Spatial Information Science to support urban planning projects in Enschede

M-GEO
M-SE
PLUS
Staff Involved
M-SE Core knowledge areas
Spatial Information Science (SIS)
Spatial Planning for Governance (SPG)
Additional Remarks
  1. Suggested elective course(s) to follow in the context of this research: Land Use and Transport Interaction (LUTI), Statistics for Spatial and Spatio-temporal Data, Participatory planning 1 and 2
  2. Additional remarks: Depending on the topic, there is possibility of an internship with the municipality of Enschede
Topic description

This is a broad thesis topic that aims to develop additional data to support the characterization of living environments (Leefmilleus) that have been identified by the municipality of Enschede. The municipality has adopted a planning approach to identify and characterize 8 different types of urban environments. So far the typologies are drawn mainly from land use data. The municipality would like to add more information to the spatial data, for example including socio-demographic and economic (census) data, citizen-generated data, etc.

The topic can have several sub-topics (thesis) depending on the student's interest. Possible sub-topics include describing, analysing and making informed spatial scenarios on the location, characteristics and future development opportunities for urban green infrastructures, amenities, mobility infrastructure, mobility preferences, socio-demographic patterns (for example, loneliness hotspots) and urban densification strategies.

The topic builds on an existing collaboration with the municipality of Enschede, which is interested in identifying and characterizing needs and opportunities of these living environments across the city.

Topic objectives and methodology

The research approach will be defined by the specific sub-topic that the student chooses. It might focus on methods such as workshops with citizens, PPGIS or interviews, spatial data acquisition and integration, survey, social media data, etc. Since many of the topics have a clear link with citizen preferences and needs, a combination of different methods to elicit these citizen views is likely.

References for further reading

Champlin, C., Sirenko, M., & Comes, T. (2023). Measuring social resilience in cities: An exploratory spatio-temporal analysis of activity routines in urban spaces during Covid-19. Cities, 135, 104220.

How can topic be adapted to Spatial Engineering

SIS: Collecting, processing, analyzing and visualizing data to produce and validate spatial information while being acutely aware of the provenance of the data (its metadata) and data uncertainty. SPG: How we understand, organize and use our living environment, within a governance setting, where stakeholders — acting as a source of ideas and expertise, as clients, as co-designers or advocates of specific solutions— negotiate their relations while exploring, structuring and defining problems, as well as when designing potential solutions.