Field Trip 2024 to Thessaloniki (Greece)
Municipal planning, tourism and nature conservation in the Lot department
From October 1 to 9, 2011, the Institute for Environmental Planning and Polytech' Tours hosted the annual joint German-French planning seminar. This year, the seminar and excursion led to the southwestern French Département Lot with its capital Cahors. Under the direction of Dr. Frank Scholles, Meike Levin-Keitel, Dr. Marc-André Philippe and Dr. Eric Thomas, 44 students from the two universities engaged in Franco-German exchange. Topics were in particular the intermunicipal cooperation in municipal associations, the reorganization of local government, the importance of tourism for rural areas, the environmental policy of the département, the nature park Causses du Quercy, ecological building as well as monument protection in urban planning. Due to the location of the department in the transition between the Massif Central and the Aquitanian plain with deeply constricted river valleys of the Lot and the Dordogne as well as the transition from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean climate zone, the natural area offers an exceptionally high geological and biological diversity. Alongside this rich natural heritage is the equally rich cultural heritage.
