Urban Intelligence has been awarded a contract by Birmingham City Council to undertake a review of land across the city using ground-breaking digital methods. Using artificial intelligence, the council can assess many more sites at a much faster pace, making it easier to fulfil its housing targets.
Urban Intelligence’s geospatial analysis software will increase the speed and scope of the council’s land review. It will enable 330,000 sites to be reviewed, almost 300 times more than the 1,160 sites assessed by the council in 2017. The software will also reduce the time to produce a final list of sites from almost one year to just three months.
Birmingham City Council is currently considering its new development plan for 2022-2042, and finding enough land for housing is likely to become increasingly difficult. An examination of the council’s current plan has already found that 38,000 of the 89,000 new dwellings can’t be accommodated within the city’s boundaries.
Urban Intelligence uses machine learning to appraise every land parcel across the city, maximising the chances of uncovering more sites suitable for housing. It will also enable scenario testing to assess the impact of policy decisions in preparation for the new Birmingham Development Plan.
Daniel Mohamed, founder and CEO, Urban Intelligence, said, “As the largest local authority in Europe, Birmingham will provide a fantastic opportunity to explore the use of geospatial methods for data-driven urban development at significant scale.”
Urban Intelligence’s technology has already been used in the London Borough of Hounslow, multiplying the number of sites typically assessed by a factor of almost 200. Urban Intelligence’s work has uncovered 4,200 suitable sites, many of which are already council-owned and small, fulfilling the London Plan’s new requirement for Hounslow to deliver 2,800 homes on sites under 0.25 hectares.
