Digital Basin Quick Start
Growth Strategies for Rural Communities
Rural planners and development officers are often looking for ways to sustain and grow population. What growth strategies and assets are tools for rural population growth? While there are many self-directed guides suggesting different growth strategies and a large literature on assets and capitals, there is no research comparing the growth strategies and assets used by rural municipalities with growing and declining populations. Past growth strategies used by rural specialists were identified from a number of self-directed guides and six municipalities were identified for the study: three municipalities with stable or growing populations and three municipalities with declining populations. Findings from this Brandon University Rural Development Institute-commissioned research show that it is not the amount of initiatives undertaken, but which growth strategies those initiatives employ that impacts population growth or decline.
Basin-Boundary Agricultural Planning: The Regional Perspective