Imagine a small town where everyone is leaving, but some people are actually moving back or visiting often. Instead of seeing this as a dying place, this work treats these movements like a fresh breeze that can bring new life. It uses a special index and surveys to find out how to turn these travel patterns into a way to grow local businesses and improve quality of life.
Rural areas suffer from population decline and lack of investment because they are seen only as places people leave. This prevents businesses and governments from seeing the economic potential of return migrants and new mobility patterns.
A Local Human Development Index (LHDI) and a representative population survey of 12,000 people to map mobility and development potential.
If you are a consultancy dealing with declining rural property values — this project developed a Local Human Development Index that identifies community capital. This allows you to pinpoint which 12 non-metropolitan areas have the best potential for revitalization.
If you are a transport provider dealing with low demand in peripheral zones — this project developed mobility profiles of left-behind areas. You can use these to design services that match the actual movement patterns of 12,000 surveyed individuals.
If you are a local government dealing with population loss — this project developed a policy toolbox and village labs. These tools help you co-create local development plans that attract return migrants and newcomers.
Based on available project data, no pricing or cost structures for the tools are provided.
The project uses data from 6 countries and 12 specific case studies, suggesting the methodology is designed for cross-border scaling across the EU.
Based on available project data, specific licensing or patent information is not mentioned.
The project integrates with EUROSTAT data to construct a Regional Human Development Index (RHDI) for EU-wide classification.
The project period runs from 2023-03-01 to 2027-02-28, indicating the final tools will be ready by early 2027.
The consortium is heavily academic, consisting of 5 universities and 2 research institutions, which ensures high methodological rigor. However, the business integration is low, with only 1 industry partner (an SME), resulting in an industry ratio of 12%. This suggests the outputs are currently more theoretical than commercial, though the 6-country reach provides a broad European data set.
Contact the Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Territorio da Universidade de Lisboa
Contact us to access the Local Human Development Index methodology.
