Baulandpotenzialanalyse als Instrument zur Umsetzung nachhaltiger Siedlungsentwicklung – das Fallbeispiel Biosphärenpark Wienerwald

Abstract

This paper introduces a land suitability analysis, based on the Dutch “ABC location planning”. Two criteria are applied in this process: Firstly, the accessibility of high-ranking local public transport locations as well as town centres, and secondly, the density of the surrounding urban fabric. The aim of the paper is not only to employ this method as a technical assessment instrument for planners, but to use its transparency and traceability for the purpose of introducing a “mediation and communication tool” into discussion processes at the local level. The underlying case study involved the assessment of the building land reserves of Lower Austrian municipalities belonging to the Biosphere Reserve Wienerwald. These are characterised both by a significant degree of suburbanisation radiating from Vienna, the capital of Austria, and also by the considerable heterogeneity of the settlement structure. The method described not only serves to operationalize the process of sustainability within local spatial planning, but also to make planning processes accessible to larger groups of actors in terms of a governance strategy, thus triggering broader discussion processes at the local level, about when settlement development can be seen as “good” or “bad”.