»We are taking an interdisciplinary approach bringing together the fields of traffic planning, computer science and urban planning in order to develop new methods for integrating urban mobility into urban planning in an Ethiopian context«, explains Dr. Sven Schneider, Associate Professor of Computer Science in Architecture in the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism. »The core of the project is developing an interactive method that enables specialists from various urban development disciplines to efficiently generate, analyse and optimise various urban mobility concepts. The aim is to receive direct feedback on the sustainability and resilience of concepts.«

The project will receive a total of around 880,000 euros of funding from the Federal Ministry for Education and Research between 1 June 2021 and 31 March 2025. The general project is split into two modules: the first project module, supported by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), involves developing innovative planning methods. The second module, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), will produce international teaching formats that can be used to apply the methods developed in the first module to real case studies. The project is being headed up by the Professorship of Computer Science in Architecture at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and is being carried out in cooperation with the Professorship of Transport System Planning within the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s Faculty of Civil Engineering and the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC) at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. The project will support the strong, long-standing relationship between Addis Ababa University and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

Background:

The foundations for sustainable mobility concepts are laid in the early stages of urban planning, when key decisions are made regarding distribution of space, distribution of functions, road networks, and building density. Intelligent design of urban structures can link up routes and flows of people and goods in such a way as to minimise distances, reduce CO₂ emissions, decrease costs, improve health and promote social interactions. Designing a city map is a hugely complex task due to the wide variety of urban elements, the many criteria that must be taken into account, and the numerous interactions between these criteria and the urban elements. Digital planning methods can help tackle this complexity by enabling different planning variants to be generated and analysed quickly. Links between planning parameters and their effectiveness are revealed and allow optimised solutions to be created.

There is currently a lack of methods that adequately take the impact of traffic infrastructure decisions into account during the early stages of urban planning. Traffic simulations can provide precise forecasts of traffic flows, but they require complex modelling, large quantities of data and long computing times. During the early planning stages, direct feedback is hugely important for quickly establishing numerous planning scenarios. In addition, western traffic models have limited application in a sub-Saharan context, where settlement and mobility patterns are different and structured data is not readily available.

More information:
https://www.uni-weimar.de/en/architecture-and-urbanism/chairs/infar/

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Sven Schneider, Associate Professor of Computer Science in Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism: tel. +49 (0) 36 43 / 58 24 01, email: sven.schneider[at]uni-weimar.de