Study Region
The two model villages represented opposite phases of municipal development - Sprendlingen-Gensingen as a growing urban area, and Rockenhausen as a shrinking rural area.
The Municipality of Sprendlingen-Gensingen
The municipality of Sprendlingen-Gensingen consists of 10 communities and is an economically interesting influx region, located in the buffer zone of the state capital, Mainz, in the middle of the Rhine-Neckar agglomeration belonging to the administrative district of Mainz-Bingen in Rhinehessen, Rhineland-Palatinate. Agriculturally, the municipality is characterized by lowlands and hills, used preferably for cultivation (52%) and viniculture (45%). Other types of use are livestock production and as permanent grassland.
The Municipality of Rockenhausen
The municipality of Rockenhausen is a rural area and is considered structurally weak and strongly affected by demographic change in the central German upland region Donnersbergkreis, North Palatinate, in Rhineland-Palatinate. The center of the community is the small town of Rockenhausen, which is surrounded by 40 villages. The proportion of agricultural land is high, but there, rather unfavourable agricultural conditions prevail (dry, nutrient-poor soils, low-rainfall).
