Welcome to the Urban Development Group (STE)

Urbanization is a key factor of global change. In research and teaching, we are interested in the processes of urban and regional development, their demographic and socio-economic drivers as well as their spatial manifestations and impacts. This includes the complex and intertwined dynamics of land use, infrastructure systems and mobility. Our research projects also address the performance of transformative planning in local and urban-regional policy arenas. Prof. Dr Stefan Siedentop's (head of department) research focuses on the dynamics and structures of urban change, the strategies and instruments of transformative urban-regional planning and methods of urban spatial observation. Prof. Dr. Joachim Scheiner researches transport behaviour, everyday mobility, residential mobility and the interrelationships between spatial structure and transport.

Latest News

Proposals for the further development of the light rail system in the Ruhr area

07/24/2025

Patrick Voss, a graduate of the Faculty of Spatial Planning, has submitted proposals for the further development of the light rail system in the Ruhr area in his master's thesis. A summary of this thesis has now been published in the ‘STE Working Papers’ series. The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which additional, previously undeveloped residential areas could be connected to an efficient light rail system. To this end, the Ruhr region was subjected to a regional geodata analysis, which defined and located areas with light rail potential and compared them with the current light rail accessibility. It was found that the light rail networks in the Ruhr region currently cover only a small part of the light rail potential. There are large gaps in coverage, particularly at municipal boundaries. With appropriate expansion of the networks, more than half a million people could be provided with additional rail-based public transport services.

Link to working paper

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