With current stakeholders of SPIMA Targeted Analysis acting as ambassadors in a peer-to-peer learning exercise, the workshop provided a critical review and advice on ongoing policy developments of Riga Metropolitan planning approach. ESPON Stakeholders representatives of City of Oslo, Lille Metropolis and City of Vienna supported the discussion with the results of the SPIMA targeted analysis and the experience of invited stakeholders in their application.

Objectives

The workshop aimed at supporting Riga Planning Region (RPR) in designing Riga’s Metropolitan approach and identifying research topics and partnerships for future potential cooperation projects on metropolitan challenges.

Scope of the Workshop

Riga Planning Region is a capital region, one of five planning regions in Latvia, that ensures the planning and coordination of regional development and cooperation between local governments and other state administrative institutions. During last decade, because of expansion of urban territories, great changes of spatial structures have taken place in Riga and its surrounding areas forming Riga’s functional region. Riga is the capital of Latvia and around the city there is a large metropolitan area which is home to more than half of the country’s residents (1,1 million). As a result, various suburban spatial units have forms that differ by their social structure, economic performance and mutual collaboration. Metropolitan area can be regarded as a bordering space between two interacting areas - city and rural areas.

As the decision to start the elaboration of a Metropolitan Area Action Plan has been taken, Riga Planning Region was looking for advice from other European metropolitan policy makers. At the beginning phase of elaboration of the Action Plan, RPR defined several thematic directions:

• Metropolitan area governance;
• Regional and international competitiveness;
• Settlement structure and housing;
• Transport and mobility;
• Public services;
• Natural environment.

As the time frame of the workshop did not allow to cover all relevant questions raised by the preparation of the future Metropolitan Plan, the following discussion areas were discussed:

• Metropolitan area governance (common understanding of metropolitan area territorial coverage (core area, outer metropolis, peripherial areas), governance models, cooperation between different stakeholders, responsibilities, decision-making and implementation mechanisms);
• Regional and international competitiveness (identification and advancing of main driving forces, regional marketing and branding – representation of metropolitan area values and resources in the international arena);
• Settlement structure - Transport - Public services interaction (role of smaller sattellite cities and regional development centers around capital city Riga, solutions in urban sprawl areas, provision of effective public services and mobility).

Results of the Workshop

You can find the presentations that were given at the workshop at the bottom of this page.

Photos courtesy of Sabīne Zāģere - Riga Planning Region