Projects
Project acquisition is not an end in itself. Its serves to advance research, stimulate publications and, in particular, promote PhD students and young academics. The promotion of young academics on the subject of land policy is the core of the research activities at the chair. This field of research can only develop further through continuous support for young academics. Publications, project acquisition and doctoral funding are mutually dependent. Therefore, project acquisition serves to support PhD students, either through direct funding for doctoral students or through indirect funding for empirical work and networking.
Ongoing Projects
DOKORP conference 2025 “Planning in times of multiple crises"
The Dortmund Conference on Spatial and Planning Research is jointly organized by the Department of Spatial Planning at TU Dortmund University, the Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association, Hanover (ARL) and the Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (ILS), Dortmund. 10.-12.02.2025 about 300 academics meet in Dortmund to discuss ongoing topics. The conference includes a special PhD Workshop.
#ALBATROSS – Advancing knowledge for Long-term Benefits and climate Adaptation ThRough hOlistic climate Services and nature-based Solutions, Horizon mission (2024-2027)
The EU-funded ALBATROSS project aims to accelerate climate adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa by pioneering innovative and sustainable adaptation strategies based on nature-based solutions and grounded in actionable climate information. Thomas Hartmann is part of the team of TU Dortmund.
LAND4CLIMATE – Utilization of private land for mainstreaming nature-based solution in the systemic trans-formation towards a climate-resilient Europe, Horizon Mission (2023-2027)
LAND4CLIMATE - "Utilization of private land for mainstreaming nature-based solution in the systemic transformation towards a climate-resilient Europe" - is a mission in the European Horizon Programme (HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01-06); the project has a budget around 13 million Euro. The project is led by Stefan Greiving and Thomas Hartmann.
SUBDENSE - Understanding polyrationalities of space, actors, and policies on suburban densification (2023-2025)
The project will investigate will examine how various land policy methods interact with the interests and agency of local stakeholders and landowners to shape suburban densification and its effects on suburbia across various planning regimes. The consortium with partners from the UK (University of Liverpool), France (National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information) and Germany (IÖR Dresden and TU Dortmund) will combine spatial analyses with socio-anthropological approaches under the leadership of Thomas Hartmann. Several PostDocs and PhD students are being recruited for this.
Form follows policy – Tracing the effects of sustainable land policies on urban form (2023-2025)
This project is led by Mathias Jehling, IÖR Dresden. It is the aim of this research to investigate causal relationships between urban form and practices of land policy. An empirical approach is developed and validated that innovatively integrates the fields of data-driven urban analysis with a neo-institutional conceptual framework. One PhD will work on the project, who is supervised by Thomas Hartmann.
Concluded Projects
Land ownership transparency – a comparison of seven countries (2023-2024)
The project, financed by the BBSR and initiated by the German Ministry for Housing, Urban Planning and Building, focused on land market transparency in terms of ownership transparency. This forms an important basis for a sustainable and planned management of the soil resource. However, the availability, quality, and transparency of the data are often inadequate. The project examined the causes and consequences of varying degrees of data availability and the associated transparency, particularly regarding ownership structures in an international comparison. The investigation, using an international approach, aimed to enable a comparative perspective and structured reflection. Thomas Hartmann led the project.
LAND4FLOOD Conference 2023
The IWRA Task Force Land4Flood Network held 2023's Land4Flood conference in Dortmund, Germany, from September 27 to 29. The conference was hosted by the “Land policy and land management" research group, part of the Department of Spatial Planning at the TU Dortmund University.
The conference theme was "land for flood risk management and resilience." See more information on the conference website.
GoverDENSE – Governing densification. The impact of performance-based planning on qualitative urban densification (2020-2024)
The project was led by Bern University (CH) and dealt with the land governance of urban densification. In cooperation with the IÖR Dresden, case studies from the Netherlands and Switzerland were compared. Here, land policy and legal aspects were combined with GIS methods. The project entailed 3 PhDs and one PostDoc. Thomas Hartmann co-supervised PhDs.
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 to identify effective, efficient, legitimate, and just land policy strategies for this highly location-dependent land use.
Managing Public Space (2020-2025)
Based on two earlier studies, and on funding from a consortium of professional partners a dedicated research programme on "managing public space", including an extraordinary professor and a PhD, will be established. The total volume of the project is approximately 1.4 million 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 initiated and leads this project together with Andreas Hengstermann, Bern University.
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.
AESOP thematic group activity “teaching planning law” (2019)
Thomas Hartmann led an activity of the AESOP thematic group on Planning, Law and Property Rights, titled "Teaching Planning Law". AESOP supported this project.
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.
COST Action Public Value Capture of Increasing Property Values (2018-2022)
The main aim of this COST Action was 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 with partners from more than 30 countries addresses “Natural Flood Risk Management on Private Land” and was initiated together with colleagues from J-E_P- University Usti nad Labem, CZ; Thomas Hartmann is Vice-Action Chair.
HKC project: Hochwasserpass (2012-ongoing)
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.
NWO GROEN III SPLENDID (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 pattern. Thomas Hartmann covers the topic of instruments and strategies of land policies to achieve this.
NWO SURF Pop-Up Project: Grond voor Wonen (2017-2018)
This project explores land policy of Dutch municipalities, including a nation-wide survey.
INHaLE seed money (2017-2018)
This project focuses on risk perception towards natural hazards, and (in)action and decision-making.
STRIMA II – Sächsisch-Tschechisches Hochwasserrisikomanagement (2017-2021)
This project focuses on collaboration between Saxonian and Czech flood risk management.
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.
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.
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.
FUTURE DELTAS: FLOODLAND (2016-2017)
In this seed-money project, Thomas Hartmann organized a workshop of the consortium FLOODLAND (see www.floodland.net) in Utrecht in April 2016, where a book project was prepared and a Horizon 2020 project proposal has been prepared on Land for Flood Risk Management.
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.
Cost Action INOGOV (2015-2018)
Within the COST network "Innovations in Climate Governance" Thomas Hartmann was part of the management committee (Dutch substitute).
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.
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).
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.
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. The results are an IWRA Webinar and Policy Brief, a Special Issue (Water International) and a book publication (Routledge).
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 (www.plpr-association.org) at TU Dortmund. Thomas Hartmann was one of the main organizers.