EU policy aims at developing democratic, socially equitable and inclusive societies. We believe that this starts with neighbourhoods in cities. With the growth of the European cities, it becomes more challenging to ensure the vitality of neighbourhoods, which are facing different social, economic, health, and other problems. The local and regional authorities often only start to act when neighbourhoods have been labelled as 'deprived neighbourhoods'.
The City of Almere, one of the fastest growing new towns in Europe, works on a preventative integrated neighbourhood approach. It focuses on the monitoring of neighbourhoods, the analysis of long-term trends and the identification of upcoming problems, and finding the solutions. The approach includes both the physcial domain (public space) and the social domain. It aims at developing effective tools which help to prevent the deteriotation in neighbourhoods.