The objective of this 6.2 M euro project is to look at how environmental improvements can make metropolitan areas more attractive for investment, with knock on benefits for sustainable development across NW Europe. The four project partners, all regions at different stages of recovery from industrial decline, aim to address issues such as urban sprawl and the unequal competition between metropolitan areas and second rank towns and cities in attracting economic development. By encouraging the use of brownfield land and reversing the trend towards urban sprawl, the project seeks to make towns and cities more attractive investment locations. The project, which is led by the UK’s South Yorkshire Forest Partnership, seeks to build a partnership that brings a multi-disciplinary, transnational approach to projects impossible in any single partner country. Such an approach is necessary because it is difficult for councils and agencies to respond in isolation to the many different levels that investment operates. The project will develop a knowledge base on how areas, especially those suffering from deindustrialisation can make themselves more attractive to investors. And CSI will develop guidelines on how each region can build on its distinctive characteristics to adopt a niche in the Market that complements its European neighbours. Achievements: The two versions of the final report – Economic landscapes – a short version aimed at practitioners and policy makers is available to download from the Csi website.