Pedestrian vision and collision avoidance behavior: investigation of the information process space of pedestrians using an eye tracker

This study investigates the Information Process Space (IPS) of pedestrians, which has been widely used in microscopic pedestrian movement simulation models. IPS is a conceptual framework to define the spatial extent within which all objects are considered as potential obstacles for each pedestrian when computing where to move next. The particular focus of our study was identifying the size and shape of IPS by examining observed gaze patterns of pedestrians. A series of experiments was conducted in a controlled laboratory environment, in which up to 4 participants walked on a platform at their natural speed. Their gaze patterns were recorded by a head-mounted eye tracker and walking paths by laser-range-scanner–based tracking systems at the frequency of 25Hz. Our findings are threefold: pedestrians pay much more attention to ground surfaces to detect immediate potential environmental hazards than fixating on obstacles; most of their fixations fall within a cone-shape area rather than a semicircle; and the attention paid to approaching pedestrians is not as high as that paid to static obstacles. These results led to an insight that the structure of IPS should be re-examined by researching directional characteristics of pedestrians’ vision

StreetlightSim: a simulation environment to evaluate networked and adaptive street lighting

Sustaining the operation of street lights incurs substantial financial and environmental cost. Consequently, adaptive lighting systems have been proposed incorporating ad-hoc networking, sensing, and data processing, in order to better manage the street lights and their energy demands. Evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of these complex systems requires the modelling of vehicles, road networks, algorithms, and communication systems, yet tools are not available to permit this. This paper proposes StreetlightSim, a novel simulation environment combining OMNeT++ and SUMO tools to model both traffic patterns and adaptive networked street lights. StreetlightSim’s models are illustrated through the simulation of a simple example, and a more complex scenario is used to show the potential of the tool and the obtainable results. StreetlightSim has been made open-source, and hence is available to the community

Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Roofs and Pavements. A Case Study at Sapienza University Campus

The progressively emerging concept of urban resilience to climate change highlights the importance of mitigation and adaptation measures, and the need to integrate urban climatology in the design process, in order to better understand the multiple effects of combined green and cool technologies for the transition to climate responsive and thermally comfortable urban open spaces. This study focuses the attention on selected mitigation and adaptation technologies; two renovation scenarios were designed and modeled according to the minimal intervention criterion. The study pays attention to the effect on surface temperature and physiological equivalent temperature (PET) of vegetation and high albedo materials characterizing the horizontal boundaries of the site. The Sapienza University campus, a historical site in Rome, is taken as a case study. These results highlight the importance of treed open spaces and the combination of permeable green pavements associated with cool roofs as the most effective strategy for the mitigation of summer heatwaves and the improvement of outdoor thermal comfort