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The Associations of Street Network and Urban Form with Walking Frequencies
Full text linkWalking is globally promoted as an urban transport mode that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and increases physical activity. While it is well-known that accessibility at neighbourhood and urban levels impact walking levels, studies on pedestrian travel behaviour are typically based on area-based measures. Network-based measures of street configuration, connectivity, urban density, and land-use diversity have scarcely been applied. This paper aims to find associations of network-based connectivity and accessibility measures with walking frequencies. We applied a series of multivariable ordinal regressions adjusted for distance to various destinations, building-type diversity, socio-demographic variables, and car ownership. We operationalise connectivity as reach, i.e., the number of streets reached through the network, and density and diversity as weighted reach, i.e., the floor area, population, or retail accessible within walkable distances through the network. Street network configurations are described by topological centrality (integration). Results show significant positive associations of reach, attraction reach, and integration with walking frequency, with the best model fits achieved by accessible total floor area and reach within relatively high network radii (1000 – 2000 m and 6 axial steps), indicating that connectivity and access to a variety of attraction and functions, often beyond administrative borders, encourage walking
Mapping How Worlds Come to Be
Full text linkThe notion of ‘worlds’ has gained much traction in recent discourses. Across the sciences, humanities and arts, including architecture, studies centring on ‘worlds’ aims to establish a new condition for theorising systems and their wider entanglements. Especially in architecture, there is a plethora of studies that often use a cartographic approach to chart various material (trans)formations of planetary spaces, and/or the wider discourses on spatial practices that may serve as the basis for theorising and practicing towards other possible worlds and futures. In this review I attempt to further these inquiries into spatial production by such ‘other’ means, by calling for a complementary posthuman account in which, following Braidotti, environmental, social, and technological transformations can no longer be understood in isolation. Here, I argue, it is necessary to resume and extend Foucault’s initial call to subsume the formation of built environments (and the various practices that create them) under the general history of technē, here generalised in terms of (cultural) technologies and cosmotechnics. With this aim, the following discusses theoretically-grounded approaches through the spatialisation and coupling of (cosmotechnical) difference
Seasonal Trends and Sociodemographic Influences on Long-Distance Trips - A Full Year of GPS Tracking Data from Munich
Full text linkThis study provides insights into the rarely observed long-distance travel patterns of individuals. Collected smartphone tracking data from June 2022 to May 2023, focused on the Munich metropolitan region, allows us to investigate travel behavior and the occurrence of long-distance travel throughout the year. After comprehensive data preparation, the recorded modal share and the share of observed long-distance trips are compared with the findings of a German travel survey to investigate the benefits of the dataset. Long-distance trips are further analyzed in terms of their occurrence rate and modal share throughout the year. Furthermore, the influence of various sociodemographic characteristics and car ownership on long-distance travel is explored. The primary usage of privately owned cars is also analyzed. Our findings reveal differences in the occurrence of trips, with increased frequency observed during summer, weekends, school holidays, and public holidays. Additionally, the research underscores the impact of sociodemographic factors, particularly household income and age, on elevated levels of long-distance travel activity. Our research indicates that a significant share of car owners in the urban area use the car primarily for long-distance trips
Editorial
No full textWorldwide, climate-related disasters are becoming increasingly common, resulting in severe destruction, loss of life, political uncertainty, climate migrations, and the extinction of numerous plant and animal species. As a result, forces of nature are often viewed as an adversary, something to fear and guard against. This perspective has led to the idea of nature as something malevolent and dangerous, even in the scientific debate, promoting the flawed notion that the changing climate must be controlled and corrected through technological means.
However, it is necessary to acknowledge that for centuries we have deliberately extracted material from the soil, constructed megacities on floodplains, confined wide river meanders within narrow canals, built dams and reservoirs on geological fault lines, established petrochemical plants in rare biodiversity regions, and developed agricultural land below sea level or in the deserts. Since the Industrial Revolution, in the name of progress, we have increasingly tried to dominate nature through technological advancements, believing we could control the water cycles, temperatures, species evolution, and geological dynamics. Yet, we are ultimately realizing that these are natural processes that lie beyond our control.
This issue of the Journal of Delta Urbanism seeks to redefine natural disasters as human-induced accidents, aiming to reshape our understanding of nature, human impact, and climate change. It promotes the perspective that these phenomena are inextricably inherent and immutable, urging the envisioning of new ways of living, designing new forms of adaptation rather than fostering attempts at control or fixing nature
Overcoming Disciplinary Stupidity: Collective Creation for Diversity and Inclusion in Public Space Design
Full text linkThis article explores the challenge of designing public spaces in hyperdiverse cities and argues that including knowledge often considered ‘stupid’ is key towards inclusive design approaches. It discusses recent shifts towards co-creation, co-design and placemaking by highlighting the importance of engaging with collective stupidity beyond presumed disciplinary intelligence. The integration of stupid or unconventional ideas in collective creation processes could help better problematise design challenges in public spaces and better engage with diverse perspectives to address diversity effectively. First, we will sketch the main societal pushes and academic turns supporting the enhancement of stupidity through the collective creation of public space for contemporary inclusive and hyperdiverse cities. Then, drawing on a comparative literature study of key authors introducing paradigmatic shifts for today’s theoretical framing and understanding of collective creation, diversity and design ethics in public space, we propose a non-conclusive series of design capacities for public space designers. These designer capacities are situated in contextual and sociocultural awareness, sensitivity to socio-spatial relations and narrative inquiry, and designing with the tacit, hence with empathy and responsibility. Finally, we highlight the relation between stupidity and failure in urban design and present relevant success practices. However complimentary to traditional design capacities, we conclude that these ethico-aesthetic approaches might challenge traditional notions of intelligence, beauty or authorship in design in favour of diversity and inclusivity
Stated Preference-Based Analysis of the Impact of Bicycle Parking Fees on the Occupancy and Benefits of Bicycle Parking Stations
Full text linkCities with high levels of cycling frequently encounter challenges associated with high demand for bicycle parking. One approach to tackle this is the installation of bicycle parking stations that provide weather and theft protection. Due to their high cost and limited capacity, a pricing strategy appears to be useful for managing the occupancy of these facilities. However, there is a shortage of quantitative studies that analyze improvements in bicycle parking and specifically measure the impact of parking fees. Against this background, this paper examines the effect of parking fees on the utility of planned bicycle parking stations at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. The study uses a mixed logit model that is based on a stated preference experiment on bicycle parking (n = 2,960). Based on logsum analysis, the results indicate that parking fees can contribute to bicycle parking demand being spatially more evenly distributed, thereby reducing congestion of parking stations while at the same time generating substantial revenues. In the case study, bicycle parking stations can enhance their benefit-cost ratio by implementing parking fees, provided that facilities with low occupancy are excluded from the parking fee. Therefore, the introduction of a modest fee can be beneficial for single bicycle parking facilities that otherwise face substantial crowding, without compromising, but actually increasing their benefit-cost ratio
Exploring the effect of foreshores on dike breach development via a mid-scale experiment
Full text linkCoastal and fluvial flood defences currently rely primarily on existing (grey) infrastructure such as dikes. However, coastal flood risk is expected to increase substantially in the near future. This requires ever increasing efforts to strengthen dikes. To aid these conventional methods, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are increasingly proposed, such as coastal wetlands. Coastal wetlands have many ecological benefits, but also aid flood protection, especially tidal marshes. Tidal marshes protect the dikes behind them through wave attenuation and reduce flood damage if the dike is breached. Meanwhile, flood risk assessment relies on dike breach modelling to estimate the breach discharges for inundation simulations. Yet, how these foreshores (e.g., tidal marsh) affect dike breach development is largely unknown. For this reason, we experimentally explore how different foreshores affect the dike breaching process. In this study we performed a series of breach tests with a 1.5-1.9 m high model sand-dike with and without a foreshore. We tested two types of foreshores, an erodible sand and low-erodible clay layer, acting as proxies for a sandy beach and unvegetated tidal marsh. Because dike breach flow closely resembles weir flow, the standard weir equation applies, which is also frequently used in breach discharge models. The observed foreshore effects are qualitatively evaluated using this weir equation. Depending on foreshore stability, we find that foreshores affect breach hydrodynamics which alters the weir shape, leading to reduced breach width growth and ultimately limits the specific discharge
Gradient-based smart predict-then-optimize framework for aircraft arrival scheduling problem
Full text linkThis paper introduces a gradient-based Smart Predict-then-Optimize (SPO) framework for solving the Aircraft Arrival Scheduling Problem (ASP) in Terminal Maneuvering Area. Traditional approaches to ASP typically separate arrival time prediction from scheduling optimization, potentially leading to incomplete solutions. We address this limitation by developing an end-to-end learning framework that directly integrates prediction with optimization objectives. Our methodology introduces the concept of traffic instances for simultaneous prediction of multiple aircraft arrival times, coupled with a Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model for scheduling optimization. We evaluate our approach using real-world data from London Gatwick Airport, analyzing 47452 arrival flights from June to September 2024, organized into 2404 traffic instances. The framework incorporates comprehensive weather data through the ATMAP algorithm, considering factors such as wind, visibility, precipitation, and dangerous phenomena. Experimental results demonstrate that the MLP+SPO+ framework shows particular effectiveness in adapting to adverse weather conditions, strategically balancing transit times with operational efficiency. While the minimum time window is required, the MLP+SPO+ will reach around 85.0% and 43.4% lower costs compared with the First-Come-First-Serve (FCFS) cost and optimized true cost, respectively. These findings suggest significant potential for improving arrival scheduling efficiency through integrated SPO approaches
Reviews and Responses for Gradient-based smart predict-then-optimize framework for aircraft arrival scheduling problem
Full text linkSee detailed reviews and responses in the PDF file.
DOI for the original paper: https://doi.org/10.59490/joas.2024.7891
Data-Driven Prediction of Aircraft Holding Times Using OpenSky Data
Full text linkAs global air traffic increases, major hubs such as London Heathrow and Gatwick experience increasing congestion, leading to the frequent queuing of aircraft in holding stacks. This study employs machine learning (ML) techniques to predict aircraft holding times at London Heathrow, aiming to enhance flight management and reduce congestion in the Terminal Maneuvering Area (TMA) by enabling adjustments to flight trajectories and speeds earlier in the flight, rather than upon arrival. Leveraging historical data - including surveillance data from the OpenSky Network - from April 2023 to March 2024, the study adopts the LightGBM and LSTM ML frameworks to develop two sets of predictive ML models: one set of regression models to predict the holding time of individual flights up to 60 minutes from the London TMA; and one set of time series regression models to predict the average holding time in different holding stacks. Test results of the regression models show that the models trained with LightGBM have the best performance, with minimum RMSE and MAE values of 2.25 and 1.50 minutes, respectively. On the other hand, the results of the time series regression models show better performance by the models trained with LSTM, with average RMSE and MAE values of 2.41 and 1.47 minutes, respectively. In conclusion, this research highlights the effectiveness of ML in predicting aircraft airborne holding times, offering significant benefits to pilots, air traffic controllers, and flight planners. The successful application of these models could lead to substantial improvements in flight efficiency and reduced environmental impact from fewer delays and less fuel consumption.