ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the importance of the instruments in coping with demographic change and addresses the significance of strategic spatial planning objectives. The demographic change taking place in eastern Germany has resulted in urban shrinkage. It is perhaps more accurate to describe urban shrinkage as having the following: The reality of permanent abandonment has to be assumed, despite recent discussion of reurbanisation tendencies as an emerging trend. Against the background of demographic change in eastern Germany, the political response to the considerable impacts of urban shrinkage has been carried out through the federal-regional joint programme Stadtumbau Ost. The aim of urban redevelopment is to take an integrated approach to spatial development and to break away from sectoral or departmental strategies. Preserving or restoring the balance between supply and demand under conditions of shrinkage is to sustainable spatial development. Urban development is intended to restore sustainable spatial structures either by means of improvement or by demolition.
