Policy responses to territorial impacts of

demographics trends

Results from ESPON and beyond

Moritz Lennert

IGEAT – ULB

Projects TPM, FOCI, TIGER

Regions facing demographic challenges

• Demographic evolutions exacerbated at regional scale• Depending on dynamics, many specific challenges for regional and local authorities:

• Adaptation of infrastructures• Adaptation of service provision• Provision of housing• Management of land use (urban sprawl and shrinking

regions)• Integration of migrants

• Two « lessons » from TPM• Important to understand the role regions play in

dynamics at other scales• Important to review relevance of indicators and

concepts at specific scales

Questions of scale: understanding regional roles

• Regions as part of migration systems at different scales

• Policies based on the role played by each region in that system

• Different interpretations depending on scales of policy makingSource: « Shrinking regions » ,

study for the European Parliament, 2008

• Dependency ratios generally relevant for social security systems operating at national scales

• Regional imbalances of dependency ratio not necessarily a problem

• Indicators need to be linked to fields of policy action

Question of scale: adequate scales for indicators

Source: DEMIFER, Final Report