Urban research − understanding urban change in its diversity

ILS researcher Bastian Heider, together with Stefan Siedentop from TU Dortmund University, has published an article in the journal Planning, Practice and Research. This paper examines the displacement of craft businesses from inner-city areas in five cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Drawing on expert interviews with representatives from urban planning, economic development, and chambers of crafts, it identifies a complex interplay of highly context-related factors driving this process – ranging from land-use conversion and rising property values to emission conflicts and limited expansion opportunities. Urban policies have often tolerated or indirectly facilitated the marginalization of the craft sector. Recent planning initiatives show growing awareness of the issue, offering prospects for safeguarding productive uses and preserving mixed-use urban structures that are central to sustainable and resilient city economies. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2026.2668492.  Further current publications can be found here.

Urban agriculture (UA) is frequently promoted as a pathway to improve urban sustainability, food security, and resilience, yet cross-city evidence on its scalable, system-wide impacts remains limited and methodologically inconsistent. We assess the theoretical scaling potential and food–energy–water (FEW) metabolism implications of expanding low-tech UA across five Global North cities, —London, New York City, Paris, Dortmund, and Gorzów Wielkopolski—using a harmonized two-part framework. The results provide a transferable, cross-city methodology and identify policy-relevant leverage points—especially enabling home gardening, securing land tenure, supporting new farmers or gardeners, and pairing expansion with composting and water-harvesting practices—to design context-sensitive UA scaling strategies. https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1muYocUG5e8ki. Further current publications can be found here.

Janina Welsch and Frederic Rudolph from the T3 Transportation Think Tank, have jointly published an article in the journal “Active Travel Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal.” The study examines company bikes, which can form part of employers’ mobility management and cycling promotion schemes. However, it has been unclear, whether and to what extent they influence actual bicycle usage. The results show, that company bikes are a significant positive factor for commuting by bicycle. However, compared to the lowest usage frequence, this applies only to the middle category and not to the highest. A “company bicycle effect” is also not directly detectable in everyday cycling. However, indirect effects can be assumed. The majority of company bikies are e-bikes, and these show a significant positive association with both cycling to work and in everyday cycling. Particularly in view of the current rise in petrol and diesel prices, the bicycle could become an increasingly attractive alternative for many employees for short and medium distances. Here, the company bike provides employers with an effective tool to promote more sustainable commuting. https://doi.org/10.16997/ats.1774. Further current publications can be found here. here.

ILS researcher Dr. Bastian Heider, together with colleagues from TU Dortmund University and the IÖR, has published an article in the journal European Planning Studies. This article analyses long-term trends and spatial patterns in the conversion of commercial and industrial land in German city regions. Contrary to many other international studies, the results show no significant loss of industrial and commercial land in most core urban areas. This highlights the influence of national and local planning institutions in the context of global urban development phenomena such as reurbanisation and the displacement of industry from central urban areas. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2026.2644411. Further current selected papers can be found here.

ILS researchers Prof. Dr. Thomas Weith and Lennart Bosse have published an article in the journal „RaumPlanung“. The article analyses and evaluates the criteria underpinning local authorities’ adaptation measures following the 2021 floods, drawing on empirical evidence. The findings reveal a high number and wide variety of concrete protection and prevention measures that have been implemented, as well as ongoing challenges, and offer guidance for relevant stakeholders in flood management. https://ifr-ev.de/raumplanung/wassersensible-stadt/. Further current selected papers can be found here.