Waidhofen an der Thaya and Langau were the first two of five test walks that will be held in various municipalities until autumn 2024. The aim of the Soil Walks is to get people talking about planning issues, discuss them in interesting places and thereby raise awareness of high-quality, socially just and climate-friendly spatial development. To ensure that the awareness-raising walks can be self-organised in all Austrian municipalities and regions, the method will be prepared in the form of training videos at the end of the project. To support this, a dashboard will be developed to visualise key figures on land use and sealing in Austria's municipalities and regions. The offer is aimed at local planners, municipal administrators, those responsible for building culture, vacancy managers, soil officers, teachers and many more.

The Soil Walks focus on current topics that are particularly relevant to the municipalities in which they take place. In Waidhofen an der Thaya, for example, discussions centred on inner-city development and the activation of vacant land, while in Langau, different forms of settlement, soil quality and measures to adapt to climate change were discussed. Three more Soil Walks in Austrian municipalities are planned for autumn in order to implement the experiences from the walks in the Waldviertel in other regions. Further information on Soil Walks can be found here., opens an external URL in a new window

Barbara Steinbrunner, opens an external URL in a new window from the Land Policy and Land Management research department is a member of the project team