The Economic Benefits of Geodata in Urban Planning in Sweden

Spatineo and its partner GIS-kvalitet i Norden recently supported Lantmäteriet, the National Land Survey of  Sweden, in answering an essential and important question: 'What is the economic benefit of national  harmonization and standardization of geodata and the national platform for access of geodata?'. The companies conducted a project for Lantmäteriet in which they assessed the potential economic benefit of the use of geodata in the digital urban planning and building process in Sweden. The estimated annual economic value is between SEK22.6 and 42.2 billion.

The urban planning and building sector is the biggest sector that affects the built environment in Sweden. Therefore, Lantmäteriet has been commissioned by the government to work for a streamlined digital urban planning process. The goal is to achieve more effective interaction between authorities, citizens and businesses. This is promoted by providing all actors with the most important national basic datasets as a geospatial service from the national platform. National basic datasets are mainly produced by cities and municipalities.

The study is a meta-analysis of both Swedish and international studies in which the economic impacts of the use of geodata have been analysed. Results from international studies have been applied to Swedish conditions so that national statistics related to number of units and users, revenues, salaries, etc., have been used. One core requirement for the existing studies that has also been utilized in this study is that geodata has been an essential part of an application, service or product that produces the benefits to users. Without geodata, the economic benefits would not have been realized.

Economic benefits

The urban planning and building process includes the following subprocesses: general planning, detailed planning, real estate formation, building permits, building and construction planning, groundworks and construction, and maintenance. The analysis shows that the biggest economic benefit can be gained in the groundworks and construction, in total SEK19.4 billion to 38.8 billion. The second-biggest economic benefits can be gained in building and construction planning: SEK3 billion.

The full study is available here