Research Interests

  • Digital transformation of planning.

  • Spatial planning and landscape planning: instruments and processes.

  • Land-use conflicts and conflicting landscape services.

  • Driving forces and actors of land change and urbanisation.

  • Sprawl.

  • Multifunctional periurban landscapes.

  • Spatial adjacencies and interactions in spatial planning.

Education

PhD

Harvard University, USA

2000

Master of Environmental Planning

Arizona State University, USA

1994

Dipl. Kulturingenieurin ETH

ETH Zürich

1989

Scientific and Practical Career

Member of Directors Board, WSL

2019 - present

Group leader Landscape Ecology Group, WSL

2011 - present

Awarded honorary professorship at the University of Bucharest

05.09.2019

Group leader Landscape Management, WSL

2006 - 2010

Researcher at the WSL

2002 - 2006

Post Doc at the Department of Environmental Sciences, ETH Zürich

2001 - 2002

Researcher at the NSL (formerly ORL Institute), ETH Zürich

1994 - 1995

Researcher at the NSL (formerly ORL Institute), ETH Zürich

1991 - 1992

Engineer at Emch & Berger AG Aarau, Aarau, Ingenieure & Planer

1989 - 1991

Projects

Spatial planning is currently experiencing significant changes driven by digitalisation. This transformation has the potential to influence the way we plan, and important values such as equality, social justice, transparency and efficiency.

Land use is one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss. Spatial planning at the municipal level is therefore key to promoting biodiversity in settlement areas and regenerating ecosystems. As part of this project, we shed light on the process of land use planning revision and use case studies to investigate whether and how municipalities integrate biodiversity-friendly standards into building and zoning regulations.

Researchers from the ETH Domain, together with stakeholders from the Jurapark Aargau, are establishing a Real-world Lab for sustainable development. Concrete projects on various topics are being launched and implemented.

Spatial planning is the key policy activity aimed at managing the urban environment. Within spatial planning, municipal land-use planning is often responsible for translating strategic goals into a binding code that regulates urban form and function. The tools for setting the code vary widely across Europe, however, their diversity is underresearched and poorly understood. This hinders the ongoing digitalization of planning.

The project assesses the impacts of national road construction projects on soils, evaluates best-practice examples of mitigation measures, and develops soil protection strategies for road projects in cooperation with the stakeholders.

This project is motivated by the repeated statement of OECD that biodiversity policy is a weak point in Swiss environmental policy. We will use up-front text retrieval methods to evaluate implementation of biodiversity-related policies in Switzerland.

In DIGIPLAN we will analyze and compare the digitization of planning data in European countries, including the scope, organization, financing as well as the current and potential future uses of digital planning.

The overall objective of this project is to develop an analytical framework grounded in an analysis of strategic spatial planning processes, i.e. plan making and plan implementation.

The overall objective of this project is to contribute to the scholarship on plan evaluation. Current evaluation studies focus on plan performance and planning process performance, rather than actual material outcomes that are of pertinent interest to land-change science. Specifically, the project r

The overall objective of this project is to reduce the technical gap between spatial planning and land change science. Specifically, this project aims to develop tools and methods to translate data and features from strategic spatial planning into inputs for land change models. We focus on two obser

The project will analyze and clarify how planning and policy affect land change in urban regions. Whereas planning has a long tradition as a means to guiding spatial development, planning is only rudimentarily considered in land-change science. We will develop a theoretical model and then assess its applicability for land change modelling in the test regions of Zurich, Bucharest, and Austin, TX.

Publications

Liu Y., Gao Y., Gai J., Liu H., Zhang Z., Diogo V., Hersperger A.M. (2025) The Water-Land-Food nexus reveals growing resource export pressure in middle-income economies. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 212, 108006 (16 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.108006 Institutional Repository DORA

Maurer Weisbrod Y., Hersperger A., Giezendanner R., Kellenberger M., Jaeger J. (2025) Ein neuer Geodatensatz für das Monitoring der Siedlungsentwicklung. Geomat. Schweiz. 123(1-2), 4-10. Institutional Repository DORA

Zhao C., He Z., Hersperger A.M. (2025) How do planning intentions spatiotemporally drive 3-D urban growth? Habitat Int. 157, 103307 (14 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103307 Institutional Repository DORA

Di Giulio M., Hauser K., Hersperger A., Hug Peter D., Guntern J., Martinoli D. (2024) Kennwerte Biodiversität & Immobilien und Webtool BioValuesTM (Version 1.0): Technischer Bericht zu Validierung der Methode und Testen der
Nutzendenfreundlichkeit
. Akademie der Naturwissenschaften Schweiz (SCNAT), Forum Biodiversität Schweiz. 45 p.
Institutional Repository DORA

Gisler L., Björnsen A., Bowman G., Buchecker M., Burg V., Hersperger A., … Seidl I. (2024) Energiewende: kommunale und regionale Handlungsmöglichkeiten. Merkblatt für die Praxis: Vol. 75. Birmensdorf: Eidg. Forschungsanstalt WSL. 12 p. doi:10.55419/wsl:35816 Institutional Repository DORA

Gisler L., Björnsen A., Bowman G., Buchecker M., Burg V., Hersperger A., … Seidl I. (2024) Transition énergétique: possibilités d’action aux niveaux communal et régional. Notice pour la pratique: Vol. 75. Birmensdorf: Institut fédéral de recherches WSL. 12 p. doi:10.55419/wsl:35818 Institutional Repository DORA

He Z., Zhao C., Fürst C., Hersperger A.M. (2024) How does the effect of urban growth management change over time and across urban land uses? Evidence from China’s construction land quotas. J. Land Use Sci. 19(1), 239-257. doi:10.1080/1747423X.2024.2389889 Institutional Repository DORA

Hersperger A.M., Sciara G.C., Bacău S., Imhof C.S., Zhao C. (2024) Governing urban regions with a network of plans. Cities. 146, 104683 (13 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.cities.2023.104683 Institutional Repository DORA

Hersperger A. (2024) [Review of the book "Digitale Stadtplanung: Alltag und Räume technisierten Planens", by Martin Schinagl]. Raumforsch. Raumordn. 82(4), 352-354. doi:10.14512/rur.2570 Institutional Repository DORA

Pan Y., Hersperger A.M., Ge G., Nobis M.P. (2024) Effects of habitat configuration on biodiversity along gradients of forest cover on the Swiss Plateau. For. Ecosyst. 11, 100223 (11 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.fecs.2024.100223 Institutional Repository DORA

Schmid F.B., Hersperger A.M., Grêt-Regamey A., Kienast F. (2024) Effects of different land-use planning instruments on urban shrub and tree canopy cover in Zurich, Switzerland. Urban For. Urban Green. 94, 128272 (10 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2024.128272 Institutional Repository DORA

Van Eetvelde V., Christensen A.A., Hersperger A.M. (2024) Social theory and landscape ecology: understanding human agency in the context of landscapes. Landsc. Ecol. 39(4), 82 (8 pp.). doi:10.1007/s10980-024-01862-8 Institutional Repository DORA

Domingo D., van Vliet J., Hersperger A.M. (2023) Long-term changes in 3D urban form in four Spanish cities. Landsc. Urban Plan. 230, 104624 (15 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104624 Institutional Repository DORA

He Z., Yu Z., Fürst C., Hersperger A.M. (2023) Peer effects drive non-conformance between built-up land expansion and zoning: evidence from Zhangzhou city, China. Appl. Geogr. 152, 102875 (12 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.102875 Institutional Repository DORA

Hersperger A., Pagliarin S., Gerrits L. (2023) Digitalization in planning. In K. Van Assche, R. Beunen, & M. Duineveld (Eds.), Elgar encyclopedias in the social sciences. Elgar encyclopedia in urban and regional planning and design. Cheltenham, Glos: Edwar Elgar. 110-113. Institutional Repository DORA

Slave A.R., Iojă I.C., Hossu C.A., Grădinaru S.R., Petrișor A.I., Hersperger A.M. (2023) Assessing public opinion using self-organizing maps. Lessons from urban planning in Romania. Landsc. Urban Plan. 231, 104641 (11 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104641 Institutional Repository DORA

Bürgi M., Celio E., Diogo V., Hersperger A.M., Kizos T., Lieskovsky J., … Verburg P.H. (2022) Advancing the study of driving forces of landscape change. J. Land Use Sci. 17(1), 540-545. doi:10.1080/1747423X.2022.2029599 Institutional Repository DORA

Coleman Brantschen E., Hersperger A., Chopard S. (2022) Raumplanung und Wald auf kommunaler Ebene: grosses Potenzial für Kooperation. Schweiz. Z. Forstwes. 173(5), 218-221. doi:10.3188/szf.2022.0218 Institutional Repository DORA

Fertner C., Folvig S., Christensen A.A., Grønning M., Galland D., Rutledal B., … Cuadrado A. (2022) Potential and challenges of digitisation in planning practice. Working paper. ESPON. 23 p. Institutional Repository DORA

He Z., Ling Y., Fürst C., Hersperger A.M. (2022) Does zoning contain built-up land expansion? Causal evidence from Zhangzhou City, China. Landsc. Urban Plan. 220, 104339 (11 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104339 Institutional Repository DORA

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