Profile

S&W Urban and Regional Research is a research-oriented planning and consulting company based in Dortmund, Germany. It was founded in 2001 as a spin-off from the Technical University of Dortmund.

The objective of S&W is policy-relevant and practice-oriented innovative research and consulting as a contribution to the promotion of sustainable and equitable spatial and mobility structures at the urban and rural, regional, national and European level.

Partners of S&W are Dr.‑Ing. Klaus Spiekermann and Dr.‑Ing. Björn Schwarze.

Range of services

Good planning requires reliable information. The special competence of S&W lies in developing and applying state-of-the-art methods of spatial analysis and simulation, geographic information systems, forecast models and advanced visualisation techniques.

Our main areas of work are:

  • Spatial and location analyses, location consulting
  • European Spatial Development
  • Regional development and central places
  • Simulation of spatial development, transport and environment
  • Accessibility analyses and scenarios
  • Demographic analyses and population forecasts
  • Scenario analyses
  • Analyses and evaluations of urban, rural and regional services of general interest
  • Cross-border spatial monitoring
  • Regional economic analyses
  • Geostatistical and empirical analyses
  • Applications and analysis methods for Big Data
  • Geographical information systems, cartography and visualisation of spatial issues

In our projects, we use the latest methods of spatial analysis and simulation, geo-information systems, forecasting models and state-of-the-art visualisation techniques.