Smart Plan

Sustainable development through co-creation and visual simulation in land use planning

Contact

Dina Margrethe Aspen
Associate professor
Department of International Business
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Image: Augment City

Objective

The Norwegian government’s “National Expectations regarding Regional and Municipal Planning” outlines essential challenges and priorities to be considered in local plans and strategies, and highlights the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals as a fundamental compass to societal development. The agenda underscores the vital role of local authorities in reaching these objectives through high-quality, knowledge-driven, and inclusive planning processes.

Smart Plan aims to support this mission by developing tools and practices for regional land-use and transportation planning. The project works to create new models, visual interfaces, and collaborative approaches to improve understanding, communication, and decision-making in planning processes.

To achieve this, three elements are developed and integrated:

Knowledge base: Establish architectures, models and workflows to acquire, store, process, analyze and simulate data pertinent to land-use and transportation planning.
Interface: Develop intuitive visual interfaces that supports user learning, interaction, and communication.
Collaborative processes: Develop knowledge on how and when visual decision support tools may be implemented to strengthen participation, collaboration and democracy in planning processes.

Approach

Smart Plan has followed the concurrent development of an interregional plan for climate, land use, and transportation (PAKT) as a case study during the project period. PAKT presents operationalized goals for sustainable development, along with strategies, principles, and guidelines to reach them. Local planners, politicians, and stakeholder groups involved in PAKT have been engaged in Smart Plan activities to achieve a user-centric and agile project design. This in-situ approach has been useful in gaining a deeper understanding of complex planning challenges and facilitated rapid design iterations in the tool development process.

Results

Mobility

Mobility analysis is an essential part of transportation planning. Our mobility model permits analysis, simulation and 4D visualization of traffic in urban and regional transport networks. The model supports assessment of traffic flow, congestion points, and emissions within a transport network, and users may experiment with alternative measures to improve transport system performance. The model builds on MATSim's agent-based transport model, and is integrated in our digital twin environment to support user interaction and interpretation.

Walkability

Walkability is a measure of the pedestrian-friendliness of an area, and an important quality of liveable spaces. Our walkability model permits multi-criteria evaluation of walkability on road links and areas based on user preferences. The model includes variables such as physical characteristics, access to amenities, and safety. The model is implemented in multiple interfaces to support a range of use-cases, from spatial walkability evaluation to optimization of pedestrian routes.