News.

On the 13th of November a public discussion took place in Noarootsi, focusing on the local government amalgamation reform. The three and a half hour discussion included a presentation by Geomedia consultant Rivo Noorkõiv, a question and answer session and a group work phase. The objective was to get more...

On 7th of September 2015 the second meeting of the amalgamation negotiations between Järvamaa local governments took place in Paide. The meeting was opened by the head of Paide city council, who introduced the results of local discussions taking place between the two meetings. Geomedia consultant, Rivo Noorkõiv, held a...

In the framework of the Marie Curie ITN RegPol2, Geomedia employee and PhD student, Bianka Plüschke-Altof, will attend a number of events in order to advance her research and discuss the first research results with a broader public. Focusing on socio-spatial discourses, she will introduce the conceptual framework and discuss...

Rivo Noorkõiv and Dago Antov published an article on the “Development of Mobility Environment in Tallinn: a Challenge for Public Transport” in the Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics Estonia 3/16. The growing relative importance of urbanites in the global population is accompanied by an increasing attention towards the development taking place on the field of the...

From September to November 2015, Aura Molodovan is visiting Geomedia as part of the ITN RegPol² project. She has studied Sociology at the BabeS-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and at the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany. Since 2014 she is a junior researcher and PhD student at the BabeS-Bolyai University....

On November 3-4, 2016 the traditional Tartu Planners’ Connference takes place. This year’s conference includes more than 60 presentations focusing on “Spatial Inequality and Planning”. The keynote lectures will be held by Prof. Marju Lauristin and the Minister of Public Administration Arto Aas. The sessions will discuss inequality in urban areas and on the...

Based on the procurement by the Ministry of Education and Research, Geomedia will conduct the analysis of Harju County school network for the establishment of state-owned secondary schools for the period 2015-2023. In the course of the analysis, the pros and cons of two scenarios will be evaluated. The first scenario takes into account...

Today’s Estonian local government model is based on a one-level municipality system that centers on the autonomy of local municipalities and a differentiation from the state level. Nowadays, this kind of a model has exhausted its possibilities. In practice, the shift towards a multi-level governance in which the growing importance of the civil society...

In March 2015, Helme rural municipality proposed the initiation of amalgamation negotiations to its neighboring municipalities, to which Tõrva, Hummuli and Põdrala municipalities replied positively. After that, the negotiations have been continually progressing: several meetings with municipality leaders, establishment of negotiation working groups, preparation of the area’s demographic and social-economic situational analysis and...

On 21st of October 2016 a vision conference took place in the conference hall of Valga’s Centre for Culture and Extracurricular Activities. The conference’s objective was to display a sense of community during the municipality amalgamation, to ease the amalgamation related fears and discuss the future perspectives for Karula, Taheva, Tõlliste and Õru rural municipalities...