Quick facts
- Region: Parkstad Limburg
- Country: the Netherlands
- Population: 250,000
- Number of municipalities: 8
- Largest city: Heerlen
SUMP in Parkstad Limburg
In Parkstad Limburg, the regional authority adopted an overall Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan in 2014 based on the regional mobility plan of July 2011 (RVVP 2011-2020). It has been drafted in the framework of the EU Poly-SUMP project and it gives a vision with directions for measures. Because Parkstad is a poly-centric region, this mobility plan covers the region and its eight municipalities. The municipalities therefore implement the SUMP adopted at the regional level on their territories. This type of process requires a strong institutional cooperation process, in particular between the two levels of authorities.
The SUMP is conceived to be the main instrument to harmonise and align mobility policies in a long-term strategic perspective to urban planning. In the framework of the REFORM project, the region has the occasion to develop a strategy and an action plan to reach this objective.
Parkstad Limburg in REFORM
One of the goals of REFORM is to influence Regional Operating Programs for EU ambitions on low carbon. In the case of Parkstad Limburg, the Operational Programme South promotes low-carbon innovations in urban areas. However, mobility is not yet explicitly stated as a specific instrument, although it’s more and more evident that mobility strictly interacts with the built environment and must be fully integrated in urban planning. For this reason, there is the need to include sustainable mobility in the Operational Programme South as an important mean to achieve the goal of achieving a low-carbon footprint in cities.
In addition to the SUMP, Parkstad Limburg adopted an ambition on energy transition to be energy neutral in 2040. This gives the opportunity to strengthen the SUMP and to include mobility in the strategy for low-carbon innovations.
