While the application of tracking technologies has developed substantially in social sciences and transportation sciences in the last decade, it has failed to make a significant impression in the scientific field of urbanism and spatial planning. The chair of Urban Design and the chair of spatial Planning at the Delft University of Technology noted this shortcoming while working within the framework of the EU-sponsored spatial metro project and the network cities research programme. In a joint effort, on 18 January 2007, they held an international expert meeting on the application of tracking technologies in urbanism. The Delft school of Design sponsored and facilitated the expert meeting.The starting point of Urbanism on track was the exploration of the current and future possibilities and the limitations in the application of tracking technologies in urban design and spatial planning processes. The expert meeting Urbanism on track aimed to address the subject from the viewpoint of multiple disciplines. The book Urbanism on Track shows a preliminary crystallisation of the ideas presented at that meeting. as such, Urbanism on track documents the early stages of the application of tracking technologies. Practices or applications are as yet far from mature, but the documentation of this relatively early stage of technological development is what makes the book particularly relevant.@en

The conditions of urban development are currently changing radically. Technological transformations such as automation and robotization in industrial production are leading to new operating conditions for businesses and employees. New transportation and distribution systems are changing the scale and flow patterns of the urban agglomerations. The effects of the general application of information and communication technologies in everyday life are barely to overlook. Globalization and internationalization as well as the processes of European unification have led to increasing competition between urban agglomerations on European and world scales. On the other hand, the social contrasts within these agglomerations are growing. World-wide environmental problems, the necessity for a more efficient use of energy and natural resources as well as a limitation of CO2 emissions mean that we have to make adaptations to our urban structures and building fabric.@en