In the past decade, many European countries have taken significant steps to set up digital plan registers and digitise spatial planning processes. The digitalisation process is driven by ideas of efficiency, expressed for example in the concept of “smart cities” and "digital governance", ideas of participation and improved public service, like "open government" and "open data", and an aspiration for new economic growth and business opportunities based on this.
Digital plans and plan data open a range of new opportunities for new planning practices. However, evidence on the impact of this digitisation on e.g. efficiency, innovative practice or transparency in planning is lacking. In the DIGIPLAN project we explored the development and state of digital plans and plan data in several European countries as well as the obstacles and main drivers for the digitalisation. It is the first of its kind; no similar research has been conducted before and the topic of inquiry was spanning wide from the begin-ning. An explorative approach was necessary to shed light on more or less advanced digital practices in different spatial planning contexts. However, we also present an early systematisation of general concepts. [...]