Design of evacuation plans for densely urbanised city centres

The high population density and tightly packed nature of some city centres make emergency planning for these urban spaces especially important, given the potential for human loss in case of disaster. Historic and recent events have made emergency service planners particularly conscious of the need for preparing evacuation plans in advance. This paper discusses a methodological approach for assisting decision-makers in designing urban evacuation plans. The approach aims at quickly and safely moving the population away from the danger zone into shelters. The plans include determining the number and location of rescue facilities, as well as the paths that people should take from their building to their assigned shelter in case of an occurrence requiring evacuation. The approach is thus of the location–allocation–routing type, through the existing streets network, and takes into account the trade-offs among different aspects of evacuation actions that inevitably come up during the planning stage. All the steps of the procedure are discussed and systematised, along with computational and practical implementation issues, in the context of a case study – the design of evacuation plans for the historical centre of an old European city

Design of pedestrian network friendliness maps

This article introduces the concept of pedestrian, or walking friendliness, and presents a methodology for obtaining maps thereof. Walking friendliness is a quality of walking indicator, defined for any given origin in a city, which combines accessibility measures, based on impedance between that origin and destinations, with performance scores for the pedestrian infrastructure linking those origins and destinations. The methodology uses geographic information systems to obtain walking friendliness values and represent them in a map. The approach is demonstrated through a case study for the city of Coimbra, Portugal, for which friendliness maps were derived. The procedure and maps that were produced can be scaled to any size of city.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dawn of autonomous vehicles: review and challenges ahead

This paper reviews the state of the art on autonomous vehicles as of 2017, including their impact at socio-economic, energy, safety, congestion and land-use levels. This impact study focuses on the issues that are common denominators and are bound to arise independently of regional factors, such as (but not restricted to) change to vehicle ownership patterns and driver behaviour, opportunities for energy and emissions savings, potential for accident reduction and lower insurance costs, and requalification of urban areas previously assigned to parking. The challenges that lie ahead for carmakers, law and policy makers are also explored, with an emphasis on how these challenges affect the urban infrastructure and issues they create for municipal planners and decision makers. The paper concludes with strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis that integrates and relates all these aspects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bike-Index: a cycling accessibility index using GIS environment programming

Um índice de acessibilidade velocípede – Bike-Index – é apresentado, baseado no esforço metabólico do ciclista como medida da impedância entre origens e destinos e nas limitações impostas por esse esforço. Adequado para estudar a acessibilidade velocípede em cidades declivosas, o Bike-Index requer um Sistema de Informação Geográfica e a programação de scripts nesse ambiente. A metodologia de cálculo é apresentada e aplicada a um caso-deestudo, a cidade de Coimbra, Portugal, e os resultados revelam que a acessibilidade está dependente tanto da centralidade como do relevo, sendo que este penaliza zonas de encosta e planaltos mal servidos de equipamentos urbanos.A cycling accessibility index – Bike-Index – is presented, based on the metabolic effort of the cyclist as measure of impedance between origins and destinations, and the limitations imposed by that effort. Adequate to study cycling accessibility in hilly cities, the BikeIndex requires a Geographical Information System and script programming in that environment. The calculation methodology is presented and applied to a case-study, the city of Coimbra, Portugal, results showing that accessibility depends both on centrality and topography, the latter penalizing hill-side zones and plateaus with few urban facilitiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sistema de informação e apoio à decisão para projetos de regeneração urbana baseado em tecnologia SIG

A Regeneração Urbana (RU) é um problema atual e importante, fundamental para a gestão das cidades, proteção do ambiente e melhoria das condições de vida. Deixou de ser ape- nas uma área de pesquisa para se tornar parte integrante das novas políticas urbanas e de habitação. A Regeneração Urbana diz respeito não só à reabilitação de múltiplos edifícios, mas também à requalificação das infraestruturas urbanas e de serviços. A regeneração ur- bana envolve assim decisões complexas, fruto das múltiplas dimensões do problema que incluem, entre outros, critérios técnicos de engenharia, preocupações com a segurança, custos financeiros, socioeconómicos e ambientais, etc. A natureza multidimensional da regeneração urbana e a dimensão dos investimentos que lhe estão associados justificam o desenvolvimento e utilização das mais recentes tecnologias e metodologias de apoio à decisão, de modo a apoiar e ajudar os agentes de decisão (AD) na obtenção de melhores e mais sustentadas soluções. Apresenta-se um Sistema Web de Apoio à Decisão Espacial (web-SADE), desenvolvido para auxiliar os AD na análise do problema e na definição de estratégias e prioridades de intervenção de RU. Integra um módulo de gestão de base de dados, um Sistema de Informação Geográfica (SIG), uma base de métodos de análise multicritério, e um interface humano-computador adequado. É ainda apresentado um exemplo da aplicação do web-SADE, num contexto real (Projeto de Renovação Urbana da Baixa de Coimbra).Urban Regeneration is an actual and important problem, of fundamental importance for the management of cities, environmental protection, and general improvement of life conditions. It is no longer only an area of study and research; it became part of the new urban and housing politics. It addresses not only the renovation of large numbers of buildings but also the redesign of the urban infrastructures and services. Such efforts involve complex decisions as a consequence of the multiple dimensions of the problem that include special technical engineering requirements, safety concerns, financial costs and socio-economic, environmental, aesthetic, political impacts, among others. This multidimensional nature of urban regeneration projects and their large capital investments justify the development and use of state-of-the-art decision support methodologies to assist Decision Makers (DM). This research introduces a web Spatial Decision Support System (web-SDSS), developed for aiding the DM in the analysis of the problem and in the definition of strategies and priorities of intervention. It integrates a data base management module, a Geographic Information System (GIS), a Multicriteria analysis methods base, and an adequate Human-computer interface - aimed at minimizing the cognitive effort required from users. An example of the application of the web-SDSS to a real-world context (the Renovation Project of Coimbra Downtown) is presented.Este trabalho foi parcialmente financiado pela Fundação Portuguesa para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) sob a Refa “PEst-OE/ EEI/UI308/2014”, pelo projeto Energy and Mobility for Sustainable Regions (EMSURE) - Refa CENTRO-07-0224-FEDER-002004, e enquadra-se na iniciativa Energy for Sustainability da Universidade de Coimbra

A case study driven integrated methodology to support sustainable urban regeneration planning and management

Urban regeneration involves the integrated redevelopment of urban deprived areas, covering physical, socio-economic and environmental aspects of cities, and it is concerned with interventions on early/inner-ring suburbs and historic centers, which are under pressure from population growth and sustainable development policies. The planning and management of urban regeneration interventions usually depend on the city and regional context. Although these interventions involve multiple issues and stakeholders, common characteristics can be identified, thus appealing for a holistic vision and coordination among the various dimensions of the problem. Based on the above context, and on the experience from a large-scale urban regeneration project, this article introduces an integrated methodology to support the planning and management of urban regeneration interventions. The methodology proposes a flexible baseline that can be adapted to urban regeneration projects of different contexts and dimensions, and defines steps, the corresponding stakeholders, and the teams’ engagement, in an integrated framework to plan and oversee urban regeneration actions towards more sustainable and resilient interventions.This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, grant number UID/MULTI/00308/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Avaliação da acessibilidade aos parques urbanos de Coimbra para três modos de transporte

Congresso realizado em Coimbra de 24-26 de outubro de 2018.Os parques urbanos são um dos principais equipamentos de lazer, com impacte benéfico na qualidade de vida dos habitantes das cidades. Nesta pesquisa apresenta-se um estudo de acessibilidade aos parques urbanos da cidade de Coimbra, Portugal. Foi considerado o tipo de entrada nestes espaços: ponto, múltiplos pontos ou poligonal contínuo, e três modos de transporte: pedonal, bicicleta e automóvel. A acessibilidade foi calculada de acordo com a definição clássica de acessibilidade como desutilidade e função da impedância entre origens (pontos na malha urbana) e destinos (entradas nos parques). A função de impedância escolhida foi a log-logística e os cálculos foram efetuados no sistema de informação geográfica ArcGIS. Os resultados, apresentados sob a forma de mapas de probabilidade de realização da viagem por cada um dos modos considerados, revelam que apenas as zonas mais centrais da cidade estão bem servidas pelos modos ativos.Trabalho parcialmente financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, sob a ref.ª PEst-OE/EEI/UI308/2014, e pela iniciativa Energy for Sustainability da Universidade de Coimbra, apoiada pelo projeto Energy and Mobility for Sustainable Regions (EMSURE), sob a ref.ª CENTRO-07-0224-FEDER- 002004.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multi-attribute classification of housing conservation status in urban regeneration actions

Urban regeneration is more and more a “universal issue” and a crucial factor in the new trends of urban planning. It is no longer only an area of study and research; it became part of new urban and housing policies. Urban regeneration involves complex decisions as a consequence of the multiple dimensions of the problems that include special technical requirements, safety concerns, socio-economic, environmental, aesthetic, and political impacts, among others. This multi-dimensional nature of urban regeneration projects and their large capital investments justify the development and use of state-of-the-art decision support methodologies to assist decision makers. This research focuses on the development of a multi-attribute approach for the evaluation of building conservation status in urban regeneration projects, thus supporting decision makers in their analysis of the problem and in the definition of strategies and priorities of intervention. The methods presented can be embedded into a Geographical Information System for visualization of results. A real-world case study was used to test the methodology, whose results are also presented.This work has been framed under the Energy for Sustainability Initiative of the University of Coimbra and supported by Energy and Mobility for Sustainable Regions (EMSURE) Project CENTRO-07-0224-FEDER-002004 and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under PEst-C/EEI/UI0308/2011

Bike-index: um índice de acessibilidade urbana para a bicicleta

Congresso realizado em Coimbra de 24-26 de outubro de 2018.Apresenta-se neste trabalho um índice para avaliar a acessibilidade de uma cidade relativamente ao modo de transporte bicicleta. Este é um modo de transporte ativo e flexível, competitivo para distâncias curtas e com vantagens para o ambiente, economia e saúde, reconhecido pelos decisores políticos como fundamental para um desenvolvimento urbano mais sustentável. A metodologia proposta baseia-se em três princípios fundamentais: acessibilidade como impedância entre origens e destinos, esforço metabólico como medida dessa impedância e expressão da acessibilidade como um valor numérico – Bike-index – para cada origem. A metodologia é aplicada à cidade de Coimbra, Portugal, recorrendo a um sistema de informação geográfica. São obtidas três variantes de bike-index para Coimbra, que revelam que a acessibilidade está dependente não só centralidade das origens, mas também do relevo, que penaliza zonas de encosta e planaltos mal servidos de equipamentos urbanos.Trabalho parcialmente financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, sob a ref.ª PEst-E/EEI/UI308/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The impact of geometric and land use elements on the perceived pleasantness of urban layouts

This article presents a model to estimate the impact of geometric and land use elements on citizens’ perception of urban layout pleasantness. An ordinal regression cumulative link mixed model with those elements as regressors is proposed and calibrated using data from an online survey. Results show that landscape building height and density of green areas are the factors that most impact the perception of pleasantness. Based on the model, a methodology to derive pleasantness mean scores for a city is also proposed and applied to a case study. The methodology allows for benchmarking the pleasantness of different cities or comparing neighborhoods within a city. It can be used both as an urban evaluation tool and a decision-aid for city expansion programs.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under project grants UIDB/00308/2020 and PD/BD/150589/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio