Bringing urban land-change simulation to the next level (SILAR)
Anna Hersperger, Silvia Tobias, Daniels Saakjans, Somaie Abolhasani, Rafael Ramirez Eudave
2022 - 2026
Cooperation FinancingContents ¶
Digitalization opens up new possibilities for municipal land-use planning, but inconsistent rules and a lack of clarity are hindering progress. Our project examines European regulatory practices and develops standards and simulations that make planning more understandable, comparable, and effective.
Project ¶
Municipal land-use planning translates strategic goals into binding rules that govern building design and land use. As European municipalities and Swiss communes regulate land use in very different ways and there has been no systematic overview of the key regulations governing buildings, open spaces and green spaces, this significantly hinders the further development of planning and the utilization of digital potential.
In our study, we analyzed how European cities currently regulate the form and function of buildings, as well as open and green spaces. Our findings revealed that building height and density are the primary focus, while the protection of natural values dominates in the case of green and open spaces. At the same time, countries differ greatly in how they balance efficiency and equity. We also found that the impact of regulations can only be understood by taking discretionary decision-making into account, since the same rules can lead to very different outcomes depending on the context.
To better simulate future urban developments, we have developed methods that allow local building and land-use regulations to be captured digitally, standardized, and represented in 3D models. These approaches have been successfully tested in several cities and demonstrate that standardized data significantly improves the simulation of urban developments.
At the same time, such standards can influence planning practices and values such as transparency, efficiency and fairness. A newly developed conceptual framework will help scholars and practitioners to better understand these effects and ensure that the digital transformation of planning is managed responsibly.