The scientific preoccupation with urban and rural settlements and regions has a long tradition in Augsburg’s human geography, with a clear emphasis on urban areas. The importance of research lies on applied geographical analysis. Cities are the ‘lebensraum’ of the future since more than half of the world’s population already lives in urban areas. Cities are laboratories and experimental fields for future global trends. The processes scientifically discussed and analyzed on the urban macro level are also referring to the micro level of urban habitats: smart technologies, urban gardening/farming, urban mining, new forms of living/working together and of mutual assistance, implementation of sustainable forms of lifestyle, to name but a few aspects of a visionary geographical handling of urban and rural settlements.