Period?
since March 2008

Background
?Decisions on the recultivation of the open pit called Inden II are made today but do concern a time 40 years ahead in the future. There is no concrete idea of how the region will look like but one thing is sure: Global changes such as the decrease of oil and gas extraction and climate change will also affect the indeland until the year 2050. The future will not only result from a simple projection of the past.

Target Group?
Citizens, policy and administration

Description
It is the question of how the region called indeland will look like after the time after coal mining. Indeland means the area of the cities Eschweiler, Düren and Jülich. From 2030 on, the open pit will be recultivated by a residual lake with a size of 1.100 hectares. Filling the sea will take a long time: probably between 2050 and 2060 the wounds of environmental intervention will scar over.

The future of this region is determined by several factors. Some of them can be influenced in the region itself but others not– such as climate change or decreasing oil and gas reserves. To create scenarios means to draw pictures and to tell stories of possible futures. The inner logic of scenarios is important because this logic  makes them comprehensible and thus believable.

The foundation has elaborated the indeland scenario process together with Ulrich Golüke, scenario expert of the WBCSD for many years. At the beginning of this process 63 people were interviewed: decision makers in the range of policy, administration and economy but also citizens, pupils, trainees. 60 hours of interviews with ideas, opinions and also fears of the future. The interviews were transcribed and evaluated and were used as input for the first scenario workshop in Monschau in autumn 2008.

Participants
?Ulrich Golüke (moderation)?
Institute for prospective analysis (group moderation)?
Aachen Foundation (idea, initiative, group moderation)

Status?
The four scenarios "Abendland, Förderland, Ellbogenland and Neuland" were presented in June 2009 in Düren. As a follow-up process, the Aachen foundation offers to present, explain and discuss the scenarios to and with interested groups. ?

Website
?www.zwanzig50.de