Spatial planning relates to policy interventions that aim to steer spatial developments in such a way that societal and environmental conditions are improving, whilst also meeting other objectives related to, for example, economic development, water management and biodiversity conservation. Reconciling these often conflicting objectives is an extremely demanding task that calls for: clear undisputed information on current developments; insight in possible future trends; the preparation of alternative policy measures and an understanding of their impact. Spatial analysis can provide the required information on past, current and projected spatial developments as well as indicate the impact of existing and proposed policy measures as is demonstrated in this thesis. See the figure on this page as an example of an analysis result (Source: Koomen and Dekkers, 2013).
SPINlab combines various forms of spatial analysis with newly available and highly detailed spatial data sets in research that supports the formulation of spatial polices in domains such as:
- open space preservation
- rural vitality
- urban intensification
- sustainable urban development
- attracting knowledge workers
Updates
SPINlab participates in large VU-project for Agribusiness Development Project in Kenya
The Centre for International Cooperation of VU Amsterdam (CIS-VU) has been awarded a grant worth €1.8 mln. to implement a project on Spatial Planning for Agribusiness and Public Policy Development in Kenya. The grant is part of the Netherlands Initiative for Capacity development in Higher Education (NICHE), a Netherlands-funded...Read More »
EC-JRC meeting on integrated territorial policy assessment
The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC) invited a large delegation of SPINlab to contribute to their international workshop on integrated territorial policy assessment in Ispra, Italy. Together with, amongst others, researchers from the JRC units in Seville and Petten, scholars from the United Kingdom and representatives of...Read More »
Eric Koomen lecturing about Sustainable Urban Planning in Sweden for the AESUS-project
For the NWO-funded project on Sustainable Urban Development (AESUS), SPINlab-researcher Eric Koomen visited Sweden to participate in a research seminar and the transfer knowledge in the form of a guest lecture and computer practical on urban planning.
See his project blog (in Dutch) to read more about...Read More »