Das Projekt "Urban Sprawl: European Patterns, Environmental Degradation and Sustainable Developmen (URBS PANDENS)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung e.V. durchgeführt. Urban sprawl is one of the most important types of land-use changes in Europe. It increasingly diminishes the quality of life in Europe and brings forth major impacts on the environment (e.g. via surface sealing, emissions by transport, or ecosystem fragmentation), the social structure of an area (e.g. via segregation, lifestyle changes, or neglecting urban centres) and the economy (e.g. via distributed production, land prices, or issues of scale). URBS PANDENS strives for an integrated impact assessment of regulations, incentives, economic instruments and infrastructure measures on urban sprawl. Within the project several policies as imposed by European, national and regional agencies will be investigated and options for improvement are developed. On the basis of seven case studies modern qualitative modelling techniques utilizing so-called qualitative differential equations (QDE) will be used. The model results will be used as possible scenarios (a single qualitative model gives various future scenarios) of future development in the regions. These scenarios are evaluated within stakeholder workshops with respect to sustainable development. The achieved ranking of futures will then be used for policy design on the basis of the models, good cases databases, local experience on politics, and further stakeholder dialogues.