New tools for identifying logistics land

Hélène de Solère: This issue was taken into account from Cerema’s inception. Indeed, few local authorities had public policies in place to support urban logistics stakeholders in their areas. Local authorities have regulatory, planning, spatial-planning and economic-development levers that affect the organization of freight transport in their territories, and they have a role to play in promoting more sustainable logistics from environmental, economic and societal perspectives…

By producing methodological guides and facilitating a network of technical staff to encourage the exchange of best practices, Cerema became involved in supporting local authorities. Nevertheless, in 2020, urban logistics still had little presence in local public policy.

Hélène de Solère: In 2020, Cerema and Logistic Low Carbon responded to a call for proposals under the CEE (Energy Savings Certificates) scheme run by the Ministry of Energy, in order to provide local authorities with practical, financial and human support to develop, in consultation with economic stakeholders, sustainable urban logistics charters and concrete actions addressing the challenges of each territory and each economic sector. The InTerLUD program was then followed by the InTerLUD+ program which, in addition to supporting these locally agreed charters, aims to develop methodologies and tools to address the issues raised by the territories being supported.

Hélène de Solère: The first component of InTerLUD consists of supporting local authorities in their commitment to sustainable urban logistics, taking environmental, societal and economic challenges into account. To date, 62 territories are being supported through charters encompassing 164 actions underway. The second component, called “Accelerating transitions,” aims to address blind spots and develop innovative topics. These include biowaste logistics, the digitalization of urban logistics, and the issue of land. Activities related to freight transport and distribution require suitable spaces, which are often difficult to integrate into already constrained urban environments. All economic stakeholders in sustainable urban logistics report difficulties related to the scarcity of logistics land in their territories, whether for the development of delivery areas, warehouse extensions or new logistics spaces.

Several local authorities have addressed logistics land issues in planning documents: SRADDET, SCOT DAACLs and PLUs, but this challenge is still too rarely anticipated in urban-planning documents and development projects.

In September 2025, the publication of the study report Identification and Characterization of Logistics Land and Real Estate – Feedback and Recommendations, by Nicolas Jouve, forms part of the actions undertaken by the Direction générale des infrastructures, des transports et des mobilités (DGITM) to help local authorities gain a better understanding of the logistics spaces in their territories. It complements the Atlas of Warehouses and Logistics Areas published in 2024 by the Service des données et études statistiques (SDES), compiled with Afilog members. Based on a literature review and interviews with experts, local authorities and institutions, it identifies existing methods for identifying these logistics spaces and proposes avenues for improvement to optimize the tools used by local authorities.

Hélène de Solère: The project is indeed being rolled out in several stages. In September 2025, eight territories were selected for support (Eurométropole de Strasbourg, Ville de Paris, Toulouse Métropole, Métropole du Grand Paris, Ville de Lille, CA Val d'Yerres Val de Seine, Brest métropole, Bordeaux Métropole). In the fall and early 2026, we compiled their needs and worked on planning the platform that will host the project’s various deliverables. In July 2026, we launched a call for tenders and, at its conclusion, we will select the service provider responsible for developing the platform. In the fourth quarter, there will be a testing phase, with validation of the tools. At the end of this phase, the platform will be rolled out to all EPCI (public intermunicipal cooperation establishments).

These tools will help avoid situations in which a local authority offers land for logistics activities but cannot find a tenant because it has not reached those who might be interested, because the available square footage is insufficient, or because the timing does not align: a solution that arrives before the need is expressed is more difficult to adopt. The same applies when it arrives too late... In addition, industry professionals sometimes do not know whom to contact. These new tools will enable them to find the right departments, while allowing local authorities to respond appropriately.

A support component will also be offered to enable local authorities to incorporate all these needs into urban-planning documents (PLU, SCOT DAACLs, SRADDET). The project provides a structured approach aimed at integrating logistics from the earliest territorial planning and design phases of development projects.

Hélène de Solère: The digital platform being developed will provide several decision-support tools for local authorities and a web application that simulates the freight flows associated with an urban development project, in order to facilitate consideration of logistics land and real estate needs in that project (parcel lockers, local warehouses, development of delivery areas, etc.). A land opportunity analysis tool designed to assess the relevance of creating or mobilizing new logistics spaces is also proposed.

It will also be accompanied by methodological resources enabling local authorities to gain a better understanding of their local logistics ecosystem. A guide is provided to inventory and characterize existing warehouses and facilitate their processing in geographic information systems (GIS). In addition, an educational toolkit is made available to public decision-makers to facilitate cross-functional work between local authorities’ internal departments and their partners (planning departments, economic-development departments, urban-planning agencies, public land agencies, etc.), and to promote the effective and sustainable provision of logistics spaces for economic stakeholders.