The key focus of this research cluster is to contribute to international and national debates surrounding land-use change and the regulation and management of environmental and spatial change through the spatial planning process. The cluster is interdisciplinary in nature with a wide variety of theoretical approaches, involving academics with a background in urban geography, sociology, regional and urban planning, rural development, transport planning, surveying and urban economics, and environmental economics. The cluster is committed to communicating the fruits of its research to the policy community and wider society, thus contributing to evidence-based policy-making. To this end, the cluster has well developed links and engagement with the policy community including central and local government, NGOs, and civil society.

The priority thematic areas of this group are as follows:

• Urban and regional development: investigating the evolving urban environment within the context of national economic competitiveness and regional economic development, sustainable land-use and transport relationships, urban form and sustainable cities, and analysis of the role of market processes and regulation in shaping the urban environment.

• Urban regeneration and governance: exploring the role of governance in shaping cities and regions including the role of urban politics, participatory planning and new governance arrangements for urban development.

• Rural spatial planning: including analysis of rural spatial change and new demands for rural space, the impact of spatial planning and related public policy on rural areas, and rural housing debates.
• Policy instruments and evaluation: examining the range of policy instruments for managing urban and rural change.
• Technology in planning: including GIS-based decision support systems, spatial data infrastructure, ICT and sustainable urban development.

Representative Research Projects:

Urban Environment Project (EPA Funded)

ACRE: Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions within the Enlarged Union, (EUFP6 Funded)

Civil Society, Environmental Change and Contested Rurality, (Royal Irish Academy Funded) 

Participation, Citizen Capacity and the Regeneration of Social Housing (Royal Irish Academy, Urban Institute Ireland, Centre for Housing Research) 

Staff:

Key:

GPEP, School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Policy   

BES, School of Biology and Environmental Science

ECON, School of Economics

Cluster Leader: Prof. Zorica Nedovic-Budic