The Use of Big Data in Regenerative Planning

Dorota Kamrowska-Zaluska,Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska

doi:10.3390/su10103668

Dorota Kamrowska-Zaluska, Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su10103668

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Oct 13, 2018
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Gdańsk University of Technology

Abstract

With the increasing significance of Big Data sources and their reliability for studying current urban development processes, new possibilities have appeared for analyzing the urban planning of contemporary cities. At the same time, the new urban development paradigm related to regenerative sustainability requires a new approach and hence a better understanding of the processes changing cities today, which will allow more efficient solutions to be designed and implemented. It results in the need to search for tools which will allow more advanced analyses while assessing the planning projects supporting regenerative development. Therefore, in this paper, the authors study the role of Big Data retrieved from sensor systems, social media, GPS, institutional data, or customer and transaction records. The study includes an enquiry into how Big Data relates to the ecosystem and to human activities, in supporting the development of regenerative human settlements. The aim of the study is to assess the possibilities created by Big Data-based tools in supporting regenerative design and planning and the role they can play in urban projects. In order to do this, frameworks allowing for the assessment of planning projects were analyzed according to their potential to support a regenerative approach. This has been followed by an analysis of the accessibility and reliability of the data sources. Finally, Big Data-based projects were mapped upon aspects of regenerative planning according to the introduced framework.

Highlights

The world is changing and technology influences the development of cities in many areas
With rapidly developing new technologies and instruments based on Big Data, a large amount of information concerning social, economic, and spatial data is being collected in smart cities, including both the public realm and buildings [1], allowing a more accurate analysis of the processes shaping contemporary urban environments
As pointed out by Erickson, Hancke&Hancke, and Zanella, the conducted study confirms that there are already multiple systems based on Big Data for capturing and monitoring human-ecosystem relations in urban space [8,9,65]; their range is often sectoral

Summary

Introduction

The world is changing and technology influences the development of cities in many areas. With rapidly developing new technologies and instruments based on Big Data, a large amount of information concerning social, economic, and spatial data is being collected in smart cities, including both the public realm and buildings [1], allowing a more accurate analysis of the processes shaping contemporary urban environments. With the increasing functional and virtual connectivity of urban space, as well as the growing knowledge of the causes of climate change, numerous communities are adopting various smart and innovative solutions to strengthen the sustainability and resilience of cities [5]. Smart built environments already have multiple systems for capturing and monitoring data about human-ecosystem relations [8,9], such as mobility, environmental conditions, energy usage and efficiency, service quality, health, etc., these systems are too often not integrated with one another [10]. There is a need to move from a narrow focus on building energy performance, mitigation strategies, and the minimization of environmental impacts, to a broader framework that enriches places, people, ecology, culture, and climate at the core of the restorative design call [13,14]

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