Institute for Systems Engineering and Computers at Coimbra - INESC Coimbra

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Publications

Benchmarking city layouts: a methodological approach and an accessibility comparison between a real city and the garden city

Publication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Rodrigues, João Coutinho

This article presents a comparative accessibility study between a real city and its redraft as a Garden City. The benchmarking methodology involves defining and evaluating a location-based accessibility indicator in a GIS environment for the city of Coimbra, Portugal, and for the same city laid out as a Garden City, with the same number of inhabitants, jobs, and similar number of urban facilities. The results are derived as maps and weighted average distances per inhabitant to the facilities and jobs, and show that, for the Garden City, average distances drop to around 500 m for urban facilities and 1500 m for the combination of facilities and jobs, making much of the city accessible by walking and practically the whole of it accessible by cycling, with positive impact on transport sustainability and accessibility equity. The methodology can be extended to other benchmarking indicators and city layouts, and the quantitative results it yields make a valuable contribution to the debate on the ideal layout of cities. Moreover, it gives directions on how to improve real cities to address current and future sustainability concerns.

2022-04-22Journal article

Open access

A multicriteria methodology for maintenance planning of cycling infrastructure

Publication . Pais, Filipe; Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Coutinho, João; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade

The importance of cycling as a sustainable mode has been widely recognized and, recently, its effectiveness in mitigating the spread of infectious diseases has also been under the spotlight. Fostering its use requires developing and deploying decision tools to help authorities assess the performance of their cycle infrastructure for maintenance and improvements. This article presents a multicriteria methodology based on engineering best practices and uses the ELECTRE TRI method to assign segments of the cycling network to predefined performance classes, with an aim at maintenance planning. The approach is demonstrated with a case study, which also proves scalability of the method’s data collection procedure. Case study results show that lack of safety and inadequate intersections are the main problems. These stem mostly from non-existent segregation between motorized traffic and cyclists, both along the segments and at intersections. This is typical of cities which, over the years, have prioritized motorized transportation.

2022-05-05Journal article

Open access

Spatial analysis of the impact of transport accessibility on regional performance: a study for Europe

Publication . Freiria, Susana; Sousa, Nuno; Calvo-Poyo, Francisco

Several works have addressed the impact of transport accessibility on regional development. Nevertheless, it is not consensual that new levels of accessibility lead to the improvement of regional development. This article proposes a methodological approach to assess whether significant relationship exist between these two variables. The methodology uses Data Envelopment Analysis to evaluate regional performance and spatial statistics methods (local bivariate relationships) to evaluate the type of relationships between accessibility and performance for each region, along with its significance. The approach was applied to 186 NUTS that cover 19 European countries, extending previous works which focus on global results, in the sense that only one (usually large) area is considered. Results indicate that approximately half the regions have a significant relationship between transport accessibility and regional performance. Logit regression analyses show that central regions are more likely to exhibit significance, as well as regions with high (low) levels of performance surrounded by regions with high (low) levels of accessibility, hinting at a synergy between the two variables. An important policy implication is that regions of high performance surrounded by regions of low accessibility may benefit from investments in the transport infrastructure.

2022-06Journal article

Open access

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

Publication . Sousa, Nuno; Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Coutinho, João

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.

2022-09Journal article

Open access

Benchmarking real and ideal cities: a multicriteria analysis of city performance based on urban form

Publication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, João Coutinho; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade

The debate on the ideal urban layout, or form has long been an active topic of research. As cities expand and population demands rise, the quest for efficient and sustainable urban designs gains greater significance, necessitating objective and quantitative evaluation of their performance. This article adds to the debate by presenting a multicriteria analysis of city performance, based on quantitative indicators obtainable from geographic information systems calculations, which focus on sustainability and physical pleasantness issues. Indicator values were derived for a real city, its infill version, and five redrafts as classic city models existing in the literature. The city layouts were then compared using the TOPSIS multicriteria ranking method, results showing a preference for the more compact urban layouts due to the multiple advantages of having shorter distances between supply and demand points. The methodology provides quantitative insights on city performance and efficiency and can be used to compare options for city expansions or major urban regeneration projects.

2024-04-18Journal article

Open access