Social, political and economic changes generate new tasks and assignments for a city, many of which cannot be satisfied within the framework of existing urban structures. Also 17 years after the reunion of the two separated parts of the city , Berlin is in a prolonged process of the economic and demographic restructuring. This was formulated in the Berlin master plan (FNP 94) in the beginning of the 90s, but the development expectations (cf. text edition 1995) have only partially been fulfilled up to present moment. For the Berlin metropolitan area and its surroundings, a major growth impetus was predicted until 2010 as a result of planning for the capital. According to the prognoses of the Berlin Master Plan, the population should grow by some 300,000 people by the year 2010, to some 3.7 million inhabitants; 400,000 new housing units will be required over and above the existing stock. The estimated requirement for additional commercial space was 1,000 ha. In addition, it was assumed that some 11 million m2 of office space and 1.4 million m2 of retail-sales space would be required by the year 2010 (figures refer to gross floor-space).
The real development between 1990 and 2005 shows a slightly decreasing population with 3.39 million inhabitants in 2006 and has to report a drop of jobs from 1.7 million to 1.55 million.
Housing existence had increased from 1.7 million to 1,88 million, 181,000 new flats were built. The office space had also increased by 7 million m2. Retail space are today with 1,5 million m2 clearly over the increase assumption for 2010. Unforeseen developments, like social and spatial segregation, clearance of surfaces, vacancy of apartments and decrease of financial resources, demand new strategical considerations about the planning of urban development, like it was presented with the project of the Stadtentwicklungskonzept Berlin 2020. It is assumed that there will be an essential reduced projected growth until 2010: stagnating rate of inhabitants and jobs, 45,000 additional apartments, 480 ha new commercial areas, 4.5 million m2 and 0.4 million m2 additional office and retail space.
The general urban and enviromental planning is a process, what needs a continuous monitoring. The aim is to audit the presumed development on the basis of the actual progression. For the period of 1990 – 2000 these basic data are presented within a report of landuse (Stadtentwicklung 2000, Bericht zur Flächenentwicklung 1990-2000 / 2001-2020l).
An understanding of the current land use situation in Berlin is needed, too, for the tasks and issues of landscape planning. Thus, an evaluation of the needs of the population for recreational possibilities near their homes requires information about the location of residential areas and of open spaces. Also, the close proximity of certain polluting uses and sensitive uses, such as commercial and residential areas, or allotment gardens in the neighborhood of commercial areas, can provide indications on existing conflicts (noise pollution, air quality, heavy-metal pollution of the soil), and strategies for solutions can be developed.
An understanding of the current land use situation in Berlin is also an important base for the development of the tools for ecological planning, i.e. for the soil concept map, the vegetation types or the delimitation of climatic zones.
The data compilation in the Urban and Environmental Information System (UEIS) of the Berlin Department of Urban Development (SenStadt) permits interfacing with other factual data managed here, for example the contaminated site register, and thus enables new statements to be made regarding a multitude of issues.
Maps 06.01 and 06.02 fit together to form a comprehensive presentation of actual land use in Berlin, and should, in terms of their content, be considered a single map, was printed, for reasons of readability, on two map sheets. The following text thus refers in principle to both maps, unless reference is expressly made to a particular map.
Beside this map of the Environmental Atlas Berlin exist two further evaluation approaches in order to describe the spacial parts of the different uses of areas. By reason of different objectivs and different methods the three approaches lead to different outputs. You will find a comparison of the “methods” in the chapter: Methodology of the map 06.03 Development of Open Spaces (only in German).