Future of regional planning in North Rhine-Westphalia In the light of current and future challenges, regional planning needs to consider new topics and a more strategic orientation. This involves not only addressing changes to statutory provisions and state guidelines, but also the development of strategic visions and the organization of transparent regional planning procedures in order to strengthen the involvement of the general population. Data bases need to be qualified and prepared for regional monitoring to ensure and develop the existing quality of spaces in North Rhine-Westphalia. Furthermore, it should be recognized that prognoses and scenarios that visualize complex subject matters are well suited to communicating planning statements for specialist and policy discussion, as are explanatory maps or sectoral reports. Informal regional concepts serve not only to build consensus, but can also contribute to regional cooperation and provide a reliable base when combined with legally binding spatial planning contracts. This specifically applies to current challenges such as demographic change and climate protection, the latter being linked to the ex-pansion of renewable energies and measures for climate adaptation. The volume consists of two parts: Part A (“Positions on the future of regional planning in North Rhine-Westphalia“) presents the conclusions of the working group and gives recommendations to state development planning and regional planning in North Rhine- Westphalia. The recommendations are based on the intensive discussion of current topics in the articles of Part B of the volume (“Key challenges to state development planning and regional planning in North Rhine-Westphalia“): These are “Acceptance of regional planning processes and results“, “Demographic change – can regional planning help“, “Climate protection and renewable energies“ and “Climate adaptation: fields of activity for spatial development – in-depth discussion using the example of flood risk management“.