Abstract
While a lot of progress has been made in Germany to reduce CO2 emissions in the past years in almost all sectors of economy, however, the sector of transportation shows increasing CO2 emissions in the same period of time. Likewise, sustainability objectives of German land use policies have not been met so far, especially with regard of the continuously high rate of greenfield land used up for new housing development. In this paper, it is argued that environmental issues of both sectors have to be addressed by integrating urban housing development and transportation infrastructure planning policies. The paper reports on a stated preferences survey among house buyers in Germany, using a discrete choice approach, where parameters of sustainable urban design and sustainable transport are both integrated into one model. Building on concepts of behavioral economics, preferences are elicited for sub-samples of different “environmental awareness”. Results show differences in tastes for higher building densities to reduce land consumption as well as differences in tastes for transport infrastructure development and frequency of public transport parameters. In addition, a decision support system is developed to analyze the impact of individual parameters on choosing one alternative over the other. Form this, conclusions on potential market shares for sustainable housing and transport development are drawn and recommendations are given to implement integrated urban design and transportation infrastructure policies.
Highlights
Urban and transportation planning can be considered as the result of both administrative and functional logics of land use [1]
The paper reports on a stated preferences survey among house buyers in Germany, using a discrete choice approach, where parameters of sustainable urban design and sustainable transport are both integrated into one model
This finding indicates a high potential for significant resource savings: for example, higher building densities with row and apartment houses instead of single-family homes or duplex/semi-detached houses would reduce the present amount of land consumption for new housing developments in Germany by approximately 50% [13]
Summary
Urban and transportation planning can be considered as the result of both administrative and functional logics of land use [1]. While the German government has targeted a limit of 30 ha of greenfield land used up for new housing development and transport infrastructure per day, this number was as high as 73 ha/day in 2015 [3] This is mainly attributed to the dominant lifestyle model in housing development in Germany, where studies suggest that almost 80% of all young Germans aspire to a life in a single family home or duplex/semi-detached houses with own gardens and associated low building densities [4]. Typical site developments in Germany usually are characterized by providing car-oriented infrastructure, i.e. streets and car parking to improve access of buildings by means of individual transport. This adds to using up even more greenfield land with regard to housing development.
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