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Assessing impacts of superblocks on walkability and urban mobility
The hypothesis is that superblocks can be implemented in Switzerland to improve the sustainability of cities. The goals are to explore and assess impacts on urban mobility and walkability of different superblock scenarios.
Assessing unconventional urban design approaches are a necessity due to the manifold challenges today’s cities are facing due to climate change, urban heat island effects, air or noise pollution [1]. Superblocks have been proposed in Barcelona as an innovative and unconventional urban transformation strategy to create pedestrian-centric neighbourhoods [2]. The ideal superblock consists of 9 urban blocks with interior and exterior streets, where interior streets are transformed to allow for new-shared urban uses (Figure 1). Superblock design crucially reduces space assigned to car-based traffic to enable alternative uses such as pedestrian or cycling zones. Research on the impacts of superblock implementations on urban traffic or urban walkability [3] is ongoing.
**Suggested tasks**
1. Literature review on work related to superblocks, urban walkability and traffic flow analysis.
2. Develop a workflow based on different kind of geospatial data to test the implications of superblocks on urban mobility and walkability.
3. Refine the analysis for different types of urban transport (e.g. car, bicycle) for a case study city.
4. Assess impacts for different superblocks scenarios.
5.Document the conducted research in a report.
Depending on the research interest and skill, the student can focus either more on urban walkability or e.g. traffic-flow simulation.
**References**
[1] Mueller et al. (2020): Changing the urban design of cities for health: The superblock model Environ. Int. 134 105132
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZORzsubQA_M
[3] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102555
Assessing unconventional urban design approaches are a necessity due to the manifold challenges today’s cities are facing due to climate change, urban heat island effects, air or noise pollution [1]. Superblocks have been proposed in Barcelona as an innovative and unconventional urban transformation strategy to create pedestrian-centric neighbourhoods [2]. The ideal superblock consists of 9 urban blocks with interior and exterior streets, where interior streets are transformed to allow for new-shared urban uses (Figure 1). Superblock design crucially reduces space assigned to car-based traffic to enable alternative uses such as pedestrian or cycling zones. Research on the impacts of superblock implementations on urban traffic or urban walkability [3] is ongoing.
**Suggested tasks**
1. Literature review on work related to superblocks, urban walkability and traffic flow analysis.
2. Develop a workflow based on different kind of geospatial data to test the implications of superblocks on urban mobility and walkability.
3. Refine the analysis for different types of urban transport (e.g. car, bicycle) for a case study city.
4. Assess impacts for different superblocks scenarios.
5.Document the conducted research in a report.
Depending on the research interest and skill, the student can focus either more on urban walkability or e.g. traffic-flow simulation.
**References**
[1] Mueller et al. (2020): Changing the urban design of cities for health: The superblock model Environ. Int. 134 105132
The key objective of the proposed research is to assess urban mobility (e.g. cars, cycling) and walkability impacts of superblocks for Switzerland. An automated data-driven methodology shall be developed to test the implications of different superblock scenarios.
The key objective of the proposed research is to assess urban mobility (e.g. cars, cycling) and walkability impacts of superblocks for Switzerland. An automated data-driven methodology shall be developed to test the implications of different superblock scenarios.
The student will be co-supervised at Empa by Dr Sven Eggimann at the Urban Energy Systems Lab. The student will need to find a professor/supervisor who guarantees the supervision to his/her respective main host institution.
Interested students should send an email to the contacts below with an updated CV and transcript of records (MSc and BSc). Students with experience in geospatial analysis (e.g. NetworkX) or a background in traffic flow simulation are particularly encouraged to apply. A good programming maturity in Python is considered a mandatory prerequisite. Please get in contact with any further questions: sven.eggimann@empa.ch
The student will be co-supervised at Empa by Dr Sven Eggimann at the Urban Energy Systems Lab. The student will need to find a professor/supervisor who guarantees the supervision to his/her respective main host institution.
Interested students should send an email to the contacts below with an updated CV and transcript of records (MSc and BSc). Students with experience in geospatial analysis (e.g. NetworkX) or a background in traffic flow simulation are particularly encouraged to apply. A good programming maturity in Python is considered a mandatory prerequisite. Please get in contact with any further questions: sven.eggimann@empa.ch