Authors: Christian Fertner, Julien Grunfelder

In the past decade, many European countries have taken significant steps towards setting up digital plan registers and digitize spatial planning processes. However, comparative evidence on the possibilities offered by digital plan data and their actual use is missing. At the same time, the digitization of plan data can be assumed to have a considerable impact on planning practice.

ESPON DIGIPLAN (Evaluating Spatial Planning Practices with Digital Plan Data) will look both at the provision/production side, i.e. how plans are digitally represented, and at the user/consumption side, i.e. how plan data are used and how they influence planning practice.

Driven by slightly different questions but a shared interest, stakeholders in Denmark, Norway and Switzerland asked ESPON to help them with a targeted analysis.

At two meetings in Copenhagen, stakeholders and the research team intensely discussed the planned analysis, and the appetite of both stakeholders and the research team for the analysis is still growing. Both stakeholders and researchers expect interesting and eye-opening results with this targeted analysis and are happy to share their first insights. More will follow next winter.