Implementing projects funded by the European Union opens up many possibilities for the development of existing potentials on a local, regional, and subsequently national level, as well as on those naturally developed areas – cross-border areas. The development of regional and local areas with regard to the overall national economy demands a different approach. The specificities of a region in terms of spatial features, as well as resources such as people and their willingness for a lifelong learning, acquiring new skills and abilities, creating social capital which also implies a greater social cohesion, call for adjusted means of management, development and monitoring. Tools for understanding the observed areas upon which the interventions will be performed, alongside with the achieved short-term and long-term effects of invested funds are crucial for managing all resources of some area, especially when taking into consideration people, goods and capital which are nowadays moving freely, primarily in the European Union, together with the great number of factors that influence the resource of a certain area due to globalisation and the concurrent processes. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to understand the role of the conducted project activities in reference to the individual and the implementing institutions in local communities, subsequently also the projects’ importance on a regional level and the cross-border area of Hungary and the Republic of Croatia, as well as the long-term sustainability of the results of the conducted projects. This was attempted through the seven-year project implementation period in the cross-border area of these two countries by using the geographic information systems and their ability to integrate spatial data from different sources.