How spatial planning can make an important contribution to a sustainable construction industry – and how to implement it with the help of GIS tools: Sabine Gadocha from the Research Studio iSPACE spoke about this at the 8th symposium “Brennpunkt Alpines Bauen” on 30 September.
On 30 September 2021, the 8th cross-border symposium Brennpunkt Alpines Bauen took place – online for the second time due to the pandemic. The background to the event this year was the two EU projects “The building as a building block of the energy future” and “Green Public Procurement for Building”. The symposium was primarily intended to provide insight into the challenges and opportunities arising from the implementation of the Green Deal. Numerous example projects from the Alpine region were presented in digital spaces.
The RSA FG was represented at the event through the Centre for Alpine Building. In the session “Resource Space and Architecture”, Sabine Gadocha from the Research Studio iSPACE Smart Settlement Systems spoke about how geoinformatics can support sustainable, resource-saving settlement development. Her colleague Daniel Heidenthaler from the Centre for Alpine Building gave a lecture in the session “Resource Energy” on the topic “This is how Salzburg builds – the energy certificate provides insight”.
GIS tools for sustainable settlement development
The topics of soil consumption, urban sprawl and the sealing of surfaces also came more to the fore in the media this year against the background of climate change and weather extremes with heavy rain and heat waves. Sustainable land management can therefore play an important role in climate protection and on the way to a climate-neutral construction industry.
The land management of the future must be economical with remaining reserves and promote the efficient use of already built-up and sealed areas. But for this to happen, the extent and characteristics of the available potential for inner development must be known in the first place. GIS tools make it possible to answer these questions, as Sabine Gadocha explains in her presentation: The tools identify redensification potentials in a standardised way and can also locate them spatially.
The GIS models developed at the Centre for Alpine Construction have a modular structure and can be flexibly combined depending on the question. The GIS methodology can be used to create reliable data and planning bases that can be automated and spatially transferred. These can be used by municipalities, for example, in infrastructure planning, for the simulation of possible development paths or in the monitoring of settlement development.
Sustainable construction at all levels
Together with the other approaches presented in the symposium, the GIS tools presented can help to reduce the ecological footprint of the building sector. While the building sector is working to shift to sustainable materials and renewable energy sources in construction, sustainable spatial and urban development is an equally important factor. This includes not only the reduction of land use, but also social aspects such as affordable housing – for true sustainability at all levels.
