration of large brownfield sites characterized by environmental, social and economic degradation. In order to contribute to the development of innovative regional regeneration models, the paper introduces the successful European strategic project of the Ruhr basin. The irreversible crisis of mining and steel industry sectors, started in 1960 in that area, had brought, within a period of twenty years, to a profound social, economic, environmental decline. Project Emscher Landschaftpark was born in 1989 with the general objective of radically modifying the structure, image and functions that, until then, had characterized the territory of the Ruhr; it was related to a vast area, aimed at a sustainable, long term development and was based on the idea of considering the activities of the Emscher Park as an engine for the economy of the Region. The paper, after describing briefly the characteristics of the project, aims to highlight the main elements that contributed to its implementation.