Summary - Patrick Witte is an Associate Professor in Spatial Planning. His research focuses on spatial planning, transport infrastructures, digital planning, and planning education. He has authored or co-authored over 65 international, peer-reviewed academic journal articles. Patrick has published an international handbook on spatial planning and is involved as editor or guest editor of various international journals. As of September 2025, he is also a Senior Fellow at Utrecht University's Center of Academic Teaching and Learning, working on a research project on the future of spatial planning education (2025-2029).

Research - Patrick is currently working on the following lines of research:

• Spatial and economic implications of large-scale infrastructure development
  Patrick focuses on integrated corridor development and (inland) port development. The granted INTERREG IV-B NWE project CODE24 (2014) is part of this research line, as are the PhD projects of Yang (2018), Delphine (2019), and Suprayoga (2020). Patrick has a long-term and ongoing collaboration with Bart Wiegmans (Province of Utrecht) on port system development and intermodal freight transport. Patrick was the lead editor of a Special Issue on inland port development (Journal of Transport Geography, 2020).
• Digital planning and smart cities
  Patrick focuses on digital technologies in urban planning, with a particular emphasis on planning support science and smart urban governance. The JPI ENSUF Urban Europe project FLOODLABEL (2017) granted to this research line, as are the PhD projects of Jiang (2021), Snel (2021), and Chai (2026). Patrick co-edited a Special Issue on digital planning for sustainable urban futures (Computers, Environments and Urban Systems, 2025), a Special Issue on digital technologies in urban planning (Journal of Urban Management, 2023), and a Special Issue on smart urban governance for climate change adaptation (Urban Planning, 2021).
• Spatial planning education: balancing transdisciplinary learning and disciplinary grounding
  As Senior Fellow, Patrick is setting up a new line of research into the disciplinary grounding of and transformations in spatial planning education.
   

Projects - Patrick is WP-leader and member of the core team of the NWO Climate KIC project ‘WaterScape’ (2024-2030). Patrick is also a visiting researcher with the KRITIS research group at TU Darmstadt (PhD project of Punt on critical infrastructure governance, expected Summer 2026) and with the School of Spatial Planning at TU Dortmund (part-time PhD project of Dral on governance, legitimacy, and participation). He is an editorial board member of the international academic journal Urban Planning and of the Dutch/Flemish academic publisher InPlanning.

Education and management - Patrick is the Master Director and chair of the Academic School in the department of Human Geography and Planning, and, as such, a board member of the Education Management Team. He coordinates the ‘Planning Professionalization’ module in the Master’s program of Spatial Planning. In the Bachelor’s program Human Geography and Planning, he coordinates the elective module ‘Spatial Planning: an exploration of the discipline’ (will be: ‘Ruimtelijke Plannen & Planningmethoden’ in academic year ‘26-’27). Patrick is also active in the Faculty of GeoSciences’ continuing education (OvP) offerings, notably as course coordinator and lecturer for the course ‘Ruimtelijke Ordening in een Veranderend Klimaat’.

Other board memberships - Patrick is also a member of the Excellence in Education Board of AESOP and a substitute representative of the Netherlands on AESOP's CoRep council.