Spatial planning regions

The spatial planning regions are observation and analysis grids for federal spatial planning. There are currently 96 different spatial planning regions (BBSR 2011).
They are used for large-scale analyses of the initial spatial-structural situation and the spatially effective federal funds, for forecasts of development trends and for statements on disparities in the areas of infrastructure and employment structure (BBSR 2011).

Origin/Creator:	Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR)
Method/Structure:	The spatial planning regions are based on the planning regions of the federal states (with the exception of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, which use urban and rural districts). In empirical analyses, the commuter interdependencies of the planning regions were examined and districts were assigned to another region where necessary in order to create units that are comparable nationwide. The allocation of a district to a planning region was changed if more than 15% of employees subject to social insurance contributions commute within a region (BBSR 2011). The spatial planning regions can be formed via the corresponding aggregation of district codes.
Development/implementation for Germany:	The indicators of INKAR (indicators and maps on spatial and urban development in Germany and Europe) of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) are available to users online at http://www.inkar.de/ and can be fed into a data set via the BIBB-FDZ with a valid user contract based on the categorisation into spatial planning regions. INKAR contains regional statistical information on the following topics: Unemployment, construction and housing, employment, population, education, land use and environment, medical and social care, public finances, private income, private debt, spatially effective resources, settlement structure, social structure, transport and accessibility, economy. The approximately 500 indicators cover the period from 1995 to 2022 at most, depending on the indicator.

Related classifications:

District code

Federal states

West/East

Keywords

territorial unit, spatial observation, INKAR, planning region, commuter interdependence

Spatial planning regions

Fundamental literature: Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) (2017): Laufende Raumbeobachtung - Raumabgrenzungen Raumordnungsregionen.
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