Projects

Land ownership transparency – a comparison of seven countries (2023-2024)   
The project, financed by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) and initiated by the German Ministry for Housing, Urban Planning and Building, focuses on land market transparency in terms of ownership transparency. Ownership data forms an important basis for a sustainable and planned management of the resource soil, but the availability, quality and transparency of the data is often inadequate. This project, led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Hartmann, examines the causes and consequences of varying degrees of data availability and the associated transparency, particularly regarding ownership structures, in an international comparison. The investigation aims to enable a comparative perspective and structured reflection.

LAND4FLOOD Conference 2023 
The International Water Resources Association (IWRA) Task Force Land4Flood Network held a Land4Flood conference in Dortmund, Germany, from September 27 to 29, 2023. Hosted by the “Land policy and land management" research group, part of the Department of Spatial Planning at the TU Dortmund University, the conference invites contributions by experienced academics, young researchers and practitioners related to the theme of "land for flood risk management and resilience."

GoverDENSE – Governing densification. The impact of performance-based planning on qualitative urban densification (2020-2024)
The proj­ect is led by Bern Uni­ver­sity (CH) and deals with the land governance of urban densification. In cooperation with the IÖR Dresden, case studies from the Netherlands and Switzerland are compared with regards to land policy and legal aspects combined with GIS methods. The proj­ect with 3 PhDs, co-supervised by Thomas Hartmann, and one PostDoc position, has a budget of 670,000 Euro.

Horizon2020 SUMEX – SUstainable Management in EXtractive Industries (2020-2023)
The main mission of SUMEX is to assist policymakers and other stakeholders in extractive industries to provide a sustainable supply of mineral raw materials. Thomas Hartmann was mainly responsible for identifying effective, efficient, legitimate, and just land policy strategies for this highly location-dependent land use. He is responsible for a budget share of 140,000 Euro.

Managing Public Space (2020-2025)
Based on two earlier studies and on funding from a con­sor­tium of professional partners, the dedicated re­search programme on "managing public space" in­clu­des an associate professor and a PhD student. The total volume is approximately 1.4 million Euro. The project managed by Thomas Hartmann covers 750,000 Euro.

NWO GROEN III SPLENDID - Spatial Planning for Environmentally Diverse circular Development (2020-2024)
The proj­ect "Spatial PLanning for ENvironmentally DIverse circular Development" (SPLENDID) provides policy makers with a methodology to assess the spatial implications of implementing circular agricultural practices. It explores a reorganization of the land use patterns. Thomas Hartmann cov­ers the topic of instruments and strategies of land policies to achieve this. The project budget is 1,240,000 Euro.

ARL proj­ect on „Land Policies in Europe” (2019)
The Academy for Spatial Planning and Research (ARL) supports an in­ter­na­tio­nal working group on land policy. Thomas Hartmann initiates and leads this proj­ect together with An­dre­as Hengstermann, Bern Uni­ver­sity. The ARL provides approximately 40,000 Euro.

MaPS – Towards an educational programme for Managing Public Space (2019)
This proj­ect explores educational needs and potentials of an academic educational programme for managing public space. This pre-study for a larger project is budgeted at 32,500 Euro.

AESOP thematic group activity “Teaching Planning Law” (2019)
Thomas Hartmann participates in the AESOP thematic group on teaching about planning law and property rights. AESOP supported this proj­ect with 1,500 Euro.

AESOP Lecture “50 years spatial planning in the Netherlands” (2019)
Within the AESOP lecture series, Thomas Hartmann or­ga­nized a lecture by Barrie Needham with a co-presentation by Eveline van Leeuwen and a symposium. AESOP supports this lecture with 2.000 Euro.

COST Action Public Value Capture of Increasing Property Values (2018-2022)
The main aim of this COST Action is the development of a common frame­work for value capturing and the provision of in­no­va­ti­ve tools for public value capture based on comparative analysis to optimize the allocation of development costs and benefits. Thomas Hartmann was a member of the Management Committee.

COST Action LAND4FLOOD (2017-2021)     
The COST network LAND4FLOOD with partners from more than 30 coun­tries addresses “Natural Flood Risk Management on Private Land” and was initiated together with colleagues from JEP Uni­ver­sity in Ustí nad Labem, CZ; Thomas Hartmann is Vice-Action Chair. The total budget is approximately 650-750,000 Euro.

STRIMA II – Sächsisch-Tschechisches Hochwasserrisikomanagement (2017-2020)  
This proj­ect focuses on collaboration between Saxonian and Czech flood risk management. Thomas Hartmann is involved with a budget of approximately 21,000 Euro.

JPI URBAN EUROPE: FLOOLABEL (2017-2020)   
The central aim of the FLOODLABEL proj­ect is to improve resilience and adaptive capacity of cities in a smart manner to sustain urban living in Europe. Thomas Hartmann co-initiated the proj­ect with a total volume of approximately 800,000 Euro.

NWO SURF Pop-Up Project: Grond voor Wonen (2017-2018)
This proj­ect explores land policy of Dutch municipalities, in­clu­ding a nation-wide survey. The project budget is 50,000 Euro.

INHaLE seed money (2017-2018)       
This proj­ect focuses on risk perception towards natural hazards, and (in)action and decision-making. The seed money entails 5,000 Euro.

FUTURE DELTAS: FLOOD-PREP (2017-2018)      
This seed money proj­ect explores resilience of historic inner-city areas. An in­ter­na­tio­nal workshop and a special issue are core activities. The project volume is approximately 15,000 Euro.

LANDac II (2016-2018)         
The LANDacademy (LANDac) deals with the link of "Land Governance" and sustainable spatial development. Thomas Hartmann organizes special sessions, leading to a special issue in Land Use Policy and a book proj­ect on "Property Rights and Climate Change". LANDac is financed by the Dutch Cadastre and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Thomas Hartmann is involved with a budget of 80,000 Euro (total budget: 2 million Euro).

FUTURE DELTAS: FLOODLAND (2016-2017)        
In this seed-money proj­ect, Thomas Hartmann or­ga­nized a workshop of the con­sor­tium FLOODLAND in Utrecht in April 2016, where a book proj­ect was prepared and a Horizon 2020 proj­ect proposal was prepared on Land for Flood Risk Management. The seed money was 15,000 Euro.

Cost Action INOGOV (2015-2018)      
Within the COST network "Innovations in Climate Governance" Thomas Hartmann was part of the management committee (Dutch substitute).

International competencies in one-year master's programmes (2015-2017)     
The aim of the proj­ect is the internationalization of one-year master's programmes at Utrecht Uni­ver­sity. Thomas Hartmann represents the case study on the MSc Spatial Planning. The project has an overall volume of 250,000 Euro, with a budget of 20,000 Euro for spatial planning.

HKC proj­ect: Akzeptanz von Auenretention (2015-2017)         
In the proj­ect Thomas Hartmann is developing com­mu­ni­cation strategies to increase the acceptance of retention measures in collaboration with the German Flood Competence Center in (HKC) and the German water authority Lippeverband (EGLV). This project is linked to a master's thesis and comprises 6,000 Euro.

CrossFLOOD (2014-2017)       
CrossFLOOD is a proj­ect in the EUPRO II re­search program financed by the Czech Ministry of Education. Thomas Hartmann and Prof Jiřina Jílková, JEP Uni­ver­sity in Ústí nad Labem, CZ initiated this proj­ect with a budget of 100,000 Euro.

AESOP Congress “From Control to Co-evolution” (completed in 2014)         
Thomas Hartmann was the main organizer of the Congress of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) 2014 in Utrecht. Almost 1,000 abstracts were submitted and about 800 in­ter­na­tio­nal academics participated in the event. The project had a total volume of 240,000 Euro.

ARL Summer School “Sustainable Governance of  Land and Water” (completed in 2013)
The PhD Summer School was financed by the German Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning (ARL). Thomas Hartmann or­ga­nized the event with a total budget of 12,000 Euro. The results are an IWRA Webinar and Policy Brief, a Special Issue (Water International) and a book publication (Routledge).

HKC proj­ect: Hochwasserpass (2012-2022)
In collaboration with the German Insurance Association (GDV) and the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA), the German Flood Competence Center (HKC) is developing a flood label for buildings. It inspired the JPI Urban Europe proj­ect FLOODLABEL The GDV finances the project with a volume of 100,000 Euro.

Conference “Planning, Law, and Property Rights” (completed in 2010)          
About 125 in­ter­na­tio­nal academics participated in the 2010 annual con­fe­rence of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law and Property Rights (PLPR) at TU Dort­mund. Thomas Hartmann was one of the main organizers. The total budget amounted to 25,000 Euro.