Urban greening scenario - Dijon Métropole

This greening scenario for Dijon Metropolis was co-designed by researchers and metropolitan planning teams.
Funding: PhD project IRRIFU* (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region) and the H2020 RESPONSE project.

The scenario maximizes greening across the metropolitan area while respecting the regulatory constraints set by the local urban planning document (PLUi-HD, adopted in 2019).
- In public spaces and activity zones, a minimum space is preserved for the circulation of vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians.
- In private gardens, biotope and permeable soil coefficients are applied, in line with the PLUi-HD requirements. The methodology developed for greening private parcels is available as a QGIS plugin: Mélissa Poupelin, Ludovic Granjon, Julien Pergaud. ⟨swh:1:snp:4a58f22d3f78f9dc45c354927d4dbf828c11184f⟩. ⟨hal-05127963⟩

In total, the scenario adds 130,000 trees and over 16 km² of grass—equivalent to approximately 4,125 soccer fields—across the metropolitan territory.

From a territorial planning perspective, although the scenario is delivered as a vector dataset with meter-scale resolution, it is not intended as a literal blueprint. Instead, it provides a flexible base for adaptation by landscape architects, urban designers, and planners working at finer scales.
From an urban climatology perspective, the scenario supports simulations of the urban climate, allowing analysis of greening impacts on temperature, humidity, and thermal stress indicators.

The methodology used to build this scenario is presented in French in the associated PhD dissertation.
A scientific article in English is currently under review with a peer-reviewed journal.

*The PhD, titled "Geoprospective and Climate Modeling of Urban Vegetation for Heat Adaptation: Application to Dijon Metropolis", was defended by Mélissa Poupelin in December 2024 and is available online.

architecture (humanities), geography (humanities), environmental sciences (sciences of the universe)