Evaluating Digital Building Permits in an Impact-Oriented Way

Research Brief (in German)

How can cities systematically capture and manage the effects of digital building-permit processes in order to achieve environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals?

Digital building-permit processes are regarded as a key technology for more efficient, transparent, and resource-conserving urban development. Decisions about granting a building permit affect core sustainability goals, especially the creation of housing, energy efficiency, and land use. These procedures are best understood as complex interface processes in which technical, legal, and planning requirements interact. Despite high expectations, there are still no systematic approaches for measuring sustainability-related impact.

As part of her research stay at the Urban Digitainability Lab, Dr. Judith Fauth addressed precisely this gap, providing valuable impetus for the work of digitally sustainable municipalities.

Key findings

• The degree of digitalization in permitting processes varies widely across municipalities—from pioneers to early pilot projects.
• Impacts on sustainability topics are rarely measured, even though they are relevant in areas such as housing creation, energy efficiency, and participation.
• User centricity is important but often runs up against legal or technical hurdles.
• There is a lack of practice-oriented indicators to steer digital measures in a targeted way.

Digital building permits are far more than efficiency tools—they can make a deliberate contribution to sustainability when their impact is systematically captured and integrated into administrative strategies.