Spiekermann & Wegener Urban and Regional Research (S&W) is a research-oriented consulting firm established in 2001.
Objective
The objective of S&W is innovative and policy-relevant research for spatial planning at the urban, regional, national and European level as a contribution to the promotion of sustainable and equitable spatial structures.
Research fields
Primary research fields of S&W are structural spatial change at the urban, regional, natioal and European level, the interaction between transport, land use and environment, sustainable spatial structures and European spatial development.
In their projects S&W apply state-of-the-art methods of spatial analysis and simulation, geographic information systems and advanced visualisation techniques.
Recent developments in the work of S&W include activity-based microsimulation of urban land use, transport and environment and the simulation of socio-economic and spatial impacts of European transport networks.
Persons
Partners of S&W are Dr.-Ing. Klaus Spiekermann, Professor Dr.-Ing. Michael Wegener and Dr.-Ing. Björn Schwarze. Klaus Spiekermann worked until 2001 at the Institute of Spatial Planning of the University of Dortmund (IRPUD). Michael Wegener was until his retirement in 2003 Executive Director of IRPUD. Björn Schwarze worked until 2011 at the Faculty of Spatial Planning of TU Dortmund University.
Projects
S&W have worked on numerous research projects for regional and national authorities in Germany and abroad and for the European Commission in its Research and Technology Development (RTD) Framework Programme and for its General Directorates for Regional Policy (REGIO) and Mobility and Transport (MOVE) and in the European Spatial Observation Network (ESPON). The themes of the projects range from disaggregate studies on urban household formation, household and firm location choice, accessibility and mobility in urban areas to large-scale analyses of accessibility, regional economic development, spatial cohesion and polycentricity in Europe. A full list of projects with project summaries and downloads is available in the Projects section.
Publications
A list of publications and downloadable journal papers and conference presentations by the partners of S&W is contained in the Publications section.
