A multi-city study on structural characteristics of bicycle networks

Bicycle networks are made up of different types of infrastructure for cars, bikes and mixed use, which has resulted in various definitions being used to describe them. However, it’s crucial to bring these definitions together to understand the structural differences among them and the impact of choices and investments in bike infrastructure....

Measuring activity-based social segregation using public transport smart card data

While social segregation is often assessed using static data concerning residential areas, the extent to which people with diverse background travel to the same destinations may offer an additional perspective on the extent of urban segregation. This study further contributes to the measurement of activity-based social segregation between...

Does the sun shine for all? Revealing socio-spatial inequalities in the transition to solar energy in The Hague, The Netherlands

With technological advances and decreasing prices, solar energy is a key technology in the urban energy transition. However, the focus on increasing the overall installed capacity has overshadowed energy justice considerations, leading to inequalities in solar energy adoption. This paper adopts an equity perspective to analyse the transition...

Conceptualizing Urban Inequalities as a Complex Socio-Technical Phenomenon

The United Nations World Social Report (2020) reveals that more than two thirds of the world's population live in countries where urban inequalities have increased in the last three decades. While urban inequalities are traditionally characterized as an economic issue, scholars are increasingly applying methods from geospatial analysis to study...

A socio-spatial analysis of vulnerability to climate change

In urban areas, climate change effects are often associated with increasing risks of flood, heat waves, and sagging. Increasing climate risks exacerbate existing urban inequalities, poverty levels, and environmental degradation. Global urban policy is reacting to these urban issues by calling for making cities more inclusive, safe, resilient,...

Quantifying households’ carbon footprint in cities using socioeconomic attributes: A case study for The Hague (Netherlands)

Cities consume almost 80 percent of world’s energy and account for 60 percent of all the emissions of carbon dioxide and significant amounts of other greenhouse gases (GHG). The ongoing rapid urbanization will further increase GHG emissions of cities. The quantification of the environmental impact generated in cities is an important step to curb...

Effectiveness of trip planner data in predicting short-term bus ridership

Predictions on Public Transport (PT) ridership are beneficial as they allow for sufficient and cost-efficient deployment of vehicles. On an operational level, this relates to short-term predictions with lead times of less than an hour. Where conventional data sources on ridership, such as Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) data, may have longer...

Disadvantaged communities have lower access to urban infrastructure

Disparity in spatial accessibility is strongly associated with growing inequalities among urban communities. Since improving levels of accessibility for certain communities can provide them with upward social mobility and address social exclusion and inequalities in cities, it is important to understand the nature and distribution of spatial...

A Geometric Classification of World Urban Road Networks

This article presents a method to uncover universal patterns and similarities in the urban road networks of the 80 most populated cities in the world. To that end, we used degree distribution, link length distribution, and intersection angle distribution as topological and geometric properties of road networks. Moreover, we used ISOMAP, a...

Effectiveness of trip planner data in predicting short-term bus ridership

Predictions on public transport ridership are beneficial as they allow for sufficient and cost-efficient deployment of vehicles. At an operational level, this relates to short-term predictions with lead times of less than an hour. Where conventional data sources on ridership, such as Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) data, may have longer lag...

A Comprehensive Review on Countering Rumours in the Age of Online Social Media Platforms

The power of rumour spreading in the age of online social media is intimidating. It can incite to insurrection, denigrate people, and damage financial markets, proving catastrophic for society. Despite widespread scholarly research and practice of developing a constellation of counter-rumour strategies, the massive waves of rumours are still...

Heterogeneous impact of a lockdown on inter-municipality mobility

Without a vaccine, the fight against the spreading of the coronavirus has focused on maintaining physical distance. To study the impact of such measures on inter-municipality traffic, we analyze a mobile dataset with the daily flow of people in Portugal in March and April 2020. We find that the reduction in inter-municipality traffic depends...

Quantifying the hierarchy of public transport networks

Public transport networks constitute critical infrastructure in urban systems. Public transport networks are characterised by their hierarchical structure, yet methods to quantify their underlying hierarchy are lacking. We propose a metric for quantifying the hierarchy in public transport networks which incorporates topological as well as...

Identifying Urban Morphology from Street Networks with Graphlet Analysis

Urban street networks contain repetitive structures that reflect human needs as cities expand and evolve. To identify and understand these building blocks of cities, we propose the use of graphlet-based methods-that is, focusing on small, connected subgraphs of these networks. Looking at graphlets of up to 4 nodes in the street networks of New...

Spatial factors influencing building age prediction and implications for urban residential energy modelling

Urban energy consumption is expected to continuously increase alongside rapid urbanization. The building sector represents a key area for curbing the consumption trend and reducing energy-related emissions by adopting energy efficiency strategies. Building age acts as a proxy for building insulation properties and is an important parameter for...

Unraveling the Hierarchy of Public Transport Networks

Hierarchy is regarded as a natural phenomenon of public transport networks (PTN). The imbalanced distribution of passenger flow result in a hierarchical structure of PTN and it is also related to the development of technology and the introduction of new modes. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on how to identify the hierarchical...

Impact of perceived distances on international tourism

Worldwide tourism revenues have tripled in the last decade. Yet, there is a gap in our understanding of how distances shape peoples’ travel choices. To understand global tourism patterns we map the flow of tourists around the world onto a complex network and study the impact of two types of distances, geographical and through the World...