Colouring London Planning Visualisation (CLPV) Tool
Creating an open-source tool to support new urban development whilst mapping and protecting local character.
As urban areas evolve, it is essential that local stakeholders can manage the demand for new development whilst mapping and protecting local landmarks and character.
The challenge
However, the UK currently has no building-level visualisation system for the public to view and understand the status of planning applications in real time.
Access to a platform of this kind would allow property developers, local authorities and residents to review live planning applications and assess the potential impacts of them.
Dr Falli Palaiologou and her collaborators are working to remedy this situation with an open-source tool that will facilitate access to planning information and enhance stakeholder engagement in collaborative urban planning.
The Colouring London Planning Visualisation (CLPV) Tool integrates live planning data into the Colouring London digital platform – part of The Colouring Cities Research Programme (CCRP) led by Polly Hudson at The Alan Turing Institute.
Impacts and benefits
The CLPV tool is now live. A reproducible open-source digital tool, it visualises colour-coded geolocated data on planning applications streamed from the Greater London Authority’s Planning Datahub. Currently, 22 of London’s 33 boroughs are visualised.
It was launched at a nationwide event, and its code disseminated via GitHub, in 2023, following extensive testing with a range of public and private, national and international stakeholders.
In addition to its obvious uses in urban planning, the tool also has a role in climate action to improve resilience – for example, by highlighting areas vulnerable to flooding.
The project’s success has cemented the partnership between the University and Turing Institute. Funded by DLUHC, work is underway to create Colouring Loughborough – a prototype regional case study for Colouring Britain.
Work is ongoing to refine the tool, and an open user manual has been shared via GitHub. Meanwhile, the team is working on upgrading the use of the tool by making a step-change from 2D to 3D to advance the use of digital twins in strategic and predictive decision making in urban planning.
In November 2023, the Alan Turing Institute and Loughborough University received the Excellence in Digital Planning Practice Award by the Royal Town Planning Institute.
The judges noted that: “This project uses the latest technology to continuously engage with stakeholders to deliver an outstanding example of excellence in digital planning practice.”
Banner image: The CLPV tool in Colouring London’s planning controls section
Courtesy of The Alan Turing Institute
“The project enhanced our relationship with The Alan Turing Institute and provided a great opportunity to expand our network with other research partners.”
Meet the team
The Alan Turing Institute
Maps are Great
Meet our partners
We were privileged to work with colleagues from the following organisations.