The Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (GCSMUS), is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) via the DAAD program “Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation – exceed" and based at the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin).

GCSMUS seeks to introduce the use of social science research methodologies for the advancement of urban sustainable development, by connecting social sciences methodology, via knowledge transfer, exchange and implementation, with urban policy-making, planning and design.

More specifically, the GCSMUS puts forward an innovative methodological stance that attempts to bring together research methods of the social sciences and research methods deployed in design disciplines, urban planning and policy making, to then co-produce enhanced spatial methods for promoting urban sustainability in the form of evidence-based and low-impact urban development (LIUD).

This is conceptualized explicitly as a peer-learning process between the 48 partners from 47 countries and 8 world regions, for there is a need, in both developed and developing countries, to close implementation gaps of LIUD approaches and cultivate transdisciplinary methodology.