Project Description
In the course of continuing megatrends such as globalization and urbanization, the spatial structures in Germany and Europe are changing. One of the developments to be observed is the emergence of so-called metropolitan regions. These offer enormous potential for work and employment, are important locations for science and research and act as hubs for trade, transport, and information. Therefore, metropolitan regions are attributed to play a central driving role in the economic, social and cultural development of Europe. In order to maintain this function, municipalities have to ensure that innovative companies are settled within the region. In contrast, companies pursue the goal of an economically advantageous choice of location at the (metropolitan-) regional level. However, existing planning models for site selection currently only support companies on a global level and are not suited for an operational site planning at regional level in metropolitan regions.
Therefore, the aim of the project, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), is to develop an evaluation and decision-making model for regional location planning, taking into account dynamic location requirements as well as corporate and municipal development measures. In the future, the developed decision model should support companies in the regional location selection in metropolitan regions as well as municipalities in the development of location factors and the design of their location.
For main results of expert interviews and online surveys in this research project please refer to the brochure "Betriebliche Standortplanung und -entwicklung in Metropolregionen – Ergebnisse empirischer Unternehmens- und Kommunenbefragungen" (pdf, in German only).
Responsible
- David Kik
Project Partners
- Cooperation partners
- Industrial companies, municipalities and economic promoters
- Affiliated partners
- Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute for Automotive Industry and Industrial Production
- Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institute for Factory Facilities and Logistics
Initial Situation and Problem
Both companies and society are faced with increasing urbanization in the coming years. It is estimated that around 60% of the world’s population will live in cities in 2030 and up to 70% in 2050. In the course of ongoing urbanization, social structures in the heavily populated cities of a metropolitan region will increasingly differ from the sparsely populated, rural parts of a metropolitan region. Amongst other things, differences result from this development, especially concerning aspects like infrastructure and training structure. In addition, free areas to be built in fast-growing, densely populated urban areas are strongly limited and, therefore, there is a permanent lack of space, whereas in rural areas „Greenfield“ planning processes can take place. As a result, companies will have to deal more intensively with the question, at which location in a metropolitan region their factory can be located usefully in the future. However, existing site selection planning models currently only support the site selection on a global level and cannot be used for the site selection on a regional level.
In the run-up of the interdisciplinary preliminary study "PreMetroPlant", the metropolitan region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg was considered. To create a first empirical knowledge base in the context of regional site planning, the following aspects were analyzed:
- existing factory, site and network types
- spatial structural differences
- motives for relocation as well as decision-relevant location factors from the company’s point of view and possibilities for influencing location factors from the municipality’s point of view
The results reflect the state of the art in research and are based on the opinions of representatives of companies and municipalities, which were collected through surveys and bilateral interviews. On this basis a DFG research proposal was submitted and approved for the development of a planning approach for the operational location selection in metropolitan regions.
Objective and Approach
The core objective of the DFG research project "MetroPlant" is the research of an integrated planning approach for operational regional location planning in metropolitan regions, which has to take into account dynamic influencing factors such as municipal development measures and company-related measures allocation to improve location quality in the form of an evaluation and decision model. In addition to providing decision support for companies, the model is intended to show how policymakers can influence the development of a metropolitan region in a targeted manner with incentive models and support concepts for companies. The aim is to find answers regarding the following five research questions.
- What kind of dependencies exist between quantitative and qualitative regional location factors?
- Which generic development measures exist for companies and municipalities to develop regional location factors and how do these affect the regional location factors?
- How can location alternatives be evaluated on the basis of quantitative and qualitative regional location factors?
- How can a planning approach for the location selection be designed, taking into account uncertain local municipality-driven location developments and company development opportunities with integrated allocation of measures?
- Which potential does the developed planning approach have for site decisions?
In order to answer these research questions and to achieve the overall project goal, the Institute for Automotive Management and Industrial Production (AIP) of the Technische Universität Braunschweig cooperates with the Institute for Factory Facilities and Logistics (IFA) of the Leibniz Universität Hannover.