Planning of rural space - Utopia or reality

Both the European Union and its member states separately have given great attention and substantial funding to the development of the countryside. However all investments are not always in concordance with the development and implementation spatial planning projects. Due to the high sensitivity of the rural space, any actions must be well thought out, and planning of rural areas should be supported in the sense of developmental programs and implementation plans. In some countries quality sectoral planning and integrated planning have been established, which should surpass the level of a municipality, however, planning or administrative regions are too large for these projects. In the Federal Republic of Germany these tasks were undertaken by the former land consolidation offices and in this way the surveying profession has strongly entered the countryside development programs. The paper tries to give an overview of the state of rural spatial planning in Slovenia, in comparison with Bavaria, showing that Slovenia has never managed to surpass the sectoral approach in the field. In the conclusions, some guidelilnes for further development in relation to planning at the local level as well as of the geodetic profession and its inclusion into the activities of rural management and development are proposed.