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  6. Sustainable and Healthy Communities through Integrating Mobility Simulations in the Urban Design Process

Sustainable and Healthy Communities through Integrating Mobility Simulations in the Urban Design Process

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CU_YR4_DOGAN SAMARANAYAKE_SUSTAINABLE AND HEALTHY COMMUNITIES.pdf (1.43 MB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/103557
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CTECH Project Descriptions
Author
Samaranayake, Samitha
Dogan, Timur
Abstract

With previous CTECH funding, the PIs were able to implement a proof-of-concept software tool called Urbano.io (Figure 1). Urbano automates the gathering of simulation inputs such as urban form, amenities, and population density from GIS and OpenStreetMaps and hence allows users to create complete mobility networks with a few clicks. Based on these networks, Urbano computes simple active mobility metrics such as Walkscore and Streetscore using shortest path routing (Figure 2). This work was published at SimAUD2018 1 and generated great interest in the design community and started an in-depth collaboration with designers from Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects (KPF), a leading design firm that works on high profile national and international urban projects. Together we rigorously tested the early prototype software in a project associated with Sidewalks Labs that aims to re-develop the Toronto Waterfront. In parallel, we made significant advances with spatial outdoor comfort simulations. Figure 3 shows novel meshing techniques that accelerate annual wind simulations 2 3 . A preliminary validation study shows (Figure 4) how this is leveraged to compute perceived temperatures (Universal Thermal Climate Index 4) that can be mapped spatially 5. In general, a fast and easy to use multimodal mobility simulator is required to enable holistic mobility enabled urban design. While Urbano has been successfully used to optimize walkability in KPF projects, a number of limitations of the prototype were revealed. The most important need identified was to incorporate other travel models (such as biking, transit, and shared mobility) and a choice model to determine which modes would be used for different mobility needs. In addition, further research is needed to link the outdoor thermal microclimate with mobility simulations by adapting statistical and behavioral models from the transportation literature to incorporate street quality and comfort-aware active mobility mode choices over others. A recent study showed strong correlations between public space usage and pleasant outdoor conditions6. It is hence believed that thermal stress impacts active mobility mode choices as well as associated health risks during heat waves. Coupling of simulated outdoor comfort and potential heat and cold stress (exposure to pollution levels will be added later) around urban canyons with individual routing (street A over street B) and system-wide mode selection (active transportation or not) to estimate the impact of “healthy” city planning on urban energy demand as well as public health improvements.

Description
Project Description
Sponsorship
U.S. Department of Transportation 69A3551747119
Date Issued
2020-12-31
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Type
fact sheet
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readingOrder
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