Sustainable urban development

This form of development encompasses all legal, planning and financial instruments that serve to constrain the consumption of the limited resource land by urban expansion, thereby preserving undeveloped open space. Fundamentally, this represents a rejection of the philosophy of growth in the planning and building sectors as well as a reorientation of steering instruments for land and property towards the care and maintenance of existing housing stock. The intention is to foster sustainable development that is ecological, efficient and socially sensitive.

Sustainable urban development can be supported by the following measures:

  • space-saving construction,
  • infill development rather than expansion, meaning that the current potential in settlements should be better exploited by densification, the enhancement of green and open spaces as well as the refurbishment of town centre areas,
  • development of wasteland,
  • cost transparency and "polluter pays" assignment of costs when new land is designated for construction or for transport facilities,
  • communal spatial planning as a basic strategy of cities and municipalities in order to manage resources as efficiently as possible.