Research projects
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Research projects
Development of sustainable settlements, open spaces, and infrastructure
- Accompanying research: The REGIONALE 2030 in North Rhine-Westphalia
- Agricultural Systems of the Future: Central Coordination Office
- FoodConnectRuhr: The Pott cooks regionally, healthily, sustainably - and for everyone!
- GreenME – Advancing Greencare in Europe: an integrated multi-scalar approach for the expansion of nature-based therapies to improve Mental health Equity
- IMECOGIP 3 – Implementing the ecosystem services concept in green infrastructure planning to strengthen the resilience of the Ruhr metropolitan area and Chinese megacities
- JUST GROW: Co-designing justice-centric indicators and governance principles to intensify urban agriculture sustainably and equitably
- Monitoring City Regions
- Prima. Klima. Ruhrmetropole – Scientific Support for Collaboration Between Municipalities and Local Stakeholders in Energy Neighborhoods in North Rhine-Westphalia
- REDESIGN - tRansformativE fooD valuE Systems reshapInG resilient urban laNdscapes
- SUSKULT II - Development of a sustainable cultivation system for food of resilient metropolitan regions
- Transformation of large retail properties. Strategies for the conversion of department stores and shopping centers
Socio-spatial inequalities and just urban development
- (Urban) renewal and social development of large housing estates in North Rhine-Westphalia
- Cross-programme support for the Urban Development Funding Programme
- Integrated urban and neighborhood development: expert forum
- Marginalized Groups and the Solidary City (MaBIs)
- Short-term rentals and housing protection - A discourse-analytical investigation of the control of digital swarm phenomena in spatial planning
- STARTUP – Sustainable Transitions. Action Research and Training in Urban Perspective.
- Strengthening integration in "new" arrival neighbourhoods
- Subsidized rental housing stock after the expiration of the purpose-specific restrictions and occupancy regulations
- WBS application procedure and its interaction with public housing subsidies
Transformation of urban spaces and mobility
- AccessCity4All – Adapting the 15-Minute City concept to support active mobility in neighbourhoods with different levels of accessibility
- Analysing State Programmes to Strengthen Town and City Centres
- Bicycle-media-milieus: Media analysis and milieu-specific formats for more cycling
- Data basis for corporate mobility in the skilled crafts sector for MobilityHub Handwerk Nordrhein-Westfalen
- Environmentally and socially friendly construction and housing for sustainable urban and rural development
- EvaZuSta+: Climate resilient transformation of public (street) space: Evaluation of the “Zukunft Stadtraum” planning competition
- InnovationsCommunity Urban Health – Experimental Spaces
- Micro-mobility supply and use: An empirical study using the example of e-scooter services in NRW
- Resilient infrastructure in the Southern Upper Rhine region: A regional analysis
- Scientific research accompanying the state competition "Ways2work - Cooperative mobility management in commercial areas"
- Share4Equity – Shared mobility services towards equitable and sustainable mobilities
- Sustainable mobility in Lincoln III: Embedding and transfer of innovative mobility concepts in new housing estates using the example of the Lincoln housing estate in Darmstadt
- The 9-Euro Ticket and Deutschlandticket as Environmental and Social Transport Policy: A Panel Data Evaluation
- TRANSFORM - Urban Mobility Cultures in Transition: Socio-spatial implications of transformative practices (Doctoral Network)
Closed research projects
Development of sustainable settlements, open spaces, and infrastructure
- (2026) Analysis of the distances between pharmacies and the affected population
- (2024) Identification of areas underserved by pharmacies and calculation of their population
- (2024-2025) Small-scale Research Data NRW
- (2024-2025) ReGerecht - Integrative development of a fair balance of interests between urban and rural areas
- (2024-2025) Geomonitoring for NRW
- (2024-2025) Evaluation of the state initiative “Rethinking urban allotment gardens”
- (2023) Additional module Accompanying research REGIONALEn - Accompanying the application process of the REGIONALE 2030
- (2023-2026) Plan turnaround through the transdisciplinary integration of regional and socio-cultural factors in the planning of energy transition measures on site (PlanTieFEn)
- (2023-2025) Climate Adaptation through Thermographic Campaign and Heat mapping (CATCH4D)
- (2022) STARE - The Evaluation of the Urban Redevelopment East Program in a Long-Term Perspective
- (2022-2025) Spatial Analysis LEP Baden-Württemberg
- (2022-2024) Department Stores in Transition. Brief Building Culture Status Report
- (2022-2023) Urban Green-Blue Infrastructure: Potential Analysis of the Emscher and International Good Practice
- (2022-2023) Urban green in the face of climate change
- (2022-2023) Conception of a planning and information tool to reduce land consumption in North Rhine-Westphalian cities and municipalities (NRW-Flächenampel)
- (2021) Meta-study „Urban-rural relations“
- (2021-2023) GROWO - Großstädte als Wohnorte - Nutzungsmanagement unter Wachstumsbedingungen
- (2021-2023) Accompanying research: The REGIONALEn
- (2020-2024) FoodE - Food Systems in European Cities
- (2020-2023) Consistency and reliability of land use data
- (2020-2022) Transformative strategies for integrated neighborhood development: Policy measures for swarm cities (TRASIQ 2)
- (2020-2022) KlimaNetze 2.0: Enabling social innovations through a structural anchoring of governance processes
- (2020-2021) Satellite: Regional economic analyses in the EU internal market
- (2019-2025) IMECOGIP – Implementation of the ecosystem services framework in green infrastructure planning for resilient urban development in the Ruhr and in Chinese megacities
- (2019-2024) SUSKULT - Development of a sustainable cultivation system for food of resilient metropolitan regions
- (2019-2021) WIKOKLIM - Impact potential of municipal climate protection measures
- (2019-2020) Home sharing: Effects and communal steering of short-term rentals on local housing markets in Germany and Europe
- (2018-2024) NEILA – Sustainable development through intercommunal land use management in the region Bonn / Rhein-Sieg / Ahrweiler
- (2018-2022) Incora – Inwertsetzung von Copernicus-Daten für die Raumbeobachtung
- (2018-2021) The influence of spatial planning on settlement development in Germany and Switzerland: A comparative analysis of governance capacity and impacts
- (2018-2021) The FEW-Meter - an integrative model to measure and improve urban agriculture, shifting it towards circular urban metabolism
- (2018-2021) Project Check 2.0 – Preliminary check of land-use planning
- (2018-2021) Monitoring Urban Green – How Green Are German Cities? Remote Sensing-Based Assessment and Urban Functional-Spatial Differentiation of Green Infrastructure in German Cities
- (2018-2020) Focus Project “Cities under Pressure (CuP): Sustainable Urban Growth Management in Europe”
- (2017-2020) TRASIQ - Transformative strategies for integrated neighbourhood development: Policy measures for swarm cities
- (2017-2020) Tools and methods to conduct small scale population projections and impact scenarios in intermunicipal cooperation (WEBWiKo)
- (2016-2019) Water in the city of the future / integrated monitoring and control systems for water management
- (2016-2019) DoNaPart – Psychological and Communal Empowerment through Participation in Sustainable Urban Reconstruction
- (2016-2019) Co-creating the Town - Innovative Solutions to the Stimulation of Civic Engagement in the Context of Demographic Change – The Case of Weißwasser/O.L.
- (2016-2019) ClimateNetworks. Transformations in urban climate mitigation and resource protection by designing governance processes
- (2016-2018) Empirical research on planning cultures in shrinking cities and urban regions as represented by open space-, living space- and retail space development
- (2016-2018) Comparative Analysis of Territorial Governance and Spatial Planning Systems in Europe (ESPON COMPASS)
- (2016-2017) Redevelopment of business-locations and office buildings – strategies, Instruments, projects
- (2015-2017) SAW Projekt: Single Family Homes under Pressure
- (2014-2017) Iconic architecture and urban governmentality - Discussion process of the case study of Hamburg’s Elbe Philharmonic Hall
- (2014-2017) Focus Project “Suburban Neighbourhoods” – Suburban Neighbourhoods under Conditions of Declining Growth
- (2014-2017) Focus Project “Green Governance” – Governance of Green Infrastructures: Planning Cultures in European Comparison
- (2014-2016) TWIST++ - Transitional paths of water infrastructure systems
- (2013-2017) SFHN – Single Family Housing Neighbourhoods of the Post-War Era
- (2012-2016) COST Action: Urban Allotment Gardens in European Cities – Future Challenges and Lessons Learned
- (2011-2015) RESTORE – Restoring Mineral Sites for Biodiversity, People and the Economy across North West Europe
- (2010-2015) VALUE ADDED (VALUE+)
Socio-spatial inequalities and just urban development
- (2025) PreWoK – Precarious housing and climate protection
- (2024) Hot-spot analysis to identify social inequality in the Karlsruhe city region
- (2024-2026) Sustainable neighbourhood development as a field of action for private housing companies
- (2024-2025) Monitoring on upgrading and displacement (MAV) 2024
- (2024-2025) Lack of public services as an explanation for anti-democratic election successes
- (2023) Unequal Germany 2023
- (2022-2024) Am I in yet? The Impact of Social Media on Integration and Cohesion in the Neighborhood
- (2022-2023) Subsidized Housing in North Rhine-Westphalia: Legal Instruments and Allocation Practices
- (2022-2023) Integrated urban and neighborhood development: expert forum „Wohnen macht Stadt. Wohnungswirtschaft und integrierte Stadterneuerung“
- (2022-2023) Evaluation of subsidized collaborative housing projects
- (2021-2025) ReROOT - Arrival infrastructures as sites of integration for recent newcomers
- (2021-2024) Cohesion³ – Innovative strategies to strengthen public services in new and old villages in the Rhenisch lignite mining area
- (2021-2024) Arrival Infrastructures and Migrant Newcomers in European Cities (AIMEC)
- (2021-2023) Suburbanization of Poverty: New Spatial (De)Concentrations of Low-Income and Poor Households in German Urban Regions
- (2020-2024) Social mixing in neighbourhood and school? The role of parental choice strategies for the development of school segregation
- (2020-2023) MIMY – EMpowerment through liquid Integration of Migrant Youth in vulnerable conditions
- (2020-2021) Urban space research in the vicinity of the Cologne cathedral
- (2020-2021) Unequal North Rhine-Westphalia – Equal Living Conditions for Greater Equity of Opportunity and Strong Future Prospects
- (2020-2021) Unequal Hesse – How can equal living conditions be achieved?
- (2020-2021) Unequal Europe – Tackling Regional Divides Across Europe
- (2018-2021) KoopLab: Integration through the Cooperative Development of Open Spaces – Real-World Labs Strengthening the Socio-Ecological Development of ‘Arrival Neighbourhoods’
- (2018-2021) Creating encounters – Strategies and approaches in social neighbourhood development
- (2018-2020) Focus Project “Arrival Neighbourhoods: Functions of Arrival Spaces for Socio-Spatial Integration”
- (2018-2020) Community work in the social city - development potential between services of general interest, urban development promotion and social work
- (2018-2019) Production of Arrival Neighbourhoods – The Role of Housing Stock and its Dynamics for Socio-Spatial Segregation and Social Cohesion
- (2018-2019) Housing and socio-spatial integration of migrants – allocation policies of housing associations
- (2017-2020) Evaluation of Federal programme „Socially Integrative City programme“ City Centre Mülheim
- (2016-2021) RELOCAL: Resituating the Local in Cohesion and Territorial Development
- (2016-2019) KoSI-Lab - Municipal social innovation labs
- (2016-2018) Social integration within urban neighbourhoods: promoting networking and encounters in disadvantaged areas
- (2016-2018) Evaluation of the project „Refugees and urban redevelopment in Altena“
- (2016-2017) ESPON-Project PROFECY - Processes, Features and Cycles of Inner Peripheries in Europe
- (2015-2017) Focus Project “Multiple Place Ties” – Complex place ties of mobile professionals
- (2015-2016) Successful integration in neighbourhoods
- (2014-2017) Focus Project “Permeability” – Social mixing: permeability and social interaction in socially mixed neighbourhoods
- (2012-2014) ESPON Project - TIPSE: Territorial Indicators of Poverty and Social Exclusion in Europe
Transformation of urban spaces and mobility
- (2025-2026) Stocktacking of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) in North Rhine-Westphalia: status of implementation and need for support in the 27 urban nodes
- (2025-2026) Region-specific land use reports on settlement and transport infrastructure development in North Rhine-Westphalia
- (2024-2025) Private Initiatives in Urban Center Development: New Impulses for Real Estate and Location Communities (ISGs)
- (2024-2025) Preliminary study to evaluate the guideline for promoting connected mobility and mobility management (FöRi-MM)
- (2024-2025) Analysis tools to support and monitor company-related mobility management
- (2023) Sustainable Mobility for the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region
- (2023-2024) Public transportation analysis for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia
- (2022-2025) Research Assistance for the Demonstration Projects of Spatial Planning (MORO) "New Land Claims - Regional Management of Settlement and Open Space Development"
- (2021) Commuting: the transition to more sustainable mobility on the way to work
- (2021-2024) WalkUrban: Walkable Urban Neighbourhoods – Freeing up Potential for Sustainable and Active Travel by Improving Walking and its Connections with Public Transport
- (2021-2024) NaMoLi II – Sustainable mobility in Lincoln II: Implementation of innovative sustainable mobility concepts in new housing districts and conversion areas by the example of the Lincoln neighborhood in Darmstadt
- (2021-2023) Post-Covid living and working arrangements
- (2021-2023) Development of Commercial Rents in City Centers in the Context of the Corona Pandemic
- (2020-2024) Trends and tendencies in settlement development and their effects on the achievement of federal land policy goals
- (2020-2023) Scientific monitoring of the implementation of moobil+ in the districts of Cloppenburg and Vechta
- (2020-2023) Brain Train? High-speed rail stations as focal points of the knowledge economy
- (2020-2021) It's “going” well - making sustainable mobility in Bad Oeynhausen more attractive
- (2019) Cross-border cooperation Netherlands / Germany: "Strategy South"
- (2019-2022) Mobility hubs as intermodal interfaces in the environmental alliance in the Cologne urban region - coordinated implementation, smart equipment, user-oriented communication (MoSt RegioKöln)
- (2019-2022) Active mobility in the city – socioecological determinants of walkability and public health
- (2019-2021) The structural importance of medium-sized cities for maintaining the future viability of rural areas in Baden-Württemberg
- (2019-2021) The opening of rural areas to renew rural generations, jobs and farms (RURALIZATION)
- (2019-2021) Local mobility concept Langenfeld
- (2019-2020) Evaluation of the Project “Sustainable optimization of company mobility in the state administration of North Rhine-Westphalia using the example of the LANUV NRW (NOMO)”
- (2019-2020) Digitisation and E-Commerce: A Curse or a Blessing for Rural Areas?
- (2018-2022) Coming, Leaving and Staying: Migration Processes and Residential Location Decisions from the Perspective of Rural Areas (KoBaLd)
- (2018-2021) Out-of-home mobility and health in old age in the context of vulnerability and resilience in urban areas (amore)
- (2018-2021) Climate Change Impacts on Migration and Urbanization (IMpeTUs)
- (2018-2020) Where are the jobs? Urban spatial structure and subcentering in an international comparison
- (2018-2020) Focus Project “Trends and Drivers of Urban Spatial Development”
- (2018-2020) Focus Project “Mobility and Work”
- (2018-2019) Urban Concept Last Mile
- (2018-2019) Development of rural areas in Baden-Württemberg
- (2017-2021) MobiliSta – Going beyond the Automotive City Paradigm. A Multimodal and Sustainable Transformation Strategy on the Example of the City of Bielefeld
- (2017-2019) RAISE-IT – Rhine-Alpine Integrated and Seamless Travel Chain
- (2017-2019) Evaluation of the initiative mobil gewinnt
- (2016-2018) Mobility Study Cologne/Bonn Region
- (2016-2017) Urban digital production - Interaction forms for the adaptive production systems of the digital economy in agglomerations
- (2015-2020) WORKANDHOME – Reshaping society and space: home-based self-employment and businesses
- (2015-2019) UrbanRural Solutions - Innovations in the regional management of services of general interest through optimal support for urban-rural cooperation
- (2015-2017) Impacts of online trade on traffic and urban development
- (2014-2018) Age-friendly City – Autonomy and Sustainable Mobility in the Context of Climate Change – (autonomMOBIL)
- (2014-2017) Focus Project “New Economic Poles” – New economic poles of the metropolitan economy
- (2014-2017) Focus Project “Accessibility” – The meaning of accessibility in urban neighbourhoods
- (2014-2016) Accessibility in rural areas – developing and evaluating an instrument to review the impact of location development of social infrastructure and shifts in supply of individual and public transport
- (2013-2015) The polycentricity of German metropolitan areas – development of a remote sensing-based approach for measuring morphological polycentricity
- (2013-2015) Societal change and neighbourhood development– A decision-making tool for stakeholders in the residential market
- (2013-2015) Integrated mobility concepts for rural areas considering organisational structures and cooperation
- (2013-2015) E-Bike Dortmund – Potentials of electric bicycles
- (2012-2015) U.Move 2.0 – The spatial and virtual mobility of teenagers and young adults
- (2012-2015) Re-urbanisation in the United States and Germany. A comparative study of driving forces and spatial patterns of re-urbanisation processes in Portland, OR (USA) and Stuttgart (Germany)
