Spatial Planning
Describe, explain, and guide urban and regional sustainability transformations.
In our research and teaching, we engage with increasingly complex governance challenges in developing, operating, and transforming cities and urban regions in line with sustainability goals.
We contribute knowledge on the governance and planning of urban futures and how they are shaped by institutional arrangements and innovative planning approaches. The following overarching questions guide our research and teaching:
- How do urban and regional governance arrangements support or restrict sustainability transformations?
- What are the contestations, politicizations, and dilemmas that arise in urban transformation processes, and how are and could they be addressed?
- How can planning instruments and processes be designed to deal with rivalrous land uses and complex property regimes?
- How can cities and regions increase their capacity in governing sustainability transformations, i.e., through regulatory reforms, collaborative planning, or informal and community-led planning approaches?
- How can planning processes and institutions better address urban inequalities and contribute to socio-ecological justice?
- How do planning approaches contribute to overcoming institutional silos and aligning sustainability goals across policy fields, policy levels, and territorial jurisdictions?
- What are the roles and added values of planning support systems, big data, and social media in the governance of urban sustainability?
Our research program focuses on crucial societal challenges and aims to advance an understanding of how and why different – often co-existing – modes of governance and institutional arrangements enable or restrict sustainable outcomes. We bring together knowledge and approaches from different fields in planning and governance research, human geography, and science and technology studies to understand, explain, and guide sustainable urban and regional transformations. At the same time, we develop and test theories about how political, institutional, technological, and ecological conditions shape urban and regional sustainability.
Our research is global in its perspective, case studies, and outreach. We collaborate with scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds and societal partners. The Utrecht University-wide research community Transforming Cities is chaired by one of the section’s professors. Furthermore, section members participate in research networks of the strategic themes Pathways to Sustainability and Institutions for Open Societies.
Our research on the governance of urban sustainability transformations focuses on the following themes.
Research in this theme focuses on the governance of climate change and biodiversity in cities and regions. Specifically, it explores how different planning approaches, instruments, and institutions respond to the grand challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. This includes exploring the institutional spaces and governance innovations required for systemic solutions such as nature-based solutions, transformative climate adaptation and multi-species approaches to become embedded and mainstream for sustainable urban futures.
Key researchers
- Prof Niki Frantzeskaki
- Dr Katharina Hölscher
- Dr Yanliu Lin
- Dr Hongmei Lu
- Prof Jochen Monstadt
- Dr Katinka Wijsman
- Dr Patrick Witte
Research Projects
Our research explores technical infrastructures as key sites and vantage points of urban transformations to more sustainable futures. We create knowledge to anticipate future risks and opportunities, to address vested interests and path dependencies, and to transform the urban governance in multiple infrastructure domains. Here, we engage with various fields of infrastructure research: low-carbon energy transformations, green infrastructures, infrastructure failure and resilience, integrated corridor development, infrastructure contracts, and infrastructure transformations in the global South.
Key researchers
- Prof Niki Frantzeskaki
- Dr Katharina Hölscher
- Dr Martijn van den Hurk
- Prof Jochen Monstadt
- Dr Francesca Pilo
- Dr Shaun Smith
- Dr Katinka Wijsman
- Dr Patrick Witte
Research Projects
- Coping with Urban and Infrastructural Heterogeneity: Sustainable Energy Transitions in Tanzania and Mozambique (Dutch Research Council – NWO)
- Research hub “Transforming Infrastructures for Sustainable Cities” (Utrecht University)
- Critical infrastructures: construction, functional crises and protection in cities (German Research Foundation – DFG)
- Nexusing water, energy and food to increase resilience in the Cape Town metropolitan region (Dutch Research Council – NWO and South African National Research Foundation – NRF)
- Decarb City Pipes 2050 - Transition roadmaps to energy-efficient, zero-carbon urban heating and cooling (European Commission, Horizon 2020)
- Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land, and Infrastructure in the 21st Century (Major Collaborative Research Initiative, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada).
Research in this group tackles interrelated issues of citizenship, informality, and collaborative planning. This includes investigating how community-based initiatives shape citizenship and low-income residents’ right to the city, and how informal city-making practices are addressed by planning. We explore informal and collaborative planning practices critically, including the role of institutional contexts, power relations and the empowerment of marginalised groups in delivering public services within various contexts.
Key researchers
- Dr Abigail Friendly
- Dr Yanliu Lin
- Dr Hongmei Lu
- Prof Jochen Monstadt
- Dr Francesca Pilo
- Dr Shaun Smith
- Dr Katinka Wijsman
Research Projects
- CoChina: Collaborative Planning in China: Authoritarian Institutions, New Media, Power Relations, and Public Spheres (ERC Starting Grant Project)
- Coping with Urban and Infrastructural Heterogeneity: Sustainable Energy Transitions in Tanzania and Mozambique (Dutch Research Council – NWO)
Digitalisation is changing our society, urban governance and spatial planning. We seek to develop a new theoretical understanding of smart cities/governance, and explore novel approaches by using multiple data sources such as social media or big data to address urban complexities and sustainability challenges. We undertake critical research on how new digital technologies (e.g., planning support systems, social media, AI and smart tools) are incorporated in governing urban development, mobility, water, green, energy and other contexts, and under which conditions they add value or result in new vulnerabilities, environmental problems and challenges to policy-making and planning practice.
Key researchers
- Dr Yanliu Lin
- Dr Hongmei Lu
- Prof Jochen Monstadt
- Dr Krisztina Varró
- Dr Patrick Witte
Research projects
- FLOODLABEL: A smart tool for governance towards flood-resilient cities (JPI Urban Europe)
- CoChina: Collaborative Planning in China: Authoritarian Institutions, New Media, Power Relations, and Public Spheres (ERC Starting Grant Project)
- Using Multi-Agent Systems for Simulating Online Social Network Influence on Urban Planning (Seed-funded project of Transforming Cities Hub)
- The Algorithmic Studio (Dutch Research Council – NWO, SURF Pop Up grant)
Increased scarcity of land, global human population growth, and persistent affordability issues form the backdrop of this research theme. We conduct theoretical and empirical research on the interaction between different actors and institutions in land and real estate development, real estate markets and housing affordability, and informal housing. This research improves our understanding of institutional arrangements and planning instruments for future city building and feeds into public debates on land-use policy, taking place at the science-policy interface.
Key researchers
- Prof Edwin Buitelaar
- Prof Niki Frantzeskaki
- Dr Abigail Friendly
- Dr Martijn van den Hurk
- Dr Yanliu Lin
- Prof Jochen Monstadt
- Dr Shaun Smith
- Dr Daan Bossuyt
Research projects
- Urban housing migrants in China and the Netherlands (Dutch Research Council – NWO)
- The Statute of Metropolis and Planning Reform in Brazil: Analyzing Community Participatory Visioning, Land Use Planning Practices and Effective Institutional Changes (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy)
- Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land, and Infrastructure in the 21st Century (Major Collaborative Research Initiative, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada).
Research in this group explores how spatial arrangements and their organisation reflect, perpetuate, and alter social inequality and injustice. Ranging from the conceptual to the applied, we investigate social and environmental problems associated with urban development and propose solutions that advance a just city. Current interests include infrastructural access, democratising participation, and political ecologies of transformations.
Key researchers
- Claudia Basta
- Prof Edwin Buitelaar
- Prof Niki Frantzeskaki
- Dr Abigail Friendly
- Dr Martijn van den Hurk
- Dr Yanliu Lin
- Dr Hongmei Lu
- Dr Shaun Smith
- Dr Francesca Pilo
- Dr Krisztina Varró
- Dr Katinka Wijsman
Research projects
- Coping with Urban and Infrastructural Heterogeneity: Sustainable Energy Transitions in Tanzania and Mozambique (Dutch Research Council – NWO)
- Urban housing migrants in China and the Netherlands (Dutch Research Council – NWO)
Our staff is actively involved in the Department’s Bachelor’s and two Master’s programmes. For students from other Bachelor’s programme who are interested in planning issues, we offer the minor programme Planning for Sustainable Cities (in Dutch). In our education of spatial planners and human geographers, we bring together knowledge from different fields in planning, governance and sustainability research to prepare students for a career in planning, consultancy and research. Our planning education is international in scope and strongly engages with planning practice through guest lectures, the organisation of planning studios in collaboration with planning professionals, internships, and thesis research.
Bachelor’s programme Sociale geografie en planologie
Master’s programme Spatial Planning
Research Master’s programme Global Urban Transformations
A full overview of the department's Bachelor and Master programmes.
- Nexusing water, energy and food to increase resilience in the Cape Town metropolitan region (Dutch Research Council – NWO and South African National Research Foundation – NRF)
- Decarb City Pipes 2050 - Transition roadmaps to energy-efficient, zero-carbon urban heating and cooling (European Commission, Horizon 2020)
- CoChina: Collaborative Planning in China: Authoritarian Institutions, New Media, Power Relations, and Public Spheres (ERC Starting Grant Project)
- Coping with Urban and Infrastructural Heterogeneity: Sustainable Energy Transitions in Tanzania and Mozambique (Dutch Research Council – NWO)
- Critical infrastructures: construction, functional crises and protection in cities (German Research Foundation – DFG)
- Urban housing migrants in China and the Netherlands (Dutch Research Council – NWO)
- FLOODLABEL: A smart tool for governance towards flood-resilient cities (JPI Urban Europe)
- Research hub “Transforming Infrastructures for Sustainable Cities” (Utrecht University)
- The Algorithmic Studio (Dutch Research Council – NWO, SURF Pop Up grant)
- The Statute of Metropolis and Planning Reform in Brazil: Analyzing Community Participatory Visioning, Land Use Planning Practices and Effective Institutional Changes (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy)
- Translating the networked city: Adaptation and creativity in urban infrastructures in Africa (German Research Foundation – DFG)
- Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land, and Infrastructure in the 21st Century (Major Collaborative Research Initiative, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada).
Contact
For individual members of this research section, please see the staff listing.
