DISP is the center for documentation and information for planning issues and is part of the Institute of National, Regional and Local Planning (ORL) at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zürich). The quarterly published journal DISP together with other services rendered, were instrumental to establish spatial planning in Switzerland between 1960 and 1970. During the 1980s and 1990s, new responsibilities and tasks were challenging DISP.
The issues of the journal DISP are mainly concerned with the changes in spatial planning in Switzerland within a European context. Therefore, it became an international, interdisciplinary and scientific forum for public opinion, concerned with analyzing and debating questions of planning. The editorial office is supported by experts in the respective fields and has a network of international correspondents and authors. With the introduction of an editorial board and referees, the multi-language editions of DISP will make the journal a truly international and interdisciplinary medium, which is in addition set up on the internet (http://disp.ethz.ch/).
Today, the problem concerns not a lack of information but the information's quality and judgment. DISP has taken on the task to give some direction to the overwhelming "sea of words" on information with regard to planning and to assist the institute in becoming an authority within the network of electronic data information on planning. At the same time, DISP is involved in international research and activities in continuing education.