Social, political and economic changes generate new tasks and assignments for a city, many of which cannot be satisfied within the framework of existing urban structures. For the Berlin metropolitan area and its surroundings, a major growth impetus is predicted during the next 20 years as a result of planning for the capital. According to the prognoses of the Berlin Master Plan (FNP 94), the population should grow by some 300,000 people by the year 2010, to some 3.7 million inhabitants; 400,000 new housing units will be required over and above the existing stock. The estimated requirement for additional commercial space is 1,000 ha. In addition, it is assumed that some 11 million m2 of office space and 1.4 million m2 of retail-sales space will be required by the year 2010 (figures refer to gross floor-space). At the same time, the demands of the urban inhabitants upon the quality and quantity of green and open spaces in which to fulfill their needs for rest and recreation, relaxation and play, are growing. The multifaceted and contradictory demands upon the urban spaces in Berlin will necessarily lead to changes in the existing land use pattern.
Urban planning faces the task of balancing the demands for space against one another, and of ensuring a compromise between interests.
An understanding of the current land use situation in Berlin is needed, too, for the tasks and issues of landscape planning. Thus, an evaluation of the needs of the population for recreational possibilities near their homes requires information about the location of residential areas and of open spaces. Also, the close proximity of certain polluting uses and sensitive uses, such as commercial and residential areas, or allotment gardens in the neighborhood of commercial areas, can provide indications on existing conflicts (noise pollution, air quality, heavy-metal pollution of the soil), and strategies for solutions can be developed.
An understanding of the current land use situation in Berlin is also an important base for the development of the tools for ecological planning, i.e. for the soil concept map, the vegetation types or the delimitation of climatic zones.
The data compilation in the Environmental Information System (UIS) of the Berlin Department of Urban Development and Environmental Protection (SenStadtUm) permits interfacing with other factual data managed here, for example the contaminated site roster, and thus enables new statements to be made regarding a multitude of issues.
Maps 06.01 and 06.02 fit together to form a comprehensive representation of actual land use in Berlin, and should, in terms of their content, be considered a single map, printed, for reasons of readability, on two map sheets. The following text thus refers in principle to both maps, unless reference is expressly made to a particular map.