D-BAUG - Departement Bau, Umwelt und Geomatik - ETH Zürich

Key Article ▪ Raum +
in information on temporal availability and potential obstacles
through the activation of available potential areas.
This is the purpose of the Raum+ initiative from the ETH
Zurich Chair for Spatial Development.
Raum+: The methodological approach
The first Raum+ initiative was launched in 2006 as a cooperative
project by six regions of Baden-Württemberg
(with over 400 communities), the Canton of Basel-Landschaft
(with all its cities and communities), the Environment
and Economic Ministries of Baden-Württemberg,
the University of Karlsruhe and ETH Zurich. By its conclusion
in 2008, the project had provided a wealth of experience in
the methodology of surveys and their evaluation.These experiences
were incorporated into the pilot project in the
Canton of Schwyz, which will be reported later in this report.
Raum+ is a problem-oriented project that tests the possibilities
and limits of inter-municipal cooperation.The basis
of the project is made up of problem-oriented and crossborder
overviews of potential settlement areas in inner
cities and suburbs in a form that can be adjusted and
brought up to date. Along with the overview, a resilient and
flexible basis for the discussion and adjustment of the
existing approaches, planning instruments and promotion
mechanisms for sustainable land management
should be created.
The core of the methodological approach of Raum+ is to
make an instrument available to the cities and communities
of the various cantons that will provide an overview of
any potential settlement areas necessary for their cantonal
spatial development, without involving any major effort
1 . In addition, expert consultants are provided to help in
the creation and regular updating of the overviews. This
survey of the community and its follow-up become the
foundation for the generation of overviews of potential
settlement areas for the canton and perhaps in future for
all of Switzerland. An essential element of this activity is an
Internet-based platform that allows information to be gathered
independent of time and place. The access eligibility
for the platform can be decided by the participants and
correspondingly regulated by them. The basis for the
Raum+ approach is built upon the following three fundamental
elements:
� Cooperation and dialogue-oriented: a cooperative approach
based on trust is critical for regional land management.
� Decentralised and updateable: The basis of the Raum+
approach is an Internet-based planning information system
that is decentralised, accessible and updateable.
� Overview and situation evaluation:The Raum+ approach
enables, for the first time, the evaluation of potential
settlement areas by quantity, spatial distribution and
quality, as well as across administrative boundaries.
Raum+ in Canton Schwyz
In 2007, the Canton of Schwyz and the Federal Office for
Spatial Development (ARE) took the initiative to create an
overview of settlement area reserves throughout the can-
34 ▪ D-BAUG Annual Report 2009
ton. A further goal of the initiative was to update the Canton’s
Planning Guide 2006 within the framework of the approval
process and, based on the information gathered, to
make a discussion about the existing building zone reserves
possible. The resulting project, Potential settlement
areas for a spatial development policy of ‘inner development
first’ – Raum+ Schwyz, was conducted by ETH Zurich
in cooperation with ARE as part of the pilot project on sustainable
settlement development. A total of 30 communities
in the Canton of Schwyz participated in the project.
The existing settlement area reserves within the legally
binding building zones of these communities were surveyed
and divided into the following three categories:
� Inner development potential: areas larger than 2,000
m2 within the current settlement area, both built up and
not built up areas.
� Building gaps: ready to build land parcels and classic
building sites with an area between 200 and 2,000 m2,
inside or outside of the current settlement area.
� External reserves: areas larger than 2,000 m2, outside of
the current settlement area that are not built up.
A total of 1,724 potential settlement areas were surveyed in
the Canton of Schwyz with a total surface area of 541 ha. Of
these, more than half are within a current settlement area
and corresponds to an area of 15 m2 per capita (residents
and workers in a spatial unit).Transferred into the survey’s
three categories, about 307 ha have inner development
potential and infill areas that can be placed at the canton’s
disposal.The remainder, about ca. 234 ha, are reserves outside
the current settlement area, but within the legally defined
building zones.
If, for example, the inner development potential and infill
areas were completely consumed in residential areas, a
mid-sized utilisation of 0.4, about a million square meters
of floor space, could be created. This would allow, using a
simplified estimation of 50 m² of floor space per resident,
the addition of about 20,000 residents, i.e., about a 15%
growth of the population. And, this would still conform to
the prerequisites of mobility for the area and maintaining
the living space need per capita at its present level. From
another viewpoint, the areas with inner development potential
and infill areas would also be sufficient to provide
the same number of residents in the Canton of Schwyz
with a growth in living space per resident to 10 m².
Availability of settlement reserves.
Availability of settlement reserves
A central question for inner development is the question of
availability. According to the survey and evaluation, about
30% of the inner development potential can be mobilised
without any obstacles. For the other 70%, there is a minimum
of at least one obstacle to mobilisation, of which, according
to the community representatives, the most common
by far is a lack of owner readiness.
Likewise, about 30% of the infill areas and 46% of the external
reserves do not present obstacles, which means