_{Network Project between Bauhaus-Universität Weimar & Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC)
Funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), 2017 - 2020}

Integrated Infrastructure (IN3) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching project that connects urban planning, water infrastructure and computer science. It is aimed at developing innovative tools to support the planning of cities in Ethiopia. An example of this is the ‘Planning and Participation Platform’.

The background of the project is the rapid urbanization of Ethiopia, particularly its rural context. It is estimated that in the following five to ten years, several thousand  new cities will need to be created in Ethiopia. The planning of these cities is a challenging task owing to the complex nature of cities. Thus thousands of physical elements need to be arranged carefully in order to serve numerous human needs and to respect  multiple ecological and economical boundary conditions. In addition to the complex nature of the planning task itself, Ethiopia lacks well-educated planners.

In this project we are developing an integrated planning strategy (IPS to support planners in the creation of sustainable and resilient spatial urban structures. In doing so, we are focusing (1) on the layout of the street network, parcellation, building footprints and land use – design parameters which have a long lasting impact on the social, economic and ecological performance of a city – and (2) on water infrastructure as the main driver of urban development („water-based urban planning“).

The IPS helps to define these parameters by rapidly generating planning scenarios and providing feedback on the performance of these scenarios. Not only does it speed up the time-consuming work of planners,  it also provides insight into the effects of planning decisions. This, in turn, can help citizens to participate in the planning of their city.

Collaborating researchers and teachers:

Interim Prof. Dr. Sven Schneider, Asst. Prof. Dr. Zegeye Cherenet, Prof. Bernd Rudolf, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ephrem Gebremariam, Prof. Dr. Jörg Londong, Tesfaye Hailu, Martin Dennemark, Andreas Aicher, Metadel Sileshi, Philippe Schmidt, Nicole Baron, Israel Tesfu