Who drives urban densification? Linking landownership and spatial dynamics

Cities worldwide have developed policies to promote and control urban densification. However, a high proportion of densification takes place without the purview of strategic planning. It is driven by individual landowners, who hold a strong position in deciding if land is developed or not. Despite...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Denise Ehrhardt, Felicitas Sommer, Mouhamadou Ndim, Juste Raimbault, Thomas Hartmann, Mathias Jehling
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: oekom verlag GmbH 2025-02-01
Series:Raumforschung und Raumordnung
Subjects:
Online Access:https://rur.oekom.de/index.php/rur/article/view/2977
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850022912599261184
author Denise Ehrhardt
Felicitas Sommer
Mouhamadou Ndim
Juste Raimbault
Thomas Hartmann
Mathias Jehling
author_facet Denise Ehrhardt
Felicitas Sommer
Mouhamadou Ndim
Juste Raimbault
Thomas Hartmann
Mathias Jehling
author_sort Denise Ehrhardt
collection DOAJ
description Cities worldwide have developed policies to promote and control urban densification. However, a high proportion of densification takes place without the purview of strategic planning. It is driven by individual landowners, who hold a strong position in deciding if land is developed or not. Despite their pivotal role, knowledge on landowner involvement is highly restricted by limited access to landowner data. We address this gap and make use of a unique dataset, available for the city of Dortmund, including landowner data for each parcel in 2011 and 2021. Using a geospatial approach, we identify six forms of densification, ranging from large-scale multi-family housing development to small-scale densification with low-density housing, and provide for the first time a systematic analysis of the involvement of private individuals, private companies and the municipality in these processes. The results show that private individuals play an important role in small-scale densification, which accounts for a third of all densification in Dortmund and takes place mainly in suburban areas. Further, we show that each densification type is associated with a distinct pattern of landownership and change of landownership over time. Our findings highlight the need for customised land policy approaches that can address private landowners’ interests, in order to facilitate and direct densification processes.
format Article
id doaj-art-dc15abf6b49147a6bb7546d5dd6af2f4
institution DOAJ
issn 0034-0111
1869-4179
language deu
publishDate 2025-02-01
publisher oekom verlag GmbH
record_format Article
series Raumforschung und Raumordnung
spelling doaj-art-dc15abf6b49147a6bb7546d5dd6af2f42025-08-20T03:01:31Zdeuoekom verlag GmbHRaumforschung und Raumordnung0034-01111869-41792025-02-0110.14512/rur.2977Who drives urban densification? Linking landownership and spatial dynamicsDenise Ehrhardt0Felicitas Sommer1Mouhamadou Ndim 2Juste Raimbault3Thomas Hartmann4Mathias Jehling5Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development Technical University of Munich Université Gustave Eiffel - IGN/ENSG Université Gustave Eiffel - IGN/ENSGTU Dortmund UniversityLeibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development Cities worldwide have developed policies to promote and control urban densification. However, a high proportion of densification takes place without the purview of strategic planning. It is driven by individual landowners, who hold a strong position in deciding if land is developed or not. Despite their pivotal role, knowledge on landowner involvement is highly restricted by limited access to landowner data. We address this gap and make use of a unique dataset, available for the city of Dortmund, including landowner data for each parcel in 2011 and 2021. Using a geospatial approach, we identify six forms of densification, ranging from large-scale multi-family housing development to small-scale densification with low-density housing, and provide for the first time a systematic analysis of the involvement of private individuals, private companies and the municipality in these processes. The results show that private individuals play an important role in small-scale densification, which accounts for a third of all densification in Dortmund and takes place mainly in suburban areas. Further, we show that each densification type is associated with a distinct pattern of landownership and change of landownership over time. Our findings highlight the need for customised land policy approaches that can address private landowners’ interests, in order to facilitate and direct densification processes. https://rur.oekom.de/index.php/rur/article/view/2977Urban densificationInfill developmentLandowner Geospatial analysisLand policyDortmund
spellingShingle Denise Ehrhardt
Felicitas Sommer
Mouhamadou Ndim
Juste Raimbault
Thomas Hartmann
Mathias Jehling
Who drives urban densification? Linking landownership and spatial dynamics
Raumforschung und Raumordnung
Urban densification
Infill development
Landowner
Geospatial analysis
Land policy
Dortmund
title Who drives urban densification? Linking landownership and spatial dynamics
title_full Who drives urban densification? Linking landownership and spatial dynamics
title_fullStr Who drives urban densification? Linking landownership and spatial dynamics
title_full_unstemmed Who drives urban densification? Linking landownership and spatial dynamics
title_short Who drives urban densification? Linking landownership and spatial dynamics
title_sort who drives urban densification linking landownership and spatial dynamics
topic Urban densification
Infill development
Landowner
Geospatial analysis
Land policy
Dortmund
url https://rur.oekom.de/index.php/rur/article/view/2977
work_keys_str_mv AT deniseehrhardt whodrivesurbandensificationlinkinglandownershipandspatialdynamics
AT felicitassommer whodrivesurbandensificationlinkinglandownershipandspatialdynamics
AT mouhamadoundim whodrivesurbandensificationlinkinglandownershipandspatialdynamics
AT justeraimbault whodrivesurbandensificationlinkinglandownershipandspatialdynamics
AT thomashartmann whodrivesurbandensificationlinkinglandownershipandspatialdynamics
AT mathiasjehling whodrivesurbandensificationlinkinglandownershipandspatialdynamics