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How Planning Data Powers Urban Planning Software and Digital Town Planning

Accurate and accessible geographic data is a cornerstone citizen-centred town planning just as much as it is central to the emergence of readily accessible town planning software, that helps town planners in their everyday work. At PlaceChangers, we are passionate about leveraging planning data to transform urban planning software and empower town planners with tools like our Place Analytics and Online Engagement software. Data helps underpin plans, community needs, impact reviews, and help

10 December 2024 7 min read

Leveraging the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act: The Future of Digital Planning

The Rising Need for Cybersecurity in Urban Planning In the evolving landscape of urban development, where technology increasingly interfaces with city planning, the need for robust cybersecurity measures has never been more critical. As urban planners integrate more digital tools into their processes, securing these systems becomes paramount to safeguard sensitive data and maintain public trust. One key strategy that has emerged is the implementation of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), an es

14 May 2024 2 min read

Unlocking urban insights: How place analytics compare to traditional GIS

In town planning and property development, the significance of data analytics cannot be overstated. With urbanisation on the rise and cities becoming more complex, data analytics has emerged as a critical tool for informed decision-making and efficient project execution. By harnessing the power of data, town planners and property developers can gain valuable insights into demographic trends, infrastructure needs, market demand, and environmental considerations. These insights enable stakeholder

13 August 2023 5 min read

Trends to watch for digital planning and proptech in 2023

In 2022, we saw lots of movement in digital planning. So we wanted to ask what’s likely to happen in 2023. Here are some of the ideas the team at PlaceChangers came up with. Laying the foundation for digital planning More linked data from government agencies What’s digital planning or proptech, I hear you ask? The sector is still evolving, and there are many different views on what it means. If you look at the UK government documents, proptech is now the preferred term. Now shelved, the Pla

10 January 2023 6 min read

Digitising planning: challenges and opportunities for housing delivery

Digitising planning: challenges and opportunities for housing deliveryDigitising planning: challenges and opportunities for housing delivery 2022 is almost the perfect example of a black swan event for the housing market in the UK. A black swan is an unpredictable event beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences. While the impacts of Brexit in terms of diminished commodity and labour supply chain were apparent, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and co

27 September 2022 5 min read

How an integrated application of GIS and BIM improves planning

Intro GIS and BIM are both popular technologies for planning in the built environment. While GIS and BIM are independent systems, they can work together to improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase the sustainability of a project over the long term. Integration of GIS and BIM can be used in architecture and planning throughout the pre-construction phase, which PlaceChangers supports with place analytics and interactive community engagement consultations. The integrated application of GIS

20 September 2022 6 min read

Trends for 2022 in effective tenant engagement online

Tenant views are vital for housing associations to understand needs and improve services for their customers. This is particularly key for organisations, such as registered providers or housing associations, who own and manage substantial estates on behalf of tenants. For example, Home Group supports over 113,000 customers across 55,000 properties . When Coronavirus caused the first lockdowns in March 2020, many organisations involved in built environment projects were keen to move their phys

8 March 2022 6 min read

The case for data standards in urban planning and community engagement

Developers, Planners, or citizens who want to quickly understand and compare a number of development projects, ranked by specific criteria, are currently out of luck. It can be done, but typically involves combing through volumes of documentation from a number of planning portals. The structure and navigation of planning portals make it difficult to find specific planning applications. Without a reference number, searches are often unreliable. Once the specific project has been identified, team

22 June 2021 6 min read

3D Models in Detail: Level of Detail and implications for public consultation

Introduction This is the fourth part of my series on ‘The role of 3D visualisations in community engagement’, part of my industrial PhD project at Northumbria University in collaboration with PlaceChangers. In this article I specifically look at the level of detail of building models derived from Building Information Management (BIM) tools that will be available in future planning consultations. This is important as in researching more opportune techniques for public consultation we can push w

8 June 2021 9 min read

Open Planning – what urban planning can learn from open source software

Throughout my 15-year career as a software engineer, I’ve spent much of my time working with open-source software. Open-source software code is publicly visible and modifiable. Open source code sits in nearly all software we use today. It is based on the premise of reusing solutions to problems that need to be solved regularly. In our industry, a good example is Leaflet, a library used by many web applications, including the PlaceChangers platform, to draw interactive maps. Changes to open sour

10 May 2021 10 min read

3D Models in Detail: Area Capture with Photogrammetry

Introduction In part one of the series , we evidenced a growing adoption of 3D modelling and model making for community engagement. There is a greater push for design quality within the industry, and this has been supported by the UK Government (see White Paper on Planning for the Future ) which may see 3D visualisations of current and the future built environments take a more permanent and prominent role within the planning process, including public consultation. In the second part of a s

1 December 2020 11 min read