Track 07 TECHNOLOGY AND METHODS

Track chairs: Michele Campagna, Binyu Lei, Tiernan FitzLarkin 

Methods and technologies supporting spatial planning have constantly evolved alongside the discipline. Today, established planning methods are increasingly used in tandem with novel digital and computational approaches, offering new opportunities to address emerging problems and support transformative action. In particular, rapidly developing technologies digital technologies and computational approaches, such as AI, urban data science, geospatial technologies, and digital twins, are creating new opportunities for planning. These innovations may can contribute to the transition towards greener, inclusive and low-carbon cities by enhancing our understanding of urban and territorial dynamics, enabling the analysis and modelling of complex spatial processes, supporting the development and assessment of alternative scenarios, improving evidence-informed decision-making, and engaging stakeholders more effectively.
However, technological innovation is not an end in itself. Its contribution to planning depends on the conceptual and methodological frameworks within which technologies are developed and applied, as well as on their capacity to address substantive planning challenges. 

Technological advancements also raise important concerns regarding data quality and uncertainty, transparency and explainability, privacy, digital inequalities and algorithmic bias, requiring planners to balance their potential benefits against their limitations and risks.

This track aims to foster dialogue on the role of methods and technologies in supporting the decarbonisation and greening of cities and communities, and more generally to explore their integration into planning research and practice. Particular attention is given to their role in understanding urban and territorial systems, developing and assessing alternative futures, and supporting planning, design and decision-making processes. 

Participants are encouraged to present new perspectives, share best practices, and contribute theoretical, methodological or empirical studies critically examining how established and emerging methods and technologies are transforming spatial planning.

Keywords: Planning methods and technologies; urban data science and analytics; AI, GIS and GeoAI; Planning Support Systems (PSS); geodesign; spatial analysis and modelling; urban data science and analytics; digital twins; immersive (AR/VR) and game-based technologies; computational planning and urbanism.