Leveraging soil data for urban arbitration: A contextual and agile approach to planning in Brussels
(2026) 6th World Planning Schools Congress (WPSC) — Location: Helsinki, Finland (29.June.2026)
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- Authors
Bossard, Alexandre 
Cavalieri, Chiara
- Abstract
- A recent judicial ruling in Brussels (29th of October 2025), which suspended any construction project on undeveloped parcels exceeding half a hectare, illustrates the challenges of reconciling competing urban demands within a context of limited land and eroded trust in top-down planning. This presentation explores how detailed documentation on soil, including pollution, geology, and historical use, may contribute to more informed and contextualised arbitrations in land-use conflicts. Soil data, when mapped in plan and section, provides a material basis for assessing trade-offs alongside social, economic, and ecological considerations. We examine how historical data and 3D soil cartography can help objectify decisions, not by dictating outcomes, but by revealing constraints and opportunities often overlooked in conventional planning. For instance, the high costs of depolluting a contaminated urban garden underscore the financial implications of environmental legacies, while the presence of uncontaminated yet sealed soils raise questions about missed opportunities for unsealing. Such documentation does not replace political or social negotiation but offers a complementary, evidence-based layer to support adaptive, site-specific approaches. This work draws on nature-based urbanism as a lens for understanding the importance of soil in urban contexts, positioning it as one of many interconnected factors in planning decisions. The approach seeks to mitigate both the commodification of land and the risks of oversimplifying soil constraints. It does not advocate for soil as the sole arbiter of planning but as part of a pluralistic framework that acknowledges the complexity of urban grounds: their materialities, histories, and contested futures.
- Affiliations
Citations
Bossard, A. (2026, July 2). Leveraging soil data for urban arbitration: A contextual and agile approach to planning in Brussels. 6th World Planning Schools Congress (WPSC), Helsinki, Finland. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/278860