Metropolitan Conference Zurich has launched its first project as part of its focus area on the consequences of population and economic growth. The goal of the Smart Use project is to ground spatial development “more strongly in the actual behaviour of the population”.
To this end, the platform will take data from open portals such as opendata.swiss or even from Swiss telecommunications provider Swisscom or Google Maps, combine it and present it in a visual form – giving cities, cantons and municipalities a “digital working tool for public spaces”.
According to Metropolitan Conference Zurich, spatial development has long focused on the planning of services. Smart Use, in contrast, now offers a “completely new and promising approach to the development and expression of how we see Industry 4.0 and Politics 4.0,” says Carmen Walker Späh, President of the Government Council of the Canton of Zurich, Vice President of Metropolitan Conference Zurich and President of the Intergovernmental Conference of the Zurich Metropolitan Area.
Smart Use puts people front and centre because it is the “first digital tool for spatial planning that is based on user-generated data”. As project managers Joris Van Wezemael and Markus Schäfer say, it can show “the effective, everyday use of space by the population better than ever”. What’s more, it will help municipalities, cities and cantons make data-based decisions without having to use expensive surveys.
