How the mouse gave birth to a mountain – The impact of political service on planning policy and urban sprawl (KU Leuven-Impulsfonds) (2021-2023/2025)

The added value of this collaborative research project will be in the mutual learning between the qualitative analysis of changes in planning policy and legislation and the quantitative assessment of urban sprawl and land take. On the one hand, the project will make clear that urban sprawl and land take are not at all autonomous phenomena but the result of deliberate (changes in) planning policy, in this case initiated by political service. On the other hand, the project will allow to define, constantly monitor, and evaluate the impact of changes in policy on urban sprawl and land take, opening possibilities for ex ante evaluation of changes in planning policy.