The TOSCA Case: How Open-Source Spatial and Digital Decision Support Tools Help Urban Agglomerations to Leapfrog Towards Smart Sustainable Cities

DOI: 10.4018/IJEPR.319370 International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 This article published as an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and production in any medium, provided the author of the original work and original publication source are properly credited. *Corresponding Author 1 The TOSCA Case: How Open-Source Spatial and Digital Decision Support Tools Help Urban Agglomerations to Leapfrog Towards Smart Sustainable Cities Maria Moleiro, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany* https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7655-1309 Arjama Mukherjee, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany Joerg Rainer Noennig, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1681-7635 ABSTRACT Considering the rapid pace of global urbanization especially in emerging economies of the global South, this article addresses governance approaches for the sustainable development of cities which seek to transform into smart cities. It focuses on leapfrogging as a governance concept for cities thriving towards sustainable development and describes the role of open source digital tools as accelerators for this transition. On such premises, the Toolkit for Open and Sustainable City Planning and Analysis (TOSCA) will be presented as a case study. The paper provides an overview of its conceptualization and implementation in two pilots regions. An overview of the gains and difficulties from the empirical process is discussed, concluding with learnings and challenges for further implementation in other regions, and for the sustainable incorporation of open-source digital tools in urban and regional governance. KEywORDS Decision-Making, Digital Tools, GIS, Global South, Governance, Leapfrogging, Planning, Spatial Data 1. INTRODUCTION To understand the complexities to be faced in the coming years in the realms of urban and regional governance - especially in developing nations of the Global South - the challenging pace of the world’s population growth needs to be acknowledged. According to the UN, an unprecedented and exponential shift of the world population from rural to urban dwellers has taken place since the 1950s. This tendency is expected to accelerate. Estimates hold that by 2050 approximately 90% of this dramatic increase of the world’s urban population will be accounted for in the regions of Asia and Africa (UN, 2018). Effective measures are required to mitigate the effects of the imminent urban sprawls that occur especially in rapidly developing regions and emerging economies across the globe. International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 2 These key facts shed light on the urgent need to revise the processes adopted by policy makers to address sustainable urbanization, while recognizing the need to maintain a connection between rural and urban development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an example of globalized means of mitigation for the long-term impacts of rapid urban growth. For example, SDG 16, related to Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, targets transparency in governance in order to establish security and consolidated development in society (UN, 2022). The achievement of such goals will depend on how effectively these measures can be implemented across the different scales of regulators and institutions, and whether they can reach the most local levels of governance. To have a deeper view into ground-breaking societal developments, the concept of leapfrogging is a highly relevant approach. Coined almost four decades back (Fudenberg et al.,1983), the term was framed within the scope of industrial organization, addressing the potential streamlining of market and economic growth. However, over recent years, ‘Leapfrogging’ has been further adopted to other realms of development e.g., technological progress, with remarkable examples in developing regions. In Africa, for example, the rapid take-up of mobile technology allowed the population to have a broader access to information, far surpassing the pace expected by the development of conventional landline infrastructure (World Bank Group; China Development Bank, 2017). Understanding this concept of leapfrogging and its adaptation to a wider spectrum of society and development, its application to, and impact on, the realm of governance is a worthy discussion. This article will contribute to the understanding of future challenges in the evolution of cities from the Global South which seek their path of transformation towards smart cities, especially through the adoption of digital tools and data infrastructures. The paper thus revolves around the following questions: Can the concept of leapfrogging be transferred to the scope of governance to help cities thrive towards sustainable development? And: How can open source tools accelerate this transition? To address these questions, this paper will introduce the Toolkit for Open and Sustainable City Planning and Analysis (TOSCA) as a case study, providing an overview of its conceptualization and development process as well as its implementation in two pilot locations. The objective is to give empirical evidence of the gains and difficulties from the pilot applications, in order to better address the potential challenges coming ahead for the successful future implementation in other developing regions. Further, the article aims to outline how the sustainable incorporation of open-source digital tools may reduce the gap between local authorities and its population, in the face of procedure constraints on the side of governments. 2. BACKGROUND Several concepts need to be defined to put the proposed questions into context. The following notions form the cornerstones of a theoretical framework that not only supports the targeted application of digital solutions in the urban context but also enables a reflection of their capacity as enablers for swift (“leapfrogging”) urban development. 2.1 Urbanization There is a broad spectrum of definitions aiming to qualify urbanized areas. As explained by Ritchie & Roser (2018) it is not possible to present one universally agreed concept of what defines an urban area; it varies per country according to population density in some cases, or by level of infrastructure development, to name a few parameters. The European Commission, for example, seeks for a more generalized definition, and breaks down this differentiation according to the number of inhabitants and the population density per km2 (Pesaresi et al., 2016). When comparing different parameters and indexes, the exact worldwide population in urban contexts varies considerably among entities such as the UN and the EC. Nevertheless, the trend of growth is indisputable, having its largest share among Asia, Africa and Latin America, in other words: the developing regions of the global South (Figure 1). International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 3 Urbanization projections suggest that cities in such developing regions (especially in Africa, East Asia and South Asia) could be the areas that see 96% of an over three billion increase in urban population by 2050 (The Lancet, 2017; Onodugo and Ezeadichie, 2020; UN-Habitat, 2020). Developing regions now have some of the world’s largest cities – of 28 megacities in 2018, 16 are in Asia and 4 are in Latin America. To deal with the current explosion of urbanization, policy-makers in these regions experiment with new forms of urban development. In this context, digital (“smart”) technologies and infrastructures in support of urban development, planning, and management bear a high potential to mitigate the effects of such trends. Thus, hundreds of smart city projects are currently in progress with e.g., India and Indonesia having programs aiming to establish 100 smart cities each (Arku, 2021). 2.2 Global South and Digital Divide There is rich scholarship on smart cities in the Global North, however, research on this topic is only now emerging in regards to the Global South (Datta, 2015; Odendaal, 2011; Shin, 2017) (Datta, 2018). Still, the take up of smart city concepts has been extremely fast in the Global South. Developing countries like China, India, Korea and Saudi Arabia are considered the largest consumers of the global smart city market (Manyika et al., 2011) (Datta, 2018). Technology as a driver of innovation and accelerated progress inevitably also affects societal change (Klynge, 2019). What upcoming challenges are to be faced by nations of the global South in the course of further technological penetration, however, is still a matter of debate. Research has shown that digital breakthroughs in the last years have had stronger impacts in developing countries such as India, Thailand or Mexico than in most developed nations (Klynge, 2019). Also, the subSaharan African region has experienced great advancement in the last decades when it comes to mobile technology penetration, allowing not only a more widespread communication, but a stronger influence of ICT in sectors related to governance and economy. Despite such achievements, the emerging digital divide is still a challenge, especially between rural and urban settlements (The World Bank Group, 2017). Although internet access and broadband technology may blur out the digital divide, their adoption needs to be still evaluated on a context-specific basis. An effective way to minimize the digital divide, as it appears, is the transfer of open-source technologies from the Global North to the Global South. Their implementation and deployment, however, still requires a Figure 1. Share of people living in urban areas by region in 2015 (Pesaresi et al., 2016) International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 4 willing and enabling local environment, as well as a clear sense of caution in regards to the threats of techno-colonialism (Yayboke et al., 2017). 2.3 Open Source Tools Free and open-source tools offer multiple opportunities to support urban planning and development, especially in the light of growing streams of urban data that increasingly fuel the digitization of the planning profession. Thus, new approaches to analyse and synthesize complex and dynamic urban data become increasingly indispensable (Yap et al, 2022). Although the significance of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) has become well known over the past years, proprietary software solutions are still thriving (Kumar et al., 2018). This situation may be attributed to a lack of understanding of the landscape of available tools and their functionalities, as well as to limited knowledge as to how such tools can add value to the urban planning processes (Yap et al, 2022). The implementation of FOSS in the Global South in the scope of urbanization must tackle several common challenges such as lack of knowledge on GIS, lack of accurate and detailed spatial data (Mennecke & West, 2001), dependence on expensive, proprietary software and vendor lock-in, lack of awareness of open-source alternatives, lack of technically trained people necessary to bring change (Kumar et al., 2018) or dependence on external consultants for carrying out GIS related tasks. 2.4 Leapfrogging The concept of Leapfrogging, coined from Economics over four decades ago (Fundenberg et al., 1983) was originally used as a metaphor to refer to certain competitive dynamics in the market sector. It referred to the idea of how innovative development models can bypass the traditional paths of economic growth, as established by the industrialized nations. Leapfrogging can also be linked to the predecessor theory of the Diffusion of Innovations from the 1960s (Rogers et al., 2019), where the idea of how innovation spreads through means of communications is also conditioned by additional determining factors like the social system and time. During the third wave of industrialization, similar concepts relatable to leapfrogging have coincided, such as industrial spurts, related to technology diffusion (Soete, 1985; Pérez & Soete, 1988) which shed light on the fact that the concept is relevant to other fields, like technology, and evidenced its relation to economic growth, thus accelerating progressively its broader application in the following years, and bringing up the concept of technological leapfrogging. Within this idea, the possibility of developing nations to catch up in the adoption of technologies, known as the advantage of the latecomers, comes from the possibility of developing nations to surpass their predecessors by shifting away from the replicated path and seeking innovation in their technology adoption, as they are not bound to the dependency of solid, invested infrastructures (Lee, 2021). To break the pattern of path dependency when adopting technologies differently than developed nations, seems like a logical step, avoiding the failures committed by frontrunner nations, such as fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions and, thus, contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals (Lee, 2021). Aside from the well-known advantages on the uptake of mobile communications technology across Africa, leaving behind the lagging landline network distribution (The World Bank Group, 2017), other relevant applications on technology adoption for economic growth can be mentioned, benefiting different sectors of society, such as the infrastructure or the energy sector (Cilliers, 2021). One example is the investment shift from asphalt for road network recovery, to automated air transportation of goods and services through the implementation of drone technology. Another case is the alternative of green energy generation from atmospheric water harvesting (Jarimi & Riffat, 2020), which would relieve rural areas from centralized water systems and electricity grid supply. Furthermore, the widespread provision of ICT technology has opened the possibility for a larger population to services linked to economy, government, banking and education, making for example informal business shift to formal schemes of market. (Cilliers, 2021). International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 5 Despite existing successful cases, it is important to still consider that leapfrogging through technology transfer can only be achieved when - as prerequisites - not only the particularities of each context but also the local technical capacities, political will and bureaucratic feasibility are acknowledged (Yayboke et al., 2017). It is essential to ensure over time that leapfrogging societies can transform from mere consumers to producers of wealth, in order to consolidate sustained growth (Yayboke, 2020). For developing nations, the economic effects resulting from the use of digital technology is well known. Further exploration, however, is needed to understand the efficacy of digital applications in the realms of governance – especially the impact of open-source tools on urban planning activities and design decision-making. The challenge lies in supporting institutions to adopt new measures and paradigms, especially once original investments were done (Cilliers, 2021). The following discussion of the TOSCA case wants to shed light on how to accelerate this transformational path in cities of the Global South. 3. CASE STUDy: THE TOSCA TOOLKIT 3.1 Conceptualization and Development The Toolkit for Open and Sustainable City Planning and Analysis (TOSCA) is a cooperation project between the Digital City Science group at HafenCity University Hamburg and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) Gmbh since 2019. It was piloted in the cities of Bhubaneswar (India) and Latacunga (Ecuador) in 2021. In the first pilot case, the toolkit was tailored for the identification of land for affordable housing in Bhubaneswar, to aid a slum upgradation program within the Sustainable Urban Development – Smart Cities (SUD-SC) program with GIZ India. The second pilot targeted the adoption of volcanic-risk governance strategies in Latacunga within the Sustainable Intermediate Cities program with GIZ Ecuador. To address the challenges stated in the previous section, TOSCA was conceptualized as a webbased geographic information system (GIS) digital solution that can be used by non-GIS experts. It provides a scalable, low-cost and low-tech solution (Figure 2) with an easy-to-handle user interface for the interaction of decision-makers from different backgrounds, and to facilitate participatory processes: • Scalable: As an open-source tool, TOSCA is intended to be used by any person or institution and be customized for its specific purpose. The tool´s system architecture follows a modular design that allows the easy incorporation of new analytic modules, as demanded by the specific use-cases. This makes the tool highly scalable and replicable; it can be reproduced any number of times. • Low-cost: The TOSCA software is cost-free and available on the online open source repository GitHub. Online video tutorials support the different kinds of users with guidelines and manuals, Figure 2. TOSCA components International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 6 in order to support the easy take-up of the tool by governments, institutions and individuals with limited resources. • Low-tech: Requiring only basic technical knowledge for the deployment and setup of the tool, TOSCA features an easy-to-handle user interface that minimizes the conventional complexity of GIS systems. TOSCA thus becomes a powerful data visualization tool that also allows the conveyance of complex non-spatial information. Users can upload their own maps or ingest information from Open Street Maps. These features place TOSCA at an advantage to many open-source tools used in urban planning. The system structure of the TOSCA technology provides the possibility to be taken up from any location where it is needed. It does not have locational constraints on using the tool as it runs on a base of Open Street Maps and can be hosted remotely anywhere worldwide on a web-browser. This enables users to have access to a custom graphic user interface that is easy to understand in comparison with other GIS tools with more complex user interfaces addressing expert users. With a set of video tutorials and manuals publicly available online, the tool can be taken up by planners without the need to be expert programmers but rather with basic knowledge of programming. Furthermore, TOSCA allows adaptability to become a custom tool for diverse contextssuch as a viewer, finder, analyzer or simulator, depending on the complexity of the use-case. This sets the potential of TOSCA to be used at different phases of a planning process, whether it refers to site analysis, planning, consultation or evaluation. The tool is built with open-source components in a modular manner, allowing quick refactoring of the system architecture if necessary. As shown in the study on open-source software for urban planning (Yap et al., 2022), geo-spatial analysis and mapping emerged as projects in GitHub with the highest number of stars, which can be considered an indicator of the interest from the GIS-related community to contribute to further technological development. TOSCA, as an open-source web GIS toolkit, has the potential to build an active open-source developer community around it to build it further. 3.2 Technical Modules and Functionalities A systematic description of TOSCA needs to comprehend two key aspects: 1) The functional modules that represent the capacities of the toolkit as a technological product, and 2) the use cases which represent the practical application capacities of the toolkit. Functional modules are generic software solutions which are basically context-agnostic, whereas use cases reflect how these functionalities can be adapted and utilized for specific challenges in specific contexts. These two key aspects indicate the advantages that TOSCA provides as an adaptable and scalable tool, based on its modular design as well as on its cost efficiency and usability. The easy-to-handle functional modules not only bring non-expert users closer to GIS applications, but also allow the comprehensive visual analysis across different layers of socio-spatial information. It thus facilitates the quick comprehension and analysis of complex urban data e.g., for outlining potential city challenges and conflicts (Figure 3). The appropriate visualization of data substantially enhances the interdisciplinary and multi-level communication between stakeholder groups and decision makers and enables more evidence-based solutions in urban planning and policy making. Until now (10/2022), the following functional modules have been developed for TOSCA: • Map Layer Analysis for visual data exploration, to a) answer simple questions or b) establish an overview of the available data before analyzing them in more detail with other modules. • Feature Query for investigating in depth and detail the information contained in each individual data layer. • Distance and Area Measurement for measuring and outputting the size of sub-areas and distances drawn between points of interest on the map. International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 7 • Accessibility Analysis for creating a heat-map showing travel times for vehicles, bikes, or pedestrians from given start points within a selected area e.g. under disaster conditions. • Deep Area Query for complex filtering of map features and elements on the basis of userdefined values. • Area Buffer Analysis for investigating points of interest within a specified buffer radius from a location selected on the map. • Cotopaxi Eruption Scenario Analysis for the specific risk assessment of Ecuadorian city Latacunga´s agricultural and urban infrastructure in the face of volcanic eruption. 3.3 Pilot Applications and Use Cases In order to apply TOSCA successfully, specific use cases need to be defined in the early phases of any implementation project. To identify, clarify and organize the functional requirements towards the toolkit, complex communication and interaction processes have to be carried out with local actors and stakeholders e.g., collective brainstorming, problem discussions, or structured information collection. Use cases may be infinite but may be addressed by the abovementioned functionalities. In addition, new functionalities are continuously being developed and will be further developed in the future. Since the conceptualization of TOSCA, two pilot applications have been accomplished in India and Ecuador, from which first use cases were derived for the toolkit. Small and medium cities play a crucial role in advancing sustainable urban development and, due to their scale, are able to provide basic needs more effectively in comparison to larger metropolitan areas or megacities (Intermediary cities. (n.d.). UCLG). The characteristics of proximity and human scale of smaller urban centers can be leveraged to strengthen urban capacities and prevent urban sprawl. The cities of Bhubaneswar and Latacunga both fall into this category of cities and provide unique challenges that can be addressed by piloting TOSCA for the respective use-cases. Figure 3. Functional modules of TOSCA: Top left - Buffer module; Top right - Cotopaxi Module; Bottom left: Accessibility Analysis; Bottom right: Feature Query (HCU & GIZ, n.d.) International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 8 3.3.1 Pilot Application: Bhubaneswar (India) India is estimated to be the largest contributor to new urban dwellers worldwide by 2050 (UN, 2014), thus it was imperative to consolidate innovative design policies for Bhubaneswar which can ideally be replicated to other regions in the country. In the context of the city of Bhubaneswar – located in India’s southern state of Odisha – TOSCA was requested to identify land for construction of affordable housing to relieve the dramatic growth of the slum population (Anand, & Deb, 2017). The goal was to allocate 100,000 new housing units in the city. The involved actors were the Commissioner Office, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), supported by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL). The support of the local authorities was crucial for the successful pilot phase in India. The physical deployment of the tool was done in the headquarters of the BMC while the BDA and BSCL supported the pilot project with the provision of reliable and available geospatial data. 3.3.2 Pilot Application: Latacunga (Ecuador) The pilot application in the city of Latacunga in Ecuador focused on the identification of strategies to strengthen volcanic risk governance measures in the region due to the presence of the active Cotopaxi volcano and the great economic dependency of the region due to its agricultural activity. The 2015 volcanic eruption in Latacunga exposed the need of the city to understand the physical, social and systemic vulnerabilities (Gomez-Zapata et al., 2021) faced by Latacunga, especially as another major eruption risk is imminent, according to experts. Over 300,000 residents in the region are exposed to this high volcanic threat. The main user of the toolkit in this case was the Municipality of Latacunga with the departments of Planning, Citizen Security and Risk Management, Public Works and Environment and the Cotopaxi Prefecture, in the scale of provincial government. Additional organizations capable of generating technological innovation could take part in the participatory processes, such as Coworking Latacunga and Instituto Cotopaxi, a local research center focusing on the investigation of environmental hazards and risks mitigation, among others. 3.3.3 Use Cases In terms of practical application, there are two general scenarios for the application of TOSCA in the context of urban planning and decision-making, from which specific use cases and usage requirements derive: 1. Expert discussions and decision-making: Interacting with complex urban data such as legal planning frameworks, planning information, or infrastructural systems, without necessarily having expertise in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). 2. Multi-stakeholder participation and deliberation: Effectively involving the broad citizenship into urban development planning projects in order to address their needs and ensure their engagement and participation in the decision-making and acceptance-finding processes. Being implemented with either scenario, the specific use cases for the TOSCA toolkit were found by intersecting the concrete application contexts in the pilot cities of Bhubaneswar and Latacunga with the available functional modules. The following list (Table 1) indicates the implemented or conceptualized use cases so far; other use cases - in respect to new application contexts and new functionalities are being constantly explored. 3.4 Methodology and Implementation In both pilot locations, a similar methodology was carried for the first practical implementation of TOSCA. While similar activities were considered, special care was taken to maintain a suitable adaptation to the specific contexts of both pilot cities. The step-by-step guideline for the piloting in International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 9 India and Ecuador is outlined below. For each of the 10 steps, it provides a brief explanation of the aspects to be considered, thus forming a prototypical implementation methodology: 1. Identification of City and Use Case: Fundamental aspects to select a particular use-case and city are: 1) access to relevant data suitable for the tool; 2) strong institutional capacity and willingness of the local government to use TOSCA and integrate it into workflows for decision-making; 3) reliable network of local partners with ownership, interest and commitment; 4) practical use cases linked to existing projects and based on the socio-economic context of the city. 2. Mobilization of Project Support Team: Different types of human resources are required to implement TOSCA in a sustainable manner. These would ensure an extended use of the tool after the end-of-project phase. The following roles should be considered: a. Local non-tech support: Coordinating the project implementation and ensuring commitment by local core stakeholders. b. Local tech support: Technically implementing the project and adapting the tool to the local context. Table 1. Example module analyses implemented in both pilot cities with TOSCA (Authors, 2022) Pilot City: Latacunga (Ecuador) Pilot City: Bhubaneswar (India) Module: Map Layer Analysis Show the streetlights that are located within the area potentially affected by volcanic ashfall from a Cotopaxi eruption. How many slums are currently located within open spaces or vacant land? / What kind of ownership do these lands have? Module: Feature Query Show the details of a specific market - The type of market (e.g. wholesale), days of opening of the market, status of the building and land area of the market Which slums are currently occupying government-owned land? Module: Distance and Area Measurement What is the distance between two street lights? What is the land area occupied by a specific informal settlement? Module: Accessibility Analysis How long does it take from different areas in the city to one of the safe points? / How is the accessibility from different areas of the city to the safe points affected by lahar flows from a Cotopaxi eruption? How long does it take to reach a cluster of informal settlements from a bus stop? Module: Deep Area Query Which agricultural areas producing broccoli are potentially affected by ash fall (medium impact scenario)? Filter the map to show those houses with a monthly household income between 2.000 and 3.000 USD and min. 5 persons living in the household / Filter the map to show those areas with a social vulnerability index between 4 and 5 and a high population density. Module: Area Buffer Analysis Not yet applied in this use case How many hospitals are located within a 1-kilometer radius from a proposed slum relocation area chosen to rehabilitate slum dwellers? Module: Cotopaxi Eruption Scenario Analysis Which specific evacuation routes are potentially affected by lava flows and what are their attributes (e.g. ID, length)? / Which productive infrastructure is located in areas potentially affected by lahar flows (high risk) and what are its attributes (e.g. ID, area size, type)? / Not applicable to this use case International Journal of E-Planning Research Volume 12 • Issue 1 16 María Moleiro graduated as an architect from the Simón Bolívar University (Venezuela). She has been associate director at an architecture studio, visiting instructor at university level, as well as member of an NGO dedicated to the dissemination of Venezuelan architecture. In 2021 she completed her Master studies from the REAP Programme at Hafencity University (HCU) Hamburg, with a focus on sustainable urban development in the fields of mobility and water management, for developing and developed regions, and the impact of digital planning tools for microclimate assessment. Since November 2021 she works as a research associate at Digital City Science, at HCU, and project coordinator for TOSCA in Palestine and Ecuador, an open source GIS toolkit, for stakeholders support in decision-making processes. Arjama Mukherjee studied Architecture in Piloo Mody College of Architecture in India and worked in several architectural firms and as an urban planner in an affordable housing project. She received her Master in Urban Planning and Policy Design in the double degree program between Politecnico di Milano and Hafencity University (HCU) Hamburg in 2021 focusing on application of digital tools to improve participation in urban planning processes in the Indian context. Arjama is a research associate at Digital City Science at HCU where she is project coordinator for TOSCA India, an open source GIS toolkit aimed at fostering integrated urban development in India and Ecuador. Jörg Rainer Noennig is Professor for Digital City Science at the Hafencity University (HCU) Hamburg and also directs the WISSENSARCHITEKTUR Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture at TU Dresden. From 1992 to 1998, he studied architecture at Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Polytech Krakow and Waseda University Tokyo. Between 1998 and 2001 he practiced as architect in Tokyo. From 2001 he was Research Associate at TU Dresden, where he was appointed Junior Professor for Knowledge Architecture (2009-2015). He worked at different Universities outside Germany, such as the Universita degli Studi dell l’Aquila, Italy, the ISEN Toulon, France, TU Woronesch, Russia and the Toyo Universität Tokyo. Jörg Rainer Noennig published several books and more than a hundred scientific articles and essays, and was awarded with the Grand Prix of the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE). Pesaresi, M., Melchiorri, M., Siragusa, A., & Kemper, T. (2016). Atlas of the Human Planet 2016. Mapping Human Presence on Earth with the Global Human Settlement Layer. EUR 28116 EN; doi:10.2788/889483 Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2018) - “Urbanization”. OurWorldInData.org. ‘https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization’ Rogers, E. M., Singhal, A., & Quinlan, M. M. (2019). Diffusion of innovations 1. An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research, 415–434. 10.4324/9780203710753-35 Shin, H. (2017). Envisioned by the State: The Paradox of Private Urbanism and Making of Songdo City, South Korea. In A. 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