The purpose of Saarland's "Settlements" regional development plan is to coordinate different land use claims. These claims on the land need to be weighed up against each other with regard to their supra-local relevance and certain specific land use functions need to be secured through regional planning. To fulfil this task, Saarland's "Settlements" regional development plan defines goals and principles that relate to or have a bearing on settlement structure development. In addition to the written provisions on this subject, a graphic map of the "Settlements" regional development plan also contains provisions in graphic form. Saarland's "Settlements" regional development plan represents a state-wide spatial development plan, which is aimed at ensuring the sustainability and environmental soundness of the state's future settlement development.
At the regional and urban levels, the expert commission has dealt with the question of which strategies can prevent spatial inequality and the resulting feeling of dependence among parts of the population and has formulated nine strategic approaches that deal with the model of equivalent living conditions and support for the implementation of this new promotional, state- and federally-financed funding, the stabilization of municipal finances, the increased participation of citizens, the stabilization of rural migration regions and greater social mixing in cities.
