PREMIUM_EU at the Conference “Sustainability, Water, and Territory”

2024 October 25

From October 16-18, 2024, the Spanish regional science association (AECR) and the University of Castilla-La Mancha hosted the conference Sustainability, Water, and Territory: Regional Strategies for the Challenges of the 21st Century in Cuenca, Spain.



This annual event gathers experts from various fields, including population migration, sustainable development, and land use planning. Featuring 17 thematic areas and 24 sessions, the conference is a significant platform for discussing innovative strategies that address regional and territorial challenges in the face of climate change and migration.

PREMIUM_EU's Presentation and Collaboration with Sister Projects

PREMIUM_EU’s Spanish team, represented by Osama Damoun, Andreu Domingo, and Jordi Bayona, participated in the "Human Mobility and the Twin Transition" session organized by the MOBI-TWIN project. The team presented their research titled Migrations and Population Turnover in Rural and Urban Areas in Spain, 2003-2021, which introduced "fast demography" rates applied to different municipal typologies in Spain. This work built on the convergence analysis conducted at the NUTS-3 level, moving closer to regional applicability for policymakers.

In addition to showcasing their research, the team engaged with other key European projects. The RE-PLACE project, led by Mercedes Rodríguez and Josefina Domínguez, presented findings on municipal development indicators in rural border regions between Spain and Portugal. The MOBI-TWIN team, including Sebastián Ritter and Vicente Royuela, explored socioeconomic determinants of migration using multilevel models.



 

Key Insights and Future Collaborations

The discussions during the session led to valuable exchanges between the sister projects, especially around the possibility of replicating the typology model in other European regions. Audience questions also addressed the role of labor markets and the effects of COVID-19 on mobility, pushing the research into new, interdisciplinary directions.

Moving forward, the PREMIUM_EU team hopes to organize a joint webinar with RE-PLACE and MOBI-TWIN to compare the results of their vulnerability and development indicators, which could provide broader insights into regional migration patterns across Europe.