Research for the Reduction of Land Consumption and for Sustainable Land Management (REFINA)
The REFINA Funding Priority
REFINA - The programme "Research for the Reduction of Land Consumption and for Sustainable Land Management" funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) was part of the German National Strategy for Sustainable Development. The German federal government has set the goal of reducing land consumption for new settlement and transport-related areas from about 115 hectares in the year 2002 to 30 hectares per day by 2020. In order to provide a scientifically reliable basis for decisions and measures, REFINA supported the development and testing of innovative concepts for the reduction of land consumption. These concepts helped to achieve a multitude of goals such as the protection of the environment and conservation of nature, economic growth, socially compatible housing, quality of urban building and mobility.
The REFINA programme bundled the competence of a large number of institutions, projects and people in cooperation across traditional sectoral and administrative boundaries - with the aim of generating benefits for all. From 2006 to 2012, innovative concepts for reducing land take and promoting sustainable land management were developed and implemented. REFINA ended on 30.3.2012, and the site gives an overview of the status of research by the year 2012.