Planning Sustainable, Inclusive and Competitive Cities

Measure the dynamics of urban development and develop a spatial understanding of sustainability, inclusiveness and competition in urban planning, using GIS-based skills and statistical methods.

This course aims to develop a critical understanding of spatial planning based on academic discourses, the international development agenda and the students' own experiences. Throughout the course the role of spatial data and information systems in urban planning and management will be highlighted and illustrated.

You will develop a spatial understanding of specific urban issues in your home country by applying knowledge and skills in spatial information handling. The concept of Sustainability will be introduced and discussed in light of its rise as a global development paradigm since the early 90s.

We will address The Sustainable City as one of the visions of desirable future cities. We make use of GIS-based and statistical methods to measure the dynamics of working towards sustainability in an urban context. Available databases and data catalogues will be retrieved to map sustainability indicators. Different sustainability frameworks will be studied and debated, including bottom up planning processes and concepts contributing to the sustainable development of cities and regions.