On behalf of ÖROK, the Federal Environment Agency surveyed land use and soil sealing in Austria in 2022 using a new, standardised nationwide methodology.
In order to make this data easily accessible and comprehensible, it was prepared and visualised in a dashboard, opens an external URL in a new window as part of the ‘Soil Walks’, opens an external URL in a new window research project led by the Vienna University of Technology and carried out on behalf of the BML. This makes it possible to query the land use and sealing in all Austrian municipalities, districts and federal states, make comparisons with other structurally similar municipalities and understand the background to local land use. The Vienna University of Technology's research departments Regional Planning and Regional Development with project leader Elias Grinzinger, opens an external URL in a new window, and Land Policy and Land Management with Barbara Steinbrunner, opens an external URL in a new window are involved.

The dashboard was developed to be used in the so-called ‘Soil Walks’. This is a method for organising awareness-raising walks that teach people how to treat land and soil with care. During the Soil Walk in their own municipality, mayors, local councillors, interested citizens and experts discuss land use, sealing and brownfield utilisation. The aim is to increase understanding of the issues and motivate people to get involved and participate. Training videos are being produced so that the awareness-raising walks can be organised by interested parties themselves in all Austrian municipalities and regions. The method is being developed in the research project of the same name by the Institute of Spatial Planning at TU Wien (in charge of the research areas Regional Planning and Regional Development, as well as Land Policy and Land Management), together with the Federal Environment Agency and Wallenberger & Linhard Regionalberatung KG. The project is financed as part of the departmental research programme via dafne.at with funds from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management.

To the project homepage, opens an external URL in a new window
To the dashboard, opens an external URL in a new window