Digital plan data – research perspectives in plan practice and evaluation?

Since 2006, all legal spatial plans in Denmark are registered in a national, digital and open database. It includes data and metadata on e.g. 34,000 currently effective local development plans and over 50,000 municipal plan zones. The database is part of the general digitalization strategy of the public sector in Denmark, fueled by ideas on efficiency, data economy and open governance. Similar digitalization efforts are taking place in other Nordic countries. Research using this new kind of new data or about its practical use is rare, mainly focusing on judicial or technical questions. Digital plans represent a new transdisciplinary type of intentionally explicit data source for analysis of land change processes. Discussions on efficiency, conformance-based evaluation or planning design practices across a country could benefit from insights from such data. Based on a recent collaboration with the Danish Planning Authority and an ongoing Nordic workshop series, I will discuss research perspectives as well as critical questions regarding the potential influence of the digitalization of plan data on future planning and policy making.