Transferable development rights in Switzerland

Building zone land, foto: P. Longatti (WSL)

Short Summary

The research project ‘Transferable development rights (TDR) in Switzerland: Simulating a TDR market with agent-based modeling’ is elaborated in a PhD-thesis and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The objective of the project is to contribute to the scientific development of a TDR program, to explore the possible impacts of a TDR program in Switzerland and hence to provide pro- and contra-arguments to the political discussion about their implementation in Switzerland. The planned approach combines an agent-based simulation with a survey among potential landowners. The results of the survey will be used to obtain information about possible incentives for landowners to buy and sell TDRs, and to calibrate the agent-based model. Moreover, land registry data of different Cantons and transaction data of undeveloped land parcels will be included and used for the agent-based simulation.

Background and objective

In Switzerland, every second approximately 1 square meter of land is developed. This rate of development is equivalent to eleven football fields per day, twice the area of the city of Geneva per year, or a total of 327 square kilometers of land. The high rate of land consumption clearly goes against the principles for economic exploitation of land resources as specified in Art. 1 of the Swiss Federal Act of 22 June 1979 on Spatial Planning. There is general agreement that the current spatial planning instruments are insufficient to overcome this unsustainable growth. Existing planning instruments therefore need reconsideration, adjustment and endorsement.

As an extension of the present planning instruments, the TDR-project focus on the existing building zone reserves. According to a study of the Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Development ARE, the undeveloped building zone areas could provide space for about two million additional inhabitants. However, the location of these undeveloped zones is a problem. There are significant spatial differences in supply and demand for undeveloped building zones, with high demand in the agglomerations of the major centers and along major transport routes, which is expected to significantly exceed the current reserves. In the municipalities far away from the centers the situation is completely different. There, the area with undeveloped building zones is significantly larger than the expected demand for the next thirty years.

The objective of the research project is to develop a simulation based on a reflected TDR program for Switzerland and to illustrate how the mentioned problem with the building zones may be solved. The simulation will explore possible impacts of a TDR program and provide very useful information for the political discussion about TDR implementation in Switzerland.

Conctact

• Gianluca Menghini, Irmi Seidl (WSL)

Funding and support

The research project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation for the period 2009-2012 and will be submitted as a PhD-thesis at EPFL (Doctoral program: EDCE). The project is supported and accompanied by the following research groups and institutions:

• Environmental and Resource Economics (WSL)
• Landscape Ecology (WSL)
  
• Land Use Engineerings Group (ETHZ)
  
• Institute for Transport Planning and Systems IVT  (ETHZ)
• Economics and Environmental Management Laboratory (EPFL)