Sustainable Land Use and Mobility.

We envision a society where living, working and recreation are in balance. Places where sufficient attention is paid to livability, safety and accessibility of facilities.

Today's complex spatial problems are too often approached from domain-specific perspectives in both research and policy. Thinking in pigeon­holes produces half-hearted solutions and leads to new challenges in the same or other domains.

As a research center we resolutely opt for social relevance and impact by studying interdisciplinary land use in urban, suburban and rural environments. DRUM distinguishes itself from other Flemish research centers by looking at societal challenges in a practice-oriented way and from different domains of expertise simultaneously.

There are three areas of expertise, which are combined in our research projects:

• the organization and allocation of (urban) space; land use evolutions in relation to land take policies;
• affordable and quality housing;
• sustainable and shared mobility and accessibility.

Preferential housing choices at the local level, or mobility policies at the regional level, have a strong influence on property prices. A high-quality residential neighbourhood makes demands on the accessibility of facilities, and new forms of shared and digital mobility also have an effect on the use of space. These important relationships are too often neglected in Flanders. The knowledge about them and the tools to analyse or quantify them are limited and hardly applicable.

Practice-oriented research into the complex interrelationships between the fields is the raison d'être of our research center.

Advice and services.

Consult us for advice or training on:

• The ‘no net land take policy’ (betonstop or bouwshift in Dutch) in Flanders and across Europe. By combining GIS analyses with real estate valuation, we offer insights on the specificities of the betonstop policy across municipalities and regions in Flanders;

• Advice on how shared mobility can be integrated in local policy plans;

• Real estate valuations.